New media in english 2,3,4

Unit 2Digital media and communication

Definition

Digitized content (text, graphics, audio, and video) that can be transmitted over internet or computer networks is called Digital media and communication.

Digital media includes any format or device used to convey content using digital signals. Simply put, when you talk on your cell phone, read this Internet article, or watch a television show, you are using digital media. Schools offering Animation degrees can also be found in these popular choices.

Industry Overview

Digital media is employed in many aspects of our lives. Many industries are finding areas of expansion or ways to simplify production using digital media. For example, the advertising industry is exploring innovative ways of reaching customers over cell phones and the Internet. In the movie industry, filmmakers are switching to digital technology to utilize animation and ease the editing process. Other examples of new or expanding digital media include:

1.      Interactive web pages

2.      Video games

3.      MP3 players

4.      eBooks

5.      Digital television

Education

Digital media requires the combination of digital technology and creativity. There are several paths you can take to pursue a career in this field. Whether you choose to pursue vocational study in an area such as technical installation or complete a bachelor's degree in an area such as graphic design or communications, opportunities in this expanding technology will only continue to grow. Degrees you might pursue include:

1.      Journalism and Mass Communications

2.      New Media

3.      Graphic or Multimedia Design

4.      Advertising

5.      Network Installation

6.      Filmmaking

Career Opportunities

As digital media increasingly touches almost every aspect of our lives, there are endless career possibilities within the industry. Digital media has become a huge outlet for advertising and marketing. Positions include:

1.      Account managers

2.      Analysts

3.      Strategists

Digital media is now a mainstay in the art and entertainment industries. Technology is used in everything from graphic design, fine art, and photography to special effects in movies, animation, and game development. Careers in this field may include:

1.      Graphic and web designers

2.      Animators

3.      Digital videographer

4.      Video and sound editors

Opportunities also abound in research and development, as well as in installation and implementation of digital media technologies. Such jobs include:

1.      Software engineers

2.      Programmers

3.      Network engineers

4.      Technicians

ICT  and Digital DivideICT - Information Communications Technologies

The Digital Divide, or the digital split, is a social issue referring to the differing amount of information between those who have access to the Internet (specially broadband access) and those who do not have access. The term became popular among concerned parties, such as scholars, policy makers, and advocacy groups, in the late 1990s.

Dimensions of the Divide

Broadly speaking, the difference is not necessarily determined by the access to the Internet, but by access to ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) and to Media that the different segments of society can use. With regards to the Internet, the access is only one aspect, other factors such as the quality of connection and related services should be considered. Today the most discussed issue is the availability of the access at an affordable cost and quality.

The problem is often discussed in an international context, indicating certain countries are far more equipped than other developing countries to exploit the benefits from the rapidly expanding Internet. Here is the latest State of the Internet Report from Akamai, showing average and maximum connection speeds, Internet Penetration and Broadband adaption, Mobile usage, as well as trends in this data over time.

The digital divide is not indeed a clear single gap which divides a society into two groups. Researchers report that disadvantage can take such forms as lower-performance computers, lower-quality or high price connections (i.e. narrowband or dialup connection), difficulty of obtaining technical assistance, and lower access to subscription-based contents.

Bridging the Gap

The idea that some information and communication technologies are vital to quality civic life is not new. Some suggest that the Internet and other ICTs are somehow transforming society, improving our mutual understanding, eliminating power differentials, realizing a truly free and democratic world society, and other benefits.

In many countries, access to the telephone system is considered such a vital element that governments implement various policies to offer affordable telephone service. Unfortunately some countries lack sufficient telephone lines.

Literacy is arguably another such element, although it is not related to any new technologies or latest technological devices. It is a very widely shared view in many societies that being literate is essential to one's career, to self-guided learning, to political participation, and to Internet usage.

Unfortunately, in the world there are still 757 million adults including 115 million youths who cannot read or write a simple sentence. Explore the interactive literacy data to see which countries are most affected.

There are a variety of arguments regarding why closing the digital divide is important. The major arguments are the following:

1. Economic equality

Some think that the access to the Internet is a basic component of civil life that some developed countries aim to guarantee for their citizens. Telephone is often considered important for security reasons. Health, criminal, and other types of emergencies might indeed be handled better if the person in trouble has an access to the telephone. Another important fact seems to be that much vital information for people's career, civic life, safety, etc. are increasingly provided via the Internet. Even social welfare services are sometimes administered and offered electronically.

