Yet another "just for fun" post

This is another post that's just for fun. And so I tried. This is the best that I can come up with. Slightly cheesy though. Haha. Anyway, It's for fun right?


Hmmm, think its kinda cute too. Hee. Pretty short and silly comic, but thats all the inspiration that I've got. Haha. My brain is on holiday too. =)

For fun

This post is just for fun. My partner and I worked our asses off for one of our course. And our efforts did not go down the drain. This comic strip is ours. The title of our research paper was "The Role of Online Social Networks in Providing Positive Psychological Support to the Emotionally Depressed". Thus our main character suffered from depression. Haha.


We were told to get creative and this was how we presented our work. Haha. It was quite a fun way to do so I guess. Anyway, my favorite scene is the one where the main character stands on top of the building and looks down. The tiny cars and humans below are just so cute. Hee. Oh well, that's just a pretty good experience.

QotW10: Attempting Second Life

So this week I began my virgin attempt of having a second life. While many relate how elating their experience was, mine just happens to be filled with ups and downs. It started off well. I was able to edit my “twin’s” appearance and made her similar to me. It was fun playing around with the different features of it. Fuse free and no cost make over. In fact, it was more than a make over with the option of creating a smaller waist, sculpting the arms and thighs, instant hair growth and even height increment. It was even a mini “Project Runway”. Tops could be altered to fit, bottoms could be modified according to style and footwear could be adjusted to suit the clothes. My twin – Joanne Benelli – was created to resemble me in some way or other.

With the fun part being explained, here comes the frustrations. As much as I wanted to get on with my twin’s life, I was unable to do so. To begin with, there was the “laggy-ness” of the computer that I had to battle with. My twin was having a slow reaction. Then, Orientation Island seemed to be a permanent place for me. It was impossible to leave. I had never ending tasks. I was doing the tasks over and over again for god knows how many times. The system just refuses to register my tasks. After countless of attempt, I just decided to accept fate and stay put on Orientation Island.

And so, poor me just had to tour around Orientation Island to find interesting places. So off I went exploring the island. After walking around aimlessly for quite some time, I found myself a car. So here I am sitting comfortably in my new vehicle.

It is adorable right?

Somehow I like my new car and decided to stay put in it a little while longer. And I did manage to maneuver it a little. Here, driving is not as easy as compared to the real world. But at least I get to have a cute car over here. Sadly, I could not drive this car out to explore the rest of the island. And so, the rest of my journey was covered by foot. After bidding my cute car goodbye, I stumbled upon these stone status. And I decided to have a little photo taking session with them.

The first one looks friendlier compared to the other.

Though they were stone status, they are able to chat with me. I would say it was pretty interesting to have a conversation with stone status, though it was not a long conversation.

I am not alone.

Apparently, I found someone who was interested in the status as well and I caught her on camera without her knowing. Soon I got bored with admiring the status and continued with my lonely walk. Guess what I found over here? A dragon! I just could not resist posing next to it.

Don't we make a good pair?

After several poses, I decided to leave my beloved dragon to venture into the other parts of the island. Perhaps when I get tired of walking about, I might go back and keep the dragon company. Not far away, I spotted a runway. Since there was nothing much for me to do, I decided to climb onto it and see if I looked good on the runway. Here, is my best pose.

What do you think?
Do I have what it takes to walk on the runway?

Guess I was just fantasizing too much. This is what happens when I am bored. Daydream and more daydreams.

Apart from that, I managed to make a few friends which I forgot to capture those moments down. One of them started chatting to me and even volunteered to help me out a little as I seem lost. It was great to know that there was someone who was willing to lend a helping hand to the poor me.

I guess attempting Second Life was not that bad after all. It might have some hiccups but the experience was worthwhile since I managed to make some new friends.

QotW9: Get ready to STOMP

With the increment of leading edge technologies, the ways in which people communicate has transformed. Technology has given us a new medium – the Internet – that allows us to communicate in more than one way. Now, we can have one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many communications all via the same medium. With such advancement, citizens are able to contribute to journalism without professional training (“Citizen Journalism”, 2007).

Citizen journalism can also be known as “participatory journalism”. It means that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others (“Citizen Journalism”, 2007). Blogs are one of the most common tool that people choose to use when exercising citizen journalism.

