Cohension Case- The Broadway Cafe. Network, Telecommunication & Wireless Computing:

Telecommunication systems enable the transmission of data over public or private networks. A network is a communications, data exchange, and resource sharing system created by linking two or more computers and establishing standards, or protocols, so that they can work together. Telecommunication systems and networks are traditionally complicated and historically inefficient. However, businesses can benefit from today’s modern network infrastructures that provide reliable global reach to employees and customers. Businesses around the world are moving to network infrastructure solutions that allow greater choice in how they go to market—solutions with global reach. These alternatives include wireless, voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP), and radio-frequency identification (RFID).

Personal sensing devices are becoming more commonplace in everyday life. Unfortunately, radio transmissions from these devices can create unexpected privacy concerns if not carefully designed. We demonstrate these issues with a widely-available commercial product, the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, which contains a sensor that users put in one of their shoes and a receiver that users attach to their iPod Nanos. Students and researchers from the University of Washington found out that the transmitter in a sneaker can be read up to 60 feet away. Through the use of a prototype surveillance system, the researchers could track someone wearing Nike+iPod sensors, plot their location on a GoogleMaps-based website and email and text-messaging real-time surveillance data to anyone.

You are working on a plan to offer an in-store music service allowing customers to sip on a mocha latte while using headphones to listen to any of 250,000 songs located on portable kiosks in the cafe. Customers can order songs they like for a set price and you will burn them on a CD and deliver the custom-burned CD to their table. The promotion is called The Broadway Cafe Music To Go package. You believe that selling music can greatly increase the cafe’s revenue. Prices will be comparable to Apple's iTunes service: $6.99 for five songs, the minimum purchase. Albums will cost $12.95. To appeal to a younger set, you will eventually offer wireless downloads to laptops or portable players. At the very least, being able to listen or buy music at the cafe could enhance your core business and keep customers coming back. The time it takes a customer to order a latte, they could have any CD burned on demand.

Questions to address:

Are there any current laws that you would need to be aware of when deploying wireless technology? If so, what types of liabilities for potential lawsuits should you be aware of to protect the cafe? If not, what types of laws should be created to help protect customers, employees, and the cafe?

Would you introduce this technology to the cafe? If so, are there any concerns with using this type of technology?

What other types of sensors could you deploy throughout the cafe to help operations? What concerns would you have regarding these sensors?

What two new products using network, telecommunication, or wireless tools could you create for new revenue streams?