Identifying Local Opportunities (5A)

Title: “State threatening to fire between 1200-1600 hundred teachers who attend rally”

Link: https://www.ocalapost.com/state-threatening-to-fire-between-1200-to-1600-hundred-teachers-who-attend-rally/

Summary: Teachers from across the state of Florida were going to be punished (potential fines and firings) for being involved in a rally on January 13, 2020. This was because the state believed teachers leaving their position to teach would be a violation to report for work and constitutes an illegal strike. This however was false as teachers across the state were notified that teachers were going to be involved in the rally for that day, and the state didn’t decide to act on it. The rally was because teachers, parents and the community wanted improved funding for students and schools, fair pay and preparation for teachers, and an end to the over-testing of students and the loss of local control in districts.

The Problem: Teachers potentially being penalized for trying to achieve educational reforms across the state of Florida. The state officials and the actual employees in education disagreeing on the correct way education should be handled in Florida.

Who: The State has the problem of potential classrooms with no teachers. Teachers who may be out of work. And communities, schools, and students themselves have the problem on the quality of education being given.

 

Title: “International education organization notifies Marion County of data breach potentially impacting 37,000 students”

Link: https://www.ocala-news.com/2019/08/09/international-education-giant-indicates-that-data-breach-may-have-impacted-over-37000-marion-county-students/

Summary: Pearson notified Marion County Public Schools a data breach happened that affected 37000 students that were enrolled from 2010-2017. None of the information that was breached was confidential, but public record info under Florida Public Law. There is a disagreement right now between Pearson and Marion County Public Schools on who should own that historical information to be able to manage it or delete it as the breach came from AIMSweb product which formerly kept record of Marion County Student Data.

The Problem: There was a data breach involving a lot of former Marion County Public schools’ students, and a mismanagement of information following the move from Aimsweb to Pearson in 2017.

Who: Marion County Public Schools, Pearson, AIMSweb, and the students (2010-2017) affected in the data breach.

Title: “The last straw: Gainesville ban takes effect”

Link: https://www.alligator.org/news/the-last-straw-gainesville-ban-takes-effect/article_5c6bb62c-3354-11ea-85b7-63c47c871247.html

Summary: On January 2^nd a straw ban is going to be enforced in Gainesville for restaurants and stores. Businesses that don’t adhere with the ban after warnings will receive citations of $250 until they comply. This is to improve sustainability going forward but has presented some problems, mainly those with disabilities. The ban hasn’t been enforced in hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities for people with disabilities.  According to the article however the challenge right now is that some restaurants may not have straws available for people with disabilities, and there are some innovations, products that need to be thought of in order to help with sustainability and accessibility.

The Problem: The need to balance the efforts of sustainability and accessibility of drinking for all customers in restaurants and stores.

Who: Gainesville’s stores and restaurants. The disabled population, and the city of Gainesville’s commissioners.

Title: “Marion Oaks residents furious over distribution center”

Link: https://www.ocalapost.com/marion-oaks-residents-furious-over-distribution-center/

Summary: Marion Oaks residents have been pushing back over a 200 acre Dollar Tree distribution center that would be built in Marion Oaks on SW Hwy 484, on a land know as McGinley Farm. The owner of the land (Mr.McGinley) never wanted the land to be sold to developers or corporations but was sold in 2017, 14 years after he passed away in 2003.  Residents believe this would destroy land, habitats, increase crime rates, traffic flow, and potentially lower home values of property near the distribution center. The county has already had a distribution center built (AutoZone) that didn’t help in producing jobs, and there is fear the same will happen. This is because a lot of the residents in Marion County commute to other places to work rather than work in Marion County, or are retired.

The Problem: Residents of Marion Oaks not wanting a distribution center to be built in their area as they believe it would cause more harm than good to the community.

Who: The Residents of Marion Oaks, Dollar Tree Stores Inc, and Marion County Commissioners.