Just last year, The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holding’s flagship newspaper decided to go beyond its 161-year-old newspaper medium. It decided to engage and interact with its readers through the use of a fully-interactive website known as STOMP (Straits Time Online Mobile Print) (SPH, 2006). Singaporeans are able to post new and interesting findings that they want to share with others through this website.

In order to increase interactivity and easy connection, STOMP allows the public to communicate with them in more than one way. The public can use the mobile to call in, or use short message service (SMS) or multimedia message service (MMS) to share their news. Alternatively, they can send an email or log onto the website to talk to the newspaper. Apart from that, they can also participate in the online forums and chats found within the website. In addition, there are other features such as photo galleries, online polls and even virtual clubs (e.g.: food club and digital club). With the rise of blogs, STOMP also included a “Star Blog” section in the website. Readers are able to interact with their favorite bloggers (includes Dawn Yang and Xiaxue) by commenting on their blogs.

Personally, I found the content rather interesting. It encompasses a wide range of news which included happening events that took place around Singapore, issues that bothered the public, travel places and even lost and found notices. Indeed, with the broad array of topics and features, STOMP does provide its readers with new avenues to express themselves.In my opinion, STOMP can be considered as an ideal form of citizen journalism as it allows citizens to participate and contribute to journalism. Readers are able to join online forums to share and discuss matters with others. It is a great place for people to read up on news or events that happened but not reported by the newspapers. The photos and videos that are attached to the news make it more interesting for the readers. However, I feel that there is a need for more concern when photos and videos are part of the content. Anyone with a moderate amount of skill with Photoshop or other image-­manipulation software can distort reality. Special effects make even videos untrustworthy (Gillmore, 2004). How can one be so sure that the photos and videos are truly authentic? It is not impossible for people to edit or manipulate images and videos. There may be possibilities that the images and videos are scripted. Meaning, what was captured may be done deliberately and not an actual incident. With the availability of image-manipulation software, one can never be too sure about the genuineness of the images. I think more deliberation should be put in when viewing any images or videos. Sources need to be considered and claims need to be verified carefully before reacting towards the news. According to STOMP (2007), they express that they do not monitor, interfere or edit the materials that are posted, and may only remove the materials if someone objects to it. It would be good that they can monitor the materials to a certain extent or at least verify the multimedia objects so as to prevent any form of distortion.

As a whole, STOMP has done quite a good job in exhibiting citizen journalism. The content is entertaining and it certainly does attract Singaporeans. Currently, STOMP may not seem that ideal because it is still relatively new, but it does not mean that it will not become an ideal form of citizen journalism for Singaporeans. Personally, I feel that in time to come, STOMP will get better as it matures.

References:

Gillmor, D. (2004, July). We the Media, Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Retrieved March 29, 2007 from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html
Citizen Journalism. (2007, March 28,) From In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 29, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Citizen_journalism&oldid=118429022
STOMP. (2007). “Terms and Conditions”. March 29, 2007, from http://www.stomp.com.sg/tnc.html

STOMP. (2006). “About Us”. March 29, 2007, from http://www.stomp.com.sg/about/about.html

SPH. (2006, June 14). The Straits Times extends its reach with bold new platform STOMP. Retrieved March 29, 2007, from http://www.sph.com.sg/news/latest/press_060614_001.html

QotW7: Shall we twit?

As the Internet flourish, it’s capability of allowing many-to-many communications also increases. The WELL, which was built upon the idea of a new kind of community whereby members are able to meet in everyday space, as real communities always have, while inhabiting a new environment, is where the online community movement was born (The WELL, 2001). What started of as the brain child of visionary software engineer, Larry Brilliant, and originator of The Whole Earth Catalog, Stewart Brand, ended up being the start off point for many other online communities. Today, communities of various sizes and sorts are present on the Internet.

According to Fernback and Thompson (1995), the concept of community commonly refers to a set of social relationships that operate within specified boundaries or locale. An online community consists of a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the Internet (“Virtual communities”, 2007). Apart from that, different virtual communities have different levels of interaction and participation among their members. According to a survey done by Horrigan (2001), it was found that almost 90 million Americans have participated in online communities. This shows that online communities have found its way into our lives.

