Blogs and Organizations

With the popularity of blogs, its not surprising to find all kinds of organizations having their own blog. Is this an advantage to an organization or an disadvantage? To help demonstrate the different advantages and disadvantages, we shall take a closer look at a fictive organization (lets call it xyz) that updates its own blog about the organization and its products.

Organization xyz has many different advantages since keeping its blog updated. Firstly, keeping a blog updated is quick and does not cost a lot of money (Matt Jackson). Organization xyz could create a blog on sites like blogger, livejournal and blog, which are all free. Secondly, the blog can be used as an effective way of marketing (Matt Jackson). Organization xyz could keep its blog updated with all the new products its selling and integrate this blog into its marketing campaign. Thirdly, blogs are simple to understand and easy to access (Matt Jackson). Instead of having a complicated high-tech website that might alienate some of their customers, organization xyz could provide a lot of information on their easy to use blog. Lastly, using a blog can help you have more insight into your customers (Matt Jackson). Blogs have the great feature of leaving a comment and organizations should take full advantage of this. Organization xyz could have direct and rapid feedback from their own customers when updating their blog.

Using a blog also has flaws. If organization xyz wants to keep a blog, it should be updated fairly frequentely. Organizations that do not keep their blog updated go often undected while their blog readers are left with nothing new to read. Secondly, an organization must keep anything that is personal out of their blog (Search Engine Marketing). This includes writing in a casual tone and expressing personal beliefs that have nothing to do with the organization. Both of these are not appropriate when a blog is used to market your organization and should be avoided.

To conclude, organization xyz has many advantages and disadvantages when using a blog. Organization xyz should be aware about both, and use their blog in way to prevent any disadvantages from appearing.

Sources :

Are There Any Disadvantages To Blogging For My Business? Search Engine Marketing, August 9th, 2009
http://www.getfoundingoogle.com.au/blog/blogging-tips/are-there-any-disadvantages-to-blogging-for-my-business.htm

Jackson, Matt, 10 Big Benefits Of A Busy Business Blog (And How To take Advantage), Webreference

http://www.webreference.com/authoring/bus_blog/

E-paper disadvantages

So far, everything about e-paper seems great for any organization. Unfortunately, e-paper also has flaws.
Firstly, the technology behind e-paper cannot support animation (David Dejean, 2008). With such a feature missing from e-paper, advertising is limited to pictures only, which is bad news for any organization that wishes to use animations in their ads with e-paper. Secondly, e-paper only has the option of displaying in black and white and a range of gray tones (David Dejean, 2008). This lack of color is a huge disadvantage since colored images are of great value in newspapers and magazines. Thirdly, piracy has become a huge source of problems for organizations in certain types of markets, such as music, movies and games (Manuel Viloria, 2008). With e-books, it could be easy for organizations to lose a lot of money from piracy. Manuel Viloria, a multimedia internet publishing coach, warns organizations that with e-books, your electronic book "can be easily emailed to someone living thousands of miles away. It can even be placed in a public server for anyone to download"(Manuel Viloria, 2008).

Lastly, the price of e-readers that use the technology of e-paper is expensive. The Amazon Kindle is priced at $US 259, the Sony Reader Daily Edition is priced at $US 399.99 and the Barnes & Nobles Nook is priced at $US 259. Its true that e-books are cheaper than printed books, but you need to buy the e-reader first. These high prices are preventing consumers to enjoy the many benefits that e-paper can offer.

Sources:

Viloria, Manuel, Ebooks: Advantages and Disadvantages, ManuelVictoria, September 20th, 2008
http://www.manuelviloria.com/archives/ebooks-advantages-and-disadvantages/

Dejean, David, The Future of E-paper, June 23rd, 2008
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/320085/The_Future_of_E_paper

E-paper advantages

E-paper can be an interesting option that brings many advantages for newspapers. Print editions have become less popular in recent years, thanks to news channels running 24 hours a day and free online news that can easily be found on many websites. Philip Meyer, author of "The Vanishing Newspaper”, has even made the bold prediction that "the first quarter of 2043 will be the moment when newsprint dies in America" (The Economist).

With less and less readers, it's no suprise that newspapers are losing money on print advertising. How much money did newspapers actually lose? From 2006 to the first quarter of 2009, newspaper ad sales (in America) have dropped by 28.28%, which equals to $2.6 billions (Robin Wauters, 2006).

