First Class of MIS

What my perception of MIS is right now.


I’m going to try to blog about MIS because it just seems right. However, it is Wednesday today and I’m trying to blog about my class on Monday…Wish my memory luck!

Prof: Kafui Monu, Ph.D. student
General Comments: Chill, likes Star Craft, Texas Hold’Em Poker (goes to Vegas every December), uses an ASUS laptop, first time teaching MIS in the summer.

How the Class Went:

-went through the syllabus, expectations, outline/timeline
-mentioned group project (presentations and reports) multiple times
-notifies us that groups were pre-organized
-shows us our groups and companies, tells us to use our break time to find group members
-everyone’s kind of confused and trying to mingle around and locate strangers
-finally everyone (almost) has found their group and are seated together
-exchange contact information
-gives us a real break
-proceed to watch three videos (one about how computer transformed from German Nazi idea (shut down for funding by Hitler)…American computer the size of an entire room – with electronic function like a stopwatch (might’ve made this point up myself)…computer that predicted outcome of Eisenhower election…Apple personal computers, one was from CBC dated around 1992, featuring Peter Mansbridge! (I think…), another was from 1969 that lightly touched on e-commerce (shopping for clothes online) and e-banking, somewhat comedic/satirical) about computers and the internet
-discuss mistakes people made when computers were first “created”, and why people made those mistakes (ignorant, doubtful, no foresight…)
-briefly discussed how the presentation is just as important as the technology (Steve and Steve, trying to get funding for their Apple computers)
-Guest Speaker: Mr. John Liu, currently working for his second start-up?…Previous company had funds of 14 million? (Am I making this all up?)
-Kafui showed us a Vancouver Sun article about Brian Wong, graduated from Sauder at 19, celebrating venture capital funding of $4 million for his second start-up, Kiip
-told to identify challenges that Brian will face with implementing technology needed to envision his goals/challenges his company might face in general
-after discussion within group, class contributed and Mr. Liu outlined three major challenges: fraud (creating multiple accounts, hacking, teaching people how to win levels), personalization (knowing their target market, being able to attract them with appropriate prizes, geographical location/prize redemption correlation), and community (being able to reach out to and engage a wide audience – through Facebook/Twitter people can share their achievements and awards)
-did not really finish full discussion because it was already 4:20.

So I’m actually pretty impressed with my recollection of the class. If there are important details I’ve left out please let me know! I think this is a good way to motivate myself to really pay attention and will also be kind of like a review for myself.

Good luck!

P.S. It’s pronounced KEEP. So kiip.me (the website) is like KEEP ME.

P.P.S. Kafui told us to take into account the word STEAM.

P.P.P.S. I DID FORGET SOMETHING IMPORTANT! We watched a video that showed highlights from a casino magnate’s guest lecture. Gary Loveman, current CEO & Chairman of Caesars Entertainment Corp. (formerly Harrah’s Entertainment) spoke about the importance of databases in his industry, especially for him. He knows his customer base extremely well, and with the knowledge of which customers come based on perks and attractions, he is able to diversify his spending on customers…spend less on one who comes regardless of special offers, and spend more on one who needs to be ‘seduced’ into the casino world. In his words, nothing matters “as long as the casino wins”. The shops’, restaurants’, and live events’ numbers don’t matter as long as, at the end of the day, the casino wins.


Note: Kafui tells us how he was subject to Loveman’s aggressive marketing tactics. His first-hand experience really helps us put this into perspective – how effective it is and how responsive the clients actually are. I think there’s a lot to be learned from him.