BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 320  SPRING 2008                                           Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 12:20 to 2:20 pm 
TENTATIVE WEEKLY SCHEDULE 
    Topic Readings Case/Other Case Questions
1 4/21 Introduction/Syllabus   - Student Info Sheet
- How to Read an Article
- How to Analyze a Case
 
2 4/23 Internet History

1)A Brief History of the Internet
2)Nerds 2.0.1

3)Top 10 Dot Com Flops
4)The ten biggest dotcom disasters (European view)

   
3 4/25 Internet Structure and Basic Applications

1)How Stuff Works -- Infrastructure, Servers, Routers, E-Mail, Web Pages, Domain Name Servers
2)Internet2 (About and Services sections)

   
4 4/28 Internet Effects 1)Moore's Law
2) Network Effects (Metcalfe's Law) Reading 1
3) Network Effects (Metcalfe's Law) Reading 2
4) Disruptive Technologies Reading 1
5) Disruptive Technologies Reading 2
A Tale of Two Browsers

What was Netscape’s strategy?
In what ways is Moore’s Law applicable in this case?
In what ways is Metcalfe’s Law applicable in this case?
In what ways are the concepts of Disruptive Technologies applicable in this case?
What were long-term effects of the battle between Netscape and Microsoft?

5 4/30 Internet Effects (cont.) 1) The Long Tail
2) Web 2.0
3) Semantic Web 2001
4) Semantic Web 2007
   
6 5/2 Navigating the Web

MDE
1) Search article by Prof. Rappa
2) Google Legacy (Arnold) and two how search work articles by Danny Sullivan (link on the MDE website)
3) How Search Engines Work

Google -- Search
The Birth of Google

 
What is PageRank and how does it work?
How is Google different from other major search engines?
Why might it produce more effective results from searching a large index?
What are the limitations of this approach?
7 5/5 Analytics

MDE
1) Analytics article by Prof. Rappa
2) Measuring Web Traffic, Parts 1 and 2, from MDE website
3) How Cookies Work
 

W&L WebSite What do you think of the website?
What are the advantages and disadvantages?
What should be important on the website?
What should be measured and why?
8 5/7 Social Networks 1) Wikipedia
2) Six Degrees of Interconnection
3) The Marketing Power of the Oh-So-Social Web, MIT Sloan Management Review (Vol. 49:3, Spring, 2008)
Facebook and LinkedIn
Facebook Biography
Facebook (drill down)
 
Me Media.  The New Yorker, May 15, 2006
Linked In (drill down)
Linked In blog
How do Facebook and Linked In work?
What are the network effects arising out of Facebook and LinkedIn?
 
9 5/9   Speaker    
10 5/12 Privacy MDE
1) Privacy article by Prof. Rappa
2) Internet Privacy (Wikipedia)
 
Facebook News Feed What are the privacy concerns that arise out of a service like Facebook?
What is Facebook's policy on privacy? What are the basic rules and regulations applicable to privacy issues on Facebook?
Are these sufficient to protect user privacy on Facebook?
11 5/14 Digital Markets Managing the Digital Enterprise  (MDE)
1) Digital Market Reading by Prof. Rappa
2) Shakeouts in Digital Markets, by G. Day and A. Fein (link on the MDE website)

Apple iTunes
How iTunes Work
How iPods Work

 
12 5/16

Business Models

MDE
1) Business Model article by Prof. Rappa
2) The Role of Business Model in Capturing Value from Innovation, by Chesbrough and Rosenbloom (pp. 1-22; link on the MDE website)
3) The Truth About Internet Business Models, by Jeffrey Rayport  

Google -- Business
 

What kind of business model(s) does Google use?
What are the underlying components of this business model?
How do AdSense and AdWords work?
Is the business model being extended?
How much of threat is "click fraud" to Google's business model? What are other threats to the business model?
13
 
5/19   Lending Tree and Web 2.0 Applications    
14 5/21   Lending Tree continued
Doug Lebda, speaker
   
15 5/23

Intellectual Property (IP)

MDE
1) IP article by Prof. Rappa
 

Napster
(key readings:  CNN Website
1) Time: The Napster Revolution
2) Win or lose, Napster has changed Internet;
3) Napster Timeline

Wikipedia (Sections 1-4)
How it worked
How did the (old) Napster work?
Was the old peer to peer technology a disruptive technology?
How is the old Napster different from current peer to peer technology?
Should the traditional music industry have reacted differently to Napster? Why or why not?
16 5/26 Advertising      
17 5/28 Channel Conflict MDE
1) Channel Conflict article by Prof. Rappa
2) Managing Channels of Distribution in the Age of E-Commerce, by Kevin L. Webb (link on the MDE website)
Armani
 
 
18 5/30     Final Paper Due 5:00 pm