The best way to find good pictures

When we did PS assignment and picture-relative works, we always face picture problem. Pictures are as important for our work as fresh raw materials for a delicious dish. I found PhotoXpress is a good picture database. There are a lot of high quality pictures (around 2000-3000 pixels), and most importantly, most of them are free. It included 22 categories, 352,798 pictures，and increased at the speed of 1000 pictures per day.
You can search the pictures you want through key-words or by categories.

And when you input the keywords, the result will be listed in two groups: one is free, and the other is premium. You can preview the big picture as your cursor around your objective picture.

Paint right now!

Myoats is a fun painting picture. You can draw a creative picture through the tool supplied by Myoats. They are not the common tools, so it is easily to creat an "art" yourselves. And Myoats wrote a guideline book for everyone, so that you can have more fun in your creating process.

And you can find friends who have the same interests with you, and you can appreciate their work and grade them. Most of them are very beautiful.

Musipedia

"Musipedia", look very similar, right? Yes, it is like wikipedia, but it concentrates in music field. You can edit, create and search for music in musipedia.
The search engine is very special, named "Melodyhound". You can find and identify a tune even if the melody is all you know. You can play it on a piano keyboard, whistle it to the computer, simply tap the rhythm on the computer keyboard or use the Parsons code.

You can choose any search way you like in the top of the website.

Keybord is a very fun way. You can play the piano in the flash, computer will form a melody according you play.

And you can draw contour to search, and you can narrow the scale through choose the music type.

And you can draw notes on the table. You can preview your drawing by clicking "play" botton.

Often, we can remember the melody but forget the name of the music. This website can help us. And it create a music sharing platform. It is really a creative idea.

Experience Shanghai Expo in 3D view

3G become very popular after Avantar flood into the world. People love the reality feeling created in 3D view. Shanghai Expo official website uses 3D flash. It is fabulous. When firstly click into the home page, you can see the whole view of Shanghai Expo.

And when you click every pavilion, you can see the detail of it. You can see the pavilion in panorama view,eye-level view, bird's eys view and night view. If you look at it in bird'eye view, you can see 360 degrees view while you drag your mouse. And when you click "enter", you can see the detail inside, at the same time, you can hear the introduction of the pavilion.

Communicaiton technology really narrow the distance of the world. People can enjoy the fun of traveling at home. Shanghai Expo website create a good experience of traveling Shanghai Expo.

DIY a 3D e-card

Still think about what present is best sending regards?  Howdycard can help you.  You can design and DIY a 3D card yourself. And then you can send the e-card to your friends as a gift and also can share it in your blog through copy and paste html code. And the whole process is very simple.
If it can improve interactivity, it would become better.
The manipulate window and the whole process as below:

1.

                       

                               2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Forvo

Forvo is a website for netizen sharing and collecting words and pronouciation all over the world. So it is a good and free dictionary for you to check words and pronouciation, and meanwhile, you can contribute your effort for it. It is a very huge online words database. Until now, it built up 548,479 words, 464,300 pronouciation, and 236 kind of languages. Of course, all of these are created by netizen.
Users can use these funcitons:
1)add new words into database
2)add pronouciation for words existing in the database and record the location of speaker
3)listen and learn new words pronounciaiton in different districts
4)collect the words pronounciation

I think it is good for students in developing countries who want to improve their language skills. And everyone can contribute his/her effeor easily, just speaking naturally, but help a lot to others.

Google wave

What is a wave?


"A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.
A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time. "
                                                                    ---http://wave.google.com/about.html
I think google wave have some magic advantages:
When you type, people can see what you type, not like MSN, you can only wait and see "someone is typing". Especially, when a group people type, you can see a lot of cursons moving. One wave can consist of several wavelets, like this:

You can insert any content in any where. Usually, you can only reply a article under the content. But in google waver, you can immediately insert you comment after any sentence. When editting a document colabratively, the advantage would be more obvious.

The funnest part of google wave is you can work with a group people you liked. You can invite people participating in you wave through drag his/her name to your wave window.

Now, google wave's function is limited. People can use it only if they are invited. So, they may face the embarrassing thing that there is no one in participants blank. In this situation, they can search the topic wave and apply for joining.

I think it is really a good communication tool for group discussion no matter for daily life or academic.

Foursquare

Foursquare is a location based service. If you have 3G mobile phone, download the applicant and then you can use it.
Twitter told people what you are doing, Foursquare told people whereabouts. The core service of Fourquare is "check-in". And then the system will tell your friend where they can find you, and also tell you the entertainment place or relative information you can find nearby. And Foursquare make a rule to give praise to most frenquency user.
People can set their location by themselves. And one fun technology(" Layer", annouced by the third applicant company) is that you can take a photo of your location, and through picture layer transcation, the database would screen out all the information you need nearby your location, such as restraunt and other entertainment place.

Location based service is new but stands for a future trend.  And it is a good m-commerce way.

