Bonus Mission #2: Second Life as online community

In this era, it has become a trend to meet someone online. IM, social networking site, or other online community sites are the medium. Second Life (SL) is one of the popular sites to meet somebody and for a relationship. For me, Second Life is like online community and also a game.

A game is a structured or semi-structured activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes also used as an educational tool. Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interactivity. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both (Game, 2007).

SL is game where it provides certain enjoyment and makes us feel happy from playing it. But what makes SL is not a game according to Wikipedia is SL does not have a goal, a certain goal that every game has. In SL, we create our own avatar and go around from one place to other places, get a new friend and form a relationship. With this capability, SL is also considering as an online community.

Second Life
What is Second Life? Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world. Developed by Linden Lab, a downloadable client program enables its users, called "Residents", to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another (Second Life, 2007).

Second Life is like World of Warcraft whereas, players of the game enjoy the form of community rarely seen in the real world (Levy, 2007). In SL what the players can do is they can join group that has the same interest or hobby.

SL also has its own economy. Like a real community, if a players (residents) want to build or create something they got to buy a land first before they could sell their creation. At here, money exchange are happening, from real money to Linden Dolar (SL currrency).

Differences
The most significant aspect that differentiates SL as a game and online community is in SL, we do not have any goal. We could go wherever we want to without any certain task to accomplish or meeting strangers without killing them.
Besides that, in SL you can kiss or even get married with strangers. It’s online community that could allow this action to happen.

But many players consider this site is also a game whereas you could use your creativity to gain profit by selling your product. It got rules and regulation in the SL which is the features of a game.

Conclusion
SL is not only a game but also an online community. We use it as a game when we use our creativity and we follow the rules and regulation that come along with the game. SL is an online community when we use it to meet somebody and to form a relationship. The key points that differentiate SL as a game and online community is SL does not have a goal to accomplish like a game.

Refences:
Game. (2007). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 4th, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game

Levy, S. (2007). World of Warcraft: Is It a Game?. Retrieved April 4th, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/print/1/displaymode/1098/

Second Life. (20007). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 4th, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

QotW10: second life= second me?

Introducing to you guys a new 'game', called Second Life (SL). Well, at her you can create another you (not specifically), with different name, face and etc.

My avatar name at SL is Mariani Cortes. Why I choose Cortes because if you get my initial name its become MC, which exactly the same as my real life :)

So, firstly i got to introduce to you guy about my avatar. Why I edited my avatar like this? Well, I still choose to be female in my SL :P and keep my black hair. The other appearance? Just to make my avatar look good, nothing special behind it :)

The clothing is the kind I wont wear in my real life except for the red pants. As you can see, my avatar is a little bit taller than my real height. For the face, ignore it. My real face is even prettier :P

Well, let me bring you to my favorite place, it's called "Perfect Prefabs Cyan". Just click the 'search' tab and click 'places'. Type 'garden' and it in the first in the list. As you can see below, I am flying(WOW!) as the place as my background. It got beach, gazebo, and waterfall. Such nice place to hang out in SL.

Inside the main building, it got a room where you (your avatar) can rest and relax? As you can see below, I am relaxing on one of the couches. And it got beds to let you sleep on!! Well, I think this one suppose to be the study room? I got an action that make your avatar look like reading a book :D Well, I do not know what room is this, but it got a lot of chair like the one my avatar was sitting on.Well, this place is the one of the places that I like to visit in SL

Come and joinSL, do not forget to add me :)

QotW9: STOMP- news from You, by You, for You.

As technology becomes more advanced, we can update news almost anywhere at anytime. Using just digital camera or camera from mobile phone, one can be journalist reporting news that would not be covered by local newspaper or television. News that are reported from the citizens give us different perspective of events that happening around us everyday. Blog is one of the places which provide this opportunity to people like to become a journalist of my own. As Dan Gilmore mentioned “To understand the evolution of tomorrow’s news, we need to understand the technologies that are making it possible. The tools of tomorrow’s participatory journalism are evolving quickly.”

Citizen Journalism

According to wikipedia (2007), citizen journalism also known as "participatory journalism," is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information". Citi zen journalism is the news from citizen, by citizen and for citizen. So to get new from different point of view and the one that you cannot find in news paper, internet is the best source.

