• value of product or service increases as the number of users increases
• InfoWorld Magazine: value of network equals number of users squared

1. exchange
2. staying power
3. complementary benefits

• networks with greater numbers of users suggest a stronger staying power
• the longer a user stays with one product,the more their switching cost increases as they become better at using the product

1. move early
2. subsidize product adoption
3. leverage viral promotion
4. expand by redefining the market
5. form alliances and partnerships
6. establish distribution channels
7. seed the market with complements
8. encourage development of complemetary goods
9. maintain backward compatibility
10. for rivals, be compatible with larger networks
11. for incumbents, constantly innovate
12. for large firms, make preannouncements 

1 vs. 2

1. personal web sites vs. blogging
2. instant messaging vs. twitter and facebook
3. monster.com vs. LinkedIn
4. Britannica online vs. Wikipedia
5. RealNetworks vs. YouTube

(really simple sindication and rich site summary)

users can subscribe to a website and new posts/article titles are sent to the user

1. representation
2. responsibility
3. respect

1. megaphone (outbound communication)
2. magnet (attract communities inward for conversation)
3. monitoring 
4. mediation

1. switching costs 
2. network effects

1. content adjacency
2. user attention

• CPM= cost per thousand
• impressions= each time an ad appears on someone's screen
• most banner ads use this method to charge advertisers

Why did "Beacon" fail?

• (read-only memory chips) 
• where smaller, special-purpose computing devices often have their operating systems installed

1. more efficient
2. more reliable
3.  more functional
4. enable entire new businesses
5. create or reinforce resources for competitive advantage

• enterprise resource planning.
• coordinates and integrates many of the functions of a business

1. streamline processes
2. make data more usable
3. ease the linking of systems with software across the firm and with key business partners

1. fast
2. accurate
3. cheap

1. hardware context- computer that has been configured to support requests from other computers
2. software context- program that fulfills requests

• (application programming interfaces)
• standard method for other programs to request a Web service to perform a task

• (Service-oriented architecture)
• a robust set of web services around a firm's processes and procedures

• (electronic data interchange)
• set of standards for exchanging information between computer applications

• (extensible markup language)
• replaced the outdated EDI
• allows software developers to create a set of standards for common data elements that can be sent between different kinds of computers, applications, and organizations

• (integrated development environment)
• used by most professional programmers to write their code

• (Open Source Software)
• free alternatives where anyone can look at and potentially modify a program's code

(software as a service)

users access a vendor's software over the internet by simply starting a web browser

1. cheap
2. reliable
3. secure
4. scalability
5. agility and time to market

1. low marginal costs
2. network effects
3. high switching costs

1. paid come with other software
2. free OSS may have compatibility issue with paid OSS
3. paid usually belong to well-known brands
4. paid are taken care of for maintenance and legal issues
5. OSS has lack of tech support 

• (standard query language)
• standard method for organizing and accessing data

1. for MySQL service
2. for the right to incorporate MySQL's code into own products

(platform as a service)

vendors provide a platform and clients write their own code

• (infrastructure as a service)
• cloud vendors provide and manage the underlying infrastructure and clients can create their own platform

1. allows software of one computer to function as many
2. lowers a firm's hardware needs, saves energy and increases scalability
3. works well in conjunction with cloud computing

(Uniform resource locator)

web address domain name

1. http (hypertext transfer protocol)
2. SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol)
3. FTP (file transfer protocol)
4. HTTPS (secure http)

(Hypertext markup language)

used to create/format web pages

(internet protocol)

the address you are assigned when you connect to the internet so the internet knows how to direct traffic to/from your computer

• new standard where numbers can go up to 2128
• problem: not backwards compatible meaning a network has to convert over, which is a slow process

(domain name service)

when you enter a web address the first DNS will try to find the appropriate IP.  if it can't find it the DNS can at least direct you to another DNS that is closer.

• (Transmission Control Protocol)
• breaks up webpage into smaller packets to send through the internet
• no set path. they bounce off a string of routers to get to their destination which helps ensure the internet is resistant to natural disasters or attacks that would take down routers

• principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally
• Telecomm opposes this because they feel users who are stressing their network too much should have limited access

(user datagram protocol)

works as a TCP stand-in when you need speed and are willing to sacrifice quality

1. user
2. application
3. operating system
4. hardware