QotW7: "Twit Twit..Twiddle de TWITTER!"

“Different virtual communities have different levels of interaction and participation among their members. This ranges from adding comments or tags to a blog or message board post to competing against other people in online video games such as MMORPG.” (Wikipedia, 2007)

A virtual community or online community is a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the Internet. Therefore making Twitter an online community. As mentioned in Wikipedia, Twitter is a social networking service that allows members to inform each other about what they are doing and what they are thinking. It allows users to send messages via the phone or instant messaging. I feel it is an online community because it serves as both a blog and a forum. Twitter allows comments to be posted, acts somewhat like a blog and has a different level of interaction and participation among members. Your comments can either be viewed by both strangers and friends on your list or just by those on your friends list.

Being used to other forms of online communities such as Friendster, Clubsnap and Multiply, I however found Twitter difficult to get used to. No, not because it was complex, but because of its simplicity, something that I am not used to. Its basic function, to post your update, such as what you are currently doing, post links to sites and view other people’s comments and updates. Even your profile is simple; there is no requirement that you need to state your age, what you like, what you don’t like, and where you live.

The comments posted can act as what I would call blog entries. As mentioned on the site in bold and eye-catching are the words “What are you doing?” Keeping your friends updated on topics such as what’s going on in your life what interesting findings you’ve found and would like to share. Just like blogs, it allows you to add friends into your list, and these friends can be viewed and added by others. It allows one to customize how they would like their “site” to look like, allows for an avatar, and entries are in chronological order, all characteristics of a blog. Therefore, this is another reason why I feel it can be considered an online community, if a blog is an online community, so is Twitter.com.

However, unlike usual blogs such as Multiply, Blogger, Xanga or Livejournal, Twitter has a word limit of a 140 characters on each entry you can post. There something called the “Public timeline” which allows you to view other comments and updates people have posted.

These comments can range from personal comments to website links that people find interesting and useful.

An example of a personal comment would be:

An example of a link or general comment would be:


Communities do not necessarily have to be solitary groups of densely-knit neighbors, but also exist as social networks of kin, friends, and workmates who do not necessarily live in the same neighborhoods. (Wellman 1988a, 1993). Twitter provides just that, for this assignment, adding friends formed a social network online. One of classmates and friends even though we may not have much in common or stay in the same neighborhood, we are still a social network, and therefore, an online community.

Twitter, IS an online community.

References

Fernback.J & Thompson.B (1995) Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure? Retrieved on March 14, 2007, from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html

Wellman.B & Gulia.M (1996)Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone:
Virtual Communities as Communities. Retrieved on March 14, 2007, from http://www.acm.org/~ccp/references/wellman/wellman.html

Wikipedia (2007) Virtual Community. Retrieved on March 14, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communities

Wikipedia (2007) Twitter.Retrienved on March 14, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

QotW5: Seeing Double?

Imagine this. You are an avid blog reader. From link to link, you read about other peoples lives. People you never meet, people who are friends of a friend’s friend. One day while browsing through the many blogs, you come across a person with the same name as yours and you think to yourself, “Wow! What are the chances of that?” So curiously you click the link and the page loads only to display your worst nightmare. Someone has stolen your identity!. This person has your name, your profile, and even your pictures posted on the blog, passing them off as his or her own! The only difference, the person’s words to depict your life.

I am a member of a Singapore photography forum called ClubSnap. It is here that I inhabit an online identity for myself. Here, not everyone knows how the other looks like. Neither do they get to know much about the person except for the photos they have taken. Unlike the very popular Friendster, avatars in this forum are rarely those which display pictures of the user and the information page of each member is scarce. Identity plays a key role in virtual communities. (Donath, 1996) It is in this forum, I have established an identity for myself not as a student or a 23 year old female, but as a photographer.

In this forum, it is not so much who you are that matters, but the kind of pictures you take, the number of entries you post and the information you give or are given based on photography. Who you really are, and how you look never really matters. These are the main basis for establishing reputation in this forum. To set a reputation in this forum means being able to accomplish at least two of the three mentioned.

I participate most often in a section of the forum called “Photo A Day.” In this section, members are encouraged to post pictures a day or whenever possible for other members viewing. It is in this very section that I believe I have set a reputation for myself. Why would I say so? Well, in this section, how many times your thread has been viewed is shown at the side of each entry. With this display at the side, members can take a look at whose thread, or pictures have been viewed the most. The more views, the better people think you are. The better they think you are, the more likely they are to view your thread. The more positive comments you get about your photograph, the more people would look up to your photography skills.