With internet and blog to make news available easily, we are no longer live in dark age where we have to gulp everything that have been written in newspaper.

STOMP

STOMP (Straits Times Online Mobile Print) is one the citizens journalism that availble in cyberspace. STOMP integrates content and activities in the three platforms of print, online and mobile. It delivers content which is interactive and which will help develop new communities of Singaporeans bonded together by shared interests. The Straits Times Editor Han Fook Kwang explained, "In the new media environment, newspapers have to be more than just passive providers of news. They have to engage their readers in areas which appeal to them. We have to provide readers with new avenues to express themselves, to enable them to interact with us, and among themselves." (STOMP, 2006)

This site is very interesting and interactive. As I browsing through it, I noticed they provide a section where you can ask anything about a correct-spoken-English (you cannot find this in local newspaper) called English As It Is Broken.

Another thing is they also provide a section where you watch videos that being recorded in some events. This Stomp-cast section is very useful when you got no time to watch television and you can update the news from here.

What Can Be Done?

When I go through some of the news that being published, I noticed that the news is more like entertainment section in newspaper. As you can see in Singapore Seen section, they do cover news that you cannot find in newspaper with the readers point of view.

But what is lack here is the Journalistic kind of news and writing. I feel like I am reading an online magazine. Beside that, like Jiayi mentioned in her blog, STOMP can add a section about politic where readers can give out their thought, idea and opinion Singapore government. With this section hopefully Singapore can develop a truly democracy government where people are allowed to speak out loud their thought, not hiding it.

References:

"Citizen Journalism" (March 28, 2006) From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved March 28, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism

Gillmor, D. “We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People” (July, 2004). Retrieved March 28, 2007 from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tip

STOMP (2006) From Singapore Press HoldingsRetrieved March 28, 2007 fromhttp://www.stomp.com.sg/

QotW7: IMVU-what a great way to escape

Yes, I would like to consider twitter as online communities. Most of the COM 125 A/B members are joining twitter and we share everything there. It’s like we are having class discussion in cyber space.

Online communities are become more and more popular. We can be anything we want, do anything we want to and meet anybody that we do not even know. Rheingold would define virtual communities as “social aggregations that emerge from the [internet] when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationship in cyberspace”. I will describe virtual/ online communities as a place in [internet] where people with the same interest gather and share information and has a possibility to form a more personal relationship wit one another. (Fernback & Thompson, 1995)

Online communities such as twitter, skype or imvu have become some of the most popular site to form a community. So, what is online community actually is? According to Fernback & Thompson (1995), communication is the structural process that associated with community.

Well, in twitter or other online communities, people tend to share things that they won’t share in real life. They can have different personality but in the same body. So, what make people want to do so? Why they are not doing so in real life? Well, it’s to escape the problems and the issues of the real world. (Barlow, et al. 1995, p 43).

I do agree about it. I, myself, am engaging in so-called ‘second life’ at IMVU. IMVU is a graphical instant messaging client (3D chat) currently in beta stage with more than 3 million users. [1] It is developed by IMVU, Inc., by Will Harvey, a video game developer and founder of There, a similar 3D virtual world (IMVU, 2007).

In IMVU, you can choose your own avatar. They give you a choice of what kind of skin color you want, the shape of your hair, your eye and every other thing. Before you start the game, you will be given a tutorial of how using you avatar. Like you can see it’s a one minute tutorial where they teach you how to change your mood (you can even have a flirty mood!!), expression (imagine that your avatar are doing a puke expression :P) or even moves (like breakdance).







After the tutorial you can have a chance to chat with your friend or totally a stranger. You can have a chance to meet someone new just by clicking the ‘chat now’ button. As you can see below, I am meeting a total stranger and we are chatting in the room like starbucks.

As for me, I prefer to chat in IMVU rather than twitter. In IMVU, you can meet new friend from other part of the world (above is from Florida, but he is from Puerto Rican: so cool!!). I even learn other language too. Besides that, I have a body that represents me in the cyberspace. It likes you having a real chat. I am more and more addicted to it as I can be whatever I like; say anything I want without having a pressure from anybody in my real life to be someone that society wants you to be.