By being a member of an online community, it allows one to have the ability to interact with other like-minded individuals across the globe. For instance, at petlovers.com, pets enthusiasts are able to share their information with one another. Besides that, they are also able to post and share their pet’s photos with fellow members. With the use of online communities, it is no longer impossible or difficult to ask distant acquaintances and strangers for advice and information (Wellman & Gulia, 1996).

As part of this week’s blog requirement, the class was told to join and explore Twitter. And ultimately, decide if Twitter can be considered as an online community or not. As told, I signed up for it and started setting up my profile. Friends are then being invited to join this site or added in to build up the social network. From there, members are able to update their friends with what they are doing as well as what are their thoughts. This service is almost instant. Other than that, like Friendster, Twitter allows members to personalize the background of their homepage.

After being part of Twitter for two days, I personally believe that it can be considered as an online community. The basic fact that it allows me to interact with fellow members online and form bonds with them, shows that it is an online community. In addition, it also allows users to send messages via phone or instant messaging. (“Twitter”, 2007) Users are then given the option of receiving messages in more than one way. Due to Twitter’s ability of letting one post their thought online for their friends to view and even reply to, it sort of resembles a blog. Probably, the only differences between the two is that blogs has no limitation of characters while Twitter has a 140 character limitation for each entry.

When compared to huge online communities such as MySpace and Friendster, Twitter may seem small due to its limited features, but this does not mean that it cannot be considered as an online community. In fact, Twitter’s capability for immediate response makes it stand out from other online communities. In my opinion, I feel that in time to come, Twitter will evolve into an even better online community with more features.

References:

Fernback, J, & Thompson, B (1995). Virtual Communities:Abort, Retry, Failure?. Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html

Wellman, B, & Gulia, M (1996, April). Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone:Virtual Communities as Communities. Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://www.acm.org/%7Eccp/references/wellman/wellman.html

Virtual Community. (2007, March 15). In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Virtual_community&oldid=115123017

Twitter. (2007, March 14). In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twitter&oldid=115023086

WELL. (2007, February 15). In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WELL&oldid=108258486

The WELL. (2001). “Learn About The WELL”. Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://www.well.com/aboutwell.html

Horrigan, J. B. (2001, October 31). Online Communities: Networks that nurture long-distance relationships and local ties. Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Communities_Report.pdf

QotW6: Space of my own

In this advance technological age, it is not surprising that privacy is lost. The technologies that man creates make it so easy to invade into people’s privacy. Often we find ourselves letting out personal information to others unknowingly. Filling up the “About Me” profile page in online social network sites, filling up survey forms or even lucky draw coupons are ways in which we disclose our personal information unintentionally.

Privacy is often seen as the ability of one to keep their lives and personal affairs out of public view, or to control the flow of information about themselves. (“Privacy,” 2007) As for me, I see privacy as a personal privilege. The privilege to have secrets and to be left undisturbed by others. However, it is hard to maintain the rights of this privilege in this modern era. Technologies make it difficult to keep things private. The Internet has vastly increased the opportunities for individuals to subject themselves to the demands of the personality market, resulting in ever increasing confusion and anxiety about how much of ourselves to reveal to strangers. (Rosen, 2004)

How then are we suppose to know where is the limit for us to stop revealing personal or important information of ourselves. I guess different people would possess different degrees of self-revelation. And within the degree, each would have a set of “rules” to determine how much to reveal. I too have a set of “rules” which I follow online as well as offline. One of the forum that I participate in would be"Cozycot". In there, I would abide according to the et of "rules" that I came up with to guide me on how to protect my own privacy. One of the rules would be, when possible, use pseudonym instead of real name. For instance, I refrain from using my real name when I participate in the forums that I am a member of. As stated, “it is now commonplace on a website to reveal hobbies, favourite foods and music, and pictures of children” (Rosen, 2004). I would remind myself not to reveal too much personal information when I communicate with other members of the forums. Sometimes, others would first provide information about themselves in hope that you too, would provide similar information. In instances whereby this happens, one should be wary and not be too quick in responding. It is worth the effort to be extra careful when one’s privacy is in stake.

Other than that, I avoid providing additional informal about myself. In cases whereby it is optional to reveal information about myself, I will choose not to provide any information. In addition, basic acts such as changing passwords regularly, avoiding revealing personal information to third parties and thinking before revealing any information would help in protecting one’s privacy.

