15 What I have learned this semester

I knew HTML pretty well before 10 grade, and visually know what do to do and what not do for designing a website. But PHP is very new to me I learned NEVER leave a space between < and ? and php in your PHP code, and always remember your ; after each line of php code or your webpage will throw up all over you. I have I've made a lot of "flat" websites: a place for people to read, listen to music, and view pictures of whatever the website is about. But I've never thought about the design principles of e-commerce website, for example I would normally not have a "buy now with 1 click" button like Amazon does because I would want the visitors of my website to make sure before charging their credit card. Since a lot of websites are e-commerce websites I have to starting thinking of design that's not just good for the visitors but also for the business. In addition to that, I learned how the changing (or lack of changing) laws, regulation, and policies play huge rule into e-commerce. How the Automated Clearing House might not be needed for electronic purchases and how e-commerce hurts government funding (even though the law is on online businesses side states governments might not like e-commerce because it deprives them of their sales tax (see blog 8 Amazon vs. State Sales Tax)). This class required me to use WordPress (see blog 13 Drupal, Wordpress, & Joomla) and Microsoft Expressions. Normally, since I'm old school and can make a whole website from notepad, I hate programs that auto-code things for you because if you want something very technical done it won't let you go in and fix it the way you want it and a lot of auto-coders often add a lot of unnecessary code (Front Page was well known for that, made a table for everything). Microsoft Expressions, though annoying at first getting used to their style sheet with so many <div>s and I would often write code that pops up so I had double end tags, but has been useful and lets me go in and edit things the way I want. WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal I'm still debating with if I like them or not. They're it not just place for pre-made website layouts for people that don't have a clue how to do HTML but it does more with widgets. WordPress is for people that don't know PHP and other computer languages. I don't like how you can't go into the code and edit the layout and style at all, but at the same time it does more PHP than I can and has some neat widgets (like old school HTMLgear). It was especially interesting learning about web servers (see blog 11 Apache & Microsoft IIS web servers), because on summer a lot time ago I tried put several of my websites on an old computer because I ran out of room on Geocities and Angelfire and tired to turn it into a server. I managed to get the website up but only on my home network, I never manged to launch it to the web (probably because I didn't want to pay for anything and couldn't figure out how make a free domain name).

14 Google Checkout, PayPal, and Microsoft Wallet

All three programs are online payment processing services.  PayPal was the first to be introduced in 2000.  PayPal is the most popular of the three with over 164 million users followed by Google Checkout and Microsoft Wallet.   All three services make their income by charging fees to merchants for items purchased with their service.  

PayPal

PayPal is an acquirer, performing payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee.  Originally the result of a March 2000 merger between Confinity and X.Com, PayPal became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay in October 2002.  As of 2011 operates in 190 markets and manages more than 232 million accounts, more than 100 million of them active. PayPal allows customers to send, receive, and hold funds in 25 currencies worldwide

PayPal’s positive aspects are obvious.  It is small business-friendly, it welcomes international customers, it has great anti-fraud measures and it provides a one-stop third-party payment processor. PayPal is quick and easy for buyers to use, especially if they already have a PayPal account.  It is cheaper and easier to qualify for a PayPal account than a business merchant account. Finally, since ebay owns PayPal, if you spend a lot of time on eBay, having PayPal comes in handy. A lot of ebay sellers only accept Paypal payments.

PayPal is somewhat time consuming to set up, since you need to verify funds they deposit into your bank account. PayPal is also famous for their lousy customer service. Merchants can also be frustrated by the claims process that can take months to resolve, during which time the merchants money is tied up, and is not subject to appeal once PayPal has made a decision. Originally, a PayPal account could be funded with an electronic debit from a bank account or by a credit card at the payer's choice. But they now require a verified bank account after the account holder exceeded a predetermined spending limit. 