Conclusion
Second life gives you a chance to taste a different you!

References

Barlow, John Perry, Sven Birkets, Kevin Kelly and Mark Slouka. 1995. "What are we Doing On-Line." Harper's, August, pp. 35-46.

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

IMVU. (2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on March 15, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMVU

QotW6: No Tresspassing Please!!

In today’s era, cyberspace has become one of the most favorable place to expand your network. Websites like My Space (myspace.com) or friendster (friendster.com) provide internet users a medium to “socialize”. Users may unconsciously reveal some information that they will not reveal in Face-to-Face (FtF).

According to Rosen (2004), “…the easiest way to attract the attention and winning the trust of the strangers is to establish an emotional connection with them by projecting a consistent, memorable, and trustworthy image.” Is it worth? What I meant here, some people may reveal whatever information needed to gain the acknowledgement from strangers to become their friend. Take this privacy policy from my space (myspace.com):

MySpace.com collects user submitted information such as name, email address, and age to authenticate users and to send notifications to those users relating to the MySpace.com service. MySpace.com also collects other profile data including but not limited to: personal interests, gender, age, education and occupation in order to assist users in finding and communicating with each other.

MySpace.com also logs non-personally-identifiable information including IP address, profile information, aggregate user data, and browser type, from users and visitors to the site This data is used to manage the website, track usage and improve the website services. This non-personally-identifiable information may be shared with third-parties to provide more relevant services and advertisements to members. User IP addresses are recorded for security and monitoring purposes

We may reveal such information due to our need to find a friend. Some people may reveal even more than that. Do we really need to reveal such information meanwhile we do not know who read it and that they gonna do about it. But it’s like health: When you have it, you don’t notice it. Only when it’s gone do you wish you’d done more to protect it (Sullivan, 2006).

One’s may feel certain emotional attachment by reading your personal information that has been published in the internet. But, can you really trust that stranger. Sure, you can read his/ her personal information in return. But can you guarantee that it is authentic. Is the stranger being sincere about himself?

Privacy in cyberspace is one of the most difficult things to be taken care of. Just click your name is search engine and voila there appear your name. What you may think the safest may be the dangerous think for you.

Yes, you want the freedom of speech, but we all must know the limitation of our information that can be revealed. Too much information revealed will be to dangerous, too little information is not enough.

My opinion about today’s networking is the boundary between privacy and public information start to fade out. What we all known as personal information in the past has become information that easy to get. Blog for example, has become the most popular medium to self revealing. As you can read in the internet, what you wouldn’t know through FtF communication can be found easily. Some people use blog to seek emotional support. When you feel down, you write. When you are happy, you write. People who keep in track with your blog may know and feel certain bond even you haven’t met them. This thing really sounds creepy for me, that is why I do not like to set up a blog. I prefer to write in book and face a small chance of being exposed rather than receiving a lot of comment for what I felt.

Like one of my friend, Susan (not her real name), she like to write her daily activity, what she felt, and load some picture in her blog. Well, she must not realize that how much information she has released without knowing there might be somebody using her information for something bad.

My picture, from my blog, has been used as a class’s web link without my knowledge by my teacher. I do not mind though, but I would prefer to be informed first. What I want to say at here is even a picture that you put for fun, can be used for something else without you knowing it.

ps: no offense for the last paragraph, just want to use it as example. peace! :D

Refernces:
Privacy Policy. (n.d.). Retrieved on 9th March 2007, from http://www.myspace.com/Modules/Common/Pages/Privacy.aspx

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

Sullivan, B. (2006) “Privacy lost: does anybody care? MSNBC Interactive. Retrieved on 9th March 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/

QotW5: Online Identity: Anonymity in virtual communities.

NO.....!You are Mr. Hyde!!!!!

As we all know, internet has improved its function from sending and receiving a message to finding a 'soul mate' in chat rooms. In these chat rooms people are sharing information to each other without knowing the sender or the receiver. Identity plays a key role in these communities. Knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating an interaction (Donath, 1996).

Unfortunately, some of the users in chat rooms prefer to be anonymous. This anonymity has its own positive and negative points.