With constant technological innovation, protecting one’s privacy lies in our own hands. Take the recent case of the “Bus Sex Videotaping” that cased quite a stir for example. As quoted from the news article “The couple's indecent romp was caught on video by a fellow commuter, who sent the mobile phone footage to Stomp, The Straits Times' interactive portal for readers STOMP” (Sim, 2007). In the news article, it raised the question of who should be at fault – the couple that got carried away or the commuter that got interested and recorded the incident down. Did the commuter invaded into the couple’s privacy or did the couple invaded into fellow bus riders’s privacy? The news article did gave some insights on what members of the public think. In my opinion, I guess both parties are at fault. Both invaded into each other’s privacy. As the saying says “it takes two to tango”. Clearly, if the couple managed to practise more self-control and not invade into the commuter’s privacy, then the fellow commuter would not have the chance to invade into their privacy as well. In short, if we do not want others to invade into our privacy, we too should not invade into theirs. In a way, privacy can be seen as something that goes hand-in-hand with respect. It is something that we provide others as a form of respect.

In general, privacy is hard to be defined. What privacy is to me might not be what it is to you. Privacy is an exclusive content. One person privacy is another person’s suppression of free speech and another person’s attack on free enterprise and marketing. (Sullivan, 2006) It is our own to decide how we want to protect our own privacy. Protecting privacy can be taught. But ultimately, the decision to learn and want to protect privacy lies on the individual. Everyone has secrets. And if we do not want others to know about them, we need to learn how to do so.

References:

Privacy. (2007, March 6). In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Privacy&oldid=113024808

Rosen, J. (2004, July 19). The Naked Crowd. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm

Sullivan, B. (2006, October 17). Privacy Lost: Does Anybody Care? Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/

Sim, M. (2007, January 14). Bus sex videotaping. AsiaOne Digital. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://digital.asiaone.com.sg/news/20070114_003.html

QotW5: Identity crisis

As communication becomes a major activity in our lives, identity as well as identification becomes important as well. To fully comprehend and evaluate an interaction, it is essential to know the identity of those whom which we communicate with. Identity is usually known as the distinct personality or characteristic by which a person is recognized. With virtual communities becoming more widespread among us, the identity that we take on online becomes vital. An online identity is a social identity that network users establish in online communities. (“Online identity”, 2007) There are a few ways in which one can identify themselves with. Some might choose to use their real names, while others might choose to use pseudonyms. Avatar – an icon-sized graphic image – can also be used to represent one-self. As technology advances, there are many channels (e.g. forums, instant messaging, blogs, and email) that allow one to take on a virtual online identity. As for me, email would be the one virtual online identity that I own and am most familiar with.

I am pretty sure that email is no stranger to all who has access to the Internet. As for myself, I had my email account since I was in secondary school which is more than eight years ago. From then, I have been email hopping. Started out with having one Hotmail account, till today, I have three email accounts; one Hotmail, one Yahoo mail and one Gmail. However, my main email account would be the Gmail. The most straightforward form of identification is the account name. (Donath, 1996) With no difference, the first form of identity for the email would be the user’s account name. In order to start having an account, one would have to sign up and that requires a user/login name and password. Every user/login name is unique which makes one’s online identity exclusive. For myself, I made use of my first name and year of birth “joanne85” to create my own online identity. Other personal information is kept under the “Settings” function.

As with what most people do with email, I too used mine to create, send, store and receive messages from people. It is a great way for me to keep contact with relatives and friends who are overseas. Other than that, I use my email to receive newsletters and updates from forums and other services such as iTunes store and eNets. It is easier to store an attachment – a document, picture or even an audio file – using an email as compared to using a disk or memory card. A single click of your mouse moves messages out of your Inbox into a secure archive where you can quickly find them with a simple search. (About Gmail, 2007) With such a function, one need not be worried over losing important emails and attachments. Apart from the basic use of email, Gmail also allows users to chat instantly with friends using the “Gmail Chat” function. Sometimes when the Instant Messaging service is down, this feature would come in useful. It is an alternative for me to chat with my friends without going crazy over not being to sign into my Instant Messenger. Additionally, Gmail makes the online identity even more exclusive. The “Gmail Pictures” function allows users to add a face to a name. Users can choose to put up a photo for themselves or for their contacts. This photo has the plays the same role as an avatar.