E-paper can help by attracting a younger audience that might otherwise read the news on the internet (AMEinfo, 2005). E-readers have started to expand and become popular (thanks to e-readers like the amazon kindle. E-readers can bring many advantages that newsprint cannot. Having the daily news downloaded every morning in your amazon kindle is far more convenient than trying to find your printed newspaper outside your house (your newspaper could be missing or stolen). The amount of paper saved from printed newspapers could also become a very popular selling point in trying to sell your electronic newspaper. The price should also drop, with costs decreasing since there would no longer have delivery boys in the morning, huge plants producing the printed newspaper could be closed down and newspaper stands would no longer have a part of the profit if its only selling online (AMEinfo, 2005).

Newspapers aren't alone when it comes to the advantages that e-paper can offer to organizations. Any organizations selling books could also gain from offering e-books on e-readers. Organizations like amazon with its amazon kindle are already selling e-books at a lower price than normal books, they can promote that their organization is more environmentally friendly thanks to e-books that do not need trees being cut down to be produced and smaller book sellers would not be able to compete with the larger organizations that can produce e-readers.

Lastly, organizations that produce advertisements could profit from e-paper, thanks to its unique ability to move images and produce eye catching ads (Epapercentral, 2008). Here is a video showing off what e-paper can do for ads.


Sources:

E-paper and the future of electronic publishing, AMEinfo, March 14th, 2005
http://www.ameinfo.com/55729.html#story

E-paper Advertising: A New Era Has Begun, Epapercentral, October 28th, 2008
http://www.epapercentral.com/e-ink-advertising-a-new-era-has-begun.htm

Wauters, Robin, From Terrible To Terrifying: Newspaper Ad Sales Plummet $2.6 Billion In Q1 2009, Tech Crunch, June 2nd, 2006
http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/02/from-terrible-to-terrifying-newspaper-ad-sales-plummet-26-billion-in-first-quarter/

Who killed the newspaper? The Economist, August 24th, 2006
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7830218

What can e-paper replace?

E-paper has the ability of replacing the very way we read. Instead of buying and reading books for school, work and entertainment, we will be able to replace the book with an e-paper reader( which can read e-books). Here is a picture of the very popular e-book from amazon, the amazon kindle.

The amazon kindle has the storage capacity to store 1500 books, and only weights 10.2 ounces which is lighter than a typical paperback book (Amazon). Imagine being able to carry this light and portable reading device instead of the many books students have to bring to school every day. The amazon kindle comes with a 3G wireless connection that allows you to download books from the widely popular amazon website in under 60 seconds. Not only can you buy books from amazon, but you can also purchase news papers like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. There is also the possibility of downloading magazines like Times and Fortune (Amazon).

The amazon kindle is not the only e-book in the market, there is the Barnes & Noble Nook and the Sony Reader Touch Edition (Iddo Genuth, 2007). Click here to see the differences between the amazon kindle and the sony reader.

So, is this the end for the traditional way of reading with a book? Time will tell but the popularity of the e-books and e-readers is increasing (Joe Eitel, 2009).

Sources :

Genuth, Iddo, The Future of Electronic Paper, The Future Of Things, October 15th, 2007
http://thefutureofthings.com/articles/1000/the-future-of-electronic-paper.html

Eitel, Joe, Is it Time for E-Readers to Replace Books? - What are they and how do they work?, DevHardware, December 19th, 2009
http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Opinions/Is-it-Time-for-EReaders-to-Replace-Books/1/

The AmazonKindle, Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reading-Display-Generation/dp/B0015T963C/ref=amb_link_86425631_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0Y2DGMQR9THFY7G8CAWP&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1259191562&pf_rd_i=507846

What is e-paper?

This blog was created to inform everyone about what e-paper is, what it does and what kind of advantages it can bring to organizations. To begin, what exactly is e-paper?

E-paper(also know as electronic paper) can be described as an easily transportable electronic display device that looks like real paper, but can rewritten electronically millions of times (SearchMobileComputing). Its a display technology that will allow readers to read as if it was real paper with ink on it, while being extremely light and flexible (epapercentral). Here is a picture that can help anyone visualize what e-paper looks like.

To further understand what e-paper does, click here to view a video of e-paper in action.

E-paper can also be used for electronic newspapers, e-books and displays. Amazon, Sony and Barnes & Noble have already utilized e-paper technology to sell e-readers and are currently trying to win over as many customers as possible. With so many different applications available thanks to e-paper, many organizations (like the ones listed above) are looking towards e-paper as a way to expand into new markets (cellular-news).

Sources:

Epaper, SearchMobileComputing,
http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/definition/e-paper

E-paper Technologies Reference Guide, epapercentral,
http://www.epapercentral.com/epaper-technologies-guide

Flexible Display Market to Expand by Factor of 35 by 2013, cellular-news, June 9th, 2008 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/31680.php