Mg is for Marketing

Career Motivators: What Drives Me?

2011-03-22T17:51:00.001-07:00

Part II: Career Motivators - What Drives Me

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowing what you want in a career is better than following where a path leads. I have uncovered a few personal motivators by going through the book "Get the Job You Want Even When No One's Hiring."

In addition to motivation, one must find meaning in what they do. A meaningful job to me is one that helps people, has personal meaning and connection to your life, a job that comes naturally with not extreme efforts, is fun, brings lots of opportunity and challenge.

Here are a few of my motivators, many of which are tied to my career values.

problem solving, finding an answer, research, solving hard problems, motivated to learn and solve difficult problems, finding the best solution
teaching, helping, knowledge
nice personality, smart
communication skills
saving money

Do my motivators align with my career direction? I am considering a career that involves business, analysis and builds upon my background in science.

Career Similarities and Differences
The differences between a scientific job and marketing research: you do not have to work with dangerous chemicals. Data sets for marketing can be larger and more complex than scientific data. Correlations tend to be weaker for measuring consumer behavior vs. scientific behavior.

Scientists are less concerned with the cost of doing research, where as market researchers are more concerned with the bottom line.

In general, I see marketing research as being a more people oriented job than a scientific researcher. Another career I am considering is product manager. Product manager involves more sales and is the most people oriented job of the ones I am considering. Finally the internet marketing job involves less people interaction, is more aligned with internet marketing, but involves the ability to respond to change quickly.

Product manager, marketing research and internet marking involve knowing the needs of the market. Knowing the market is not as readily translatable to the scientist's career. Both marketing research and internet marketing involve a lot of technology and writing skills. Product management and internet marketing are driven by sales and budgets.

Characteristics of a Scientist:
1. Inquisitive
2. Explorative
3. Persistent
4. Creative
5. Analytical

Characteristics of a Marketing Research:

scientific method — observation, hypothesis, prediction, and testing.
innovative ways to solve a problem
multiple methods to acquire data and shy away from over-reliance on any one method
base your research efforts on solid models
relationship between the value of information and its cost
clearly sees the market
win-win-win for company, the product and the customers

Characteristics of a Product Manager

passion to sell great products
empathy
humility
self-awareness
tenacity
decisiveness
innovativeness
confidence
focus
persuasiveness

Characteristics of an Internet Marketer

Adaptive/Pro active
Should have TAS (think Ahead Systematically) approach
Should know exactly the requirements of the business
Recognize the long term goals
has a personalized brand
knows the needs of the market
Should be able to write great content
Traffic increase
Maximize the budget

Career Potential: What Are My Values?

2011-03-22T16:57:00.000-07:00

What Are My Core Career Values?

I am reading a book that I should have read years ago. But then years ago we were not in the recession that we are coming out of. The book is "Get the Job You Want, Even When No One's Hiring."

Instead of following the trail of hot job areas, the book walks you through a career soul search.

I am currently working on the values clarification section and this is what I've learned about myself. This is what I value in order of most to least important. Some of this I knew already but it is time to use this information to look to my career future.

Career Values: I feel strongly about

Logic/Analysis/ Challenge/Overcoming Obstacles: research, look at data, solve challenging problems, experiment, figure out how things work
Collaboration/Teamwork: social, collaborate, integrate in to a team, nice personality, like to help people
Adventure/Discovery/Creativity/Innovation: create, explore, go on an adventure
Management/ Leadership: leadership, take responsibility, dedicated
Education and Knowledge: learning, teaching
Communication: good at presenting
Technical Competency: worked in technical jobs
Money/Wealth/Power/Influence: sales
Control People/ Projects: develop a project

This tells me that my main motivator is analysis, discovery and learning in a collaborative environment. I should seek a job that allows me to use both my analytical and social skills. These are typically two skills might be viewed as opposites. If I remember correctly, my Myers Briggs is ENTJ (extraversion, intuition, thinking, judgment).

One of the inconsistencies with working as a scientist is that it can be a solitary job. Being that I am a social teamwork oriented person I would like to find a career that involves more interaction with people.

The Journey Towards a Better Career FIt

2011-02-16T06:54:00.000-08:00

How Do You Define a Career Fit?
A good fit is when your goals, past industry experience and job function align with the company's short and long term strategic goals, organizational behavior and mission.

I am a Number-Cruncher
Whether it be chemistry or business, I am the type of person who loves to analyze and look at numbers and data to make meaning out of it.

My Career Path
When I was young my mother died of lung cancer. For me this was a moment that would shape my life and my career. I wanted to do something to help find cures for disease. I set a goal to get a Ph.D. and become a scientist. I achieved that goal and even ended up working at the National Cancer Institute. Reach for something you really want and chances are you may get there.

After the Ph.D.: The Jump to Biotechnology
When I graduated from Michigan State University I went in to biotechnology, as it sounded like an interesting new field with great opportunities.

I lived in Maryland and worked in R&D for 7 years before returning to Illinois to pursue a career in teaching. I taught undergraduate chemistry for 2-3 years at local colleges until I met my husband and got married. What I gained from teaching was feeling comfortable in front of a group of people and fine tuning the way I communicate information.

The Importance of Marketing
In 2007 I decided to go back to the life of a chemist in the lab. What I learned from my job in back then was the importance of marketing and how a company is run. Marketing was everything to that company, and I wanted to learn more about it so that I could make a contribution.

An MBA to Broaden Skills
In 2008 I decided to start an MBA program. I had started doing some consulting work. I wanted to learn more about business, entrepreneurship and how to write a business plan.

When I started at DePaul I was interested in Venture Capital. I chose DePaul because of the price, reputation of the school and the variety of campuses and coursework. For me the subjects that came easier were business statistics, internet marketing, writing business plans and organizational behavior skills.

What are the Transitional Careers?
There are several books available that discuss careers for transitioners. I tried science and medical writing prior to starting an MBA. I tried to get in to technical sales - right around when the recession hit. At that time I got interested in green and sustainability careers.

