1University of Delaware Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics Department of Business Administration BUAD477: Information Technology Applications in Marketing Syllabus Spring 2007 Professor: Alex Brown Class Times and Location: 477-010 MWF 1:25-2:15, LEH 230 477-011 MWF 2:30-3:20, LEH 230 Office Hours: 12 – 1 pm WF Office Phone: 302-750-0468 Email: [email protected] Website/Blog address: http://infotechspring07.blogspot.com/ COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is designed to meet the needs of marketing majors by providing them with an understanding of the impact of information technologies on marketing strategies and practice. Through lectures, discussions, and projects, students gain a basic understanding of how the Internet and Information Systems are used in marketing. Some basic familiarity with computers and common Internet languages (e.g., HTML) and tools (e.g., web browsers, e-mail, search engines) is assumed; however, a brief review and/or links to useful resources will be provided. This class involves the construction and maintenance of blogs, participation in Wikipedia and use of a news reader (Bloglines). LEARNING OBJECTIVES Course readings, discussions, lectures, projects, and exams are designed to: 1. Introduce students to important terms and concepts germane to the use of information technologies for marketing, 2. Provide students with a basic understanding of the technologies influencing current marketing practices, 3. Enhance students’ abilities to recognize and critique Internet business models and formulate Internet marketing strategies, 4. Advance students’ knowledge of the role that information systems can and should play in formulating and implementing marketing strategies, 5. Improve students’ accuracy in predicting the likely impact of emerging technologies on marketing strategy and practice, and 6. Most importantly, provide students with hands-on experience with web 2.0 technologies: blogs, wikis and newsreaders.2 READING Battelle, John, “The Search,” Portfolio, ISBN: 1-59184-088-0 Scoble, Robert; Israel, Shel, “Naked Conversations,” Wiley, ISBN: 978-0-471-74719-2 Brown, Alex, “Hackers, Hits and Chats”, http://www.udel.edu/alex/dictionary.html The books can be purchased at any bookstore, but you should consider purchasing online at amazon.com or barnesnoble.com. Hackers, Hits and Chats is a dictionary that serves as background content for the entire class. It also links to respective entries in Wikipedia. Class materials will be produced each week which will link to the dictionary. You will also be required to read materials from the ‘blogosphere’ (listed under ‘required blogs’ in the course blog). Since the uses of IT for marketing purposes are constantly evolving, I reserve the right to post additional readings on the course blog. REQUIREMENTS To earn credit for this course, you will be required to complete a Personal Data Sheet, Wikipedia Project, Blog Project, Midterm Exam (In-Class), Final Exam (In-Class), and Peer Evaluation. Personal Data Sheet (PDS) The PDS is intended to provide me with a brief biographical sketch of all students enrolled in the course. You are required to complete a PDS so that I can get to know you and your classmates. The PDS will help me tailor the course content according to your interests and current knowledge of marketing and IT. Please submit your completed PDS today at the end of class. The PDS is attached to this syllabus. Forming a Group For the Blog Project, you will be assigned a group. This assignment will be provided during the first class period. As a team member, you will be required to comment on your team members’ blogs as well as post a couple of articles on your own blog in reference to your team members’ blogs. Blog Project Class Blog: http://infotechspring07.blogspot.com/ You will need to set up and maintain an account at two different websites: you will use www.blogger.com to create your blog and www.bloglines.com, a news reader, to subscribe and read the required blogs for this course. Both these accounts are FREE! Details on how to do this are given below. Each student is required to create a 'blog' which you will use to cover class content throughout the course. This will include two introductory articles; articles on postings read from the blogosphere (4); articles on your wikipedia work (12); articles on course material we cover (4); search engine optimization tests; and articles responding to your teammates’ articles (2).3How do I create the blog? You are required to use http://www.blogger.com as your blog platform as it is free, easy and hosted. You are required to select 'dots dark', a template designed by Douglas Bowman, for your blog (this is an absolute requirement for your blog.) How to set up your blog? 1. Sign up for an account on http://www.blogger.com 2. Create the URL and name for your blog (you can change the name later, the URL is permanent) 3. Select the template (‘dots dark’) You must select a template or your blog cannot be created. You will need to scroll down to select this template. 4. Start posting (i.e. it really was that simple to create the blog). Each student is also required to set up an account on Bloglines in order to manage the blogs and news subscriptions. You are required to subscribe to the blogs listed on the course blog under the title: ‘required blogs’; the class blog; your team-mates’ blogs and a google blog search result. The account needs to be made ‘public’. Once you make it public, email me the URL. The details on how to create the bloglines account and make it public are given below. What do I do on Bloglines? • Set up an account on Bloglines. • click on the 'my feeds' tab. • click on 'Add' • key in the URL of the blog to which you are subscribing, click subscribe • click ... again, you are now subscribed How do I make my Bloglines account public? To make your subscriptions public (required for this project and allows me, and others, to see your subscriptions. I need to see it in order to evaluate your project): • click the 'share' tab (bottom left frame under additional features) • click the hyperlinked 'profile' (second sentence) • click 'blog settings' (horizontal nav.) • key in a username • click 'yes' for “publish my blogroll” • save changes • your url for your public subscriptions will