User talk:Harry Maeda

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~&#126;); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! --Rkitko 06:31, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Help pages
 * Tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Manual of Style

Franchising
There is information on this page that is not entirely correct. I have attempted to change some of the mistakes in franchise early history. It did not start with Howard Johnson's in the 1930s. That is much too late. A&W was considerably earlier, starting in Lodi, CA in 1919. Their owners, Alfred and Walter, stated that they copied the older franchise model of tire companies.

In regards to hotel franchises in Wales between hotels and bars in the 1850s, this is possible but documents and links would be greatly appreciated to collaborate the claim.

You can find an ongoing project of early franchise history at [the Franchipedia], an online franchise wikipedia project. Your comments there would be much welcome.

This statement is also debatable. "Many retail sectors, particularly in the United States, are now dominated by franchising to the point where independently-run businesses are the exception rather than the rule." An example should be used to substantiate it.

I do not want to declare this page in dispute but would prefer discussing the issues first.


 * Greetings, Harry. I'm going to move your statements over to Talk:Franchising as that's where I think you meant to place them.  Also, don't forget to sign your name on talk pages with four tildas ( ~ ).  I'd also appreciate your thoughts on what I wrote at Talk:Franchising.  Please also remember that you must have sources for your contributions that claim certain facts.  Such as your claim that "Franchising dates back to at least the 1850s" -- here above you admit you don't have a source for that claim (print or online).  I'm going to also put in the standard wiki welcome, which will give you general links to wikipedia policies and guidelines.  Hope all of this helps!  If you have any questions, leave a message on my talk page or at Talk:Franchising if it's related to that topic.  Thanks! Rkitko 06:31, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

--

Hi. Hope this works. Just to be clear, I did not say that "Franchising dates back to at least the 1850s." That statement already existed in the article. I asked that references be provided. I've not heard that and have several leaders in the Australian franchise scene that have not heard that. It may be true but providing references would be safest.

I've read the Wiki rules. (There's quite a few of them!)I'm waiting for anyone else to respond to your comments.

Point 1. The confusion may occur because Blue MauMau has a blog section, where experts write columns. Blue MauMau has as much in common with MySpace and Blogger as Wikipedia does. Blue MauMau is an community open for all but is mainly contributed to by experts. One weakness it has is that it doesn't have a quath of college students contributing articles. (See the article on Hospitality Experts Say Market Fine.) On Blue MauMau franchise CEOs (see Editors Note to CEO), well-known franchise consultants and experts contribute articles. It's a small vertical community and so its encyclopdia entries tend to grow slowly. There isn't another open site in franchising where franchise insiders can write news contributions. Point 2. It has an online franchise encyclopedia, the Franchipedia project, where it is trying to jump start from a business perspective the history of franchising in this country. The Franchipedia project in some cases has copied articles from Wikipedia such as the McDonald's entry so that readers can contribute something from something rather than from nothing.

But there are stark differences. Blue MauMau originally used a Wiki Media engine but found that this platform wasn't the best for collecting information by business experts. It tended to attract more tech savvy students.

The few franchise entries in Wikipedia about franchising tend to be consumer oriented, e.g. "Shamrock shake started in 1970". The Franchipedia project wants to comment more on the development of the franchise business model. As more writers contribute, the few articles in Wikipedia and also in Blue MauMau will diverge because perspectives and aim is different. Most importantly, the Franchipedia Project is a trade wikipedia that is open to all. It doesn't just allow one company to gather, edit and publish information like FranData, Franchise Business Review or NewRules.org?? You do not even have to be a member of the Franchipedia community to contribute so it is true to Wiki principles of being open to all.

Blue MauMau is trying to work with Wikipedia. These two communities can help each other with relevent articles. For these reasons and more, my suggestion is that an external link to the Franchipedia project be listed to encourage people to contribute to its body of business knowledge.Harry 18:09, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

--
 * Franchising Errors and Gaps: Whoever is contributing to the Wikipedia entry, there are big pieces of franchising that are not quite right or that are missing. There is little mention about the beginnings of modern business format franchising. Until I came last week, you actually wrote the first modern franchise was Howard Johnsons in the 30s. There's no mention of such basic franchise concepts as "churning", "retrofranchising", and much more. An open franchise wikipedia can help Wikipedia get its own facts straight through franchise consultants, experts and CEOs. Harry Maeda 05:08, 13 August 2006 (UTC)