Prediction Market at Google

This week’s article is very interesting with a new level of forecasting and predicting practices in Google’s world. This predicting practice that uses collection of people to bet on future happenings created an amazing result of forecasting with larger crowd. Even though its applicability is widely different in different companies, the system used in Google may not able to be duplicated easily. However, I don’t understand why big trading companies are not interested in setting up such a system, so that they minimize their margin of errors in their trading activities.

Threadless case

This is another very interesting business idea. This company goes well beyond a conventional business organization. Threadless is a company that is able to take advantage of external but close community. This online organization created a power house of innovative T-shirt designers. The creators of the company were able to have employees (the external community) who work for them with no written employment agreement and salary. What an awesome idea!

The company is different in its unique culture of communal decision making. If it is not for an online organization, it is unthinkable to make half- a- million people vote for a potential product on a regular basis.

This unique business process is facing a challenge. Although the company is tapping into unexpected opportunity, it has put the management in a big dilemma. As exciting it is, growing for this company might jeopardize its very identity. The management has to answer many questions before jumping into commitment. Are volume and deadlines compatible to the current culture of Threadless? What would be the reaction of the community? Will the new level of demand be catered with out disrupting the current production procedures?
I think the management has to see every possible ways to keep the current success of the company intact. If the danger outweighs the benefits, it is worth declining the offer

Facebook

Facebook has demonstrated its strength by correcting all the shortcomings of former social networks. Its creators made decisions that kept the network evolve by coninusely catering the need of its customers. Many other social networks,such as Linkdln, tried to target a certain niche markets. However, Facebook stood out by gradually minimizing the gridlock of restrictive approach which helped the site to grow faster and bigger.

Facebook’s approach to host other applications propelled the popularity of the site by creating a win-win situation for both Facebook and the application program providers. I believe that Facebook’s ability to create a huge online community has made it the most powerful online platform.

Wikipedia

The birth of Wikipedia created a big pool of free articles in the Internet community. These articles with a vast array of information touch every little part of our life. It is really amazing how this media grew this big with no investors’ exorbitant cost. This collaborative media is a real Cyber community with a representation of every walk of life. Even though its weakness in terms of authenticity is highly criticized, I believe its benefit out weighs the harm. Some errors, which would eventually be cleaned up by the community anyways, are less concerning than getting an access to an ocean of knowledge.