Projects and Exercises

Project 1: What Happened to That Trend?

Choose one of the major e-commerce trends identified in Table 1.1 on page 15 and find a current article that relates to your choice. What insight can you derive from the article with respect to the trend? Prepare a short report or presentation summarizing your findings.

Project 2: Make It Your Own

Review the section on personalization/customization on page 20 and then find two websites that employ personalization or customization techniques. In what ways do the sites use these techniques? Prepare a short report or presentation summarizing your findings.

Project 3: Reddit

Visit Reddit.com. What Web 2.0 applications and techniques does Reddit use? Prepare a short report or presentation summarizing your findings.

Project 4: What Can Yahoo Learn About You?

Review Insight on Society: Online Privacy: Facebook and the Age of Privacy on pages 40–41, and in particular, the types of personal data that Facebook collects. Then visit Yahoo!, and try to identify what information Yahoo can collect via its various online offerings. Prepare a short report or presentation summarizing your findings.

Project 5: Assessing the Graduates

Review Insight on Business: Y Combinator’s Startup Boot Camp on pages 33–34. Then go online and pick a company mentioned in the case or find another Y Combinator-supported company of your choosing, and find out more about how that company has progressed since "graduating." Is the company publicly traded and if so, are their financials strong? If not, are they expected to go public soon? Describe the company’s business model, audience size, and growth prospects, and explain why the company would have been a good fit for an incubator like Y Combinator.