(gmail.com)

Compared to the physical world, it is relatively easy to pass as someone else online since there are relatively few identity cues. (Donath, 1996) It is certainly possible for one to break into and steal someone’s email account. With the availability of information of ourselves online – through weblogs, friendster, facebook and other social networking site – it is not impossible for one to collect vital information about us and use it to hack our accounts. As stated, “impersonated postings are made simply by signing the target’s name” (Donath, 1996). With the given information, impersonating someone is not that hard after all. The dangers of such break in are high. Other than stealing our identity, these thieves would be able to get their hands onto mails with other login names and passwords that we have. From there, they would be able to compromise our other accounts and it would be terrible if they managed to get information about our banking accounts. The Gmail Help Center provides methods and ways that can help users to secure their accounts. If in any case, a user’s account has been compromise, it would be best to inform the Security Center where they would investigate the matter and to change the password immediately. Other than that, Gmail also does its part in fighting phishing. Gmail uses the detail of phishing messages to help identify possible phishing attacks. (Gmail: Help Center, 2006) The image below is an example of how Gmail would alert users of suspected phishing.

(gmail.com)

As we spend more time online, we are indirectly putting ourselves in danger of being robbed of our identity. Identity theft is the crime of the information age. (Schneier, 2005) Although the law and service providers are helping to protect us and our online identity, we as users have to do our part in preventing identity thefts as well. Simple acts such as being aware of the information that we provide online and changing passwords regularly would benefit ourselves in the long run.

References:

Donath, J. S. (1996). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved February 21, 2007 from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Chester, A. (2004). The Real Me Online: Identity Play on the Internet. Retrieved February 21, 2007 from http://www.odr.info/unforum2004/chester.htm

Schneier, B. (2005, April 15). Schneier on Security. Retrieved February 21, 2007 from http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/mitigating_iden.html

Email (2007, January 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=E-mail&oldid=103248299

Online identity (2007, February 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=108207999

Gmail. (2007). “Gmail: Help Center”. February 21, 2007, from https://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=1563&security=1

Gmail. (2007). “About Gmail”. February 21, 2007, from http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about.html

QotW4: Free and out there

From its earliest days, gift economy has already found its roots and planted itself within the society. What started off as gifts being passed on or exchanges – foods, services, favors, etc. – physically (face-to-face interaction) eventually found its way into the virtual world. It has manifested itself into our lives. Almost everyone that gets online will be involved with the gift economy. It is only a matter of them realizing it or not. Uploading photographs onto public domains, posting videos, participating in fan clubs and even joining forums are part and parcel of the gift economy.

The gift economy is one of those economies that are founded on the bases of giving. As known, “a gift economy is sometimes referred to as a “sharing economy”” (“Gift Economy”, 2007). The main purpose of posting information or goods online is to share them with others. Without sharing there would not be any learning. As stated, “you wouldn’t know anything was happening unless you were hooked in, unless you were participating, offering something yourself” (Phillips, 1997).

For most of its users, the Net is somewhere to work, play, love, learn and discuss with other people. (Barbrook, 2005) With the presence of online gift economies, there has been an increase in the number of forums. People who share similar interests gather at such forums to share information with each other. As mentioned, “when people pass on free advice or offer useful information, the recipient is often unknown to them and the giver may never encounter the recipient again” (Kollock, 1999). In other words, it means that not everyone would be obligated to follow the rule of reciprocity. There would be people who enjoy sharing their knowledge and also, people who just take in the knowledge. Of course there are exceptions; those that give and take.

It is only with giving then there is taking. Without these people who contribute advice or information, there would not be any information to take at all. There are a few possibilities that cause these people to provide valuable information to the groups or forums. One of which is the anticipated reciprocity. This means that when a person contributes certain valuable information to the group or forum, he or she would expect to receive additional information in return.

