donderdag 28 april 2011

Interview with dr. J. Schilperoord !

On the 29th of March, together with my BIT class group, I’ve interviewed dr. J. Schilperoord about his current and coming research. Topics discussed are ‘the law of proximity and similarity’ and ‘symmetric object alignment’. These terms would probably make your head spin right now! But will be made quite clear and understandable after watching our interview.
The interview was held @ the university of Tilburg. For this project, all of us had different task to make this video run smooth. Mine was producer, so I planned the whole interview, booked the location and co-wrote the story-board with the director (Martine). You can visit Martine’s blog @ http://martine87.blogspot.com/ Other groupmembers who made this video possible are: Sandra (who interviewed), Remco (camdude) and Rik (editmaster!).
This way I would like to thank Joost again for his cooperation with this interview! And hope that our video may be a pleasant surprised to him.


maandag 25 april 2011

The Value of Understanding Communication Theory

Why should you know something about communication and the theory behind it? In addition to fostering critical thinking skills, being a student of communication theory will help you appreciate the richness of research across various fields of study.

Understanding communication theory also helps you make sense of your life experiences. Communication theory aids you in understanding people, media, and events and helps you answer important questions.

Thus far, I have observed that learning about communication theory helps your critical thinking skills, informs you about the value of research across different fields of study, and aids you in understanding the world around you. One final reason to study theories of communication pertains to an area that is likely to be most important in your life – you. Learning about who you are, how you function in society, the influence you are able to have on others, the extent to which you are influenced by the media, how you behave in various circumstances, and what motivates your decisions are just a handful of the possible areas that are either explicitly or implicitly discussed in the theories you will be introduced to in this book. These are not “self-help” communication theories; they do not provide easy answers to difficult questions.

zaterdag 16 april 2011

The dark side...


Dark side of communication: negative communication that can undermine the communication process. Researchers began focusing on this dark side of communication, because obviously not all relationships are exciting and rewarding undertakings.

Suggesting that communication has a dark side generally means that communication has a negative component. Negative communication can be manipulative, sarcastic, abusive, and humiliating. It can also take the form of seemingly less harmful behaviors, such as name-calling and teasing, which are common among teenagers. Still, such badgering can be harassing and tormenting. The dark side of communication also includes verbal and psychological abuse and racist, ageist, and homophobic remarks.

When framing negative communication within the transactional model of communication, the complexity of the model becomes apparent. As one person sends supportive messages, the other may be simultaneously sending disparaging messages. People often engage in conversations with an agenda in mind, making miscommunication (and negative communication) possible.

I post this discussion of the dark side of communication because we all know that not all people communicate rationally. In addition, when studying theories associated with interpersonal relationships, some writers believe that the communication field has not been as inclusive and comprehensive as it could be.

Finally, knowing something about negative communication could help you in your conversations with others. Being knowledgeable about negative communication may allow you to understand and detect it when it occurs, and that can be empowering. Also, you should realize, that some conversations go wrong, regardless of how much of your communication is supportive.

vrijdag 8 april 2011

Ethics and Communication

Something about ethics in communication. But what exactly are or is ethics? Ethics is the perceived rightness or wrongness of an action or behavior. Ethics is a type of moral decision making, and determining what is right or wrong is influenced by a society with its rules and laws. A number of influences affect ethical standards. As William Howell (1986) notes, the timing and time of the conversation, the environment, and the human relationships all affect the application of ethical standards.
  From a communication perspective, ethical issues surface whenever messages potentially influence others. Ethical issues also involve revealing information. Finally, ethics are a consideration with regard to messages on television. For instance, television could be used constructively if children are sent messages which promote racial harmony and tolerance; however, portrayals of ethnic and cultural groups in stereotypical and offensive ways have obvious ethical implications. This way, media is or could be used to send a message about tollerance and teaching about ethics by using communication.

zaterdag 2 april 2011

What Is CRM?

What Is CRM?

Customer relationship management (CRM) uses information technology to create a cross-functional enterprise system that integrates and automates many of the customer-serving processes in sales, marketing and customer services that interact with a company’s customers.

Contact and Account Management
CRM software helps sales, marketing, and service professionals capture and track relevant data about every past and planned contact with prospects and customers, as well as other business and life cycle events of customers.