According to the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act (2003)[ITADA] amended the U.S. Code, s. 1028 - "Fraud related to activity in connection with identification documents, authentication features, and information". The Code now makes possession of any "means of identification" to "knowingly transfer, possess, or use without lawful authority" a federal crime, alongside unlawful possession of identification documents. (Wikipedia, 2007)

As identified in this act, the “transfer, possess, or use without lawful authortiy” can be considered as identity theft. It is because of this that has made posting pictures online has its worries. With little evidence that the taken picture is yours, there is a possibility that your work could be stolen by someone else. With programs such as Photoshop made available for the public for the use of editing images, pictures stolen could be made to look like its ones own when it is not. Photoshop intimidates me. No, it is not because it is hard to use, but because of its capabilities. Most often that not, people are advised to “stamp” or personalize logos onto their pictures before posting online. However, these logos or stamps can easily be blurred, stamped, and erased away with the use of programs such as Photoshop and passed off elsewhere as works of their own. The picture below demonstrates how one can "stamp" their picture with words and a signature at the bottom.

As much as this may sound more like a copyright issue, rather than an identity theft, one must come to understand that in the photography world, the photographs taken by a photographer does not simply reflect his or her skills. The photograph does not merely reflect the skills of a photographer; rather, the photograph is the photographer.

It is greed, fame and probably the desire for acknowledgement that drives many to steal other identity. Online shopping and site membership registrations often require user details and credit card numbers. We often get complacent and tell ourselves “It would never happen to me.” However, with the increase in technology, and the availability of the internet, fighting identity thieves has been made more difficult. So what’s there to say you would not be next?

References

Donath, J. (1996). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Wikipedia (2007) Identity theft. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft

ClubSnap (2007) Photo a Day Project 2007. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from http://forums.clubsnap.org/

Oxford Analytica (2007) Hooked on Phishing. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from http://www.forbes.com/business/2005/04/29/cz_0429oxan_identitytheft.html

QotW4: "It's for free! Come and get it!"

“A gift economy is an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange is for goods and services to be given without explicit agreement upon a quid pro quo” (Wikipedia, 2007)

Almost anything can be considered as a gift, as long as there is giving. In the gift economy, there is limit to how much you can give; however, giving does not necessarily mean that you will receive something after the act. A blog, a book, simple website and even a conversation between two are all forms of gifts. They teach and give insights to certain areas and ideas, these are all considered gifts.

A Gift Economy can provide several benefits. One benefit would be that the “gift” that’s given can provide someone who has no means of attaining it with the need for this “gift”. More often than not, when u give this “gift”, one rarely expects for anything in return. “In a ‘market’ economy, says Hyde, the highest status belongs to those who have acquired the most. In a Gift Economy, the highest status belongs to those who have given the most. But what is most important, he says, is that the gift must always move.” (Pollard, 2005) It was believed that the move Pay It Forward had a part to play in this economy and a strongly agree. This movie touched the hearts of many when a small boy wanted to do something for the world. He began with a simple school project.

The diagram above was the example of what the boy’s idea was all about. He believed if one person were to give to another two, and another two people were to give to another two and so on, the gift would constantly move and multiply. I believe this idea is the perfect example of how a Gift Economy should be, and how tremendous of an impact a simple act of giving can achieve. As mentioned earlier, “the highest status belongs to those who have given the most.”

I am proud to say that I play a part in this fantastic gift economy as described above. Giving, but not really expecting anything in return. I am a member of ClubSnap, an online forum where photography fanatics gather and share anything and everything online. The public get to share their personal works, information on products, gatherings and sales opportunities are all made in on single forum. It amazes me how everyone in that forum willingly gives out advice and information simply at the click of the button. Just a simple post such as, “What brand of DSLR should I purchase?” and within minutes, you would get many different responses and different opinions. A second question can then be asked, “Why?” and yet again, within seconds, people begin responding to their question, explaining in detail their reasons why.

One other example which demonstrates the act of giving would be a particular page in the forum called “critique corner.” In here, people get to post their own photographic works up for comment. Now, I am sure one would expect a simple comment such as “Great!” “Nice work!” “Keep it up!” However, that is not the case. Without asking, the public who view the work tend to comment further on the picture, going into the technicalities of photography, some even give out personal secrets to getting an outstanding picture.

Now let us think about this again. Why would anyone give off such valuable information? And often than not, expect nothing in return for the recipient? Why is there so much evidence of cooperation and selflessness in online communities such as forums? I personally believe that people who participate in online communities tend to be more giving rather than taking is because they have not met this particular person. There is no face to face interaction and thus one cannot see the other. How the other person who requires the information is unknown. There is hardly any form of judgment towards the recipient. Therefore, with less opportunity for behaving judgmental, it leaves everyone who has the same interests on an equal level playing field. Everyone is interlinked simply by a common interest. Now if such behavior can be said for members of any form of online community, or taking part in the Gift economy via the internet, what’s there to say about our behavior offline? Are we as giving? I wish we all were.