Another possible cause would be reputation. This reputation refers to the credibility of the user in the group or forum. It is only through contributing information that would increase the credibility of the user. For example, one of the forums that I belong to, values credibility of the users. In this forum that I belong to, there is a section whereby it allows users to join sprees. Mostly the sprees would be on apparels or cosmetics. However, there are certain requirements set by the moderator of the spree. And to be part of it, one must meet the requirements. One of the requirements is that the spree is only open to regular users who have a minimum of 100 posts.

(http://forums.cozycot.com/)

In other words, one must first participate actively in the forum to be able to receive the benefits of joining activities such as the sprees. In a whole, these people who contribute towards the economy are often driven by some form of self interest or selflessness.

There are many examples of online gift economies. One of the more popular gift economies would be YouTube. This particular economy allows free video sharing. The users of this site are allowed to upload and share videos with others. Other than that, users are also allowed to rate, comment and subscribe to videos, join groups and even invite friends to join in as well. As some of the videos are set as private videos, one would need to add the user as a friend so as to enjoy the videos. Being an avid drama serial addict, I belong to this site as well. Though I do not have any videos to share with others, but I certainly do subscribe to several videos. As noted, “gifts economies are driven by social relation” (Kollock, 1999). Being friends with the other users allows me to receive information or news from them about the videos that I would like to keep track of. Other than that, it allows us to discuss about the shows and even leave comments on the profile page. Even non-users of the site are allowed to view the videos as long as they are made public.

Although there are many people out there who do not mind sharing their knowledge to the rest of the world, there are also quite a number of those who only enjoy taking without giving. If we want to continue having an economy like “free economy”, then we would have to start learning to participate in it. You have to participate for it to be real: a gift economy. ((Phillips, 1997)

References:

Barbrook, R. (2005). The Hi-Tech Gift Economy. First Monday. Retrieved February 9, 2007 from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue3_12/barbrook/

Kollock, Peter (1999). The Economies of Online Cooperation; Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace. Communities in Cybrespace. Retrieved February 9, 2007 from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

Gift Economy (2007, February 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creative_Commons&oldid=105069529

Pinchot, Gifford (1995). "The Gift Economy" Retrieved February 6, 2007 from http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC41/PinchotG.htm

Phillips, E. (1997, June 2) Gift Economy. Rewired. Retrieved February 9, 2007 from http://www.rewired.com/97/0602.html

http://www.youtube.com/

http://forums.cozycot.com/

QotW3: Both should compromise

Ever since printed materials became a major mass medium, concerns regarding the unfair copying of such materials were raised. Due to widespread literacy, such concerns became a bigger issue. Copyright was then created to protect the materials against unfair copying. From protecting printed materials in the early days, now copyright protects almost every mass medium that is available. Sound recordings, films, video games, photographs and even software are examples of mass medium that falls within the copyright law.

As technology becomes more advance, the significance of copyright is diminishing. Now, with the Internet, people are able to download and share such content with one another. In fact, “file sharing is now one of the most common on-line activities” (Oberholzer-Gee & Strumpf, 2005, para.1). With such an activity going on, the copyright law is often forgotten. Many files sharers do not realize that to a certain extent, they have infringed the copyright law. Mainly, most of them think that it is alright for them to share the files with people who have the same interest as them. Little would have regards for the law protecting the materials. “It is important for us to remember that copyright law is intended to proscribe a balance between the interests of the authors and the interests of the public” (Litman, 2003).

Content creators are becoming more protective over their works. As noted, “the copyright powers owned by creators have grown enormously in duration, scope, reach and force” (Manjoo, 2004, para. 4). However, with the advance technology and the use of the Internet, it would be difficult for them to protect all of their works. Even with the law, it does not stop the people from copying their work.

Especially with regards to audio and video content, the content creators are facing more problems protecting their works. File sharing such as peer-to-peer networks (p2p) increases the problems of the content creators. Such networks make sharing of audio and video content easy and common over the Internet. This causes the content creators to worry that the sales of their actual CDs and VCDs would suffer. Many entertainment companies start locking up both audio and video content so that people are not able to copy the contents. Even online music stores are affected by the entertainment companies. At the behest of the recording industry, most online music stores limit CD burning, copying music to other computers, and which devices can play the music, among other legitimate uses. (EFF, n.d.)

