Networks and the Economic

Week Four's reading (21 - 25 August 2011):

Bradwell, P., and Reeves, R. (2008) Economies. In Networked Citizens (pp. 25-31). London: Demos. [ URL: http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Network%20citizens%20-%20web.pdf ]



Online shopping is getting popular in 2000s. It stimulates the growth of economy too.

Krishna Pandey, (2011). Need A Key For The Smart Shopper? Start Online! [online] findshop4u blog. [ URL: http://findshop4u.blogspot.com/2011/06/need-key-for-smart-shopper-start-online.html ]
[Image retrieved on 23th August 2011]

"Two of the key changes to the economy and labour market, which alongside the technologies, have put social networks at the heart of organizational thinking. They have done so because they are changes that put collaboration and interdependence at the heart of business practice", quoted from the above article. 

Using networks to do businesses is required to have knowledge and skills because all the services available online need certain knowledge and skills to operate, such as knowledge on using search engine and uploading an information. For example, there are several to search information by using search engines which included boolean, ask question. Networks could be a useful tool for economic if the employees are been taught with all the needed skills. 

Moreover, networks change the ways we do businesses, interactions between organizations and individuals, and also the communications between employees and the employers. For example, we are not only use Facebook to communicate, expand our social network but we could use it to do promotion, advertising, and even transaction can be deal via Facebook. There are many organizations use Facebook to contact their customers and consumers. Networks and the technologies allow commerces to take place through online and they stimulate the improvement the economy and society of one country. According to the reading article, it said that businesses started to adapt the way social networks function and are using social networks as tools which have advantage of the connections. Thus, we believe social networks could help to increase business sales, launch promotion, and implement other marketing purposes.

In addition, "Technology is only part of the answer to why it is that networks have remained in such sharp focus, and have occupied thinking around work and businesses." Networks are widely use by all of us in nowadays. I should say networks are getting wider and popular since 2000s. It is because the improvement of technologies. We have to use the technologies to "show" we are updated and not to be left behind from the networks. Many technologies are available through out the networks such as Facebook and instant messaging. For example, we have discussed this before: Facebook created on 2004 but the active users increased rapidly on few years later. Since the growth of Facebook's active users are great, it means many people are on Facebook therefore, there are possible to get another new business market through Facebook and organizations started to use Facebook to target certain group of people. 

Next, the article also discusses networks are the alternative platforms to do businesses instead of spending a significant amount and this made the networks exist for economic or transaction purposes. The author believed that networks could improve the economy status in terms of productivity. It is because networks are fulled with various information, knowledge, and it also enable to store organizations' details or transactions records. Thus, an organization need not to spend extra cost for information and certain services. Furthermore, those sub products, services, or technologies that provided by certain organizations could ease the employees to do work with more resources. For example, Google itself have Gmail, Blogger, and even operating system for mobile phone. All these services allow employees to do multitasking by using Google only.



There are many sites such as Google, Facebook, allow us to do multitasking to save cost and time. One of the popular online shopping site is ebay.com.

mengmei, (2011). The Virtual Revolution. [online] a girl's business blog [ URL: http://www.agirlsbusiness.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/the-virtual-revolution/ ] 
[Image retrieved on 23th August 2011] 

On the other hand, networks affect the economic but also one's lifestyle. The decisions for an individual to make a purchase could be showed within the networks and might be influenced while making the particular decision. It refers to networks provide sociability, we communicate and interact with different people from worldwide and we might get cultural influenced. Then, our buying habits and living standards could change and these changes would reshape the business opportunity in the whole world.The article did provide a good example for it: "Our decisions to buy different brands of coffee can resonate and affect living standards in coffee-growing areas across the world."


In conclusion, networks could affect everyone across the world and also our economy. The article provided a survey result which is conducted by the Creative Group of marketing and advertising executives in the US and found out 57 per cent believe it is permissible for employees to browse non-workrelated websites during business hours. This proves employees would use networks to do other tasks such as online shopping, social networking at workplace and we believe networks are not only for work but also commerce, social, education, entertainment, and many  more. It is crucial for organizations use networks to expand their businesses since networks are widely use by different ranges of people across the world. Last, the growth of online shopping in recent is a good example to see how commerce can take place within networks. The invisible cyberspace networks provide lots of business opportunities and help to boost the economic standards.

Let's listen to professional discussions on the impact of Internet.
TheSpbForum, (2011). Google's Eric Schmidt discusses the internet's impact on social and economic development 4/5. [online] youtube [ URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1PjkHGfNPg ]
[Video retrieved on 23th August 2011]