Google Checkout

Google Checkout was introduced in June 2006 and is, obviously, provided by Google.  It is aimed at providing a simple process of paying for online purchases. Users store their credit or debit card and shipping information in their Google Account, so that they can purchase at participating stores by clicking an on-screen button. Google Checkout provides fraud protection and a unified page for tracking purchases and their status.  Checkout uses a tiered pricing charge. 

Google has been criticized for providing canned responses on their help line which are do not provide merchants with adequate support.  There are other disadvantages to Google Checkout.  While PayPal allows user to register using preexisting information (email addresses), Google requires that customers get a Google account before they’re allowed to use Google Checkout.  Additionally, since 2006, Ebay, which owns PayPal has banned the use of Checkout on its site. Google does itself an incredible disservice by not linking to bank accounts.  It would benefit them to increase the ways that consumers can pay sellers. Also Google checkout only accepts US Dollars or British Pounds. It also defaults all payments to the currency of where your business address is registered, therefore you can’t display or process payments in other currencies.

The number one reason why you should include Google Checkout on your e-commerce website may also be the Google Android operating system. Because cell phones are increasingly becoming more and more like mini-computers having a Checkout account that you can use on your Android powered phone makes good sense. Now Google has made Google Wallet to physically replace your wallet with your phone.

Microsoft Wallet

Microsoft Wallet is a digital wallet capability built into Internet Explorer. Wallet was superseded by the server-based wallet in Microsoft's Passport service, later renamed Windows Live ID.  This service allows users to log in to many websites using one account. Microsoft Passport, the predecessor to Windows Live ID, was originally positioned as a single sign-on service for all web commerce.  The service is more directed towards merchants and payment companies, “allowing them to plug in their payment systems," said Jonathan Weinstein, Microsoft group product manager. "We are controlling the user's experience and providing architecture that other payment companies can plug in to.” (see http://news.cnet.com/Microsoft-to-open-digital-wallet/2100-1017_3-278317.html)

13 Drupal, Wordpress, & Joomla

Drupal

Drupal is a free and open-source content management system and content management framework.  It is written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. The basic program contains most features common to content management systems. These include user account registration and maintenance, menu management, RSS-feeds, page layout customization, and system administration.  Because the program is open source and his based on a plug and play framework there are also a number of add-ons available either at no or reduced costs that extend Drupal’s basic functions.  Drupal offers the basic building blocks of websites in a module-styled format where content and rules can be created quickly. The program offers a sophisticated programming interface for developers.  Supported databases include MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and Microsoft SQL Server.  The system also has in-depth reporting generating tools for advanced administration.

Because of its flexibility Drupal is used as a back-end system for at least 1.5% of all websites worldwide ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and government sites including such top notch sites as: The Economist, Examiner.com, The White House, Popular Science, Harvard, MIT, Ubuntu, Sony Music and more. Drupal now displays contents in 182 languages by over 538,813 people in 228 countries.

Using the program does, however, require a tough learning curve and is considered more of a developing platform than a simple CMS tool.  Additionally, Drupal is a relatively new system and is not backwards compatible with other software so if you have other content, systems and programs in place that you have become accustomed to then Drupal might not be the system for you.

While no programming skills are technically required for basic use, the system is generally used by more advanced developers and administrators and might be overkill for smaller sites. Basic users usually go with the more basic CMS platforms including Joomla! and WordPress, although they can create basic sites simply using Drupal. While Drupal is a great CMS, for some it can be too much. Consider the advantages and disadvantages to using Drupal as your CMS.

Joomla!

Joomla! is also a free open source content management program.  Joomla! too is written in PHP and uses object-oriented programming.  It is designed for quickly creating highly interactive multi-language Web sites, online communities, media portals, blogs and eCommerce applications.  Its features include such items as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search, and support for language internationalization. Joomla! supports only MS SQL databases.  First introduced in 2005, it is now up to its third version which is set to be introduced in September of this year.