Part of transitioning involves considering your core skills - who you are - that transcend boundaries. When thinking about career, I think about my industry background, mostly biotech and biopharma, and also my functional role, number cruncher and analyst. After you consider your core transferable skills then you look for the language you need to convey the skills.

The Job Search Now
Now my main interest is internet marketing, market research, analyst position and still a technical sales role. I have learned a lot about human behavior and the 'probability of a click' from Google AdWords. These analytical skills will help me in my job search. As I heard in a recent presentation at DePaul, "You only have so much time and energy. You have to put it to good use."

Targeting and segmenting the job search and assigning numbers to the chance you'll get a job is a good skill to have. I am starting to develop a system to help me organize and prioritize how I spend my time. It helps when speaking to recruiters to get an idea of the per cent goodness of fit you have for a job. Tracking those job titles and goodness of fit will help you manage your time.

About to Graduate
I am on the edge of graduating. I have started looking for a job after having taken a job search vacation in 2010. After noticing that my writing skills have gone downhill from lack of use, I've decided to start this blog up and dedicate it to my career search and researching companies, job functions, job search strategies and skills and industries. I will be graduating in June. Let's wish all the job seekers out there good luck in 2011. May we all find the appropriate job!

AdSense and AdWords Synergy

2010-07-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

I just received a postcard from Google AdSense. Actually made money! $31.37

Our internet marketing class participate in the GOMC and received $200. It seems that in May AdSense on that site (and maybe some blogs) made about $25 back.

So it seems that if you put AdSense on the websites you run AdWords accounts on actually will give you back about 10% or some fraction of the money you spend on AdWords.

Experimenting with Google AdWords

2010-07-08T21:35:00.000-07:00

After receiving $150 in coupons from Google Adwords I decided to run a campaign today. It was easier than I thought to set up the initial campaign. My website is www.welldash.com, a website for wellness awareness and applications.

I chose the pages that I wanted to focus on as the landing pages.

wellness
depression
qigong
support groups
sleep

I wrote up my ads and selected the keywords. My campaign is called "Building Awareness." One mistake I made was to lump the Ads in one campaign and not divide them up in to groups. To fix this I went back to the home tab of Adwords and clicked on campaign. I divided the ads into 5 groups with appropriate AdWords for each.

I have started at $5 a day with <$0.60 CPC.

I set the landing page of each ad in the ad itself. Initially I had set everything to go to the index page but I went back and set the ads and keywords to go to the invidual 5 pages listed above.

Up to now the qigong page is the best performing page at 1% CTR.

2010-06-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

The Learning Curve

The summer I have decided to to some internet marketing and web development independent study. I am reading up on javascript and studying Twitter for the most part.

Direct Tweets
To direct tweet there must be a mutual follow and not a one way follow. The Twitter help section clarified that for me.

Deleting Tweets?
Recently I made a tweet where the URL shorted version seemed to be malfunctioning. I was using Hootsuite. It is possible that the fault lies with Hootsuite. If you use Twitter or LinkedIn you may see a Tweet with bit.ly or ow.ly. For example http://ow.ly/21SQq is the short URL I made in Hootsuite that seems to go nowhere.

My solution was to Tweet out again the entire URL. This experience has caused me to think about what Twitter application I am using to send out messages and that it is important to test the URL shortener before tweeting out.

MKT595 Week 9

2010-05-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

Disclaimers, Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Given all of the news about privacy on Facebook, it seems that any website should be concerned about privacy policies, if the users are storing data on the website.

In the course of designing my website, WellDash, I have added a disclaimer in the footer area on each page.

"WellDash content is for educational purposes only. WellDash and its contributors cannot be held liable for any damages incurred by following any of the advice found on this website. Copyright © 2010 WellDash"

WellDash gives information and advice on wellness. I was wondering what type of disclaimer I should use. I consulted with a professor at DePaul. He said that a simple disclaimer is sufficient for now, but as the site grows the disclaimer should be revised and additional documents added.

In the case of an initial privacy policy, disclaimer and terms of use to start with, simple is better. More complicated online documents should be written under the advice of a lawyer.

Copyright
The image on this blog is taken from a stock.xchng, a website that provides free images. For the legal reasons we discussed in class it is better to have your own images or ones that are free.

Using PowerPoint Images and SmartArt on a Website?
One of the questions I have about copyright is, are the images and SmartArt that a user creates in PowerPoint copyrighted by Microsoft? Is it ok to use those on a website? It would seem to me that if the product was purchased by the user then the images are ok to use.

Week 8 MKT 595

2010-05-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

Creating New Social Networks
Diaspora: "Four Nerds and a Cry to Arms Against Facebook"

Who will rise up against the addiction that is Facebook and Farmville? Diaspora. I recently read an article in the NYTimes about a group of students creating a private social network.

The central theme of Diaspora is:
"to distribute the software free, and to make the code openly available so that other programmers can build on it. As they describe it, the Diaspora* software will let users set up their own personal servers, called seeds, create their own hubs and fully control the information they share. "

Why the name Diaspora? Diaspora refers to a tribe or community with common identity that are displaced refugees. It is an interesting, unique name that is very appropriate. The image of a mature dandelion loosing its seeds is also appropriate. Looks like the domain name is up for sale (diaspora.com and .org).

The difference between Diaspora and Facebook is a decentralized model where users and not a "central deity" control information. It is a bit like Ning but open source and free. (Yes Ning will be charging $3/month shortly).

Younger People are More Aware of Privacy
"Once you give away information it is no longer yours...but sharing is a human value...sharing and privacy are not mutually exclusive" -Diaspora

Wow, They Raised a lot of Money!
Looks like they Have a Market. Diaspora raised the money online on a website called Kickstarter. To date they have raised $108,304, well over the $10,000 they initially requested.

Keeping Up With Your Customers Via Internet Channels

Given the plethora of channels available it seems a challenge to be everywhere all the time unless you have help.

RatePoint
RatePoint is a company started by the founders of Geotrust, which was purchased by Verisign. The target market for RatePoint is small businesses. Given the economic environment, there are many entrepreneurs that will go for this type of company. When you sign up for RatePoint you get a free subscription for a month or two. During that time expect to receive phone call(s) from a salesperson with a guided tutorial on how to use RatePoint. Since RatePoint collects phone numbers, a call from them is not unsolicited. The salesperson will also ask if you will sign up for paid subscription.