Visual anonymity offers people with disabilities the potential to participate in the social world outside the prejudicial and stereotypic barriers based purely on physical appearance. People with disabilities have the opportunity to interact without automatically, or necessarily, exposing a stigmatized identity.
In problematizing traditional notions of reality, however, the online medium also has the potential to become a deceptive social space where people with disabilities become victims of malevolent acts (Bowker & Tuffin, 2003).

In the other hand, anonymity in cyberspace allows people to deceive other without letting know their true identity. People could lie about their gender, age, physical appearance, etc. In face to face communication physical appearance, vocabulary, grammar, other linguistic markers (including tone and accent), and nonverbal cues ordinarily influence the ways in which people initially form impressions of one another (Jacobson, 1999). But in online communities, a 'he' can be a 'she'.

Illustrating this, Van Gelder (1991) reported a famous incident occurring on a computer conferencing system during the early 80s where a male psychiatrist posed as Julie, a female psychologist with multiple disabilities including deafness, blindness, and serious facial disfigurement. Julie endeared herself to the computer conferencing community, finding psychological and emotional support from many members. The psychiatrist's choice to present differently was sustained by drawing upon the unbearable stigma attached to Julie's multiple disabilities as justification for not meeting face-to-face. Lack of visual cues allowed the identity transformation to continue, with the psychiatrist also assuming the identity of Julie's husband, who adamantly refused to allow anyone to visit Julie when she claimed to be seriously ill.

Without knowing someone's identity, one can be whatever he wants to be. As the video that you put in the website, it is clear that people can cheat their identity and find other partner without any sense that other party may cheat on you too. But why people have to be anonymous in online society?
According to Gia B. Lee(1996), people choose to be anonymous to diminish status dimension and to encourage free speech. Anonymous conditions online have "created an entire social world in which it doesn't matter what you look like. Looks are absolutely irrelevant."

Conclusion
It is fine to choose to be anonymous in online society. By not revealing their true identity (or condition), people can have the environment that they cannot get in real life. But for some people, they choose to be anonymous so that they could have fun or to avoid law for illegal speech. So, the problem here is how people gonna use the anonymity that available greatly in cyberspace?

References:

Bowker, N., & Tuffin, K. (2003). Dicing with Deception: People with Disabilities’ Strategies for Managing Safety and Identity Online. Journal of Computer Mediated Communiation, 8(2). Retrieved February 7, 2007 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu./vol8/issue2/bowker.html

Donath ,Judith S. ( 12 November 1996) Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community, MIT Media Lab. Retrieved on February 15, 2007 from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Jacobson, D. (1999). Impression Formation in Cyberspace: Online Expectations and Offline Experiences in Text- based Virtual Communities. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 5(1). Retrieved February 7, 2007, from w http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol5/issue1/jacobson.html

Lee, G. B. (1996). Addressing Anonymous Messages in Cyberspace. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 2(1). Retrieved February 7, 2007, from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol2/issue1/anon.html

Van Gelder, L. (1991). The strange case of the electronic lover. In C. Dunlop & R. Kling (Eds.), Computerization and controversy: Value conflicts and social choices (2nd ed., pp. 364-375). Boston: Academic Press.

Happy V day and CNY.....

OK, few hours before I return to my hometown. Just want to wish u al happy b'lated V day.I know it kinda late....but...who cares? A BIG BIG HEART for u all....and I also wish u all Happy New Year, GONG XI FAT CHOI!

Qotw 4: The gift Economy (give...or not to give...?)

Gift is something you giving out without the means of other party to reciprocate. Economy is a system of trade. So in gift economy (in my definition) is a system of sharing or trading without hoping the other party to reciprocate.

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 (Gift Economy, 2007). Gif economy in cyberspace is giving out advice of information that you, yourself won’t do it in reality. Take for example; a teacher will give out information in certain subject that is being discussed in the chat room or user group for fee. But in reality, he will charge fee for the information that is giving out.

What motivate people in giving to share?
There are three motivations that encouraged people to share in online community. It is for reciprocity, reputation, a sense of efficacy and need (Kollock, 1999).
Reciprocity
People contribute valuable information to the group in the expectation that one will receive useful help and information in return. In online social network, it is known as generalized exchange in which benefit given to a person reciprocated not by the recipient but by someone else in the group (Kollock, 1999)
Reputation
The more you give the more you will receive help in the future or being known by other people
Sense of efficacy
A feeling that someone has some effect on the environment. Making regular and high- quality contribution to the group can help a person believe that he has an impact on the group and support his own self- image as an efficacious person (Kollock,1999).