Joomla! is considered easy to use. Once Joomla! is installed and running, it is simple for even non-technical users to add or edit content, update images, and to manage the critical data that makes your company or organization effective. Anybody with basic word processing skills can easily learn to manage a Joomla! site.  Yet the program is still more powerful and robust than WordPress.  Additionally, there are tons of YouTube videos and other training material easily accessible on the web.

The program does have some disadvantages.  Javascript and CSS can get bulky causing slower loading time and possible additional hosting costs.  The program is not SEO friendly out of the box and development is clumsy if you want to change the layout. 

Otherwise, Joomla! is much easier to use than Drupal, has many good features and is a good fit for most users.  Additionally, if you have a group of people working on the same site, then Joomla! is a solution for you. Different authors of the site can easily upload their content instead of waiting for programmers or Designers. Uniform website templates used in Joomla! provide a consistent look to the whole site.

WordPress

WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a dynamic content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL.  While it has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system it is considered primarily a system used for blogs.  The program was first released in May 2003 with the current version being 3.0.

WordPress has numerous plugins and widgets, small modules that offer users drag-and-drop sidebar content placement and implementation, are available to extended the capabilities of the program. Historically WordPress supported one blog per installation.  However, later advancements allowed multiple blogs to exist within one installation that is able to be administered by a centralized maintainer.

WordPress is a very user friendly blog system. You can create pages and posts, and with plugins, you can add a lot of functionality included standard in Joomla, except that all code is web standard. Anybody can learn enough in two hours to create content with WordPress right away, including using categories and subpages. 

However, adapting the look requires some knowledge of CSS. For instance, adding or removing postdates, need to be changed in design mode and it requires knowledge of WP scripting. The navigational structure is determined by the layout template you chose. Changing that structure requires knowledge of the WP scripting language and CSS.  With Joomla, you do not run into this problem because menus are controlled via the control panel and attributes like dates, author name etc, can be turned on and off per article or for the whole site in one go. In that sense, Joomla! is much more a content management system.

Because WordPress is web standard, Google really loves it.  So, from a marketing standpoint, WordPress is hard to resist. Setup is very quick and you can be listed in Google within 2 days.  WordPress can handle tons of visitors.  It will not break down easily.

The basic difference between WordPress and Joomla! is that Joomla! is a portal- or community type site while WordPress is a blog.  Both overlap each other in several areas and can be extended beyond their original purpose thanks to the use of plugins. You can find those plugins almost everywhere on the internet.  Both have a large user base with a lively community where tips and tricks are shared.  Both are free to use and many hosting providers have them as an option in their web tools section. 

12 Employers & Facebook

You're at a big job interview and your future boss asks you for your Facebook password and login name, what do you do? What if future boss at your dream job asks you to sign into your Facebook and wants to shoulder surf?

With the growth in popularity of social media sites, employers have elected to get on the bandwagon – but not in the way you might think.  Many employers are now searching Facebook and other social media sites to find out information about their current and prospective employees. Is that a good thing?  Many users of these sites think not.

Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publicly available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. Most employers say that this helps both them and the applicant by ensuring there is a good fit between the company’s culture and its employees.  Searching existing employee’s on line postings also helps employers become of aware of potential problem employees advocate or engage in activities that could prove embarrassing to their employer. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media.

But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people. This has prompted some employers to demand passwords. In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person’s social networking profiles and instead asking employees for their Facebook password, and the employer logs into their employee’s Facebook account. This is much more prevalent amount public agencies. See http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamespoulos/2012/03/22/employers-demanding-facebook-passwords-arent-making-any-friends/

While applicants and employees can opt out of providing this information, doing so will likely have significant consequences.  Given today’s tight labor market it takes a highly self-confident person to opt out.  Consequently many social media users find this latest push by employers as overreaching.  Orin Kerr of the Volokh crew makes an intuitive comparison, describing this “egregious privacy violation” as tantamount to demanding an applicant’s house keys. See http://finance.yahoo.com/news/job-seekers-getting-asked-facebook-080920368.html

