What you need to know before you start a company

Starting a business is a very serious topic and some decisions that will need to be made require tedious research.  For example, deciding to incorporate as a limited liability
corporation or a sole proprietorship could have profound financial implications.  According to wikipedia, a sole proprietorship is a type of business entity that is owned and run by one individual.  The owner receives all profits (subject to taxation specific to the business) and has unlimited responsibility for all losses and debts.  On the other hand, LLCs provide business owners with liability protection. 

There are a large amount of resources available on the internet, but always evaluate if it is accurate and trustworthy. 

To have a business that not only survives a long period of time, but is successful and profitable,you need to make informed decisions and plan your tasks well in advance.  Where you get your information from and who you seek advice from will determine if you succeed or fail.  Even the greatest idea in the world won't succeed with poor management and planning. 

A lot of people that want to learn more about a topic will search for it online.  This enthusiasm is great, but be careful what you read on the internet.  Use your common sense and whenever in doubt, look for a second opinion or ask an expert.

There are many reasons why a business does not survive, but a large number of problems can be avoided with the correct filters in place so that you do not waste time or are mislead by inaccurate information. 

The term filter failure is used by Clay Shirky, who in September of 2008 spoke at the Web 2.0 expo in New York on the topic of information in today's society.  He presented an argument that placed the blame on filter failure as a contributor towards some of our societies problems instead of information overload. 

Information overload is the state in which an individual is overwhelmed with information and has impaired decision making abilities.  It is an ancient problem that has been around since the printing press was introduced which allowed the production of large volumes of information.  The average person had access to more literature than they could read in a lifetime.  Because the publishers had all the financial risk, they were given the responsibility to only publish high quality material.  This economic force kept quality high.

The newest problem we face today is filter failure, which is the failure of the systems that are meant to block low quality or incorrect information.

listen to ‘Information Overload Filture Failure 2’ on Audioboo

The internet has reduced the cost to spread information online and now the quality of much of that information is lacking.  In the case of the internet, there is no person responsible to filter information on the internet
for quality.

listen to ‘Information Overload Filture Failure’ on Audioboo

After you have started your business, you need to plan for the future by setting goals.  A common goal is to have reached a certain milestone in sales or employees.  To keep your business alive, stay in touch with the newest strategies in your field.

The idea of filter failure which Clay Shirky talks about is applicable to keeping your business alive.  Your time management will determine how much you can get done.  Figure 1 shows that only about 30% of businesses are still alive ten years after they were created.  To avoid being one of them, use the strategies above to stay on top of the game. 

Figure 1

The University of Maryland at College Park has several valuable organizations available for student entrepreneurs.  

Especially if your major is in science or engineering, you may not have any experience with the legal side of business and the ways businesses are taxed.  The organizations below can provide assistance in these areas. 


Mtech's Biotechnology Research and Education Program
Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship
Maryland Biotechnology Center

One of the best websites to get information about small businesses is The U.S. Small Business Administration at www.sba.gov/

In business, a license will typically be an agreement that allows a business to sell a product that would otherwise be protected.  A government agency like The National Institutes of Health (NIH), "the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research," will frequently license their inventions to businesses. 

Chanda Arya and Kevin Diehn are graduate students at the University of Maryland and have started a business in biotechnology. They talk about their experience using the three organization mentioned above. They are a wonderful example of a couple who had a major that was really far removed from business.  The are on a successful path forward thanks to Mtech, the Dingman Center, and Maryland Biotechnology Center. 

One of the Most Important skills you need is to be able to plan your tasks well in advance in order to anticipate problems. 

This number of things to do before even a small business opens is bewildering.  As always, break down large tasks into smaller tasks.  Plan each step and give it a deadline.  If you get behind on your tasks, some future tasks may need to be delayed, so keep this in consideration.  


If you are the only one in your business, your best option may be sole proprietor.  If you have a partner, your best option may be LLC because it can give you protection from financial responsibility.  As stated in the introduction, this decision is very important and the correct decision depends on financial considerations.  For advice on your specific situation, ask an expert.  You need to file paperwork to officially form your business.   Research you business idea to make sure it will be commercially viable.  It is extremely important for you to check for government regulations that you have to comply with.  There are very bad consequences and fines if you do not meet government regulations.  According to figure 2, this is the most important problem facing small businesses today. 