Add buzz for your blog

If you want to dig your twitter hot news, you can use tweetmeme. It will screen out the hottest topic for you, so that you can take fewer time on reading unnecessary news. Similarly, "buzrr" website will rank all the articles shared on google buzz according to its rebuzz times in different duration.

Press "get your buzz botton", you can got plug-in code in the homepage easily. Now you successfully shared your article on google buzz, and you can read your article rebuzz time from this icon

Even though this plug-in is not mature, but I think it is a good idea and will be well developed.

Could Apple’s ipad be the savior?

Apple Inc. announced its new product by the CEO Steve Jobs, in new product release conference which hold in San Francisco. Steve Jobs himself took off the veil of the long-term rumored Tablet PC, which named “ipad”. Some experts believe the new product would be the savior of the tradition media.



In the past years, tradition media faced amount of internal and external challenges. Amazon, which shared 60% book marketing, has a big power on price decision. Meanwhile, publishers lose partial interests. Some of them hoped ipad’s appearance may break up this situation. Firstly, there is no doubt that the technology capability of Apple can increase enjoy of reading. It was proven in video and music area that Apple can make the same thing differ. The same is ipad. LED backlight, high resolution and the size of screen guarantee reading enjoy. Furthermore, Apple owns a large number of fans. According to a marketing research in North American, more than one fifth people would like to buy one if the price was less than 700 dollars. And it costs 499 dollars only. These people are considered as the potential clients for traditional media. Obviously, the publisher found the advantages also. A slew of textbook publishers - including McGraw-Hill, Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan – throwing the Oliver branches to Ipad, have announced deals to provide textbook applications that would work on the iPad. New York Times created a version for ipad reader to zoom in and looked forward further cooperation. Unlike Amazon, Apple consulted with publishers to arrive at a win-win situation. Could Apple’s ipad really be the savior of traditional media? Let’s wait and see. At least, it has a good start.

report

 On March 11 2010, we finally sold out the first Sock Doll for White Day.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220566094519&ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT

Besides, the product awareness was also spread through the online campaign. The result is displayed as follows:


<> <> <> <> <> <> <>

Items	No. of Views	No. of Comments
Valentine’s Day Promotion on Facebook	22	11
Valentine’s Day Promotion on Renren.com	14	9
Ebay shop: White Day Pink Bear	22	1
Ebay shop: Valentine’s Day Red Rabbit	14	1
Total	72	22

Campaign Highlights:

• Online social media such as Facebook or Renren.com is a good Word of Mouth Marketing channel.
• The product off-line display should be considered to attract target audience.When we brought the Sock Doll to the class, many classmates liked it or even took a picture by cell phones to post on Facebook or wrote comments on Facebook/renre.com.
• Interaction is important! In the Valentine’s Day promotion, winner’s photo display of their DIY process attracted not only the original friends’ but also many other new friends’ active participation on the online discussion.

Key Learning:

• Price should be lower. Some classmates who liked the doll complained to us that our price is a little high. So cheaper, more sales!
• Product off-line display should be considered to do more in the campus such as half-day product show outside of the campus canteen.
• Yahoo is a popular auction site than ebay in Hong Kong. Some friends just complained it took time to register account on ebay.com.

Appendix:

1. Valentine’s Day Promotion on Facebook

2. Valentine's Day Promotion on Renren.com

Auction Report #2

After posting the product Sock doll one week at ebay.com, the result is not as good as we expect. Only 6 persons visited the shop but gave few comments. 4 of them were those who had joined the initial online survey. So the status quo is as follows:


•The product is not popular at ebay.com.hk.

• The CNY and Valentine’s Day promotion opportunity would be missed.

•BUT…

•White Day on March 14 will be another promotion point!

•Birthday gift is also a good value proposition for promotion.

Therefore, we decided to develop a marketing strategy to sell the product.











Objectives: To sell the product by early March

Target Audience: Who have Picses friends and are preparing a birthday gift Who have single female friends

Products:

Value Propositions: A cute birthday gift A festival gift for your single friends

Strategies: Prelaunch



•Increase the product awareness through a "FREE VALENTINE'S DAY GIFT FOR YOU" activity

•Create/participate in the ONLINE DISCUSSION about White Day or Birthday gift on Facebook or some popular forums to create a hot topic about the product



Launching



•Increase product exposure by SOE

•Send the product eDM

•Post on Facebook



Post Launch



•Interaction with shop visitors through online comments, emails etc.



Accordingly, relating marketing tactics will be developed as follows:











Free Valentine’s Day Gift for YOU

1. To send the activity eDM through both emails and Facebook messages

- Facebook messages instead of wall posting to ensure every recipient will read the eDM





2. Key message to be delivered in the eDM:

- Go to visit our Sock Doll shop and comment “ WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE & WHY” to win a surprising DIY gift for Valentines’ Day.

