Concept # 7: Netiquette
“Good communication practice on the Internet is not something one ‘learns’, but something one ‘practices’ so as to teach others, less familiar than yourself, how it is done” (Allen, n.d.).
Just like in real life, there is an informal set of guidelines for appropriate behaviour on the Internet which is called Network Etiquette, or commonly known as Netiquette. These guidelines need to be learnt just like in real life. They are an essential part of communication on the Internet, as in face to face communication one can see and read the other persons body language and via telephone can hear the audible tones that you can interpret as behaviour, but on the Internet one cannot hear or see the other persons body language, so interpreting the senders message becomes very difficult and miscommunication can be very common.
In 1995 Sally Hambridge created a document called the RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines which provided a minimum set of guidelines for Network Etiquette (netiquette) to help new users to become familiar with the Internet culture and the behaviour that is acceptable on the Internet. It was the product of the Responsible Use of the Network (RUN) Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Even though some of the guidelines are common sense others need to be learnt (Hambridge, 1995).
Netiquette put quite simply is about remembering that there is human on the other end of any transmission made on the Internet. It is a sad, sad day when one has to be told how to act via a computer when we are instilled with all of our manners from birth. As a society do we constantly need to be reminded of our manners? Apparently so; due to of all of the different netiquette rules that are out there.
Virginia Shea (1997), published her book titled ‘Netiquette’, in which she has covered all areas of electronic communication. Again her first core rule of netiquette is ‘Remember the human’, in which she reminds us that we were taught to “Do unto others as you'd have others do unto you. Imagine how you'd feel if you were in the other person's shoes. Stand up for yourself, but try not to hurt people's feelings” (Shea, 1997 p. 35). Even though this should be common sense, it is quite frightening how easy it is to forget that there is a human on the other end of the communication and that they have feelings like you.
In this day and age of increasing technology, where one could loose themselves in virtual lives etc, Netiquette plays a big part of how one portrays themselves to other users. No matter what material you look at in regards to netiquette, the first rule is always ‘Remember the human’. That in itself says a lot about our society in this technological age. Whether one like’s it or not, documents containing netiquette guidelines are here to stay, to remind us all of the behaviour that is acceptable on the Internet.
Site 1: RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines
Hambridge, S. (1995, October). Netiquette Guidelines. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http://www.stanton.dtcc.edu/stanton/cs/rfc1855.html
Evaluation:
This document would be extremely useful to new users or ‘newbie’s’ as they are called on the Internet. It offers a basic list of guidelines of what is acceptable behaviour on the Internet. It was created by the Responsible Use of the Network (RUN) Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Even though it talks about some legacy systems, and was last updated in October 1995, it is still applicable to today when using the World Wide Web (www). It is laid out very simply so that one can find the information easily and it is written in plain English with no technological talk to confuse new users.
Site 2: Netiquette
Shea, V. (1997). Netiquette. San Francisco: Albion Books. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/0963702513p4.html Evaluation:
Virginia Shea covers the usual basics of netiquette with the usual list of rules, some discussion of email, email style, discussion groups, and flames. It expands beyond that, however, to information retrieval, significant violations, corporate, home and school etiquette, and discussions of sexual relationships, privacy and copyright. It is one of the most complete books on netiquette and offers some common sense on the subject of netiquette. It is easy to read and understand as there is no complicated terminology that would confuse new users to the World Wide Web. Virginia Shea attended Princeton University and worked in Silicon Valley and has studied human nature her entire life.
Concept # 23: Human-Computer Interfaces
“The Internet lessens the recognition of difference between humans and computers because, at a distance, it is often feels similar to communicate and act on the Internet regardless of whether one is speaking with a human or a machine” (Allen, n.d.).
In one way or another humans have interacted with computers since the 1940s right through to today’s Internet. Over those years humans have gradually accepted artificial intelligence or machines that can think. Even today humans are trying to make a robot as human as possible, take for instance Asimo the humanoid robot made by Honda. It can replicate human actions but is still yet to achieve human emotion. Asimo is at the forefront of robotic technology and travels the world interacting with humans to display how far robotic technology has come and what the future of robotics will look like. Asimo’s newly developed intelligence technologies enables it to operate in an environment with people and other ASIMOs, which brings Honda one step closer to the development of a humanoid robot that can be put to practical use in a real world environment requiring coexistence with people. (Honda, 2007).
