After the lecture given by Professor Carson Woo, I got an interest in IT and Business. People are now used to the word “smart’ in front of every product. Smartphones, smart cars, smart meter, smart key, smart anything. It shows how technology has impacted on us in our everyday life. TransLink is now introducing Smart Card system which is electronic fare-payment system.

In the article “TransLink to install turnstiles, Smart Card System” the Translink CEO Ian Jarvis said,  “Smart Cards will make our transit system easier to use for the customers and provide invaluable information that will help us maximize the efficiency and productivity of our fleets.” This statement demonstrates how IT and information system is important to a business.

In South Korea, people have been used these cards for years. It had brought many changes to their life. By implementing the system, transportation system have improved way more efficient than before. It had brought many benefits including faster transaction, cheaper fares, efficient transfer, and reduce of paper waste. By introducing this system to B.C, it will also bring many benefits to customers.

After reading Jean-Philippe Boutin’s blog post “Evaluating Our Carbon Footprint,” I now have better knowledge about the evaluation process of our carbon emissions. The increased rate of carbon emissions results in climate change, the most important environment issue of our time
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The Yellow Page Group (YPG) has been reporting their carbon footprint and assess how their carbon footprint methodology compares to other Canadian companies, review their reductions over the last few years and reflect on 2012. They have been trying to reduce their emissions. They have been successfully reducing their emissions by adjustments to the after hours lighting system and reduction of print directory emissions.The effort they made would not be enough to change the world, but if all companies and individuals try to reduce their carbon emission, it will make a change.

After learning about social entrepreneurship in class, I was amazed by Toms Shoes. I was surprised when I heard what they are doing. How could they give away full product?

In the article “Toms Shoe’s model is sell one pair, give a pair away”, it explains how young entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie, the CEO of Toms Shoes, started this model. He met some aid workers who were distributing shoes to people in need. They were giving out  old and ill-fitting shoes. Mycoskie had better idea of building business around the laid-back shoes.

After reading the article, I was touched by how shoes donations could make changes to people in need and realized the importance of social entrepreneurship. According to the article, one out of 13 kids in southern Ethiopia had this disease that can be prevented by wearing shoes. Blake Mycoskie also wants to expand his one-to-one business model to expand. “People need water and schoolbooks and housing. I want to come up with partnerships and products that allow our customers to buy what they need so other people can get what they need.” It is interesting how this simple one-to-one business model could help and change the community.

In Cathy Lee’s “Blackberry Recovery of Rediscovery” blog post, it talks about the newest RIM’s BB 10. I strongly agree with her point that the BlackBerry is lagging behind its competitors. Because of their late introduction of smart phones, RIM has been hugely losing their customers. Some people might argue that BBM feature will keep their customers, but i think the opposite. BBM is not the point of difference for RIM anymore. There are many apps that allow people to communicate through messages with their smart phones. For example, in Korea, KakaoTalk is very famous app that almost every smart phone users use for messaging. The app is provided for both Apple’s appstore and Google’s Playstore, it allows both iOS users and Android users to communicate. RIM should have keep up with the trend to satisfy their customers. It has been too late that RIM has lost their point of difference. Current BBM users would also change to other devices because of the decrease in use of BBM. The new BB 10 will not attract new customers since all the features are already available on other smartphones that already exists.