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According to author Golić (2013), crowdfunding is when small or medium sized enterprises use social media to recruit funds for their businesses. It is easier for them to look for a lot of people who are willing to invest in their business, than looking for one or two investors. This is because many people investing smaller amounts of money is somehow easier than finding one investor who is willing to invest a large sum of money. Sometimes people invest in small businesses because they like the idea of the business, and other times they invest because they get something in return. The growth of the Internet and social media platforms have made it easier for small business to ask for money because they can use their platforms to ask for contributions. Golić (2013) provides a great explanation of how crowdfunding works, she explains that it consists of three actors, namely the business, the crowdfunder, and an intermediary. The business (or person) is the entity that is asking for contributions and the crowdfunder is the person who is willing to give some money. The intermediary is the form of communication that they use to communicate with each other. This is most often used through the Internet. People can either use crowdfunding websites, or their social media platforms. Golić (2013) gives the example of SellaBand, which is website where bands can upload their music and then people can donate money if they enjoy them, this helps startup bands get on their feet.

A really interesting article by Wells (2014) talks about what crowdfunding is being used for today. She tells different stories of people who have used crowdfunding websites to raise money for different reasons. What is striking is that it is no longer used solely by businesses that want to fund a project/idea/service. Now, on the other hand, individual people can use crowdfunding websites to pay for their personal things as well. For example, Vania Chan wanted to go to circus school but did not have the money to pay it, so she decided to ask people to fund it for her. Another scenario was a couple who did not have enough money to go on a honeymoon after their wedding, so they decided to ask their guests to help them raise $9,000 for their trip instead of giving them actual gifts. In this case many people still bought them physical gifts because they found the request very strange. A 55-year old woman who had just lost her job also made use of crowdfunding as she wanted to go on vacation to Italy. Thus, people nowadays use crowdfunding to pay for their own leisure items. In some cases they raise enough money, the 55-year old, for example, was able to go on her trip to Italy. The article is very interesting, but the comments show that there are many people who think this is wrong. One person even said that people should do things if they don’t have enough money for it.

What do you think? Do you think people are misusing crowdfunding? Do you think it should be kept to only funding actual products and ideas? Or is it normal that people ask for money for their personal use?

References:

Golić, Z. (2013). Advantages of crowdfunding as an alternative source of financing of small and medium-sized enterprises. Proceedings of the Faculty of Economics of East Sarajevo, 8, 39-48. doi: 10.7251/ZREFIS1408039G

Wells, C. (2014, Oct 22). People Are Using Crowdfunding Sites to Pay for Overseas Travel, Classes. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/articles/people-are-using-crowdfunding-sites-to-pay-for-overseas-travel-classes-1413997556

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In April 2014, security researchers found a flaw in OpenSSL. OpenSSL is an open source toolkit used by many websites. SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer, and (ironically) was created to prevent hackers from finding users personal information. In short, OpenSSL is basically a “project that was started to encrypt websites and user information across the web” (Richardson, 2014). So this is used by many big websites to help users keep their information safe. Not only is it supposed to protect their information but it is also put in place to protect what they communicate through these websites and what they upload as well. Still, hackers found a way to get into this, and today this hack is known as Heartbleed. You may be familiar with this if you have Facebook, Google, Dropbox, or Yahoo, because most of these platforms sent out a mail to let their users know about this threat and also advised them to change their passwords so that they would not be affected. Heartbleed was a flaw in OpenSSL that allowed hackers to find encrypted information. This means that they can potentially have access to passwords, usernames, and even credit card information. After having found this flaw, OpenSSL published a new version of their software in order to make it more secure, but still, the damage had been done.

Heartbleed was a very good example of how open source can go very wrong. If the mistake had been made, but the software was not open to any and all people, then nothing would have happened. Big companies such as Facebook and Google should have more control over their encryption systems and should keep this much more private than they do now.

What do you think about this? Were you aware of Heartbleed and did you do something about it? What’s your opinion on OpenSSL?

References:

Richardson, D. (2014, April 19). Heartbleed bug: What is it? Who is handling our security?. Inferse. Retrieved from http://www.inferse.com/14435/heartbleed-bug-handling-security/

Russel, K. (2014, April 8). Here’s how to protect yourself from the massive security flaw that’s taken over the internet. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/heartbleed-bug-explainer-2014-4

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On September 9th, 2014 the world waited as Apple was prepared to host their annual event. Every year, consumers are told about the newest Apple products that will come on the market, the most important almost always being the design of the new iPhone. This year was no different, consumers knew that there would be an improved iPhone coming, and they were right. Apple introduced not one, but two new iPhones, namely the 6 and the 6 Plus. The phones had a very different appearance than the iPhone 5; exhibiting a much longer but thinner body. Aside from that there were also many new features such as a better and bigger Retina Display, increased battery life, and improved Camera. The first week following the new phones released brought on some bad publicity for Apple due to some users who claimed their phones “bent”. Still, statistics show that this did not hurt their sales as they still managed to sell over 10 million iPhones shortly after its release (Jones, 2014). Why is Apple so successful and what keeps it successful despite the negative influence it sometimes receives?

Aral and Walker (2011) discuss social influence and explain that this happens when customers share their experiences with their peers. This is really the best way to spread the word about a product or brand. The authors also argue that the key to social influence is having a “different” feature in their products. With Apple though, I feel that it’s successful simply because it is “an Apple product”. Apple consumers do not really discuss the great features of Apple, but are more concerned with the aesthetics of the products. Therefore Apple’s social influence becomes somewhat different from what is discussed by Aral and Walker (2011). There is no one feature or viral feature of Apple that makes it great; it is the brand itself that has a big influence on its consumers.
Apple makes their products not necessarily for the individual consumer, but for the consumers’ peers. To explain this statement, we will need to go back to when the Apple logo on Macbooks were upside down.

There was a time when the Apple logo faced its user when the laptop was closed. Steve Jobs felt that it was more important for the user to see the logo upright than the user’s peers. But over time, this changed. Jobs realized that is was more important for the people surrounding the user to see the logo (Bell, 2012). Thus, the social influence that Apple has doesn’t come solely through word-of-mouth or sharing of opinions on the products, a big part of it comes from simply having an Apple device and using it next to your peers.

This Jimmy Kimmel video will show the influence of the Apple Logo.

What do you think makes Apple so successful? Do you have an Apple product, and why did you decided to get (or not get) it?

References:

Aral, S., &Walker, D. (2011). Creating social contagion through viral product design: A randomized trial of peer influence in networks. Management Science, 57(9), 1623-1639. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1110.1421

Bell, K. (2012, May 21). The Upside Down Apple Logo: A Steve Jobs Mistake. Cult Of Mac. Retrieved from http://www.cultofmac.com/168377/the-upside-down-apple-logo-a-steve-jobs-mistake/

Jones, C. (2014, Sep 22). Tim Cook Does It Again With Over 10 Million iPhone Sales. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2014/09/22/tim-cook-does-it-again-with-over-10-million-iphone-6-sales/