Gift Economy is different from commodity economy; in a commodity (exchange) economy, status is accorded tot those who have the most. In gift economy, status is accorded to those who give the most to others (Pinchot, 2000).
Lewis Hyde expresses the spirit of a gift economy (and its contrast to a market economy) as follows:

The opposite of "Indian giver" would be something like "white man keeper"… Whatever we have been given is supposed to be given away not kept. Or, if it is kept, something of similar value should move in its stead… The gift may be given back to its original donor, but this is not essential… The only essential is this: the gift must always move.

Gift must always move means that we could not only take without giving back. Although it says that in gift economy we could expect other to reciprocate, but we need to contribute too so that we wont be said as free-ride.
A gift creates a “feeling bond”, a feeling that you can get with certain people or group. This feeling can exist even with someone that you don’t even met before.
For example, the blood bank system prevalent in several countries, including the United States, gives no significant explicit reciprocation for donations of blood. Most organ donation systems give no compensation of any sort to the donor or their family; payment in this matter is often considered suspect, even criminal (gift economy, 2007).
We are giving out blood by knowing that this blood will help someone else in the other part of the world. This giving makes us feel important and feel a bond with someone that receives the blood.

In conclusion:
Gift economy is an act where we giving out information, help or advice with an expectation that we will receive the same convenience in the future. In gift economy there is no necessity to meet with the person on group who is receiving our help. The blood donation for example, there isn’t such necessity to meet the person who receives it, as long as we know that our help can give other party what he or she need.

References:
Gift Economy (2007). InWikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 10, 2007 from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy>

Kollock, P. (1999). The Economiesof Online Coorperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace. Retrieved February 10, 2007 from<http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm>

Pinchot, G. (2000). The Gift Economy. Retrieved February 10, 2007 from <http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC41/PinchotG.htm>

Annoyed annoyed....

Well, actually it's happened yesterday during the COM 242 class.

Mr. Lim told us that we gonna have a library trip on monday, thennnn.... I asked him whether or not he will provide lunch for us? Com'on, I'm just kidding, he DID NOT have to yell at me by saying "GO TO HELL", rite? The first moment I heard it, it hurt me. Iam a GIRL and he is a TEACHER. Maybe he did that to his friend. Well, I'm not his friend and I do not know him very well, beside that he yelled at me in front of my classmates. Although I know that he was kidding too, but doesnt mean that he can be that rude. Where should I put my face?

Really, I do not know whether next time I will open my mouth again in his class or not. Rather than I get myself humiliated in front of my class mates, I prefer to be different me. A quite Mariani. Sad, hurt and..phai se arrr.....

Oh well...try not to think about it again.....

And he is a nice teacher.....

Cia You.....

QotW3:copyright & piracy

First of all, before I begin my writing I just want to say that I don’t really understand how to explain about it. So, if my writing is messy, I do apologize.

Technology has improved through time and it has made our life as easy as clicking the mouse. The Internet has transformed information and the way we interact with it by creating an easily accessible, dynamic, shared information space (Litman, 2003). It has been a great advanced since internet was widely used in 1990s. People can easily listen to the music they want and watch the movie they like. Unfortunately, this condition is not good news for the people who own the copyright for the production.

First of all, we must understand the meaning of copyright. A copyright is the set of exclusive legal rights authors have over their works for a limited period of time. These rights include copying the works (including parts of the works), making derivative works, distributing the works, and performing the works (this means showing a movie or playing an audio recording, as well as performing a dramatic work). Currently, the author's rights begin when a work is created. A work does not have to bear a copyright notice or be registered to be copyrighted (“Copyright Law and Fair Use”, 2002). By having work copyrighted, creators’ can benefit financially and provide them an incentive to continue (Ovalle, 2005).

Copyright usage is to protect those who create an original expression for their work so they can receive appropriate compensation for their intellectual effort. But, more and more people are violating this law. According to a new Pew Internet and American Life Project survey Two-thirds of Internet users who download music are unconcerned that they are violating copyright laws, while only 29 percent say they do care and 6 percent have no opinion on the issue (Moore, 2003).