The advantages of RatePoint are:

lower price
newsletters
keeping your customers separate from your other accounts on Twitter, Facebook and email.
marketing campaigns via email, Twitter and Facebook
surveys
business and product reviews

Ratepoint is advertising like crazy. If you sign up for the free subscription like I did be prepared to see adverts wherever you are on the Internet.

MKT595 Week 7 - Data Growth Explosion: Video is the Next Wave

2010-05-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

Data Growth During the Recession
Despite the fact that we are in a recession, data is growing at 70%, according to news from the EMC World Conference currently being held in Boston. The title of this year's conference, "The Journey to the Private Cloud Starts Now."

Digital Universe
EMC calls the total amount of information the digital universe. Amazingly enough, only 5% of data comes from data centers, 35% comes from enterprise and

"About 70 percent of the digital universe is created by individuals, although companies are responsible for the security, privacy, reliability and compliance of 85 percent of that data, the study said."

Video As the Next Wave of Communication & Expression
My inside source tells me that the explosion of video sharing will be the next wave of social interaction. Not too surprising. It seems that I myself am going this way. In building my website I have come to realize that a video will draw in more website traffic. But optimizing video for SEO is not actually that easy. A holistic approach toward quality and best practices are still important for getting a top You Tube hit.

Just Flip It
I am considering buying a flip video camera. I guess all of the advertising on the CTA blue line coming to and from classes at DePaul has finally worn off on me. Once I get enough videos I'll be needing to buy some data storage from Carbonite.

Carbonite
How much cooler can you get than a company called Carbonite? The name carbonite comes from the material that Han Solo was frozen in Star Wars (see image above). I am sure that this dates me, but Han Solo was hotter than Luke Skywalker. Carbonite is a startup company - the "Symantec of Online Backup." This company is doing so well that they just want to go public next year. It is one to watch.

MKT 595 Week 6

2010-05-04T19:23:00.001-07:00

Internet Business Models, Retail, Channels, CRM and Advertising

Advertising Alone is Not Enough
The one concept that I will remember from class this week is: advertising alone is not enough revenue to run an Internet business.

Advertising as the Sole Source of Revenue is Risky
A heat map shows that Internet users avoid areas of a website where there is advertising.

The image on the left shows the triangle hot spot where readers look. Actually there is a very small zone on the top right where some readers look as well in this example.

Adblock Used to Erase Advertising
Companies should be careful on how to retaliate, as they may alienate or loose customers by trying to fight Adblock

Fremium is Not the Only Model
Until this week I thought that fremium was the only model. There are lots to choose from.

How Much is Aggregate Data Worth? Where Do You Sell it?
I wanted to learn more about selling aggregate data. The latest controversy seems to be the fact that Mint (infomediary model) wants to sell user data. I think they need to make money somehow. I did a search on the topic of selling aggregate data and did not find much information.

How Do You Know Which Model is Right for Your Business? When to Change the Model?
This is really the golden question. Up to this point in my education at DePaul none of my professors have spoken about business models. How a company makes money and continues to do so is pretty important.

Home Grown Chitown Internet Biz
I follow what SitterCity and Groupon, two local companies are doing. SitterCity is based on a subscription model. SitterCity screens nannies and has also expanded out in to other related areas like elder care. Because they have a smaller market their recent strategy has been to go after a government contract and to consider international markets.

Groupon is an idea that appeals to a wider audience, "group coupons" and has been copied like crazy. Based on a novel idea of building collective action, users will receive a coupon if they get friends to sign up for the daily deal. The CEO of Groupon spoke for MGT570, and I must say that I found it very inspiring to listen to someone who grew a company out of thin air to 200 employees in only three years and receive venture capital worth 26M.

Groupon works on a brokerage model, bringing together companies who want to advertise a promotion and customers who want a deal.

As you can see neither Sitter City nor Groupon use advertising as a revenue stream.

CRM is More Than Software
CRM has three levels that span from the back to the front of the office: operational, collaborative and analytical CRM

Last but not least, the most important topic this week by far:

- plain text
- faces
- cleavage

are three ways to attract desire!

Week 4 BIng and More on Search

2010-05-02T19:42:00.002-07:00

Time to Reflect
After taking our midterm last week, I decided to review today what we had done two weeks ago. Attempting to open the video from class resulted in a really long upload time.

Microsoft Bing
We had two guest speakers in class from Microsoft Adam Scott and Jeremy Lamothe. One thing I remember is that market share for Bing is growing - Bing now owns 30% of the market and is growing faster than Google or Yahoo.

Google Losing Their Edge?
With the recent happenings in China with Baidu it seems it has shaken Google's reputation. Recently discussions at the dinner table tend to drift in the direction of - is Google on a downward spiral?

I have noticed lately that some searches I do on Google lately come up with very poor results (ex. what causes a migraine). Using my own personal judgment gives me better results. I did a search recently on a health related topic where the number one hit was really inaccurate and nothing on the first page answered the search box question I was asking.

I do think that Google does spread itself a bit thin on the number of product lines they offer, considering that advertising is the revenue stream. It seems like they will need to start trimming some fat and eliminating extraneous products to focus on their core.

Advice for GOMC
Adam and Jeremy had some great advice for our teams for GOMC. Broad word matches bring in more traffic. The more keywords you ad on may make things too specific and may reach too small of an audience.

Other things we learned from Adam and Jeremy:

you cannot bid on branded keywords or other trademark words.
dayparting - advertise on Monday and Tuesday pull back on the weekend
think about the time of day you advertise
landing page demographics
use 20-30 words at the most in a campaign of $200
keyword matching options

More on Search
Topics discussed in the remainder of class were:

website content above the fold
organic vs. paid search
searching "click here" will bring you to Adobe.com
each webpage should have only one main idea

Best Practices - just a few of many

use breadcrumbs
three click rule
spell check your website
use short paragraphs
active language,
bullets
custom 404 page
linkbait & many links to your website
meta tags
robots.txt
avoid Flash and pdf

How to Make Money on Your Website and Mobile App

2010-04-28T21:52:00.001-07:00

What is the Best Way to Make eMoney?

