What are the similarities and differences between a community-driven product development process and a traditional product development process within a firm?

The community-driven product development process has some similarities but mainly differences compared to the traditional product development process. One similarity is how both companies are always working on the process to lead to survival of the firm, decrease costs, increase revenue, and expand their market share and customer base.  A difference between the two processes is that the time required to create a usually takes longer with the traditional process. A community driven process has so many eyes and minds constantly reworking the product, that the time required to present the final product is less than the traditional process.

In the traditional process, there are employees who work 40 hours a week and also require a salary to complete the product development process. However, community driven product development processes involve customers and fans who are simply helping out for free because they enjoy the company’s products and want something unique. Community-driven process also relies heavily on the community. A business using the community driven process will almost certaintly go out of business if they the community.  However, businesses using the traditional process do not have this issue because they have committed employees and can also easily replace these employees if necessary.

What’s the best way for companies to engage with their customers using social media?

There are many ways that companies can engage their customers using social media. One way is to allow customers to participate in surveys on Facebook that ask for users to offer their vote on a potential new product or version of a product. By doing this, the customer will feel engaged, valued, important, and part of the company itself.  Companies can also grow their customer base by using this form of social media.

Another way companies can engage their customers using social media is to create a Facebook fan page or a Twitter page. These two social media platforms can allow companies to provide product updates and company information. These forms of social media can build relationships with their customer base and lead to loyal long term customers. Companies can also offer discounts or promotions for customers who maybe like a status on the company Facebook page. This method will increase a company’s customer base as well as keep the customers returning to the company’s social media pages.

How do Wikipedia’s processes for creating and modifying articles ever lead to high-quality results? In other words, since anyone can easily edit Wikipedia, how is it that good (and usually accurate) content emerges?

Wikipedia’s processes of creating and modifying lead to usually high-quality results because of a constant revision cycle that never ceases. I think that if a user who is reading about a subject they are knowledgeable about, they take it personally if the information is incorrect or misleading. However, slight moderations in information can mislead someone reading a Wikipedia post.

The advantage or selling point that Wikipedia has is that all encyclopedias have errors or are biased in some ways depending on the subjective human being writing it.  Wikipedia at least has an open source environment that allows these errors to be fixed within seconds, whereas if a Britannica encyclopedia incorrect it would take much longer to get the mistake corrected.

What new features and functionality would you want to see in Facebook and why? How could these new features help Facebook earn revenue?

I would like to see Facebook offer email services. I think this would help Facebook compete with Google even more than it is right now.  If Facebook offers email services they could expand their market share of internet users because of their massive user database. Facebook could integrate the contacts with their email user information, which would compete directly with Google’s integration of their services. I think overall this would increase their “lock in” effect on Facebook users because they would not go to gmail.com but rather log into Facebook and stay logged in. By adding email services, Facebook could also integrate and improve their chat experience

 Facebook could also offer recommendation and rating services of restaurants and other businesses. By offering this they could compete directly with the likes of Yelp.com for example. I think Facebook can use this service as a way to also enter into the coupon and discount services arena as well, which would compete with Groupon. Overall, by adding these services and features they would be able to increase revenue by bringing in more Facebook account holders, which in turn would increase ad clicks and exposure.

How does Hulu’s value proposition differ from traditional broadcast and cable television?

Hulu offers a free service whereas cable television customers are charged a monthly fee. Hulu also has a premium service for which customers pay monthly to get quicker access to new episodes and higher quality picture. Hulu offers customized ads for their customers because the customer can select whether the ad is relevant to them. Cable television does not offer any ad customization or personalization so the commercial experience on cable television can be annoying and frustrating. Hulu is also more convenient for the customer because they can watch episodes when they have time and can pick any episode from the past season. Hulu needs to offer more television series so it can compete with cable television’s wide array of offerings.

Discuss an example of lock-in (not one of the examples on the wikipedia page) and how a consumer might be able to overcome the effects of lock-in.

A great example of vendor lock in is Google Inc. Google starts off by simply making their Google search the default search engine in Firefox, Opera, Safari, and of course all Google software. Google has positioned its search engine as a browser feature even though it’s just the default which can be changed easily. Another way Google promotes lock-in is by providing great integration amongst their products and services. You can log into your google account and be connected with all of your Google talk contacts, your calendar, your gmail account, Google docs, Google maps, Google voice, and the list goes on. I think Google offers so many great products and services that not many users feel as if they are locked-in.

In general, customers can overcome the affects of a lock-in by avoiding signing contract extensions such as with cell phone plans, television service plans, and other contract based plans. I think there is no magic pill to overcome the effects of lock-in because most expensive services and products are offered at a lower price because the customers agree to contracts which lock them in. The best way to overcome vendor lock-in is to find great products and services you are confident will satisfy your wants and needs.

In terms of overcoming lock-in with Google, I don’t believe it is a matter of money because most, if not all, Google services and products are free. The difficult task for a consumer would be to migrate all their documents, emails, contacts, and all other data over to a competitor. Plus, where would you find a company that offers all the services Google offers using one log in, at no cost, easy to use, all in one?

What do you think are the major challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for Taxi Magic?

Taxi Magic has opportunities to increase their market share through more social media exposure such as Facebook and Twitter. They can also increase revenue by going to college campuses and spreading the word about the Taxi Magic app. Taxi Magic also has opportunities to more partnerships with companies and organizations such as other beer companies and possibly non profit organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). By exploring opportunities in increased product exposure and placement, I think Taxi Magic can become the standard for getting a taxi. As mentioned during the presentation, Taxi Magic can began offering sedan services as well to compete against different competitors.Taxi Magic can also research other opportunities such as having universities supporting and promoting the Taxi Magic app. This would greatly increase the downloads of the app and in turn possibly increase their revenue as well.

Taxi Magic faces challenges in the future as well. They have to look out for competitors that try to undercut them by offering a slightly lower priced price to fleets and a very similar free app on smart phones. Once the contracts that fleets have signed with Taxi Magic expire, they will have to make sure that fleet companies commit to another long term contract. Taxi Magic faces another challenge in keeping the app innovative and appealing to users. They must keep the app up to date in functionality and features to keep competitors one step behind. I think Taxi Magic is very unique and convenient, and they will sustain a competitive advantage in the long run.