Figure 2 

From: Time Line for Starting a Business
Contributed by Small Business Forum, Winter 1990 and Janet Attard, author of "The Home Office and Small Business Answer Book"


Create a business plan which explains your business' goals and overall plan.  You business plan is very important because it is what can help you gain investors.  Obtain a license to your product.  Decide on the most significant expenses.  Consider including equipment, insurance, consider hiring employees, renting office space and advertising.  Also consider meeting with an attorney, Certified Public Accountant, consultant and a bank.

New device allow faster and cheaper analysis of water toxicity

This device uses modified (genetic engineered) bacteria that responds to certain toxins in a water source.  The bacteria's response is detected by sensors on a very small chip.  We call this a biosensor because it utilized biological forms to monitor something.

The importance of safe drinking water for human survival cannot be overstated. 

Clean water is essential to human survival.  We need it for drinking, cleaning, farming, and cooking. 

Water can easily be contaminated by parasites and there are growing concerns of terrorism in the form of tampering with a water supply on a large scale.  The ability to test water quality is an invaluable tool today and a great application of this remarkable technology.  

In the appropriate conditions (for example ambient temperature), this device allows the convenient testing of water sources.  For example, in the battlefield, or in a second world country, these may be extremely applicable. 





If one wanted to test the toxicity of a water source their only option was to send a sample to a laboratory for testing.  This is very costly and takes a very long time.  This is why the new technology, which provides a cheap and instantaneous analysis, in development by Hadar Ben-Yoav, is so remarkable. 

Comparison of time and cost of analysis in lab versus biosensor

(I will create a bar chart.  It will show the average time needed to test water and cost when sent for lab analysis.  It will also show the instant time need and approximate time needed to test water using biosensor).

Mr Ben-Yoav collaborated with Prof. Yosi Shacham-Diamand from Tel Aviv University, Israel, Prof. Amihay Freeman from Tel Aviv University, Israel, and Prof. Shimshon Belkin from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. 

Hadar Ben-Yoav Institute for Systems Research Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Maryland 

Prof. Yosi Shacham-Diamand from Tel Aviv University, Israel

Prof. Amihay Freeman from Tel Aviv University, Israel

Prof. Shimshon Belkin from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Read more about this topic: http://aem.asm.org/content/64/3/1006.full

Motivations of Social networking in Online Gaming

Please take a moment to answer the poll on the right side of the screen!

Introduction
This study examines why people chose to use online games, how people chose to use online games and what types of online games they choose to play.  The study hypothesizes that there is a connection between the personality of a person and their reasons for playing an online game and their behavior in online games.  For example, the study mentions that perhaps the amount of time spent on online games and the type of online games can be predicted from the personality traits of the prospective player. 

Figure 1- Screenshot of Second Life, an online game

Second Life allows users to meet new friends, explore and create worlds.  Second life also notably has an in world currency that can be exchanged for any other currency.   Image taken without permission from: http://i2.listal.com/image/648585/936full-second-life-screenshot.jpg

History and Background
There has been ongoing investigation into the best theory to describe online behavior.  Competing theories are the value model and the personality model, although they have some overlap and can possibly be combined.  This study draws on results from Yee and Przybylski.  Yee, in a previous paper, identified 10 motivational factors and then organized them into three main categories.  Przybylski identified several different motivational factors.  The study also draws on results from United Kingdom and Germany. 


Theory and Results
There are are wide variety of theories that attempt to explain social behavior online.  The study did conclude that "personality traits are only relevant to the reason why people value online gaming."
The study did verify the expectation "that females generally value relationships more than males [and also determined] that the burdens of life and responsibilities increase with age, motivating individuals to escape and take a break from the real world."  This study reveals that the existing theories do not fully explain the results and they will need to continue to be developed.

Figure 2- Table of Data from the paper, Exploring the Links Between Personality Traits and Motivations to Play Online Games.  

Method
The study used a method called factor analysis to identify motivational factors that play a role when an online video game player chooses what games to play and how to play the games.  Some of the motivational factors identified played different roles than others. 

Social Network and My Opinion
Although not explicitly stated, we can argue that the results of the behavior in online games can be used to study the behavior of a user of a social network.  Indeed, the results and conclusions could be very helpful in developing new theories to understand all online behavior including social networks.  The differences in age(greater need for escapism) and gender(females valued relationships more) were interesting and probably helpful for advertisement agencies. Perhaps the combination of the Personality and Value model would successfully predict behavior. 


I think that this study is informative, interesting, and very relevant to the Jour298i.  I think that intuitively we would agree with the hypothesis that online behavior is connected to personality traits. I am glad that I chose this study.  This study ties in nicely with the study concerning online versus offline disclosure of information. 