2. Social mobility

Some believe that computer and computer networks play an increasingly important role in their learning and career, so that education should include that of computing and use of the Internet. Without such offerings, the existing digital divide works unfairly to the children in the lower socioeconomic status. In order to provide equal opportunities, governments might offer some form of support.

3. Democracy

Some think that the use of the Internet would lead to a healthier democracy in one way or another. Among the most ambitious visions are that of increased public participation in elections and decision making processes.

4. Economic growth

Some think that the development of information infrastructure and active use of it would be a shortcut to economic growth for less developed nations. Information technologies in general tend to be associated with productivity improvements. The exploitation of the latest technologies may give industries of certain countries a competitive advantage.

Rural areas access

The accessibility of rural areas to the Internet is a test of the digital divide. But nowadays there are different ways to eliminate the digital divide in rural areas. Use of Power lines (PLT and PLC) and satellite communications offer new possibilities of universal access to the Internet, and lack of telephone lines will not limit access. Lower access prices are required to bridge the ICT divide.

Disabilities

Disabilities of potential Internet users constitute another type of divide and care should be taken to avoid that persons with disabilities be left out of Internet access.

Information society

Information society A society in which low cost information technology, computers, and telecommunications are widely used to facilitate communication nationally and internationally, and to promote access to libraries, data archives, and other stores of information held by private organizations or in the public domain. It is argued that this greater facility of communication and increased access to information creates a qualitatively different society with attendant new problems, such as information overload, and the need for new forms of regulation to control information flows between persons, companies, and countries. Whereas market economies have traditionally been geared towards solving the problem of scarcity, information will practically by definition lead to problems of abundance, and questions about how tools should be developed to manage that abundance.

The digital convergence of information and communication technologies in the late 1990s constituted a major step forward for the information society, energizing every economic sector, opening up the potential for new products and services in the twenty-first century that are still being developed in business, the media, arts, and public administration. Some have argued that there will be a further transition from an information economy to a knowledge society, leading to renewed emphasis on lifelong learning and investment in education. Another consequence that is already in progress is the expansion of home-based work and neighborhood work centers replacing public transport and the car for bringing together the worker and (white-collar) work. Similarly, new technologies permit certain types of white-collar work to be carried out anywhere in the world, leading to the globalization of enterprises and increased competition.

New World Information Order and E-governance

Definition

E-governance, expands to electronic governance, is the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in all the processes, with the aim of enhancing government ability to address the needs of the general public. The basic purpose of e-governance is to simplify processes for all, i.e. government, citizens, businesses, etc. at National, State and local levels.

E-governance has gained more popularity in convoluted business world. Many management scholars have described the concept of e governance which is emerging as an important activity in the business field. It is established that E-governance is the application of information and communication technologies to transform the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of informational and transactional exchanges with in government, between government & govt. agencies of National, State, Municipal and Local levels, citizen & businesses, and to empower citizens through access & use of information (Mahapatra, 2006).

World Bank explained the E governance as the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and or cost reductions."

According to international organization, UNESCO, "Governance refers to the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority in the management of a country's affairs, including citizens' articulation of their interests and exercise of their legal rights and obligations. E-Governance may be understood as the performance of this governance via the electronic medium in order to facilitate an efficient, speedy and transparent process of disseminating information to the public, and other agencies, and for performing government administration activities". The Council of Europe elaborated e-Governance as "the use of electronic technologies in three areas of public action such as relations between the public authorities and civil society, functioning of the public authorities at all stages of the democratic process (electronic democracy) and the provision of public services (electronic public services).

NWICO: New World Information and Communication Order

The New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO or NWIO) aka the MacBride Commission is a term that was coined in a debate over media representations of the developing world in UNESCO in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The term was widely used by the MacBride Commission, a UNESCO panel chaired by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Sean MacBride, which was charged with creation of a set of recommendations to make global media representation more equitable. The MacBride Commission produced a report titled "Many Voices, One World", which outlined the main philosophical points of the New World Information Communication Order.

Issues

A wide range of issues were raised as part of NWICO discussions. Some of these involved long-standing issues of media coverage of the developing world and unbalanced flows of media influence. But other issues involved new technologies with important military and commercial uses. The developing world was likely to be marginalized by satellite and computer technologies. The issues included:

1.      News reporting on the developing world that reflects the priorities of news agencies in London, Paris and New York. Reporting of natural disasters and military coups rather than the fundamental realities. At the time four major news agencies controlled over 80% of global news flow.