References
Pollard.D (April, 2005). How to save the world. Retrieved on February 9, 2007 from http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/04/17.html

Wikipedia (February, 2007). Gift Economy. Retrieved on February 8, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy

Kollock, P. (1999). The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace. Retrieved on February 6, 2007 from ">http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

QotW3: Benefitting the two

Buy it. Copy it. Send it. Share it.

These words can describe how majority of us go about getting information, whether it is in hardcopy or softcopy. However in such a digitalized world that we are in now, information has become easily accessible. There are online versions of popular fiction, academic books, scientific research, statistics, television programs and music which all can be purchased or viewed to over the internet. Not only this but with its ease in accessibility, brings also ease of duplication and worse still even greater ease of information sharing over the internet. With so many things now turning digital, easily accessible, and open to most of the public; how can content creators ensure that their creations are protected from duplication and theft?

Content creators have been given exclusive rights to their creations with the help of the Copyright law. The Copyright law is not only set up to benefit mainly the creators but also the public. Personally, I felt that Copyright forms a vicious cycle between the two groups. It gives content creators the ability to protect their work and exclusive rights to is given even if it was for a limited period of time. Given this benefit, creators will have that level of reassurance that their work is protected from theft or duplication. The public also stand to benefit from this law as they are allowed to view these works and even use them for their personal benefit. For many creators, their works are their source of income. With demand and purchases made for their work, this monetary gain would give creators the motivation to continue on with their work. With the demand for more information from the public to the creators, creators would continue to publish more work and this would in turn continue to benefit the public as well. The copyright law is created with the intention to provide balance between the interests of the creators and the public.

However, in recent years, the public have been abusing this benefit that they have been given from such easily accessible information. People have begun duplicating others works and distributing them to others for their own benefit or for the benefit of others while breaking the Copyright rule. They have begun “copy, and pasting” works of others, distributing them illegally and even passing them off as works of their own. Plagiarism is prevalent in schools, and students are often reminded of the severity of such actions. People illegally download music via downloading programs such as Napster and Torrent (Wikipedia, 2007). The most popular form of sharing would be Peer-to-Peer (P2P) activities where file sharing freely occurs (Wikipedia, 2007). More than 60 million Americans participate in this activity of file sharing (Karagiannis et al., 2004). It is because of such activities that content creators have begun blaming such activities for the drop in sales and profit. The music industry has been affected the most by online activities such as these and until today, is still an issue in many countries.

I sincerely believe that these activities are not to be fully blamed for the drop in sales, and that there is a possibility that there are other undiscovered factors that could be negatively affecting sales. Taking music for example, I believe that file sharing can most often than not, help boost sales figures.

This diagram which has been extracted from a study done by Felix Oberholzer-Gee from Harvard Business School on The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales in June 2005, demonstrates how downloads can be seen as means to boost sales. Such exposure can have positive outcomes. For example, people who have not heard of certain artist and are suddenly introduced to them might become potential fans and begin purchasing merchandise related to that particular artist.

Both interests can be accommodated with various ideas. Content Creators can look to other means of profit creation by holding concerts. Educating the public can be further enhanced by teaching them that there are other means to getting their music. Take iTunes for example. iTunes provide music listeners with the opportunity to get the desired song they would like legally and at a minimal cost of less than a dollar. This allows the public to get the son they desire without having to purchase the CD for just one or two songs. With this, the amount of money that would normally be spent on buying a whole CD can now allow the public to purchase a single song from different artist for ones own use. This way, both the interests of content creators and public good can be satisfied.


In conclusion, I believe that to further ensure that these interests are maintained; companies can come up with new ways to embed software to stop people from copying and sharing files too much, allowing there to be a block when the limit has been exceeded. Other alternative ways to gain monetary value could be sought. For example, musical artist could hold concerts and writers could hold writing classes and seminars. Further more, harsher penalties could be imposed on offenders. A justifiable spokesperson could be appointed to discourage piracy. Content creators can work to establishing bonds with companies who produce mp3s.

References
Ovalle, C. (2005). An Introduction to Copyright. Information in Cyberspace, 2. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/1.php

Oberholzer-Gee, F., & Strumpf, K. (2005). The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales. Retrieved January 29, 2007, from http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_June2005_final.pdf

Wikipedia ( January, 2007). “Downloading” Retrieved January 30, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downloading

Wikipedia (29 January, 2007). “Peer-to-Peer” Retrieved January 30, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer

COM 125 Week 2: Netscape Navigator

The year 1994, represented a monumental year for the development of the internet. The internet allowed people to begin networking with one another, allowing for greater communication.