Source

Exploring the Links Between Personality Traits and Motivations to Play Online Games
Jowon Park, Ph.D.,
Yosep Song, Ph.D.
Ching-I Teng, Ph.D.

Is filter failure a better explanation than information overload for societies changing usage of information

According to Moore's Law (1), "the number of transistors on a given chip can be doubled every two years."  This is corresponds to similar trend in the increase in the amount of information over time which supports the idea of information overload.  However, society should focus on addressing filter failure instead of just information overload.  In the assigned video,Mr Shirky makes valid points that support filter failure and criticize information overload as an explanation of society's trends.  In the assigned video, Mr Shirky proposed that we are in and have been in a state of information overload for the last 600 years. The amount of avalible information has increased since the printing press was introduced.  During this time period, distributing information required large amounts of money.  This forced producers to filter for quality. In fact, now, information overload is no longer the most relevent reason we are changing the way we recieve information.  The cost of distributing information has decreased to the point that quality of information is becoming a global problem.  

An example, given in the video, of unwanted and unsolicited online information that ideally should be filtered is spam email.   

Spammers have developed advanced techniques to bypass filters meant to block their spam.  According to mydigitallife.info/,"Spammers have come up with ways to avoid detection or filters. The use of JPG or GIF images rather than text messages can elude image filters as there are no two images that are the same. The images are randomly produced through colored dots in the background. Spammers even use 3-D images which totally fool image filters."

The effects of spam on the global and national economy are staggering.  According to wikipedia ,"A 2004 survey estimated that lost productivity costs Internet users in the United States $21.58 billion annually, while another reported the cost at $17 billion, up from $11 billion in 2003. In 2004, the worldwide productivity cost of spam has been estimated to be $50 billion in 2005.^[49] An estimate of the percentage cost borne by the sender of marketing junk mail (snail mail) is 88%, whereas in 2001 one spam was estimated to cost $0.10 for the receiver and $0.00001 (0.01% of the cost) for the sender.^[7]"

According to www.theregister.co.uk,"Spammers can make lucrative living even though only 50 in every million people respond to unsolicited commercial email.  While spamming cost are negligible the potential payoffs are "huge and very profitable", according to a paper by Andrew Leung of Canadian telco firm Telus."

Also notably, "Leung argues that spam makes economic sense, despite minuscule response rates, because spam can be sent at "virtually no cost to spammers". Spam, unlike conventional junk mail, is growing exponentially because it costs virtually nothing to send and all the costs of dealing with spam are dumped on its recipients."

These examples lead us to the conclusion that filture failure is a better explanation to the problems that internet users are encountering with respect to information.   

We are now faced with the possibility with misinformation and have to keep a close eye on the credibility of online information.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/PPTMooresLawai.jpg/200px-PPTMooresLawai.jpg

The future of online information and the limits of privacy

We as society should focus on more information that is GPS location based.  It has some potential for abuse, but the benefits outweigh the risks.  Information that is GPS location based can be very beneficial to the user.  It can provide real time alerts in dangerous circumstances that could be potentially life saving.  Also information like nearby taxis or detailed weather reports that can help users plan when to spend time outdoors.  Also, perhaps, it could alert the user when they are nearby to a friend.  If a person feels that their device is being used to invade their privacy, they do not have to bring it with them everywhere they go or stop using the device.  On the other hand, law enforcement can use this new platform to catch criminals.  Don’t get me wrong, it is disturbing that the website google dot com has recently begun collecting internet browsing information about the users. 

There are several things we can do to manage the technology.  We need to stay aware of privacy policy of the devices and websites that we are using.  It is important to have a balanced healthy life which will be tested as technology engulfs more of our lives.  It would help if society valued exercise a bit more.  Of course technology has the potential to provide accurate information for users that want to be more healthy. 

It could be great for researchers to investigate any potential problems of technology from a psychological point of view like what is a healthy amount of time to spend with technology.  Also, they can help us answer the question: what is the future of human technology interaction?  There are many exciting possibilities like prosthetic eye to treat blindness and brain interface devices. 

I enjoyed the glass video and can see that many of the new technological advanced can be very beneficial to users.  I especially liked the possibility of watching a cooking video while cooking.  Although not mentioned in this video, I welcome the possibility of autonomous vehicles.  There is no need for a driver.  All of the passengers now have time to do anything imaginable, read, write, and use more technology.  If a user needs a ride, the car can drive without a driver to their location using GPS technology.