Sales
A CRM system provides sales reps with the software tolls and company data sources they need to support and manage their sales activities and optimize cross-selling and up-selling. Cross-selling is an approach in which a customer of one product or service might also be interested in purchasing a related product of service. Up-selling refers to the process of finding ways to sell a new or existing customer a better product than they are actually seeking.

Marketing and Fulfillment
CRM systems help marketing professionals accomplish direct marketing campaigns by automating such tasks as qualifying leads for targeted marketing and scheduling and tracking direct marketing mailings. Then the CRM software helps marketing professionals capture and manage prospect and customer response data in the CRM database and analyze the customer and business value of a company’s direct marketing campaigns. CRM also assists in the fulfillment of prospect and customer responses and requests by quickly scheduling sales contacts and providing appropriate information about products and services to them, while capturing relevant information for the CRM database.

Customer Service and Support
A CRM system provides service reps with software tolls and real-time access to the common customer database shared by sales and marketing professionals. CRM helps customer service managers create, assign, and manage requests for service by customers.

Retention and Loyalty Programs
Enhancing and optimizing customer retention and loyalty is a major business strategy and primary objective of customer relationship management. CRM systems try to help a company identify, reward, and market to their most loyal and profitable customers.

zaterdag 26 maart 2011

Telecommunications Media

Telecommunications Media
Telecommunications media include twisted-pair wire, coaxial cables, and fiber-optic cables, all off which physically link the devices in a network. Also included are terrestrial microwave, communications satellites, cellular phone systems and packet and LAN radio, all of which use microwave and other radio waves. In addition, there are infrared systems, which use infrared light to transmit and receive data.

Wired Technologies
Twisted-Pair Wire
The ordinary telephone wire, consisting of copper wire twisted into pairs, the twisted-pair wire, is the most widely used medium for telecommunications.

Coaxial Cable
Coaxial cable consists of a sturdy copper or aluminum wire wrapped with spacers to insulate and protect it

Fiber Optics
Fiber optics uses cables consisting of one or more hair-thin filaments of glass fiber wrapped in a protective jacket. The transmitting speed of fiber is hundreds of times faster than coaxial cable and thousands of times better than twisted-pair wire.

The Problem of “The Last Mile”
The last mile is the final leg of a cable TV, telephone or other telecommunications network that ends in the user's household. The problem is the telecommunications provider adopts a new, faster, better technology that can provide higher bandwidth and faster telecommunication speeds to consumers. The house it is connected to is wired with twisted-pair wiring that simply cannot handle the bandwidth provided by fiber.




zaterdag 19 maart 2011

Did you mean that?

The Intentionality Debate Some communication researchers have strongly favored the view that only intentional behaviors are communicative. Miller and Steinberg (1975): "We have chosen to restrict our discussion of communication to intentional symbolic transactions: those in which at least one of the parties transmits a message to another with the intent of modifying the other’s behavior…By our definition, intent to communicate and intent to influence are synonymous. If there is no intent, there is no message."

They argue that only intentionally sent and accurately received messages can be called communication.

On the other hand, for instance, Watzlawick, Beavin & Jackson (1967) state that: “you cannot not communicate.” This way of thinking reflects the notion that all things could be considered communication. According to this way of thinking, when two people are together, they constantly communicate because they cannot escape behavior. Even silence and avoidance of eye contact could than be considered communicative. One can say nothing and still say something. Adherents of this theory believe that anything we do, including ignoring or refusing to speak to another, is communication. This greatly broadens the definition of communication, making it virtually synonymous with behavior.

Although this line of thinking has enjoyed much popular support, it is potentially problematic for those of us interested in communication theory. To be fair, one of the original proponents of the “you cannot not communicate” arguments later recanted her original thinking by concluding that “all behavior is not communicative, although it may be informative.” So, perhaps they where just a littebit right, but certainly not all!

maandag 14 maart 2011

What is communication?

Everyone knows it, everyone does it… What am I talking about? No… not sex! I’m talking about communication and communicating! Or should it be the other way around? Communicating and communication… Something we all do on a daily basis, but what exactly is communicating? During this study I've learned that: 
Communication
is a social process in which individuals employ symbols to establish and interpret meaning in their environment.
First, we tend to believe that communication is a social process. When interpreting communication as social, we mean to suggest that it involves peoples and interactions. This necessarily includes two people, a sender and a receiver. Both play an integral role in the communication process.