However, file sharing is not all bad. In the file sharing community, it is a common practice to browse the files of other users and discuss music in file server chat rooms. (Oberholzer-Gee & Strumpf, 2005, para. 3) By doing so, people are able to come into contact with others songs that interest them. This might in turn lead them to buying the album itself. Instead of killing file sharing completely to protect the content creators and control the public, both sides should compromise to reach a solution that would benefit all. The Electronic Frontier Foundation suggested a few ways that would accommodate both the interests of content creators and the public good. One of the ways would be “Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing”. The concept is simple: the music industry forms a collecting society, which then offers file-sharing music fans the opportunity to "get legit" in exchange for a reasonable regular payment, say $5 per month. (EFF, n.d.) By doing so, fans are still able to share songs as long as a fee is being paid. The money collected gets divided among rights-holders based on the popularity of their music. (EFF, n.d.) This way, file sharing is not killed completely and right-holders get regular payment as well. Both parties would benefit from such a solution.

Group such as Creative Commons provides an alternative form in which the public get to have access to certain contents while content creators are still able to retain certain rights. Creative Commons offers six main licenses for content creators to select from. These licenses would allow “copyright holders to grant some or all of their rights to the public while retaining others through a variety of licensing and contract schemes including dedication to the public domain or open content licensing terms” ("Creative Commons," 2007, para. 2).

Other than that, copyright laws should also be made clearer to the public so as to let them fully understand the law. There are many misconceptions surrounding copyright and related technology and Internet law issues. (Brady, n.d.) It is only when the public understand the laws and takes away the myths and misconceptions, and then both the content creators and public would benefit from it. Otherwise there is not much use in having the copyright laws.

To conclude, both the content creators and the public must compromise in order to benefit from sharing and copyright. Alternative methods such as Creative Commons and the suggestion made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation are ways that benefit both parties. Content creators are able to retain their rights and public get to enjoy access of the content as well. Clearing up misconceptions about the copyright laws would also allow the public to be fully aware of what copyright is all about.

References:

Martin, Rebecca. Remix culture: a rights nightmare. (n.d.). ABC: Catapult. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from http://www.abc.net.au/catapult/indepth/s1645533.htm

Oberholzer-Gee, F, & Strumpf, K (2005). The Effect Of File Sharing On Record Sales.Retrieved February 1, 2007, from http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_June2005_final.pdf

Ovalle, C. (2005). “What is copyright?”. University of Texas at Austin, Course INF 312. Information in Cyberspace. Retrieved on January 31, 2007, fromhttp://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/3.php

Manjoo, F. (2004, April 8). The mouse who would be king. Retrieved on on January 31, 2007, from http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2004/04/08/copyright_culture/index.html

Litman, J. (2003, November 23). Sharing and Stealing. Retrieved on January 31, 2007, from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=472141

Brady, K. S. (2007). Copyright FAQ: 25 Common Myths and Misconceptions. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from http://users.goldengate.net/~kbrady/copyright.html

Copyright (2007, January 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Copyright&oldid=104986965

Creative Commons (2007, February 2). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creative_Commons&oldid=105069529

History of copyright law (2007, February 1). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_copyright_law&oldid=104827533

Electronic Frontier Foundation. (n.d.). The Battle for Your Digital Media Devices. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from http://www.eff.org/IP/fairuse/

Electronic Frontier Foundation. (n.d.). A Better Way Forward:Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from http://www.eff.org/share/?f=collective_lic_wp.html

Creative Commons. (2007, January). Retrieved January 31, 2007, from http://creativecommons.org/

COM 125 Week 2: Email Services

Through the development of the Internet, many important and useful technologies have been created. One such crucial technology would be the electronic mail service or commonly known as the email now. According to Radicati, the estimated number of active email mailboxes as of 2006 was 1 billion. And by 2010, it estimated that the figure would increase to an estimated number of 2 billion.

The history of email services started way back in the 1960s. It came about as a medium for time-sharing mainframe computer users to communicate with one another. Users were able to send private messages to each other base on systems such the MIT’s Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) and SDC’s Q32. All a user need to do was to access the system via the remote dial-up terminals.

From there, the basic email technology evolved into network mail. What was limited to time-sharing mainframe computer users quickly increased its network. Users are able to send messages to one another even though they are using different computers.

