The Digital Frontier

Business Strategies in a New World

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"In the 1920s, the life of a company listed on the S&P 500 was more than 75 years. Today it's only ten to 15 years.

Why is this happening?"

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Why are we here?

With the evolution of the Internet, the business world is rapidly changing.

And it’s changing at a pace faster than ever before …

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However, since the rules are changing everyday - there is very few rules and accepted best

practices.

No textbooks. No experts.

And definitely no classes.

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So what are we going to do here?

We’re going to learn about how technology has revolutionized the business world …

In order to make predictions about how we can best prepare ourselves for the future …

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Select Weekly Themes• Tools don't get socially interesting until their technologically boring • We build stories. There are so many sites on the web vying for our

ever decreasing time budgets. The best and most successful of these sites are the ones that tell a compelling story through their brand.

• Try, Test, Measure, Iterate • If you want to do viral marketing, you can try to come up with a viral

ad, but you'll probably fail. You're better off building the viral right into the product, creating a product that spreads because you designed it that way.

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Select Weekly Themes• "Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and

sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren't trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant... We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it."

• Red Queen's Hypothesis or the Google Killer • Teaching an old dog new tricks • Innovation and the Gator Nation

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But wait …

Didn’t you say there wasn’t any coursework or books?

How are we going to learn all this?

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Six Tenants of this Class

• Democratization of Information• Question Everything• Crowd-Sourcing• Fostering Community• Trial and Error• Measure and Iterate

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Democratization of Information

• Every Monday (and some Wednesdays) we will have a guest lecture from someone who uses these technologies in their business

• With the purpose of learning from their best practices (and more so their mistakes)

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Question Everything

• There are no rules ….

• This is all new. Ask questions. Test boundaries. Challenge popular thought.

• Consider this class a platform – get involved and learn as much as possible

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Crowd-Sourcing

• On Wednesday’s, we will get together to discuss the speaker’s presentation and to learn from the best and worst examples of that topic from industry

• In groups of 3 or 4, students will be responsible for creating one of the case studies and to lead the discussion

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Fostering Community

• Each student will be responsible for submitting a weekly blog entry to digitalfrontiersuf.com discussing their reflections from the week of lessons and outside activities

• Designed to give you practice using the technologies were discussing as well as create a knowledge base for future courses

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Trial and Error

• In groups of 3 or 4, students will be challenged to create and implement a web-based marketing plan for a local Gainesville business.

• Emphasis will be on creatively applying a

variety of tools to accomplish the business’s goals – be it increased mindshare, awareness or sales!

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Measure and Iterate

• Grades will be based on:– Attendance and Participation in class– Group Case Study Presentation– Semester Long Business Marketing Project

• Please give us feedback as often as possible– The course material is new and we are new– Let’s work together to make this awesome

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So in Summary …

• Guest Lectures on Monday

• Class Discussions on Wednesday

• Blog Reflections due every Friday

• Group Project 1: Case Study Discussion

• Group Project 2: Live Marketing Case

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About Your Professors

• We love bad jokes

• We are students too

• We want you to get as much out this class as you can

• Just be open and honest with us – and we will treat you fairly

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Our very short list of rules

• Come to class on time

• Come to class ready to learn

• Treat outside speakers with respect

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Course Website

• To find the syllabus and everything else you need …

www.digitalfrontiersuf.com

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Questions?

• Adam: adaugelli@gmail.com• Nikolai: nikolai.deleo@gmail.com

• Any friends not get into the course?

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For this week …

Why did you decided to take this course?

What is your background in technology?

What do you want to get out of this course?

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On the Blog …

• Introduce yourself– Name, Year, Major

• Your background in technology• Why you chose to take this course• What you hope to get out of this course• Your favorite company and why

• Bonus Points for pictures, joining the Facebook group and following the class on Twitter!