If a company has a decision between website or mobile app, what is the best way to earn money? What is the best strategy?

Website
Depending on the business it seems that advertising or a paid subscription is the best way to go. It seems that using Google Adsense you can earn up to $1500 a day or $10,000 a month. Webrevenue.org is a great website for learning more about this topic.

Build Traffic
To make money you have to first build traffic. Webrevenue states that the following factors help.

social site
connect to other sites
study the"repeat visitors" to the site
study stats using sites like Quantcast

Webrevenue has an interesting formula:

(Regular Monthly Visitors + (Regular Monthly Visitors * Rate of Growth)) = Next Month’s Visitors.

The author seems to say that a site will do well depending on how much effort you put in to the content.

Business Models
A list of ecommerce business models can be found on DigitalEnterprise.

Wired also features a great article on business models with a breakdown of how many business use each type of model. The majority, 34% uses advertising.

Mobile Apps
Mobitech states:
""In mature markets, the mobile Web, along with associated Web adaptation tools, will be a leading technology for B2C mobile applications through 2012, and should be part of every organization's B2C technology portfolio." (Gartner, 2010)"

Given the disadvantages listed for the iPhone, the startup cost, and the 30/70 split of revenue, developing a mobile app does not seem worth the cost unless you have money to burn. That is the impression I get from Mobitech.

On the flip side TechCrunch states that top iPhone apps can make $400-5000 a day. There is also less competition in the free apps area.

Selling Aggregate Data
Selling anonymous aggregate data is one way to make money. CloudAve discusses the controversy over Mint.com selling aggregate financial data. Besides the Mint.com discussion I was not able to find much information about selling aggregate data, which would imply it is hard to do or not as common.

How to Create a Template in Dreamweaver Video

2010-04-20T10:50:00.001-07:00

I just made my first You Tube video. Next time I will try Camstudios.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bggHd7RICzI

Week 3 GOMC Team Formation & What Search Is

2010-04-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

Marketing Sharpshooters Team Formation
This week we formed our teams for the Google Online Marketing Challenge. Our team name is Marketing Sharpshooters. We completed the following tasks:

Selected the business.
Got agreement from the business that it was ok to use their website.
Sent an email confirming the team.
Created a Google AdWords account.

The part that confused me was the statement that any campaigns created should be paused. Since we had not started any campaigns I assume they did not need to be paused. The help menu on Google AdWord explained how to pause a campaign.

We registered our team and entered our customer ID into the GOMC page. Now we wait for the $200 in AdWords.

Search
We discussed how searches are made in class this week. After you create a business website it is important to list in a directory. This helps the search to find what industry you are in. DMOZ is an open directory and the first place to index your page.

How Search Reads Your Site: Lynx, Browser for the Blind
One item that was of interest was the Lynx browser for the blind. Lynx only reads text and simulates which a search engine will see when it looks at your site. Since search engines look for words this is very helpful. I found it more user friendly to use a Lynx viewer. at the bottom of the HTML code I inserted a delorie.gif image so that the viewer could read my site. It was really neat to see the results. I have known one blind person in my life and wanted to volunteer at RFB&D.

Number of Links
The most interesting thing about search is that after 200-500 links to external pages the search engine optimization (SEO) will not pay attention to. Choosing which sites you anchor to is important.

Strategy of Choosing Words

When bidding on words the price of the word is not the only consideration, but also the quality

Ad rank = CPC bid x quality score

an expensive word does not mean your ad will be placed for sure, it also relies on how clickable your ad is. Adwords is like a word auction. You can place your bet but you want to make sure you have got a high quality website to sell.

Some Google Ads have images, which I imagine could boost the quality score.

Week 2 Analytics and KPIs

2010-04-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

One area of internet marketing that I find the most interesting is analytics. Coming from a scientific background, I like to measure and look at statistics. I like to fit data to models. Learning about how website hits are counted and miscounted by under- and over-representing the data is interesting.

I started looking at websites three months ago with Alexa, an Amazon owned company, and graduated to using Quantcast, which I find much more specific. We discussed these in class this week. Tt was interesting to hear that Alexa is less accurate. I have a friend who works for SPSS, a statistics company involved in this area. SPSS was recently bought out by IBM. He works in the area of telephony. I am interested in asking my friend if he can predict an outbreak of flu.

KPIs, key performance indicators, tell you how many people you convert to customers. If I invited 100 people to view my site and 30 people visited but only 5 people joined that tells you the conversion rate.

It was interesting to hear that webmasters tend to be males of a certain age.

One new word I learned was meme. A meme is a viral idea like a story that becomes part of the culture and has an almost cult-like following. Apparently the kid who smashed the iPad is trying to reach meme status.

One of the new places I've started exploring on the internet is Quibblo. By the looks of it this could be one of the new places that young people hang out to escape the grandmas on Facebook (for me everyone new that wants to be my friend is an older relative). I created a quiz and one of the last questions was,"Do you want to attend a Taylor Swift concert?"

Some interesting articles on teenagers and social media can be found. I want to follow what teens do because I know that they'll find something interesting and hopefully it is more cool than smashing an iPad:

What I learned this week is the growth rate of Twitter. I had attempted to use Twitter a while ago but did not understand it. After hearing Amber Mac's talk I understood that using Twitter takes time. I've started using Twitter again. This time with a different approach. I still wonder how they make money.

I don't have to read all the tweets. It is not email.
I will follow "famous" people and websites and blogs first.

So far I've found that as I follow people the number of people who follow me grows. What is cool is that I get to see people like Rick Bayless show the dishes he plans to serve at Frontera Grill before it happens. And maybe it isn't him that does the posting (it seems like it is) but it makes you feel more connected on a direct level and feel the "pulse" of what is happening out there. To get started I recommend Tweet Top.

Week 1 Internet and Interactive Marketing

2010-04-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

Interesting technical topics that expanded my horizons of internet marketing this week included:

1) Flash is not supported by the iPhone or any touch device

2) PHP is used instead of HTML for dynamic websites

3) Drupal can be used to allow anyone to have access to modify your website

4) the more external links you have to your website the more probable that Google’s SEO might find your webpage.

