Last week, we started to look at issues of privacy and security on the Internet. This week, we will
take a deeper look at the social Internet and how this new paradigm impacts our digital lives.
What is Web 2.0?
When the Internet first started, it was a great place to publish information. Because publishing was
so difficult (one had to know HTML and have access to specialized web servers), few individuals
created web pages. Websites were created by organizations or businesses and focused on
delivering “read only” content, where individuals were consumers of the content. Few individuals
created personal webpages.
The term Web 2.0 refers to the secondgeneration
of the Internet, often referred to as the “social
Internet.” In this new Internet, individual users become both consumers and creators of Internet
content. Did anything really change or is there really a new Internet? Yes and no. Technology
moved forward enough to provide new tools and services that made it easy for the novice user to
create Internet content. Best of all, these tools and services are generally available to the average
user free of charge!
What are some of these tools that make up Web 2.0? It’s difficult to tell which came first, so I’ll
focus on categories of tools.
Social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Yammer have gained popularity
among a wide range of users. Once thought to be the domain of the young, social networking
sites boast a wellrounded
population of users. According to a PEW Institute research report
(Duggan & Brenner, 2013), a full 33% of all Facebook users are 50 years of age or older. Social
media sites provide users with a way to connect with family, friends, and colleagues by posting
just about anything that interests them.
Blogging, or creating a web log, is another way users can develop content for the Internet. With a
wide variety of free sites such as Blogger and WordPress, users can create blogs for almost any
purpose and post content quickly and easily. Content can be simple text or rich media. Blogs can
contain multiple linked pages, similar to websites, making them an excellent alternative to
traditional website creation. The popularity of blogging has increased over the years, as publishing
tools have become even easier to use.
Along the same lines of blogging is microblogging,
or Twitter. Here the user can send tweets of
up to 140 characters on just about any topic and follow other Twitter users. These tweets are
pushed out to followers, making them available immediately to the entire Twitter community.
Because millions of users are connected worldwide, information is available in almost realtime.
As a result, many news stories broke first on Twitter before the rest of the traditional news media
was reporting the story. Indeed, Twitter followers often were the first to learn of major news stories
almost as they occurred. This is because those who were living the experience were reporting
what they saw through microtweets.
In addition to social networking and blogging sites, users can create content on a number of other
tools such as SlideShare (for sharing PowerPoint presentations), YouTube (for sharing videos), as
well as sites such as StumbleUpon, Diigo, and Pinterest for social bookmarking.
Living in a Digital World
In Chapter 8, Bowles continues his discussion of what it means to live in a digital world. Bowles
provides excellent warning about privacy, piracy, and pornography. Most importantly, Bowles
discusses how to protect yourself and your family from these dangers. Pay special attention to the
discussions on virus and malware attacks. According to Kaspersky (Raiu & Emm, 2013), a
manufacturer of Internet security products, the biggest threat of malware is on mobile devices. In
addition, there appears to be an increasing attack on mobile banking, “the mobile world is one the
fastestdeveloping
IT security areas” (Raiu & Emm, 2013, para. 1). As a result, security and
proper protection is very important.
However, viruses and malware are not the only threats to your privacy and safety on the Internet.
There are many schemes that prey on human vulnerabilities to take advantage of Internet users.
“Get rich quick” schemes are everywhere. While there are many ways in which one can
legitimately make money on the Internet (ecommerce
being one), there are many, many scams
that seek to separate you from your hardearned
cash. Email and Internet fraud is everywhere and
one must be savvy to spot the schemes. Dvorak (2010) wrote a wonderful article for PC Magazine
that describes how one can spot an Internet hoax. The number one way that you can spot a hoax:
it’s on the Internet (Dvorak, 2010). I think what Dvorak is saying is that we must be aware,
understand our own responsibility in protecting our digital identity, and stay alert to possible fraud.
Because of digital connectivity, we have access to individuals from around the world as well as
those individuals right in our own backyards in ways that remove the limitations of time and space.
We can carry on conversations through our computers whether they are through chat or through
video conferencing. Businesses can save millions of dollars connecting employees and customers
through web conferencing tools. Employees can enjoy the benefits of telework. However, all of
this connectivity comes at a price: increasing bandwidth requirements. Bandwidth is used to
describe how much data can be sent or received and how quickly the packets will be transmitted.
In the United States, bandwidth can be expensive. In fact, we have some of the most expensive
and slowest Internet connections available (McNicholas, 2011). Not surprisingly, Asian countries
such as Japan and South Korea have made significant investments in Internet infrastructure. Here
in the United States, companies are worried that the costs of making such improvements to our
infrastructure will be slow to recoup. But as the rest of the world offers faster, cheaper Internet
speeds, the US will need to increase bandwidth in order to compete in a global economy.
Finally, with all of this connectivity, we need to be mindful of the legal implications. Our world has
become flat (Bowles, 2013), we have great deal of information available at our finger tips.
Remember our discussions on intellectual property? The ease of which we can obtain information
can blur the lines between ownership of intellectual assets once they are made available on the
Internet. Be sure to take the time to understand why it is important to honor those who provide us
with intellectual assets and give proper credit through appropriate academic citations.
PowerPoint
PowerPoint is the third and final application in the Microsoft Office suite that we will be exploring in
this class. PowerPoint is used to create presentations of all types, but most often, it is used to
create business presentations. One of the reasons PowerPoint is such a powerful presentation
tool is because of the number of different types of elements that can be embedded in a
presentation. A user can include graphic elements including photographs and clip art, animated
content, live links to Internet content, embedded videos and sound files, and elements created in
other Microsoft applications such as Excel data, charts, or graphs.
Because presentations can be, well, boring, users need to learn how to effectively use PowerPoint
to create professional presentations that get the message across without putting the audience to
sleep. Learning how to avoid the “wall of words” is important. According to Garr Reynolds (2013),
presentations should follow some basic guidelines to be effective. Consider simple, clean
presentations that use a minimum of distracting elements. Limit bullet points and transitions, and
use highquality
graphics that are essential to your presentation. However, the most important
thing to remember about PowerPoint presentations is the message! Be sure that your message is
clearly told and not lost in the technology.
To help you remember these points, I recommend watching a very funny yet all too important
presentation by comedian and engineer Don McMillan titled, “ Life After Death by PowerPoint ”:
http://youtu.be/KbSPPFYxx3o. Although meant to be a humorous look at PowerPoint
presentations, Don provides some very useful information for anyone learning to create
presentations. Enjoy!
References
Bowles, M. D. (2013). Introduction to computer literacy. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education,
Inc.
Dvorak, J. C. (2010, December 1). Top 10 ways to spot an Internet hoax . PCMag. Retrieved from
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2373694,00.asp
Duggan, M., & Brenner, J. (2013, February 14). The demographics of social media users – 2012
[PDF file]. Retrieved from PEW Research Center:
http://pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2013/PIP_SocialMediaUsers.pdf
McNicholas, K. (2011, January 24). The fastest Internet speeds in the world . Forbes. Retrieved
from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kymmcnicholas/2011/01/24/thefastestinternetspeedsintheworld/
Raiu, C., & Emm, D. (2013, December 10). Kaspersky security bulletin 2013. Overall statistics for
2013. Retrieved from
http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792318/Kaspersky_Security_Bulletin_2013_Overall_sta
tistics_for_2013
Reynolds, G. (2013). Top ten slide tips. Retrieved from
http://www.garrreynolds.com/presotips/
design/
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