But what actually brought about the evolution of the email service was the ARPANET computer network. In the early 1970s, Ray Tomlinson wrote mail programs which are able to send and read messages. Other than that, he also “initiated the use of the @ sign to separate the names of the user and their machine” (Wikipedia, 2007, 4). From then on, the popularity of email service shot up.

In today’s world, emails do not only serve the basic functions of creating, sending and receiving messages. There is more to it than a way for people to communicate. Take Gmail for an example. The ability of it being able to provide more than 2,600 megabytes of storage shows that it not only allows people to send messages to one another. Rather, it provides long term storage of important files, messages and even pictures. Emails are no longer text based. Images as well as colors can be incorporated into the messages. “Gmail also integrates instant messaging right into the email experience, so you can stay in even better touch with your friends when you're online” (About Gmail, 2007, 3).


With this feature, email services have been taken to greater heights.

Emails have become part of our daily lives. Just take a look at the statistics. The amount of daily emails sent by one person could total up to 34 emails. And the amount of daily emails that are being sent out could reach a high of 31 billion.


This clearly shows how much time people spend on creating and sending emails per day. Simply by looking at the number of email providers that are available on the Internet, it is clear that email services have indeed been integrated into us.

With the growth of email services, many have benefited from it. Take marketers for instance. Many companies have marketers that uses email to market their products. Such emails are known as HTML email marketing messages. With the use of such marketing messages, emails can be created in a more attractive layout and subscription to HTML email newsletters would not be “plain” to read anymore. However, there would be some companies as well as marketers that would abuse the use of such services. Unsolicited e-mails also known as spams would be sent to multiple email accounts in the hope that readers would read them and get to know about their products. According to Spam statistics, the amount of daily spam emails that are being sent out is estimated to be 12.4 billion. This means that each individual would receive about 6 spam emails in a day.


Although spam emails cannot be cancelled out entirely, email services are capable of filtering spams. “You can help by using the Report Spam button, which removes spam from your inbox and automatically improves spam filtering in the future” (About Gmail, 2007).

Gmail is one of such email services that allows users to report on emails that are considered as spams to them. By doing so, it would prevent those emails from appearing inside the inbox.

In a whole, email services benefits us more than we could ever think of. Without this technology, communicating with loved ones, friends, clients and even colleagues would be a problem. Traditional snail mails would be considered as slow for us to communicate with. And with the current wireless network, emails are accessible almost everywhere and anywhere. With the ability to read and respond to emails almost immediately, work could be done faster and time could be saved.

References:

Rheingold, H. (1993). “Visionaries and Convergences: The Accidental History of the Net”. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/3.html

History of the Internet. (2006, August 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_Internet&oldid=70771572

Email (2007, January 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=E-mail&oldid=103248299

The Radicati Group. (2006). “Quick Facts”. ”. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://www.radicati.com/

Vleck, T. V. (2004, September 10). “The History of Electronic Mail”. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://www.multicians.org/thvv/mail-history.html

Gmail. (2007). “About Gmail”. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about.html

Evett, D. (2006) “Spam Statistics 2006”. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://spam-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/spam-statistics.html

Why People like HTML Email Marketing Messages. (2006) Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://www.optinnews.com/email_formats.html

Starting with...

Hello there. This is my first blog as well as blog post. Was never interested in doing so as I've got the tendency to forget the user name, password and blah blah blah (which includes being lazy). Anyway, I'm supposed to introduce myself. Here it goes..

My name's Joanne, turning 22 this year. Quite a daydreamer, but I'll refrain from doing so during your lectures. Loves to shop, eat and sleep. I'm a tv addict as well. I'll be fine without using the computer but definitely not without watching the tv. I watch almost everything and anything that is being showed on the tv. I call it “my daily dosage of tv”; everyday without fail. Other than those mentioned above, I’m a little blur, a little clumsy and a little slow in reaction as well.



Not too long ago, I found myself a new interest, which is diving. The underwater world is pretty amazing. With each dive, I found myself getting attracted to that world even more. Though the process of getting down is a little tiring, it’s all worth it. Due to the pack schedule and erratic weather, it’s a little impossible to go for any dives at the moment.





Guess that’s all that I’ve got to say about myself. I’ll probably think about what else I can blog about. Otherwise, it’s going to get boring.