The topic of Flash has also come up in my web development class at Harper College. Flash on a website may limit the number of people who can view your site. If the user has to download an application they might move on to where they can get the information faster.

Interested in learning more, I did a search on what might replace Flash and found “The Future of Web Content – HTML5, Flash & Mobile Apps.”

One shift in the technical environment is that the number of mobile device platforms has increased. Flash covers 75% of the market share for online video but has we know the iPhone does not support it. This means that approximately 10M people cannot view flash on their iPhone. Politics, audience bias and not technical issue drive the battle between Apple, Google and Adobe. Each company has their favorites. One of the potential replacements for Flash is HTML5, which seems to align well with Google. HTML5 would allow a common video format.

Functionality of HTML5 and customer reach will depend on the browser you use. As we saw in class, the market share covered by each browser is constantly changing. However, part of the problem with removing Flash is that it is embedded in the infrastructure of many websites. It is like changing from oil to biofuels. It takes time to build a new distribution system. But ultimately it will boil to what the customer wants. The answer, in reality, may not be black and white but shades of gray.

In addition to the lecture portion of the class, I learned from one of my classmates that most companies do not make their website accessible to users with disabilities. It is an unwanted added cost of development. Perhaps this is the difference between academia and the working world. If the market share of customers with disabilities were large enough, I am sure the website would be accessible. The common theme seems to be that technology and marketing must go hand in hand, determining the target customer is important, as it determines what channels you will use to reach them. Investigating customer behavior first may heavily influence the type of technology you use.

Green NPV outweighs Finance NPV: Water Efficient Toilet Replacing Decision

2009-11-13T03:39:00.000-08:00

My first finance course has given me to power to make decisions based on facts. During the time of recession that we are in, many of us are doing home upgrades. To convince my husband to upgrade our toilets I've planned to impress him with this NPV calculation (he loves finance). When we make our choices, increasingly we are including green in the picture. What I have learned about finance has given me the synergistic power of quantifying a green decision. In finance you learn about Net Present Value or NPV. NPV gives you the power to make a financial decision based on the future cash flow. If NPV is positive you will make money and you choose the decision. If it is negative you do not pick it. We can apply this financial principle to carbon flow as well. What do I mean by carbon flow? I mean the carbon inflow and outflow required to produce and distribute any product or service.

When you consider any decision you should also consider not only the financial NPV but NPV of carbon flows or the life cycle analysis, LCA flows. Expressed in an equation total NPV = NPVfinancial + NPVcarbon. One example I will give you is, the decision to replace all the toilets in your house with water efficient toilets.
If we look at the LCA flow of the old and new toilets we have:

NPVLCA = benefit for years – cost in the first year

If this is positive we replace the toilet depending on the financial reasons

= increased water efficiency – (energy required to make the ceramic toilet + transportation of toilet)

It is assumed that ceramic would be an approximation for cement and that an average toilet weighs 75 pounds. Water savings would be 68%. The average household uses 238 gallons of water per day[6] or 87,000 a year. Savings would be 59,000 gallons of water. How much carbon or energy does it take to make 59,000 gallons? The amount of carbon saved is per 80,000 year. One question I have is what to use for the discount rate and over how many years? We can assume forever. The discount rate would be equal to the rate that carbon emissions are increasing each year, which is currently 2.5%[9], oddly enough approaching about the same rate of inflation.

Because carbon is the universal metric we convert all quantities back to NPVcarbon
NPVLCA = NPVcarbon = carbon factor H20 – carbon factor ceramic + carbon factor transportation

NPV(year 1)= 80,000 tons saved every year - [(1 t C/t cement)(0.034) + 3 ton C/ton gasoline]yr 1

= (80,000/0.025) – 3.034 = 2.4 million tons carbon

2.4 million tons of carbon can be saved by replacing one toilet that is more water efficient over the lifetime of the toilet.

The financial NPV is
NPVfinancial= benefit – cost

= savings on water bill forever– cost to replace toilet

= (25/0.03)-(500) = 833 – 500 = 333

If you saved $25 a year by changing the toilet the benefit outweighs the cost in NPV terms by $333.

Looking at the combined effect of financial and carbon flows, overwhelming the answer to replacing your toilet with a water efficient toilet is a resounding yes for greens all around.

One thing to note about this calculation is how easy the financial NPV is to calculate, but how much more complex a carbon NPV is to determine. Many assumptions and approximations might have to be made. What is powerful about this calculation is that the environmental effect of replacing one toilet has such a huge impact relative to the financial impact.

1. http://www.survivalinsight.com/reduce-water-bill-costs.html
2. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006032214497
3. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B873D-4P9MYFN-BK/2/c58323fdf4cbc244856fe80c96447f44
4. http://www.ghgprotocol.org/downloads/calcs/co2-mobile.pdf
5. http://www.crd.bc.ca/water/conservation/household/indoorsavingtips.htm
6. http://www.greenbuildingsupply.com/Public/Energy-WaterConservation/WatersavingToilets/CaromaDualFlushToilet/index.cfm
7. http://www.epa.gov/waterinfrastructure/bettermanagement_energy.html#basicone
8. http://www.epa.gov/watersense/
9. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061130190831.htm
10. http://www.greenandsave.com/remodeling/bathrooms/water_efficient_toilets.html

On Crossing Over From Science to Business

2009-11-05T08:07:00.000-08:00

I am half way finished with an MBA at DePaul, and the question of what ares of science/chemistry are most similar to business is becoming clearer. I've all but finished my required courses, and I'm down to the six electives and the one or two concentrations that I've chosen. I've chosen finance as my concentration and most likely entrepreneurship, but I'm still intrigued by marketing.

What makes the decision hard is that I am uncertain what part of my past life as a scientist will lead me to a future in the business world. In the past it has always been technical skills that got me a job and not so much my people connections. The challenge I find is in marketing myself and breaking away from the scientist stereotype - something that I would like to make my strength and not my weakness (people tend to see me as only a scientist). My short term goal is to transition to marketing or operations management in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry where I have the most experience.