New users to the Internet can indirectly interact with other humans via social networking programs, such as facebook, msn, skype etc. They still have a core set of friends as the CBC news (2007) stated “while many users have hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances on their accounts, their core group of close friends is till unchanged at around five people”. Even though these relationships are impersonal compared to face-to-face relationships they at least allow a link which would otherwise be lost. Or are they creating friend collectors, a person who collects little-known acquaintances for the sake of having a large number of contacts on their profile.
Humans are accepting that they are interacting with computers in many different ways. Whether it is through online banking, or blogging and even email. Even when humans ring companies they are interacting with computers by the speech recognition software asking for our choices so that we as humans can interact with the companies’ data bases.
Web 2.0 is even more about the human-computer interaction as it allows users to create, cut and paste, drop and click information within web pages. New users are been overcome with the desire to create more and more blogs, you tube posts etc. as they become addicted to being able to modify data and create something that the whole world will see. The thought of having billions of people look at what you have created can be an addictive drug for new users. They feel that they must spend an enormous amount of time on the computer just in case they miss the next big thing. It can cause them being isolated from the rest of the human race and they could feel overwhelmed when they do have to interact with other humans instead of staying in their comfort zone of interacting with computers that do what they are told to do.
Companies such IBM are researching human-computer interaction and their work is concentrated around the behavioural, aesthetic, and value-sensitive aspects of the design of interactive systems (IBM, 2008). Thus allowing them to provide more avenues for humans and computer to interact with each other. Who knows how far this interaction between humans and computers will go in the future. Only time and the limits of ones imagination will tell.
References:
Honda 2007, Honda Develops Intelligence Technologies Enabling Multiple ASIMO Robots to Work Together in Coordination, media release, Honda World News, 11 December. Retrieved July 11, 2008, from http://world.honda.com/news/2007/c071211Enabling-Multiple-ASIMO-to-Work/
IBM n.d., Human-Computer Interaction Research Area, IBM. Retrieved July 11, 2008, from http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research.nsf/pages/r.hci.html
Site 1: Dix, A, Finlay, J, Abowd, GD & Beal, R 2004, Human-Computer Interaction, 3rd edn, Pearson, Upper Saddle River, N.J. Retrieved July 11, 2008, from http://www.hcibook.com/e3/
Evaluation:
This book is also used as a textbook, but it also offers a wealth of resources, exercises and also one can click on each segment of each chapter. It looks at other emerging technologies but is firmly rooted in strong principles and models independent of the passing technologies of the day. It can be used for introductory or advanced courses on human-computer interaction, Interaction Design, Usability or Interactive Systems Design. It would also prove as an invaluable reference for professionals wishing to design usable computing devices. The site is easy to use and finding information within the book can be done with just a click of the mouse.
Site 2: Human-Computer Interaction Resource Network n.d. Retrieved July 11, 2008, from http://www.hcirn.com/index.php
Evaluation:
This website is a fountain of information about human-computer interaction. It not only has an alphabetical list from A-Z on human-computer interaction topics, but it also has tutorials, a collection of short essays, resources, links to other sources of information on human-computer interaction, and job opportunities for human-computer interaction professionals. Once could spend all day just looking at each article from the A-Z index, but for a new person who does not know exactly what they are looking for this could be a deterrent. The added advantage of having a job bank is novel and would only be beneficial to professionals.
Concept # 26 Privacy and Security
“The Internet is a profoundly ‘open’ system and advanced Internet users are cautious about either accepting or sending material from and to unknown sources and are careful in releasing information about themselves in any form. Conceptually, the Internet challenges us to take greater responsibility for the protection of privacy and security than perhaps we are used to when dealing with the media” (Allen, n.d.).
SECURITY
The Internet has enabled individuals across the world to become increasingly connected over the past decade (Adeyinka, 2008). Unfortunately with this connectivity so to does the issue regarding security and privacy on the Internet.
Some of the most common attack methods used is as follows:
Viruses – they are self replicating programs that infect and propagate through files (Adeyinka, 2008). Most computer viruses deliver a ‘payload’, which may be benign, or it may be highly destructive (Laudon & Laudon, 2007).
Eavesdropping or war driving – this occurs when persons drive by buildings or park outside and try to intercept wireless network traffic (Laudon & Laudon, 2007). Having no security key for wireless connections makes it easier for the persons to intercept your information. Hacking – a hacker is an individual who intends to gain unauthorised access into a computer system, they are highly skilled at finding and attacking weaknesses in the security protections employed by computer systems and web sites (Laudon & Laudon, 2007).