Title: “Dignity Village closing delayed through homeless transition” 

Link: https://www.alligator.org/news/dignity-village-closing-delayed-through-homeless-transition/article_2cd4e448-33d5-11ea-9d53-3ffbe42dfd96.html

Summary:  Dignity Village is shutting down and a transition has been going on to get the homeless into actual homes. Provided by GRACE Marketplace, Dignity Village has allowed more than 200 people to live in the encampment, but the city of Gainesville stopped accepting new residents in October. Dignity village was supposed to be closed on January 1, but fence construction delayed the closing for potentially another 30 days. Until then city officials are wanting to create an area (campground) where residents can find help in regard to living situations. The hope is that the county lowers its contribution to GRACE marketplace as they’ve supported them for a long time, and for the city of Gainesville to prioritize, focus, and fund their housing projects for the homeless.
The Problem: City of Gainesville and GRACE Marketplace coming up with a plan to help the homeless with more permanent housing solutions as they transition out of Dignity Village.
Who: The homeless of Gainesville, residents of Dignity Village, The City of Gainesville, and Alachua County. 

Forming an Opportunity Belief (4A)

I believe there is an unmet need in adaptive eye monitoring screens (monitors, laptops, tablets, etc.) for people struggling with eye care due to overexposure of screen time on technology. Biometrics is being used, and stuff like facial recognition technology is becoming more advanced to the point where eventually screens should be able to monitor your eyes to check their health (redness, dryness, blinking time) after being on them for a period of time, and adapt setting bases on those “checks”.  I believe the need is across all age groups, but my specific target will be the ages of 13 and upward as they are the ones probably using technology the most. The need has come from the various cases of eye reports, surveys, and studies that are showing the causes of eye health problems due to being on screens for prolonged periods of time. I believe there are more habits people are trying to enforce to be able to combat excessive screen time usage, such as stepping away from the computer and remembering to blink after a certain period of time. I'm about 70% sure an opportunity exists.

High school Student (Junior)

- What is your average time on phone and computer screens?

A: 9 hours a day

- Do you feel eye strain or fatigue when looking at these screens for a long time?

A: Yes, my eyes burn, typically at night after 3 hours straight

- Are there times you don’t want to look at screens but are forced to because of assignments or tasks you have to do on them?

A: Yes, because most of the times I have to type things, especially for my English class

- What do you currently do to combat the eye strain or fatigue if you are experiencing it? Are you satisfied with the results?

A: I just go to sleep. Yes, very effective, my eyes feel pretty refreshed, but I usually sleep for a long time.

- Do you believe technology should already be addressing these eye health issues, or do you believe it is up to the individual to monitor this problem?

A: Tech companies should already be implementing this so technology should already be monitoring our eyes rather than us having to monitor the situation.  So much stuff uses technology it makes sense.

College Student (Freshman)

- What is your average time on phone and computer screens?

A; 17 hours a week

- Do you feel eye strain or fatigue when looking at these screens for a long time?

A: Yes, I feel eye strain, eye burn, and I feel like I must lay down after a while. My eyes feel very tired after about 4 hours. I feel like I must squint more to continue looking at the screens

- Are there times you don’t want to look at screens but are forced to because of assignments or tasks you have to do on them?

A: Definitely, after doing homework for about 2 to 3 classes, I don’t want to look at screens anymore. I’d rather read a physical textbook.

- What do you currently do to combat the eye strain or fatigue if you are experiencing it? Are you satisfied with the results?

A: I try to look away from the computer for 20-30 minutes, and then go back on. I believe its 70% effective. Not a miracle worker but helps me. I also try to take a 10-20-minute break to refresh my eyes as well.

- Do you believe technology should already be addressing these eye health issues, or do you believe it is up to the individual to monitor this problem?

A: I believe individuals should be monitoring. Like on apple iPhone there is nightlight, same thing with computers. Nobody forces you to be on your phone or computer. Even despite all the assignments I do also try to monitor how long I’m on a computer and how long I’m on phone screens for free time. Tech companies are doing more than enough to combat this situation.

Video Production Specialist

- What is your average time on phone and computer screens?

A: 6 hours a day

- Do you feel eye strain or fatigue when looking at these screens for a long time?

A: Yes, Definitely

- Are there times you don’t want to look at screens but are forced to because of assignments or tasks you have to do on them?

A: Yes, most of the work I do is on computer screens.

- What do you currently do to combat the eye strain or fatigue if you are experiencing it? Are you satisfied with the results?

A: I lower the brightness of the screens. Slightly effective but feel like it could be better. Still strains my eyes.

- Do you believe technology should already be addressing these eye health issues, or do you believe it is up to the individual to monitor this problem?

A: A bit of both, but I believe technology should be addressing the issue. Individuals should take ownership, but tech should be available to address it.