I've taken accounting, business statistics, organizational behavior, economics, management of information systems, operations management and now finance and marketing. The classes I find more reminiscent of "chemistry skills" are finance, marketing and operations management.

I'll first describe the disciplines of chemistry and then follow up with business and how they are related. In chemistry there are the basic disciplines of general, organic, analytical, physical and inorganic chemistry. Generally, the most jobs in industry go to organic and analytical chemistry. Organic chemistry has to do with the study of chemical reactions of compounds consisting mostly of carbon and hydrogen. If you are a strategic thinker and can apply rules, you'll be good at organic chemistry. It also has a lot to do with geometry and shape. Inorganic chemistry has many parallels as well with organic, but the chemical compounds contain a metal. Analytical and physical chemistry have more to do with analyzing and fitting chemical behavior to models. Quantifying and predicting are important. Building equipment and writing computer code can also come in to play.

Of the business courses I've taken I would divide them in to organizing/categorizing/efficiency, forecasting/predicting, organizing people/communication skills, analyzing/quantifying/research

Functional Skill	Business	Chemistry
organizing/categorizing/efficiency	Accounting, Ops Management	Organic, rxn type, % yield
forecasting/predicting	Economics, Finance	Physical
organizing people/communication	Organizational Behavior, HR	N/A
analyzing/quantifying/research	Finance, Marketing	Analytical, Physical Research applies to all

A person can over analyze decision making when it comes to careers. What it really boils down to is are you passionate and motivated about the path you've chosen. If you have these elements when you inevitably hit a stumbling block, you can keep going. If we could all forecast the future then that would be boring. For me, I'll be gathering information until the very last minute and then make the best choice possible.

Calculation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the Internet are Not Equivalent

2008-05-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

Calculation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the Internet are Not Equivalent

By Wanda K. Hartmann

Recently, my husband asked me how greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions are calculated. My husband’s argument is, how accurate are these numbers and what are the approximations and estimations? What can we believe? Plato once said that “Science is nothing but perception.” In the case of measuring GHGs this is probably true. GHGs seem like a back of the envelope calculation, but measuring GHGs are really about measuring human activity. In contrast to plants that rely on photosynthesis and taking CO₂ and turning it in to O₂, we humans rely on respiration; our activity is based on producing CO₂and related gases from byproducts.

As a chemist, my first guess on measuring GHGs is that they are calculated from the amount of energy and fuel that is used by a person or a company. When you consider that companies and individuals invest money in carbon offsets, a highly accountable system of checks and balances should be in place, as well as a system and method of standards. The Nature Conservancy is one company that offers a plan where carbon offsets can be purchased.

I set out to answer this question and found the EPA, Nature Conservancy and AOL sites

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html
http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/
http://reference.aol.com/planet-earth/global-warming/calculator

The EPA site considers mainly fuel and energy for calculating GHGs. However, the Nature Conservancy site also includes things such as air travel, composting waste and diet. A meat eater’s diet contributes 3.6 tons of CO₂/yr vs. vegetarianism at -6.4 tons of CO₂/yr. Eating organic and composing unused food can help a bit. 20% of GHG production according to the Nature Conservancy is from food and eating (12 tons). The sum total of my house hold activity on the Nature Conservancy site was 43 tons compared to 20 tons (40089 pounds) on the EPA site. If you subtract out food the Nature Conservancy value is still 31 tons compared to the EPA. There is another 10 tons of difference to be accounted for. In looking at the individual numbers, the Natural Conservancy differs from EPA by twofold larger numbers on waste and recycling, 10 times larger estimates on home energy (heat and electricity) and is 40% less on the estimate for the car emissions.

Table 1. Household emissions for two people

	EPA Pounds of CO₂/yr	Nature Conservancy	AOL
Household emissions	Pounds	Pounds (tons)	Pounds
Car	13519	5403(2.7)	15145
Natural Gas – heat	6802	64000(32)	8469
Electricity	18577		20573
Waste	2036	4800(2.4)
Recycling	-875	-2000 (-1)	-940
Composting		-400 (-0.2)
Air Travel (4 short flights)		2800(1.4)
Food		16200(8.1)
Eating Meat		7200(3.6)
Total	40089	86-98000	40282

When it comes to recycling EPA gives a 845 pound CO₂ credit for recycling. The Nature Conservancy gives -1 ton or -2000 of CO₂. The credit given to by the Nature Conservancy is double.

EPA Results

What I found from fueleconomy.com is that my Honda Accord 1997 puts out about 7.1 tons of CO₂ in a year. My husband’s Passat emits 8.0 tons of CO₂ in a year. For comparison the 2008 Prius puts out about 4.0 tons of CO₂ a year. Our home energy bill breaks down into heat and gas. GHG are estimated from the average monthly bills. The final aspect is waste. Recycling can offset GHG emissions by as much as 50% if you recycle. Our total emissions are 40,089 pounds of carbon a year (1 ton = 2000 pounds,) which is close to the average amount.

We can improve on emission most by buying an energy efficient water heater and replacing the windows in our house. If we do this we will save nearly 15-20% of our household emissions. The most interesting fact I found is that most of our GHG emissions come from using electricity by the EPA calcuations. If we had photovoltaic solar panels we might be able to improve upon that. In addition we could buy a car with better gas mileage and save another 4 tones of CO₂a year or 8000 pounds a year.

Summary

When it comes to estimating automobile emissions EPA seems to be the most accurate as it considers the year of the vehicle. Of the three GHG online calculations EPA and AOL are in close agreement but still off by about 2000 pounds from each other. The Nature Conservancy numbers seem to be way off from the EPA and AOL numbers (conversion 1 ton = 2000 pounds). The home energy number of 32 tons or 64,000 from the Nature Conservancy seems to be far off from the other EPA and AOL numbers, although the Nature Conservancy brings up a good point with food and eating meat as a part of the GHG gas equation. If I considered buying carbon offsets I would serious reconsider after looking at these numbers. Some numbers are way off. The EPA bases the emissions on monthly energy bills. The Nature Conservancy bases these numbers data from geographical regions, which in my opinion may have more error. The next part in this series will discuss corporation based GHG calculations.