Less we think passing a few laws will solve the problem, “companies that don't ask for passwords have taken other steps — such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log into [Facebook] a company computer during an interview.” (quote from news article link above) I actually had a personal experience with this, I had a friend on Facebook that I met him in person but he was more of an acquaintance. A year later I was hired at a place where he was the manager. Once he became someone I work with, since I’m a strong believer in separation between work life and private live, I put him in my Facebook’s “co-worker” friend list, which greatly limits what you can see on my Facebook page. A week or so later I had difficulty getting hours in where I worked and then three weeks later after struggling to get scheduled I was let go without an exact reason as to why, though I had my suspicions.

You might of heard in the news of people getting fired over Facebook before, but those were because they were talking trash about the company they work for or their boss but most of those cases the employee’s had their profile settings completely set as public, those employees were being reckless. What exactly are employers going to do with this information? Under existing laws, many pieces of personal information on a social media site cannot be used as a basis of employment decisions (things that fall under anti-discrimination laws like religion or political views) – so why does an employer want this information anyway? Most employers will do background checks to find out if prospective employees are sex offenders, thieves, etc. Most people that have a negative background check don’t put that they are a convicted felon on their Facebook page. Only dumb, proud, or people that don’t care put such things about themselves on their profile.  (3)

There’s a difference between hiring managers asking for password and username verses asking for you to login and let them shoulder surf. Giving your login information of your Facebook account is actually a violation of Facebook’s Terms and Conditions of using their services (Topic 4 Registration and Account Security rule 8 http://www.facebook.com/legal/terms). Either way allowing people other than yourself access to your Facebook page doesn’t just put you at risk but all your friends on your Facebook account who allowed you and only you to see their Facebook page and it would be easy for that other person to talk to friends posing as you. But allowing hiring managers to shoulder surf is a slippery slope currently it seems that the law allows hiring managers to ask for such invasion of privacy. You are under no obligation to give your password or show your full Facebook page and have the complete right to reuse when asked but at the same time if you don’t get hired it would be very difficult to prove you were not hired because of discrimination, refusing to give your password isn’t covered in discrimination.

 But, there’s a huge difference between a hiring manager asking prospective employees these questions verses managers and bosses asking these questions to people who are already an employee. If you are already employee and asked one of these questions or if you gave your login information for the job interview and your boss continues to access your Facebook account after you’re already hired without telling you the legal situation is completely different and there are laws that protect you. To add more confusion to the matter the labor laws and laws on privacy are different from state to state, especially if the state is or isn’t “right to work state.” States that are not a right to work state mean that you can only be fired for a reasonable reason and states that are a right to work you can be fired without a given reason.
 

(A map of right to work states from http://missouri.watchdog.org/12877/right-to-work-debate-heats-up-in-missouri/)
Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.  “Paula Whelan, an employment partner at Shakespeares law firm, said there was nothing to stop employers from asking for logins into social media. However, ‘prospective employees have every right to say 'no' as it is a request to access personal information and has nothing to do with somebody’s capability to do a job. And I cannot see any reason why a boss could not at least ask the question as there is nothing they can do to force an interviewee to hand over their Facebook login,’” she explained. (quote from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/9162356/Facebook-passwords-fair-game-in-job-interviews.html )

Until laws are passed to project prospective employee’s privacy these instances will be on the rise I recommend that you prepare for them by lying that you don’t have a Facebook account, or editing your entire Facebook page to be employer friendly, or just deleting your Facebook page. Personally I prefer these suggestions here, http://raganwald.posterous.com/i-hereby-resign , seriously read that it might guarantee you your dream job, researching your state’s labor and privacy laws or having a lawyer friend. I hope employers read that letter and realize asking people’s employee’s Facebook information is a double edge sword and what a big can of worms they’re opening.