3. Result:

- Three participants will be selected to present the DIY MATERIAL PACKAGE of his/her favorite Sock doll

4. To show your DIY on Facebook

- Ask for the winner to show his/her DIY process and finished works by posting pictures on Facebook so as to get more friends to know the product.



Prelaunch about the two product

1. To start an online discussion about White Day and birthday gift on BBS and Facebook

2. To participate in ebay forum to promote our shop





Launching

1. Send another eDM through emails and Facebook messages

2. Posting on the discussion page as a customer instead of the shop owner (Hey! I found this cute gift!)

3. Increase the product exposure on ebay.com by adding the product category, joining the home page promotion etc.

Auction Report #1

By M&M Sock Doll (Maggie & Monica)

Shop Link:  http://myworld.ebay.com.hk/maggiezhu8301/
 
About Product:

• What we sell is Sock Doll, a new and popular DIY animal in mainland China, especially on Taobao.com. It can be made by various kinds of socks, cotton as well as clothes buttons. It averagely takes 3 or 4 hours for someone to design and sewing a sock doll exclusively for yourself. Girls can enjoy fun of DIY and happiness of the completion of works. It is also a sweet and exclusive gift for friends.

Target Audience:

1. Demographic: Young Girls, from 15 to 30 years old, university students and young white collars/office ladies
2. Lifestyle: Who use animal dolls as pen bags, bag pendants or mobile pendants and so on/ Who have online shopping experience
3. Psychographic: Who always like lovely dolls whenever

Product Concept: DIY for friends’ gifts

• Sock Doll DIY is a girl’s childhood dream. Not only fun you will get, but friends will also feel surprise and happiness from your DIY gift.

Product Categories

• Step 1: View Taobao.com to have an initial selection of 18 preferred products.
• Step 2: Make product categories by gift types including

              o CNY’s gift
              o Valentine’s Day gift

              o Friend’s birthday gift

• Step 3: In order to have an initial understanding of customer preferences in Hong Kong, an online survey was conducted during the last 4 days, which is helpful for both product purchase and pricing.(to see questionnaire, pls click https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGctWjdDamVXRS1IRFdzWVNmQ180dGc6MA)
• Step 4: Select the most two popular ones for each product category based on 20 questionnaires’ result and create an attractive name and description for each item.

                  o CNY’s gift:

                  o Valentine’s Day gift:

                  o Friend’s birthday gift:

Product Source

• Two Taobao.com shop in mainland
• For copyright issue, we have talked with and gotten agreement from the shop owners that part of their products will be sold on ebay.com.hk for a coursework only
• 6 selected products will be bought in this week to ensure the deal success

Pricing

• Pricing is partly based on the online survey and partly based on the wanted margin
• For sock doll’s material package, price is set between HK$50 - HK$100
• For a finished sock doll, price is set between HK$120 – HK$160
• An opening promotion of 10% discount is also published to attract potential customers

Placement

• Yahoo.com.hk is originally a preferred online channel due to its high popularity in HK
• However, as we don’t have HK Visa Credit Card (it is required by Yahoo), we choose ebay.com.hk instead. We only focus on the Hong Kong local market considering the complication of global deals.

Everything is new for us. Let's move on!

Yunnan memory

大四的毕业旅行和好友去了彩云之南，那里的山，那里的水真是让人留恋。明媚的天，朴实的人，让心都变得澄澈和平静。殷殷啊，我们的友谊从这里开始的呢。不会忘了我们骑了6个小时的马爬山，颠得脊柱都快散了，腿也算得好像不是自己的，可是看到文海的景色，还有拉马大叔的一路陪伴，都让我觉得一切都很值得。去的时候正是很热的时候，然后束河真是个让天都眷顾的地方，一直都是让人舒服得想睡觉的天气。我想我一定会再去，希望那时我们还能一起，当然最好能有谢先生的参与，呵呵。

去文海的那天是那么多天唯一没有下雨的一天，我们真是好运，但是路上还是很泥泞的，茶马古道被马儿踩多了，都是一个个深深的坑，里面蓄着满满的水。马儿踩一脚下去，就溅起许多泥，我已经极度小心，还是得到这个结果，呵呵。

这已是回来的时候，人已极疲惫。马背上有大叔踩的花，可以治感冒。大叔说，山里人，买药浪费，就吃这，见效。真是羡慕不已。

















下山的路上，俯瞰了整个束河。开阔又不失细致，真是漂亮。
















有点少年侠客仗剑江湖的感觉，呵呵~~真是怀念

















文海的草甸，刚下过雨的山谷氤氲着些雾，仙境也就是这样了吧。
















大叔们帮拍的照片，很棒呢。
















有人放了鸽子，杨同学却是早早就为大家设计了T-SHIRT，还有各自的卡通头像。可惜只敢在文海这么飘远的地方才拿出来穿，因为上面大大地写着名字，实在是~~太高调啦。。。

再次回去已经在计划内了，地方还在，只是故人再次相聚不知何时。还有回忆不是吗？还有回忆不是嘛。