People do not feel guilty as they perceived it as victimless crime because they think what they did is not wrong. Mind my word, I say “not wrong” not correct. People just do not realize that they are stealing other’s work, it‘s what we call an ‘Intellectual Property”. Intellectual property is abstract and usually uses to describe the products of thought. People feel guiltier when they steal something physical but not something abstract. This is why copyright on music or book or movie is not useful when its goes online.

Some scholars have thought about a way to prevent piracy. In my opinion, I do not think that any law can forbid someone from copying ‘thought’ illegally. Some of the creator may have thought of using software that could track back an illegal user. But there will be a higher mountain. There will be another available source that could feel pleasure to give away the ‘thought’ for free. It’s just like Iceberg. Although the government could track back or prevent an illegal copying, there is still lots and lots user who won’t even care the hard work of the creator.

Back at my hometown, people are selling pirated DVD for just RP.5000 which is equal to S$ 0.9. As you can see, people like something cheap that they can afford to buy. Some of they choose not to buy the original one although it is better than the pirated one.
Even I, myself, prefer to buy the pirated one. It’s not because I do not have the money, it’s just because I do not like something that I will not use it or watch it in the future. But in my opinion, illegal downloading has its own positive way, music downloading for example. Musicians in a certain way do advertising through the downloading. People got to know what they will get if they buy the album. It’s like a sample but not in a good way.

Copyright and piracy, for me both the words cannot be separated as they cause one another to happen. If somebody copyrights something, it makes us want it more in illegal way. It’s kind of scarcity tactic that I learned in previous semester. When you copyrighted something, the more people want it illegally.
So, try not to copyright and see the result. Who knows everybody will start paying for it?

References:
"Copyright Law and Fair use". (19 December 2002). Stanford University Libraries. Academic Computing Publications. Retrieved February 2, 2007 from <http://www-sul.stanford.edu/cpyright.html>

Litman, J. (23 November 2003). "Sharing and Stealing". Social Science Research network. Retrieved February 2, 2007 from <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=472141>

Moore, C. W. (8 august 2003). "Is Music Piracy Stealing?". Applelinks. Retrieved February 2, 2007 from <http://www.applelinks.com/mooresviews/pirate.shtml>

Ovalle, C. (2005). "An Introduction to Copyright". Retrieved February 2, 2007 from <http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/%7Ei312co/1.php>

Getting Bored...

It's just the third week of the semester asnd I feel bord already. No specific reason, but I think this semester lessons are not as fun as last semester.Or maybe I'm not really like the subject that being thought? Or..maybe that I'm not good in the subject? Dunno.....feel like to quit school and...what? What should I do? Feel like doing this....
Facing the problem on what should I do after I graduate makes me want to cry. Not really cry, I just haven't decide what kind of job that I want to do, where should I go, and everything else. FYI, if I still in Singapore I will be graduating next year.....
I'm still in the mood where I just want to enjoy my life, my school life.
Haihh....wish could be young...forever....

COM 125 week 2:email

Nowadays, sending messages to a friend living far from us in just a minute is not impossible. Every day, people send billions of emails to each other. Even you yourself are sending out a dozen or more emails each day without even thinking about it. Obviously, email has become one of the most convenient ways to communicate.

Electronic mail (abbreviated "e-mail" or, often, "email") is a store and forward method of composing, sending, storing, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems (Wikipedia, 2007). Email is also called the killer application of computer. It predates the internet and was a crucial tool in creating it.

E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time- sharing mainframe computer to communicate.
Before internetworking began, therefore, email could only be used to send messages to various users of the same computer. Once computers began to talk to each other over networks, however, the problem became a little more complex - We needed to be able to put a message in an envelope and address it. To do this, we needed a means to indicate to whom letters should go that the electronic posties understood - just like the postal system, we needed a way to indicate an address.(Peter, 2004)

Email was quickly extended to become network emal, allowing users to pass messages between different computers.The ARPANET computer network made large contribution to the evolution of email.