And when communication is social, it involves people who come to an interaction with various intentions, motivations, and abilities. To suggest that communication is a process means that it is ongoing and unending. But I've my doupts on with this claim, cause communicating (in my opinion) mostly has a beginning and an ending. And if it does not have a proper ending, you could be considered rued. Communications is also dynamic, complex, and continually changing. With this view of communication, we emphasize the dynamics of making meaning.
The process nature of communication also means that much can happen from the beginning, of a conversation to the end. See, there Í'm talking about an end again! People may end (again, an end! haha) up at a very different place once a discussion begins. Communication, therefore, can be considered a process that changes over time and among interactants.

zaterdag 12 maart 2011

The Internet Revolution

The Internet Revolution
The explosive growth of the Internet is a revolutionary phenomenon in computing and telecommunications. The Internet has become the largest and most important network of networks today and has evolved into a global information superhighway. The Internet does not have a central computer system or telecommunications centre. There are 13 root servers that are used to handle the bulk of the routing of traffic from on computer to another.

Internet Service Providers
Nobody owns the Internet. An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet to individuals and organizations.

Internet Applications
The most popular internet applications are e-mail, instant messaging, browsing the sites on the World Wide Web, and participating in newsgroups and chat rooms.

Business Use of the Internet
Business use of the internet has expanded from an electronic information exchange to a broad platform for strategic business applications.

The Business Value of the Internet
Most companies are building e-business and e-commerce Web sites to achieve six major business values:
  • Generate new revenue from online sales.
  • Reduce transaction costs through online sales and customer support.
  • Attract new customers via Web marketing and advertising and online sales.
  • Increase the loyalty of existing customers via improved Web customer service and support.
  • Develop new Web-based markets and distribution channels for existing products.
  • Develop new information-based products accessible on the Web.

zondag 6 maart 2011

“Hechte vriendschap vormen via online communicatie blijkt toch lastig”

Even tussendoor... voor de Dutch followers, een Nederlandstalige blog!

“Hechte vriendschap vormen via online communicatie blijkt toch lastig”

Onlinecommunicatie is hip, de sociale netwerksites worden druk bezocht en Twitteren lijkt het nieuwe sms’en te worden. Hyves, Facebook, Myspace, volop sociale media om jezelf online te profileren, contacten te vinden en te onderhouden. Al bestaande vriendschappen kunnen nieuw leven ingeblazen worden via korte online berichtjes en notificaties. En nieuwe vriendschappen en connecties wachten om gevormd te worden.
Maar wat is dan een online vriendschap precies? Een online vriendschap kenmerkt zich als een type vriendschap welke begint en zich verder ontwikkelt via computer mediated communicatie (CMC).  Volgens Grand H. L. Cheng (2006), die onderzoek heeft gedaan naar de kwaliteit van online relaties, is de algemene kwaliteiten van offline relaties hoger beoordeeld dan die van online relaties. Echter, naarmate er meer tijd verstrijkt trekt dit meer naar elkaar toe. Ook uit onderzoek van Parks en Floyd (1996) blijkt dat algemene vriendschapsbeoordelingen voor online relaties significant lager zijn dan die voor offline relaties.
Daarnaast laat onderzoek naar Hyves van Antheunis en Schouten (2007) zien, dat een sociale netwerk site als Hyves FtF vriendencontact niet kan vervangen en blijft dit FtF contact noodzakelijk om een goede vriend te kunnen maken. Het resultaat van het onderzoek van Ellison, Stienfield en Lampe (2007) kon zich verenigen met deze uitspraak. Hieruit kwam naar voren dat Facebook een veel groter effect had op het tijdelijke interesse netwerk, dan op de hechtere vriendschappen welke meer affectie behelzen.
Bovenstaande onderzoeken geven dus allen aan dat FtF contact noodzakelijk blijft voor het vormen en onderhouden van goede vriendschappen. Echte harde uitspraken over hechtheid van vriendschappen zijn er nog niet gedaan. Ook omdat dit waarschijnlijk een moeilijk operationaliseer baar begrip betreft. Vooralsnog lijken sociale netwerksites als Hyves en Facebook een leuke aanvulling op ons (bestaande) contact, maar op zichzelf toch niet in staat tot het vormen van hechte contacten.


maandag 28 februari 2011

Nieuws: Bof op UvT

Van de GGD:

Bof op Universiteit Tilburg

De GGD Hart voor Brabant krijgt de laatste weken meer meldingen van bof, onder andere van studenten aan de Universiteit van Tilburg. Sinds december 2009 circuleert de bof onder universiteitsstudenten in Nederland.