Worms – are independent computer programs that copy themselves from one computer to another over a network (Laudon & Laudon, 2007). Two main types of worms are mass-mailing worms, which spreads through e-mail, and network-aware worms (Adeyinka, 2008):
Trojans – are software programs that appear to be benign but then they do something unexpected. Trojans are not viruses but merely the way for a virus or malicious code to be introduced into a computer system (Laudon & Laudon, 2007).
Spoofing – is when hackers use a fake identity, appearing to use a trusted computer, and therefore are able to gain unauthorised access to other computers (Adeyinka, 2008).
Denial of Service – hackers flood a network server or web server with many thousands of false communications or requests for services to crash the network (Laudon & Laudon, 2007).
Even though the Code Red worm infected more than 250,000 systems in just 9 hours on 19 July 2001, the economic impact was $2.6 billion (Householder et al., 2002). The largest impact of security events is the time and resource requirements to deal with them.
PRIVACY
Privacy is something that we took for granted back in the good old days, but in this age of technology privacy is something that we need to protect. “It simply means that the subject of information should be able to control the information” (Adeyinka, 2008).
We can most safely use the Internet by learning as much as possible about two areas:
• What the risk of using the Internet are; and
• Tips on how to successfully protect yourself (Attaran & Van Laar, 1999).
Some of the tips for safeguarding your privacy online are:
• keep all personal information private.
• check companies’ online privacy policy.
• take steps to remove your personal information.
• guard your password (perhaps the most important of all).
• do not get attached to attachments.
• watch what you download.
• keep up-to-date.
• protect your family from inappropriate sites (Attaran & Van Laar, 1999).
The best solution is privacy through technology as technology is a big part of the everyday life of everyone around the world. “The objective must be to bring privacy to the Internet, and bring the Internet to everyday privacy policies” (Attaran & Van Laar, 1999).
Privacy on the Internet is the responsibility of the individual. One must be vigilant at all times when entering anything private information onto the world wide web, one must never completely trust technology with personal and sensitive information, as hackers are always trying to find weaknesses and when they do, they will exploit that weakness and could even steal your identity to fraudulently purchase goods and services, or even siphon money from your bank accounts.
References:
Adeyinka, O. (2008, May 103-15). Internet attack methods an Internet Security Technology. Paper presented at the 2008 Second Asia International Conference on modelling & Simulation. Retrieved July 24, 2008, from IEEExplore database. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/iel5/4530427/4530428/04530455.pdf?tp=&arnumber=4530455&isnumber=4530428
Attaran, M., & Van Laar, I. (1999). Privacy and security on the Internet: how to secure your personal information and company data. Information Management and Computer Security, 7(5), 241-247. Retrieved July 24, 2008, from Emerald Insight database. http://www.emeraldinsight.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/Insight/viewPDF.jsp?Filename=html/Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/0460070505.pdf
Householder, A., Houle, K., & Dougherty, C. (2002). Computer attack trends challenge internet security. Computer, 35(4), 5-7. Retrieved July 24, 2008, from IEEExplore database. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/iel5/2/21810/01012422.pdf?tp=&arnumber=1012422&isnumber=21810
Laudon, K.C., & Laudon, J.P. (2007). Management Information Systems Managing The Digital Firm (10th edn). New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
Site 1: CDT’s guide to online privacy (n.d.). Retrieved 24 July, 2008, from http://www.cdt.org/privacy/guide/start/
Evaluation:
The Centre for Democracy and Technology created this web page to educate Internet users about online privacy and provide practical suggestions and policy recommendations. It is easy to navigate around and pin point exact information. The top ten ways to protect your privacy online is beneficial to new users on the Internet. It provides the basics about privacy, while giving you explanations of what privacy is and why one should care, the courts and privacy, legislative protections, technical initiatives, proxies, firewalls, cookies and anonymizers, and much more. Offers debates and trails on the privacy subject. Site is written in plain English so that all levels of users will be able to understand.
Site 2: The Australian Government NetAlert (n.d.). Retrieved 24 July, 2008 from http://www.netalert.gov.au/home.html
Evaluation:
Created by the Australian Government, but managed by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE); it provides families and children with a safe online environment by providing useful advice and information. This site provides information about security issues like viruses, and Firewalls etc., gives explanations of what they are and where one can find appropriate software to protect ones computer. The features on this site are: advice, filters (content), programs, news and events, about NetAlert, NetAlert survey, and frequently asked questions.
With a national helpline that supports the website, one can keep up-to-date on what the government is doing to help families, libraries and children protect themselves online.
Concept # 1: Asynchronicity
“Asynchronous electronic communication is not the opposite of real-time, synchronous communication: rather it describes forms of communication that appear differently ‘located in time’ depending on the perspective of the sender and receiver” (Allen, n.d.).