According to Darwin Magazine: Prime Movers, the first e-mail message was sent in 1971 by an engineer named Ray Tomlinson. He was working on a small team developing the TENEX operating system, with local email programs called SNDMSG and READMAIL. Tomlinson's breakthrough was the ability to send messages to other machines on the Internet, using the @ sign to designate the receiving machine (Brain, 2000). The ARPANET significantly increased the popularity iif email, and it become the killer application of the ARPANET.

Alhtough the world wide web offers a lot of facility, email remains the most important application of the internet and was widely used. Today, more than 600million people use it internationally.

Larry Roberts invented some email folders for his boss so he could sort his mail. In 1975 John Vital developed some software to organize email. By 1976 email had really taken off, and commercial packages began to appear. Within a couple of years, 75% of all ARPANET traffic was email. (Peter, 2004)

For most people on the Internet in 1988, email and email discussion groups were the main uses. As a body of newsgroup they become known as USENET.

Email started to be made available by providers such as Yahoo or Hotmail and this was without charge. Everyone wanted at least one email address, and the medium eas not adopted by not just millions, but hundeds of millions of people.

From the time it’s composed to the time it’s read, email travels along unprotected Internet. More and more business are relying on email to correspond with clients and colleagues. As more important information is transferred online, the need for email privecy becomes more pressing. The protection of electronic mail from unauthorized access and inspection is known as e-mail privacy. (wikipedia, 2007)

Today, email is not served as a tool to send a message but also as media of ‘creativity’ for Internet users. For example, email spoofing.
E-mail spoofing is a term used to describe fraudulent email activity in which the sender address and other parts of the email header are altered to appear as though the email originated from a different source. E-mail spoofing is a technique commonly used for spam e-mail and phishing to hide the origin of an e-mail message. By changing certain properties of the e-mail, such as the From, Return-Path and Reply-To fields (which can be found in the message header), hackers can make the e-mail appear to be from someone other than the actual sender. It is often associated with website spoofing which mimic an actual, well-known website but are run by another party either with fraudulent intentions or as a means of criticism of the organisation's activities.(wikipedia, 2007)

Personally, I think email has change the way we communicate. We are no longer need to go to post office and send a letter to the other party without knowing whether the letter has arrived or not. Email is faster and easy to use and also free of charge for everybody.

References:
Brain, Marshall.(01 April 2000). "How Email Works". Retrieved 27 Jan. 2007 from<http://computer.howstuffworks.com/email.htm>

Email.(24 January 2007). In WIkipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 Jan. 2007 from<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email>

Email Spoofing .(14 January 2007). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 Jan. 2007 from< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spoofing>

Peter, Ian.(2004). "The History of Email". Net History. Retrieved 27 Jan. 2007 from<http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/email.html>

Bored....

Feel curious about my friend's recommmendation, I watched the anime called 'Nodame Cantabele' in youube this afternoon. It's kind of funny and I think I'm like the girl inside, not that worse but only a little about the tidiness in my room. I tend to keep everything that i think could be useful in 'future'. wel..dont blame it, got it from my mom i think. :P

funny...

got a funny scene today. well, no heart feeling, but this morning i saw Mr kevin running to the toilet and miss it hehe. No offense, but the way he run and turned his body is so funny. we keep laughing and laughing. gonna post the video soon. it's not him running, but Maria and I were imitating the way he ran heheh. hopefully he wont get angry :p

rainy day!

Moshi2...gud morning, afternoon, and evening. I'm Mariani and I'm from Indonesia. Some of my classmates like to call me 'mami' or 'mommy'. it's not like Iam a so fussy like a mother, but I kind of person that like to do something according to my schedule. Because of that, everybody seems like calling me 'mami'. oh well, who cares...

I'm still 19 currently and I don't want to get older than this anymore.....someday, I'm gonna find a medicine that can't stop my age...hopefully...

Next is the picture of Lau Kawar Lake(if I'm not wrong), 3 hours journey by car from my hometown, Medan. It's very cold at there. Went there in my third year with all my classmates before we graduate.

Really miss that time. But , life goes on....haiihhh... I dont to want to be old ler.

I like to talk. I think my only ability is to talk and to make fun of myself :P

About writing....I used to HATE it. But after taking this COM subject, I have begun to like it. only a little bit.

That's all..