Voor meer info, zie: http://www.ggdhvb.nl/nl-NL/Actueel/Nieuws/Bof%20op%20Universiteit%20Tilburg

zondag 20 februari 2011

The Role of e-Business in Business

The Role of e-Business in Business

Many businesses are using Internet Technologies to Web-enable their business processes and create innovative e-business applications.

E-business is the use of Internet technologies to work and empower business processes, electronic commerce, and enterprise collaboration within a company and with its customers, suppliers, and other business stakeholders. The Internet and Internet-like networks – those inside the enterprise (intranet) and between an enterprise and its trading partners (extranet) – have become the primary information technology infrastructure that supports the e-business applications of many companies.
Enterprise collaboration systems involve the use of software tools to support communication, coordination and collaboration among the members of networked teams and workgroups.
Electronic commerce is the buying, selling, marketing and servicing of products, services, and information over a variety of computer networks.


zondag 13 februari 2011

Blogging on demand... ?


Wouldn't it be a great idea if I start blogging on demand? Tell me what you would like to read about and I will blog on it!! The inventor and all other readers can then respond to this blog, which hopefully leads to an interesting discussion.

Please tell me your opinion about this idea of mine. Perhaps you also have an idea for my next "blog on demand".

dinsdag 8 februari 2011

Information Technology, in general

My first blog on online writing, I will devote to the theme of information technology in general. Based on this book: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072472642/
Interesting information will be provided chronological on the course of business information technology (@ University of Tilburg the Netherlands). This will offcourse all be allternated with more lighter reading material :-)
What Is an Information System?
An information system (IS) can be any organized combination of people, hardware, software, communications networks, data resources, and policies and procedures that stores, retrieves, transforms and disseminates information in an organization. A system is a set of interrelated components, with a clearly defined boundary, working together to achieve a common set of objectives.

Information Technologies
The term information system describes all of the components and resources necessary to deliver information and functions to the organization. The term information technology refers to the various hardware, software, networking, and data management components necessary for the system to operate. We will concentrate on computer-based information systems and their use of the following information technologies:
-          Computer hardware technologies.
-          Computer software technologies.
-          Telecommunications network technologies.
-          Data resource management technologies.

What You Need to Know
An Information Systems Knowledge Framework for Business Professionals
There are five areas of IS knowledge:
-          Foundation concepts.
-          Information technologies.
-          Business applications.
-          Development processes.
-          Management challenges.

The Fundamental Roles of Information Systems  in Business
There are three fundamental reasons for all business applications of information technology. They are found in the three vital roles that information systems can perform for a business enterprise:
-          Support of business processes and operations.
-          Support of decision making by employees and managers.
-          Support of strategies for competitive advantage.

Next blog I will (probably, haha) be discussing The Role of e-Business in Business

zaterdag 5 februari 2011

Testing 1,2,3 testing


Hi,
My name is Anneloes Steentjes and I’m currently a pre-master corporate communication student at Tilburg Universtity. You can check my CV by clicking on this link: http://be.linkedin.com/pub/anneloes-steentjes/20/42b/974
Via this blog, I will try to provide an insight on my learning experience. Also I will try (no: succeed!) to provide you with interesting information about (corporate) communication.

What could you find on this blog?This blog will be designed especially for pre-master (corporate) communication students. But also be interesting for other visitors who want to know something (more) about communication in general! So keep returning weekly or so, for new blogs!!


Off course I would like to have lots of visitors to my blog! Followers are even more welcome ;-)
Because of this, I'm now posting these search keywords here, which relate (or will later on relate) to the subjects discussed/posted in my blog(s).


Keywords; Business, information, technology, university, Tilburg, UvT, communication, Master, Corporate communication, studies, pre-master , students, faculty of humanities, online writing, blogging,


Nederlandse sleutelwoorden; Universiteit Tilburg, bedrijfscommunicatie studenten, pre-master, Master, communicatie, geestes faculteit, bloggen, online schrijven