2008-03-17T20:22:00.000-07:00

Genetic Testing Becoming the Norm

By Wanda K. Hartmann, Freelance Science Writer

Genetic testing is becoming commonplace. With the advent of new genetic testing companies, what does the future hold for diagnostic testing? Many Direct-to-Customer (DTC) genetics testing companies offer mail-in saliva test kits, similar to the first mail-in AIDS tests offered in 1986. Companies such as 23andme and Navigenics are offering a DTC tests for SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms), single mutations on the DNA backbone that may be linked to certain diseases. In addition, genetic tests for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are coming on the market – offered by Psychnomics and SureGene, respectively. Other tests for Alzheimer’s may be coming as well. However, the tests do not offer 100% predictability. How will these future tests, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and the interaction with patients, DTC genomics testing and healthcare providers come into play? Will genetic tests become as routine as blood tests?

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
An important bill was passed last year, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2007. In many ways, this bill opened the door for mass production of genetic testing, as it outlawed discrimination against individuals by health insurance companies and employers. This law grows out of the early sterilization laws in 1907-1981 that protected persons with genetic defects. Sickle cell anemia was one genetic disease that threatened discrimination against African Americans. One example of pre-employment genetic screening and discrimination was used at Lawrence Berkeley laboratory in California. This case resulted in a decision in favor of the employee. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act has helped to protect the public from genetic discrimination and aims to allow consumers access to genetic testing and early detection of disease.

One SNP or the Whole Genome?
DTC genomic testing companies are not only offering a test for a single gene, but claim to be selling tests for a personal genome. In early 2007, the company 23andme started a new company based on a “personal genome web-based service.” The company was started by executives of pioneering companies in gene testing. Similarly, Navigenics offers, a “gene roadmap to health.” Curious about their services, in particular the issue of privacy of genetic information, I read their websites and contacted Navigenics. From the website information and response, it seemed that the customer service and privacy was of more concern to Navigenics than 23andme. Genome testing companies will gain power when they control genomic data. What rights does an individual have to their genome data files once they have mailed in their saliva? The temptation for genome knowledge and the long term exposure of an individual’s genome for information exchange is indeed both intriguing and worrisome. How much power do we place in the hands of the DTC genetics companies? What happens when these companies are bought out by others or change hands? How will policies change? The government can only control and protect the consumer to a certain extent. Eventually these genomic companies might be outsourced to other countries.

Mail Order Genome Test Results
As a doctor or health professional, how does one respond when a patent enters the office with a genetic test purchased through a mail-in saliva kit? What is the percentage error in these tests? How will the results be interpreted? Will the field of genetic counseling experience a huge growth? Speaking with a genetic counselor by phone or email in another state and eventually country is very impersonal. The NIH Genome 2004 study indicated that the risk of misinformation is not adequately transmitted and understood in DTC tests. Marketing on the internet leaves out the healthcare provider, a risky move, and leaves the burden on government agencies to oversee DTC testing.

Amniocentisis: The Most Frequently Used Test
In looking for the origins of genetic testing we should look to the most familiar genetic test, an amniocentesis. An amniocentesis is performed to check primarily for Down Syndrome and Cystic Fibrosis in pregnant women of advanced maternal age. The first genetic diagnosis of amniotic fluid was made in 1956 and published in the journal Nature. In 1968, Dr. Carlo Valenti made the first diagnosis of Downs Syndrome with a genetic test. Amniocentesis is regularly used as a genetic test in pregnancy. The results of this test have a profound impact on the mother. Care is taken to have appropriate genetic counseling available. The mental health aspect of finding out that you have a life threatening illness is just as important as finding out about a physical disease. Physical diseases that have been linked to genetic markers and tests are listed here:

Company
Year Genes Tested Disease

Myriad Genetics
2002 BRCA1 and BRCA2 Breast and ovarian cancer
2001 P16, CDKN2A or INK4A or MTS1 Melanoma
2000 MYH, MLH1 or MSH2, APC Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colon Cancer

Genzyme
2006 KRAS Non-small cell lung cancer
2006 CFTR Cystic Fibrosis
1999 nMLHI and hMSH2 Colon Cancer

deCODE
2007 TCF7L2 Type 2 diabetes
2007 PDE4D Stroke

Myriad, Genzyme and deCODE are three companies that have been developing genetic tests and have tests on the market for specific diseases. The company deCODE plans to enter the personal genome market and compete with 23andme and Navigenics. What does this mean for the patient/consumer and healthcare provider?

It means that not all tests are created the same. Different genetic tests will be looking for different genes, combinations of genes and gene linkages, possibly using slightly different technologies, with different variations in error. They will make judgments about different risk factors—how likely are you to develop the condition. Another factor is other non-genetic diagnostics tools that may either refute or support the genetic test. When it comes to a person’s health, a single test should not be the only predictor of disease, if there are other diagnostic tests available.

Advances in colon cancer cure rates alone are making it possible to receive diagnostic testing that is less painful and more technologically advanced. If you believe that you are at risk for a certain disease and have part of your genome tested, how will you follow up the genetic tests with other diagnostic tests? Would you change your lifestyle to minimize the risk? How might this change your life expectancy?

How Does a Patient Make Decisions Based on Genetic History and Tests?
Imagine you are one of 5-10% of the population with a family history of colon cancer. You make the decision to get a genetic blood test at age 39. There is a 1% chance that you will test positive for colon cancer at that early age. As you know you are already at risk, you might change your personal habits or diet. If the test came back negative, does it mean you are not at risk? No. There is error associated with the test and possible future environmental triggers. If the test came back positive you might be more cautious and agree to have a colonoscopy. Making these decisions in the absence of a doctor is not sound.