Overall Reflection: I learned the opportunity seems to be very dependent on each individual case. While it does seem like the overall census is that adaptive eye screens should be implemented (high school student and Video Production Specialist) there is also the belief individuals should monitor screen time themselves. The Freshman college student surprised me when saying that it was completely up to the individual to monitor their health and that tech companies are doing enough. Maybe in a bigger sample size, more people would say the same thing.  

Summary: I still believe the opportunity is still present at the time, though I may need more feedback to see if this is true. The feedback I got was almost 50/50 in that people should monitor their screen time for their own eye health rather than technology having to do that. I would think it may be because if tech does address the issue people would spend even more time looking at screens. Entrepreneurs should be adapting their opportunities based on their feedback. If you get feedback that proves the opportunity really isn’t there, you will save a lot of time, resources, and can just go back to thinking of a new idea. But this also may depend on the “timing” of the opportunity. It may not be needed in the present, but in the future it very well could be. So, I believe it’s up to the entrepreneur to really see if the opportunity is “future proof.” 

Entrepreneurship Story (3A)

In the beginning of October I decided to start day trade/ swing trade the stock market through stock options. I’ve always had an “itch” to get into it and finally decided to try it after having some money I thought I could be OK with losing. Probably the wrong mindset to head into it, but my main problem was not having a plan.

So, I went in day 1. I wasn’t afraid of the numbers, the graphs, the indicators, I knew some of the stock market jargon, and first day did well, made $160, second day $90, and after that week made around $390. Not bad, probably was beginners’ luck. However, I never really got a strategy going, I was just going off what I learned from a couple of videos and I got a little cocky. No profit taking strategy, no stop loss strategy. I went off the thrill of making and losing (at this point mainly winning). After that I started using a little more of the money I put in, getting riskier, and started losing more trades than I was winning. And then that’s where it went downhill. My losing trades were affecting my next trades, and it was loss, after loss, and in the world of stock options, you can lose a lot really fast. One point the market wasn’t even open, and I lost $400 out of the gates (I held a position overnight, and the price of the stock was down that morning), recovered some of that, but still had a negative day.

Why were the losses affecting my trades? Because I wasn’t mechanically trading the market. I didn’t have a plan and was trading based off my emotions. So after a month in I was deep in the hole from where I funded my account and decided to stop and learn. The amount of work I’ve put in since then to learn the markets has been paying off. I know actually come up with what trades I would actually enter, where I would get out if I was in the profit, but most importantly know where I was wrong (not just know that I’m wrong, but where I would be wrong and to get out of the trade). Because sometimes the market can fool you. It can go one way, and then go the opposite direction. The initial prediction you had was challenged, and if you don’t have a spot where you know you’re wrong, the market would’ve just psyched you out thinking it was going to go down (or up if you are short) and then go the other direction. That’s what was happening to me (and sometimes I was dead wrong but didn’t want to admit it).

Since mid-November, I haven’t been using “real” money in the markets but have been using “play money” accounts brokerages allow you to have to get your feet wet. With this fake account I’ve been able to get away with some nice profits, and on bad days lose very small. I’m still a little scared to get back into the real deal and am still formulating a swing trade plan (a security/stock not bought and sold on the same day), so I don’t have to actively manage the account throughout the day or even weeks. I’ve also started to implement proper stop losses, or profit exiting positions in place automatically. Even with the losses I’ve taken, it has been a great experience for me. I’ve enjoyed learning about the markets and how it shapes the way we live.   

I enrolled in ENT3003 because I want to learn the entrepreneurial “mindset.” I want to know how they can come up with the ideas they do. Their work habits, and the process they go through with coming up with an idea, planning, executing, and then potentially making money off it. That “process” seems exciting to me and would like to know all the details that going into it. So many ideas or products I’ve seen that look dumb end up being successful. I mainly want to know how they get to that point.

The Bug List (2A)

1.  Having to use dongles for most pieces of technology today. Monitors, phones, laptops

Why: Companies are trying to get people to buy the extra "tech" products they make that are compatible with these connections.

2. People speeding and cutting all through the interstate for me to just meet them at the same exit on the red light, or see them slightly ahead on another traffic light.

Why: People fail to realize that in short to medium distances going 90-95 mph rather than 70-75mph isn’t going to make a big difference in the time saved.

3. University class textbook requirements that I can’t find online for free.

Why: Universities and the textbook creators have an affiliation that creates a lot of money, at the expense of people trying to learn.

