Ning - Personalising Mass Social Networking - Item 1

A number of social networking websites are through out the World Wide Web. To name a few:

• Facebook
• Delicous
• Flickr
• Twitter
• myspace
• youtube

Users usually only try to stick to one of these services to connect with their friends, family, fans, co-workers, etc. because keeping familiar to one service is much easier than it is when a user tries to use many.

The downside to using one social networking application alone is the information is usually only kept within the application itself, so outside networks can't access.

A web service, launched in October 2005, tried to gather all the social networking websites into one and change the way people viewed social networking.

Ning was this web application. It is a monthly paid service which allows customers to create a community website for anything with the ability to customize the appearance with its own feel with features such as photos, videos, forums and blogs. It can receive and send information to social networking sites to keep the user able to stick to one service. Ning's services extend to the social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo!

Ning is able to collect information from multiple social networking websites which MySpace and Facebook has not achieved and still stay inside their own "boundaries".

Over 90,000 social websites are running on the Ning platform. It has turned into a successful service.

Creative Commons Licensing - Item 1

When offering any work you have done under a Creative Commons licence, it doesn't mean you are giving up your copyright. It means allowing more use of your materials through other means, under certain conditions.

There are four Creative Commons Licences and more than one can be used on the same piece of work.

Attribution (BY): Whenever work is copied or distributed, the original creator must be credited and the source linked to.

Non-commercial (NC): Lets others copy, distribute, display and perform the work for non-commercial purposes only.

No Derivative Works (ND): Lets others distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work. They may not adapt or change the work in any way.

Share Alike (SA): Allows others to remix, adapt and build on the work, but only if they distribute the derivative works under the same license terms that govern the original work.

The photo sharing website, Flickr, uses these licences. It is understandable why Flickr gives many options for people to license their products. A lot of users have different views on their products. Some would rather let their pictures be shared and used for free rather than being paid for its use. Others would rather be paid or acknowledged in the use of their products.

But does Flickr promote Creative Commons Licensing enough?

I honestly would like to be acknowledge and paid for it if it's an image I'm to use for a company, or personal use. If it was for viewing pleasure, I'd definitely want to change my licensing to public.

So I do agree that Flickr does enough to promote Creative Commons Licensing. Let's face it. A lot of users who use Flickr are people who rarely use or know much about permissions with products online.

Google Reader - Benefits & Drawbacks - Item 1

After subscribing to a few feeds on Google Reader, I've taken quite a liking to it. The subscriptions I signed up to were: FAIL Blog, xkcd.com, both for a good chuckle. I'm a guy who loves his humour.

I've noticed a couple of benefits while using Google Reader. When I login to Google Reader, it shows how many new posts are online since I last logged in. As I scroll down the page and read each post, the application automatically ticks it as read for me, so I know I'm up to date with the blog when I'm finished. It is a lot more useful than email boxes, how you have to click "read" or click into each one to count it as read.

I looked further into Google Reader since I was interested in this new application, and found some downsides to it. It doesn't update when new material is added to the subscribed material. The updates to Google Reader lags a bit but doesn't take longer than 15 minutes to receive new material.

I also found Google Reader doesn't annotate items, so it's hard to understand some images or videos I receive.

All in all, I would recommend Google Reader to everyone I know who likes to keep an eye on their subscriptions. The Pros out-weight Cons in my opinion. I will stay a Google "Reader" for quite some time now, since I have experienced it's magic.

AJAX is Your Friend - Item 1

Ever get tired of typing the same thing in a search engine or email login? Then all of a sudden what you are about to type appears highlighted and you can click it to type the rest of your work. This is AJAX, and only one way to use it.

AJAX working in a search bar, looking into
popular common searches.

AJAX takes the repetitiveness out of exploring the World Wide Web. AJAX stops the start-stop style of flow of Web pages by sending bits of information while the Web page is still stopped. This technique is only limited to a certain extent, but eliminates the constant page refresh problem.

A lot of common uses of AJAX used in Web pages are: username validation, checking fields in forms are properly filled in, and checking for commonly referred searches in search bars.

References

D. Murphy (2011, August 6) The World Wide Web, Not the Internet, Turns 20 Today [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390583,00.asp

Reading Response : Lessons from the History of the Internet [Image] (2012, August 6) Retrieved from http://ijndekwuforcm221.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/eading-response-lessons-from-the-history-of-the-internet/

History of web application, (2007, July 13) Retrieved from http://www.roseindia.net/servlets/HistoryOfWebApplication.shtml

Mobile Device Configuration, [Image] (2012, August 6)
http://www.deakin.edu.au/current-students/it-support/email/mobile/index.php

Health care embraces the iPad: Doctors jump on the new technology, (2011, February 7) Retrieve from http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/02/07/bisa0207.htm

[Society Embracing Technology] Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6238309.stm

Why the Web Evolved into Web 2.0 - Item 1

There were a great number of technological developments that helped evolve the Web into the Web 2.0 we know today, but most of us don't realise them. A few of these developments I believe had a bigger influence then others, such as:

• Connectivity available almost everywhere
• Web-based applications were developed for many devices
• Society embraced technological changes

Connectivity Available almost Everywhere
The World Wide Web was distributed globally thanks to the help of the Internet. A lot of people think the Internet and World Wide web are the same thing, but they are not. The Internet was actually invented a few years before the World Wide Web (Murphy 2011, August 6).

The Internet is a system of local area networks, regional networks, and other separate networks that are all inter-connected like a spider web. It was a system some businesses used to keep information inside their business.

Example of networks (Reading Response : Lessons
from the History of the Internet, August 6, 2012)

This "spider web" is what is used by computers to communicate to other computers. For example, computer "A" can connect up to computer "B", or even smart phone "C" to exchange information thanks to this "webbed" network (Murphy 2011, August 6).

Who created the world wide web though and why? It was all thanks to a man called Tim Berners-Lee. While he was working at a company called "Cern", he noticed there was a lot of random information in his job that didn't relate to each other. So he came up with a program called "Enquire" which linked all this information together. This program helped give him the idea for the World Wide Web later on in his carrier.

He purposed a project to his company about making a program that would link all the information that was at his firm on the internet. This project further gave him the idea to link the internet and hypertext markup language together to make a global information centre. Also being the kind of person he was, instead of making million and most likely billion from his idea, Tim gave his invention away for free.

Web-based applications were developed for many devices

Different Mobile Devices (Mobile
Device Configuration, 2012 August 6) 

Client-server computing use to have each application have it's own client program and worked as a user interface. This user interface had to be installed to each user's computer in order to enable the application (History of web application, 2007 July 13).

Although today most web applications use HTML or XHTML that are usually supported by all the browsers. Every Web page is displayed to a client as a static document in which lets the user navigate through the content on the page. The difference in a web application is that it provides a more interactive experience on the client side (History of web application, 2007 July 13).

All mobile devices use XHTML to apply the same effect a web application would have on a personal computer. This is because XHTML uses CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which is helpful in resizing Web pages as well as content for client-side viewing outside the use of a personal computer.

Society embraced technological changes

First year medical students using the iPad.
(Health care embraces the iPad, February 7, 2011)

People from all over the globe are adopting technology earlier than their previous of kin. Research from Las Vegas reveals that consumers are understanding technology and adopting it because it is the future. Mr. Wargo, the director of industry analysis for the Consumer Electronics Association (or CEA), stated that people are not just upgrading their current technologies, but buying new one's every year.  (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6238309.stm)

From the research point of view, consumers of the current generation are adopting technologies early and are understanding it well.