On the other hand, there are other diseases that have no other tests but genetic ones available. Many of these tests are for mental diseases. In the case of Alzheimer’s, only 25% of the cases are hereditary. Currently the NIH recommends against genetic testing for Alzheimer’s. There is not enough reliable data to make the test worthwhile. It is unclear how genetic testing will help.
Genetic testing is not a magic bullet, but advances in knowledge about gene linkages are important for the healthcare provider. Although there are tests available for many diseases (cancer, stroke, melanoma, cystic fibrosis and type-2 diabetes), many gene tests for diseases do not provide clear-cut answers. A Parkinson’s gene has been discovered in 20% of the people of Middle East origin. Genetics may only add a small increment of information to what we may already know – a sight predisposition to Parkinson’s.

In order to be an informed customer of the DTC genomics companies, a patient would need to start with a Ph.D. in genetics to understand what is being testing for. It is unclear what markers are included in genome testing and whether or not are they are true predictors in diagnosing disease. Many consumers may think they are getting their entire genome mapped, when in reality the test is only a portion of it. The cost and technology to date limit testing the genome for only a specific set of gene mutations. The cost of an entire genome map is prohibitively expensive for the average consumer.

Although it seems that the goal of DTC is to put power in the hands of the patient/consumer, in the process, the healthcare provider is potentially being left out. Patients need counseling both before and after they receive this test. Many people will receive counseling by phone or internet, not a high quality medium for healthcare services. This is a risky path to take. It places the burden on the uninformed patient. Knowledge can be powerful, but how does the knowledge of one’s genome change a life? When a genetic test for any disease becomes as easy as mailing in a test tube filled with salvia, it diminishes the importance of our lives and reliance on the medical field and a team of healthcare providers to guide us in important decision making.

Gene tests, counseling, and education of the general public on the matter of genetics has a long way to go. The science and biotechnology of genomic testing will only improve and become more affordable in the future.

2008-03-04T16:57:00.000-08:00

The High Tech Way to Find Lead in Toys

The story on lead in toys had seemingly gone away, but today on NPR it resurfaced again. The Consumer Products Safety Commission has plans to increase regulations on consumer products such as toys. Until the safety issues with toys are cleared up, companies will be continued to be penalized for any lack of vigilance.

Curious about the current state of research and testing toys, I looked into high tech, rapid and accurate ways that lead can be tested for in metal and plastic.

Initial investigation led to the discovery that many do-it-at-home kits that test for lead available at home improvement stores are not accurate. As stated in an NPR story in December there are a few kits that test for lead on the surface of toys, but not embedded lead. These tests are not recommended by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The best test for imbedded lead is state-of-the-art, fast and portable XRF. XRF is shorthand for X-ray fluorescence. X-ray is the type of radiation that we are familiar with when have our teeth X-rayed by a dentist. It is a high energy form of light and part of what scientists call the electromagnetic spectrum and not visible by eye. Fluorescence, on the other hand is visible light that is emitted when light interacts with an atom’s electrons making them energetically excited. In this excited state light is emitted and the electron returns to its normal state. The emitted light is fluorescence. The fluorescence wavelengths are characteristic to the identity of the atom or molecule.

XRF is a device that uses X-ray light to produce fluorescence from an atom or molecule. In the case of toys, X-ray light excites the electrons in lead and will emit specific colors of fluorescence that are a fingerprint for identifying that atom. XRF not only gives information about the surface of the toy but also what lead contaminants might be hidden below the surface. Much like how an X-ray can penetrate the surface of your tooth to find a cavity, lead fluorescence is extremely specific for identification and penetrates below the surface of the toy.

Although XRF may be out of reach to the average consumer, these hand-held devices are very useful for field work, in factories and to toy companies themselves for testing products for toxic metals and chemicals. In the hands of the skilled scientist, XRF can give detailed information about what metals are present in a toy or other product. With high tech tools like this available on the market, the testing of lead in toys should become more facile and their use more widespread.

References:

VW Competing for Green Car Market

2008-02-29T07:11:00.000-08:00

New VW Golf has lower CO₂ emissions than Prius or Civic.

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/02/vw-unveiling-an.html

Advancing Food Testing with Nanotechnology

2008-02-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

In recent years food and consumer testing has been in the news. Recalls of spinach, lettuce, toys and pet food are some examples. Contamination of consumer products can be by microbes or chemicals. The speed of testing and other advances in technology are areas of improvement, but the price of the test is the ultimate determinate for utilization. When all aspects of testing are optimized the consumer will see a tremendous leap in the ability to identify contaminated products and recalls will be issued faster.

My interest in food testing was piqued when I attended the Illinois Biotechnology Organization (iBIO) IndEx, a yearly meeting and summit, a forum for discussing advances in the field of biotechnology held in Chicago, IL.

In the session on food safety and testing, one panelist had stated the state of advancement in the area of food testing. “Food testing and safety are still in the times of Louis Pasteur.”

Realizing that advances in biomedicine can be translated to other fields of science, I asked the question, “How can advances in nanotechnology and biomedicine translate to food testing?” One example is how nanotechnology can link DNA to link to a nanoparticle – a feat that took DNA testing to a new level beyond the practice of using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This type of nanotechnology can be applied to food testing by using the complimentary DNA of microorganisms to test for their presence.

The general answer from the panel to my question was that food is a complex matrix to test for microbes with nanotechnology. The quantity of DNA analyte is very small compared to the sample size in many cases. Blood and other biological fluids afford a more facile mechanism for nanotechnology DNA testing.

Since this meeting I found a relevant article.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070722210647.htm
Microbiology Today (2007, July 26). Developing Nanotechnology To Test Food Quality.

Original article: http://www.socgenmicrobiol.org.uk/pubs/micro_today/pdf/080703.pdf

This article describes new advances in food testing based on nanotechnology, where a cantilever is coated with antibodies specific for microbes. The arm on the cantilever is capable of sensing a 1 nm deflection.

This advance is very innovative:

“The lid device could be included in food packaging since it requires no external energy and is cheap to make. When a food is infected, the control unit in the plastic wrapping becomes coloured. Thus a simple colour indicator can show the quality of the food.”

2007-11-28T10:31:00.001-08:00

Can a DNA test tell you how you will live and die?

2007-11-27T09:37:00.000-08:00

The latest issue of Wired has a shocking statement - a $1000 DNA test will tell you how you'll live and die? Do you believe it?

http://www.wired.com/wired/