Class Project - Finding a Technology and Making It Specific - KSB 113: Navigating Business Technology

Resources for Finding a Technology

You can find an idea for a technology anywhere: TikTok, YouTube, your favorite show, your friend, your cat BUT if you're having trouble coming up with something, these resources may help you think of a broad technology that sounds interesting to you. You can also use these resources to make your topic more narrow and specific, or use one of the resources listed in the box below.

These are newspapers to which we have full web access.

Bloomberg.com This link opens in a new window
First time users: Create an account by visiting the Bloomberg registration page. Enter your @american.edu email address, then enter the verification code.
Bloomberg.com is a news source that provides global news and analysis, as well as focused business-specific coverage on companies, industries and markets. Includes access to Bloomberg Businessweek articles. Does not include the securities and financial information that can be found on the Bloomberg Terminal Workstations in Bender Library and the Kogod FSIT lab.
Economist.com This link opens in a new window
Authoritative weekly newspaper focusing on international politics and business news and opinion.
Includes mobile app and subscriber-only podcasts and events.
For quick access, click on the link above.
For a personalized experience or in the app, select the option to Log In, choose SSO, and select American University Library (not American University) from the list of institutions.
Financial Times This link opens in a new window
The latest UK and international business, finance, economic and political news, commentary and analysis from the Financial Times.
** Registration required. Only current AU students, faculty, and staff are eligible to register for and access FT.com **
** Note: There is a known issue where some registered users are unable to log in with SSO. In that case, visit ft.com in a clean browser, click on 'Sign In', enter your email address, then click on the 'Having problems logging in?' link. **
New York Times (website access) This link opens in a new window
First time users: Follow the instructions in the library's account registration FAQ and complete registration using your AU email address. If you have an existing paid NYT subscription, you must cancel it before linking it to the library's subscription.
Access to the website of the New York Times - one of the world's leading newspapers.
Includes access to the New York Times InEducation curated reading lists.
Click the Log In button and sign in to access full news content 1981-present.
Wall Street Journal This link opens in a new window
NEW! Registration required! Please click on the database link for instructions on registering for or reactivating your AU-sponsored account.
Once your account is activated, sign in on https://www.wsj.com/ to access.
Full access to the Wall Street Journal, with global coverage of business and financial news, in addition to national and international news. Includes English, Chinese, and Japanese editions.

These are popular sources to which the library subscribes or websites that are free to access without a subscription.

Resources to Help Make Your Idea More Specific

How do you turn a general idea into something more narrow? You have to learn more about it! The resources listed below can help you do this.

Scholarly Databases

ABI/Inform and Business Source Premier are both scholarly business databases, meaning they provide access to articles from scholarly business journals. Scholarship tends to be very narrowly-focused, which may help you think of a more specific application for your technology.

ABI/Inform (Business and Management) This link opens in a new window
Contains bibliographic citations, abstracts, and full text of articles appearing in international business and management publications, academic journals, and trade magazines published worldwide.
Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Major business resource that provides access to scholarly and peer-reviewed articles from all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance and industry information, in addition to market research reports. Articles, many of which are full-text, are from thousands of scholarly business journals.

IT Journals

IT and Business-focused resources

ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Collection of citations and full text journals, newsletter articles and conference proceedings from the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM).
To access your user profile and settings off the campus network, please visit https://dl.acm.org/ and sign in with your personal login credentials.
eMarketer Insider Intelligence This link opens in a new window
eMarketer provides analysis, market data, and statistics on the internet, e-commerce, online marketing, social media, and emerging digital technologies around the world.
** Users may sign up to receive report notifications and custom alerts and may need to check their ProofPoint Digest emails or visit spam.american.edu to release messages.
See OIT's video for step-by-step instructions. **
IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
More than 5 million IEEE documents in the areas of computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, and communication. The library includes extensive conference proceedings, as well as peer-reviewed journal articles and industry standards.
IDC This link opens in a new window
IDC publishes market forecasts, industry analyses, case studies, vendor decision toolkits, and blog posts on the tech sector, including big data/analytics, cloud computing, consumer tech, infrastructure software, Internet of Things (IoT), mobility, networking, security, semiconductors, social business, storage, telecommunications and more.
Once on the platform, use the search at the top of the page to search our subscribed content and visit the MyIDC link to access your dashboard.
** Access limited to current AU students, faculty, and staff. **
i3 Connect This link opens in a new window
Developed by the Cleantech Group, it provides updates on clean technology investments, IPOs, mergers, acquisitions, business relationships, and other financing activity.
PitchBook This link opens in a new window
Pitchbook tracks the private and public equity markets. It provides data on the venture capital, private equity and M&A landscape, including information about funds, limited partners, service providers, founders, investors and buyers.
* Problem logging in to PitchBook? Select Log in with SSO. *
Wall Street Transcript This link opens in a new window
Presents, in a series of question and answer formats, financial analyst and company CEO perspectives on a range of industry sectors relative to investment outlooks and financial performance.
** Access to full content available only when connected to the secure campus network (includes AU VPN). **