Jeff DeGraff, a clinical professor of business administration at the Ross School of Business, doesn’t believe that the web is truly as accessible and democratic as many would have us believe. According to DeGraff, the web is no longer the free and open space it was a decade ago. “It’s now a feudal system run by a handful of… Read More »
Apple has acquired data mining and machine learning company Lattice, co-founded by Michael Cafarella, a professor of computer science at U-M, and Chris Re, a professor of computer science at Stanford. (Cafarella was the co-creator of Hadoop, a widely used big data processing technology.) According to the Lattice website, the startup was born out of a Stanford research… Read More »
A new study from U-M School of Information researchers looks at how Facebook “Buy/Sell/Trade” groups work and why they are successful. The research team focused on “Mom-to-Mom” groups (also called Mom-2-Mom or M2M), in which mothers buy and sell gently used baby items, such as clothes, toys, and books. They offer the items for porch pick-up (PPU) on a… Read More »
Growing up in Los Angeles, U-M student Jake Fleshner and his brother liked to visit a local deli, and then nearby stores before heading home. These local businesses often attracted similar customers, so why weren’t they promoting each other to their customer bases? That question eventually led to creating Spade America—a mobile app that lets consumers scan discounts as… Read More »
Newspapers have tried various ways to monetize online content, with many turning to paywalls, which require readers to buy a subscription to read stories online, sometimes after a set number of free articles. A new study by Ross School of Business researchers Puneet Manchanda and S. Sriram takes a deep dive into all of the side effects of online… Read More »
Google Maps recently rolled out real-time location sharing that lets you select which contacts to share with and how long you want to keep them in the loop. The added convenience for users also has an upside for Google. “Mapping, very granular mapping, could actually be a bigger source for ad revenue than search,” says Erik Gordon, who studies… Read More »
Imagine if Twitter and Paypal had a love child. Meet Venmo, the latest, hippest tool for oversharing (and possibly overpaying) with your friends. The mobile app pairs with people’s bank accounts to let them pay each other or request money. The difference is that Venmo lets its users make those payments and their associated messages public on social… Read More »
A good accountant is hard to find. Some companies are avoiding the search by replacing human bean counters with computer software. The increasing use of software is also changing how students and schools are approaching accounting education, according to Cathy Shakespeare, faculty director for the masters of accounting program at U-M. She said basic bookkeeping skills are becoming… Read More »
Recent research suggests that racial bias can have a measurable impact on internet-based, sharing services like Airbnb. For example, a 2014 study from the Harvard Business School revealed that non-black Airbnb hosts can charge 12 percent more than black hosts for a similar property. To curb discriminatory practices, the study authors recommend concealing basic information, such as photos and names, until… Read More »
Scott DeRue, dean of the Ross School of Business, thinks higher ed needs a new business model. DeRue’s vision is akin to Spotify’s offering to music fans, with users able to download lectures and teaching material for a small subscription fee. The dean is relaxed about giving away some teaching material for free as now happens with MOOCs. However,… Read More »
Ann Arbor-based Clinc Inc., an artificial-intelligence startup co-founded by U-M research professors Jason Mars and Lingjia Tang announced earlier this week that it has raised a funding round of $6.3 million. That follows a seed-stage round six months ago of $1.2 million for the company, which was founded in 2015. The investment followed a well-received appearance by Clinc at the Consumers Electronic… Read More »
Back in December, Yahoo came under renewed scrutiny after disclosing the largest known data breach in history, prompting Verizon Communications to demand better terms for its planned purchase of Yahoo’s internet business. According to Erik Gordon, a professor at the Ross School of Business, renegotiating the deal’s price tag would be the simplest but also least likely scenario… Read More »