4. The increasing number of scam calls I receive on a daily basis. Sometimes 3-4 a day.

Why: Preventive security technology/practices over scam and fraud calls are still not implemented for calls like this to automatically be blocked and never see for phone users and their providers.

5. The gimmicks of technology today (Multiple lenses on cameras, face sensors), particularly in smartphones that demand very expensive prices as compared to 10 years ago.

Why: The improvements for companies in their technology have been small increments recently as a result of higher costs and time to find the next innovation in computing technology that would enhance peoples’ lives.

6. Restaurant bathrooms that look like they haven’t been cleaned since they’ve been opened.

Why: I’m not entirely sure if restaurants exactly clean their restaurants every day, or if the employees cleaning take the necessary effort/ procedure to clean the bathrooms properly.

7. (5-6) YouTube "mini" ads on a 10-minute video, or sometimes 2 advertisements back to back that you can’t skip.

Why: YouTube trying to increase their ad revenue, or content creators trying to as well as YouTube has forced them to.

8. Seemingly increasing food prices at Fast Food restaurants.

Why: Costs to make food appealing and more “organic” to the consumer. Also, the increasing costs from food suppliers has made it more expensive.

9.  Increasing number of subscription-based software (Adobe), instead of being able to buy the software outright.

Why: Piracy issues with the software that has caused companies to go subscription based instead of selling copies.

10. Unknown people littering stuff on your front yard. Either construction workers or drivers throwing stuff out of their car.

Why: Some people really don’t care about anybody but themselves and have no respect for others.

11. Increasing lack of in store customer service and experiences when going shopping. Stores feel very empty and not well maintained.

Why: Most people are buying online, so stores are cutting down costs of having employees in store reducing customer service, and the store environment.

12. Fire alarm making annoying “beep” noise when batteries are low. 

Why: To make sure people are replacing their batteries in their systems so their house is prepared for a fire.

13. When gum gets stuck on my shoes, not noticing it until I’m at home, and are covered with grass, leaves, and dirt.

Why: Some people are lazy and don’t have the decency to throw their gum in a trash can.

14. Drivers not turning their blinker lights on when making a turn when I’m trying to see if I can get onto the road they're on.

Why: Some drivers forget to put their lights on, indecisiveness, or they just don’t care to do it.

15. Amount of time I’m forced to be online, or on a computer to complete tasks or assignments. (Granted I’m in an online class, but besides that).

Why: A lot of the work being done is now mostly through technology and is more efficient that way. Saves the use of paper, pencils, and other resources.

16. Having to pay multiple streaming subscriptions to watch all the shows I want. (Netflix, Hulu, Disney+).

Why: Properties of shows, entertainment franchises, and characters have all been so monetarily successful to a point where streaming providers don’t want to share their properties, but profit off them entirely themselves. 

17. Having to submit a financial aid application and verifying documents each year I’m in school.

Why: So, people who aren’t attending school or aren’t even in school can't receive aid or benefits.

18. The lack of local computer hardware stores in most areas of the country.

Why: From a business perspective it isn’t a great idea for someone to open a business selling computer hardware. There’s only a small population that deal with computer hardware.

19. Canvas, Outlook or other online programs not responding, or malfunctioning during heavily populated times of the day (starting from noon).

Why: So much traffic going on the servers can’t keep up with all the information it has to process, so it delays the response for some users or doesn’t respond at all.

20. Vegetables or fruits that look very old/ not fresh in the produce sections of grocery stores.

Why: Stores don’t care about the quality they are displaying in their produce section. They don’t take out what looks bad until they are forced to in the hopes that someone will buy it.

Reflection:

It was easy to come up with my first ten “bugs”. After that, I really did have some trouble thinking of things that bugged me. I would say it was because I’ve never really kept note of them, and usually they don’t happen that often to the point where I’m constantly annoyed by them. One struggle for me though in this assignment was the “why”. Some are just personal preferences on how one should act, but the other “Why” answers actually come from a point of business problems that are arising in multiple industries. I would say the tech and food sector, as I noted in this list. So, having to look some of them up opened my eyes to the intricate little details that might cause such a huge problem which created “bugs” for me. Such as with my fast food bug, I didn’t really realize that I was paying $20 for fast food for 2 people until Monday, and then I had to research as to why that was happening. This list really made me understand a little bit more of what’s happening that's affecting me.

Test Blog for Class