Until I started NET11 I did not realise fully how much of the online world depended on asynchronous communication. Throughout my working career and home life, the computer and its varying forms of communication just seemed something that I took for granted and never questioned. I actually never even heard of the word ‘Asynchronous’ or “Synchronous’ before starting NET11.
For those who do not know what Asynchronous means, The Free Dictionary (n.d.) states that Asynchronous means “pertaining to a transmission technique that does not require a common clock between the communicating devices, timing signals are derived from special characters in the data stream itself”. Basically to put it a way that a newbie would be able to understand, is that asynchronous communication is the way that we are learning NET11 with the discussion board and the various other forms of communication that we have had to do for this subject, for example forums.
Learning online can also be a blend of synchronous and asynchronous communication. However asynchronous communication allows the student to check in and check out on their own time (Kerim Friedman, 2007). Asynchronous discussion forums are often used to provide the learner with assistance, support and the social structures more readily available in the face-to-face environment (Sheard, 2004). Using asynchronous communication like discussion groups allows one to either join in or sit back and be a spectator.
Asynchronous communication has allowed foreign students the ability to study outside of their country without leaving the country itself. For this reason alone asynchronous communication plays an integral part in the distance learning experience. Throughout my studies with Open Universities Australia, I have run across students from London, Spain, Italy, and Papua New Guinea. All of them would not be able to complete their studies had it not been for the Internet and asynchronous communication.
E-mail is another form of asynchronous communication as there is no need to synchronize timing or worry about waking the other party up, and there is no cross-Atlantic time zones (Wozniak, 2004). Some people think that e-mail is a form of synchronous communication as they receive a response to the e-mail they sent immediately, but it is still classified as asynchronous communication as e-mail does not rely on a synchronized clock to perform its job. We must also remember that the receiver of our e-mail may have received hundreds of other e-mails apart form the one that we just sent, so if we want our e-mail to stand out and get immediate attention, then we have to give it some form of importance to the receiver by placing in its subject field ‘important’ or some other highlight.
The business sector can take advantage of asynchronous communication. Telstra is such an example by the customer being able to hear the whole top 40 whilst they are on hold. Being able to read frequently asked questions is an advantage to the customer as well, because they do not need to speak to representative face-to-face, and can seek out a solution to their problem at their own leisure or if they cannot find a solution they can contact the help centre for immediate help.
References:
Kerim Friedman, (2007). Asynchronicity. Retrieved August 2, 2008, from http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2007/04/01/asynchronicity/
Sheard, (2004). Electronic learning communities: strategies for establishment and management. Paper presented at the 9th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, Leeds, UK. Retrieved July 31, 2008, from The ACM Digital Library, http://delivery.acm.org.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/10.1145/1010000/1008009/p37-sheard.pdf?key1=1008009&key2=3237767121&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=38995388&CFTOKEN=31236444
The Free Dictionary, (n.d.). Retrieved July 31, 2008, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/asynchronous
Wozniak, (2004). E-mail, incremental reading, creativity, and time-management. Retrieved August 2, 2008, from http://www.supermemo.com/articles/e-mail.htm
Site 1: Golberg, M. (2000). Synchronous vs. Asynchronous: Some Thoughts. Retrieved July 31, 2008, from http://www.webct.com/OTL/ViewContent?contentID=2339346
Evaluation:
Golberg gives a brief explanation of what synchronous and asynchronous communication are as well as pointing out the advantages in teaching and learning about asynchronous communication like email and bulletin boards.
He comments on how asynchronous communication tools remove both the geographical and temporal barriers. He comments on how the removal of the temporal barrier has enabled people to consider the discussion they are part of a little more carefully.
As an educator himself he stated that he may be a bit biased as he only uses asynchronous tools in his electronic course offerings. The article is easy to read and gives a fairly balanced argument.
Site 2: Johnson, L., & Lamb, A. (n.d.). Teaching and Learning at a Distance. Retrieved August 2, 2008, from http://eduscapes.com/distance/
Evaluation:
This website is all about connecting teachers and students with online resources, virtual communications etc. The website is organized well and gives you the basics of online training through its workshop, which is designed for instructional designers, faculty members, and other educators interested in developing online courses for high school through to college level.
Online learning is becoming popular due to the fact that each student and teacher has different learning styles and learning online caters for all of them, whether it is synchronous communication like podcasts or asynchronous communication like bulletin boards. The resources page gives links to further information and virtual schools and libraries.