That very same year in December of the same year, the tech world witnessed the release of Netscape Navigator 1.0. The words “Netscape Navigator” may not ring a bell in the typical internet user today in Singapore. However to the local early adopters of the internet here, the Navigator package is one which provided the initial leap into the world of the internet back in the late 90s. I’m sure some of us will feel tinges of nostalgia roused within from our early streaks of internet excitement. The familiar packaging with large capital ‘N’ coupled with the black horizon littered with stars explicitly displayed holding what was the revered cd-rom or in some cases floppy discs!

It was developed after the first World Wide Web browser, Mosaic which was developed in 1992. It started when Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics met Marc Andreesseen. Clark saw great prospects in Mosaic and provided funds for its development. Back then, the corporation who had taken up the work was called Mosaic Communications Corporation. But how did Netscape get its name? The University of Illinois where Andreessen had graduated from, was displeased with the usage of the word “Mosaic” and so decided to to change its name to “Netscape Communications” and thus naming he web browser Netscape Navigator. (Wikipedia, 2007)

I consider the release of Netscape Navigator 1.0

as an important milestone in internet history. This is due to the fact that its release provided empowerment to the internet “newbie” back at a time when the phrase “newbie” had yet to be even coined!

Netscape Navigator was the first internet browser to offer a complete, secure client/server system; providing the perfect platform for users to explore all the internet had to offer. For the first time, users were given the tools to realize the potentiality of the internet. Email, IRC, web browsing, and even the humble beginnings of E-commerce. Netscape brought about the foundations for the way the internet is browsed and used today – the simplicity of point and click operation coupled with the foundations of secure internet usage.

However, its strong life span in the world of internet began to decrease in the year 1996 due to their competitor, Microsoft. Despite its sudden decrease in usage to the popularity of its competitor called the Internet Explorer (I.E), it still managed to sustain its presence in the Internet world till the year 2004. (Wikipedia, 2007)

Through the years, people have contributed the downfall of Netscape to another factor other than to Internet Explorer. Others believed that it was due to the need to upgrade that caused Netscape’s downfall. Netscape wanted to modify itself to improve the quality of usage that can be gained by users. However, their research and development took them three years to complete. By which time, many had grown accustomed to the old version of Netscape, version 0.4, that they did not want to switch to something new. (Wikipedia, 2007) This led to people thinking that Netscape had caused their own failure.

I find it a surreal experience to actually look back 13 years ago, to see the humble beginnings of what the internet as we know it today, take place at such an innocent age of discovery. I wonder whether the developers at the time even dreamt of the hints of what the ramifications of such software could be?

References

Wikipedia (5 September, 2006). "History of World Wide Web". Retrieved January 25, 2007 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_World_Wide_Web&oldid=73974490

Wikipedia (21 January, 2007). "Netscape Navigator". Retrieved January 25, 2007 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Navigator">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Navigator

Wikipedia (18 January, 2007 “Mosaic(web browser)” Retrieve January 26, 2007 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser)

"Netscape" Retrieve January 25, 2007 from http://www.netscape.com/">http://www.netscape.com/

Courtesy? what's that?

I love the look on this little puppy... Her eyes just staring straight into the camera with such innocence. All the shots i got from her were lovely... well, here's 2...

I.C customers can be quite a pain in the ass. We all say Ice-Cream's happy food... yeah, sure it is... it also makes people so happy that they jut care about their happiness and behave in the most obnoxious and inconsiderate manner. During he day, secondary and JC students come in, make a whole lot of noise, and take loads of tissue paper which they'd never use and if they were blown off the table, they'd simply let them fly...alll over....the place... Water spills, they leave it and don't notify us, leaving it to get stomped on and leaving foot prints all voer the place. Singaporeans seem to have this lack of manners, no "please" no "thank you" no "may i", nothing. just i want this and that and this and that. PLEASE! it's just $2.50, i don't owe you anything! Parents come in with their children, and even the little ones have more manners than they do!

These people can sometimes make work boring and makes one's blood boil. I'm even sorry to say this, the JC kids and Secondary kids who come are simply rude... We have frequent girls who come from Nanyang Sec school, and these girls are the worst, they scream, they shout, and vulgarities just flow like water. and recently, two girls openly drank Vodka in Island! After drinking, the "provider" even gave me the "I'm cool fo drinking underage" look... LOL! and minutes later, she had her foot up on the bench like those uncles at the kopi tiam, and acting all tipsy, boy was she amusing to look at! PHFT...

Sitting the car today, with the windows down...made me love the car even more... I super love Minis... My Goal, to own one... a Cooper Cabriolet.... how happy i would be! I love this car!

Well, here's the last picture of my post, Christopher's guitar.