2.      An unbalanced flow of mass media from the developed world (especially the United States) to the underdeveloped countries. Everyone watches American movies and television shows.

3.      Advertising agencies in the developed world have indirect but significant effects on mass media in the developing countries. Some observers also judged the messages of these ads to be inappropriate for the Third World.

4.      An unfair division of the radio spectrum. A small number of developed countries controlled almost 90% of the radio spectrum. Much of this was for military use.

5.      There were similar concerns about the allocation of the geostationary orbit (parking spots in space) for satellites. At the time only a small number of developed countries had satellites and it was not possible for developing countries to be allocated a space that they might need ten years later. This might mean eventually getting a space that was more difficult and more expensive to operate.

6.      Satellite broadcasting of television signals into Third World countries without prior permission was widely perceived as a threat to national sovereignty. The UN voted in the early 1970s against such broadcasts.

7.      Use of satellites to collect information on crops and natural resources in the Third World at a time when most developing countries lacked the capacity to analyze this data.

8.      At the time most mainframe computers were located in the United States and there were concerns about the location of databases (such as airline reservations) and the difficulty of developing countries catching up with the US lead in computers.

9.      The protection of journalists from violence was raised as an issue for discussion. For example, journalists were targeted by various military dictatorships in Latin America in the 1970s. As part of NWICO debates there were suggestions for study on how to protect journalists and even to discipline journalists who broke "generally recognized ethical standards". However, the MacBride Commission specifically came out against the idea of licensing journalists.

Response of the United States

The United States was hostile to NWICO. According to some analysts, the United States saw these issues simply as barriers to the free flow of communication and to the interests of American media corporations. It disagreed with the MacBride report at points where it questioned the role of the private sector in communications. It viewed the NWICO as dangerous to freedom of the press by ultimately putting an organization run by governments at the head of controlling global media, potentially allowing for censorship on a large scale. From another perspective, the MacBride Commission recommendations requiring the licensing of journalists amounted to prior censorship and ran directly counter to basic US law on the freedom of expression.

There were also accusations of corruption at the highest level of UNESCO leadership in Paris. The US eventually withdrew its membership in UNESCO (as did the United Kingdom and Singapore) at the end of 1984. The matter was complicated by debates within UNESCO about Israel's archaeological work in the city of Jerusalem, and about the Apartheid regime in South Africa. The United States rejoined in 2003.

 Convergence: Need, nature and future of convergence

It is important here to consider the fact that much difficulty and disagreement had arisen in defining the notion of media convergence. Most theorists agree that in general terms convergence means ‘coming together of two or more things’, however a variety of different arguments have been put forward in an attempt to define what exactly is coming together (Grant and Wilkinson, 2009). On the one hand, convergence can be viewed as ‘coming together of different equipment and tools for producing and distributing news’ (ibid.). Jenkins (2006:3), on the other hand, defines convergence as ‘flow of content across multiple media platforms’, suggesting that media audiences nowadays play a crucial role in creating and distributing content, and convergence therefore has to be examined in terms of social, as well as technological changes within the society. According to Jenkins, media convergence is an ongoing process that should not be viewed as a displacement of the old media, but rather as interaction between different media forms and platforms (Jenkins, 2006). Supporting this argument, Deuze cited in Erdal (2011) suggests that media convergence should be viewed as ‘cooperation and collaboration’ between previously unconnected media forms and platforms.  Burnett and Marshall cited in Grant and Wilkinson (2008:5) explain convergence as ‘blending of the media, telecommunications and computer industries’ or, in other words, as the process of blurring the boundaries between different media platforms and uniting them into one digital form.

One question that needs to be asked, however, is whether or not these recent developments are beneficial for the society and the industry itself. In other words, whether or not media convergence presents more opportunities than challenges to both media producers and consumers. One of the areas of particular concern when examining positive and negative consequences of media convergence is media ownership (Jenkins, 2006). Nowadays the power to control media industry is concentrated in the hands of private owners and relatively small number of big media corporations. For example, companies, such as Warner Bros., which used to focus on the film industry, nowadays have control over various aspects of entertainment industry in general, such as computer games, books, magazines, web sites and toys, which is all part of the process of media convergence (Jenkins, 2006). Consequences of this trend can be viewed as both positive and negative. On the one hand, it may cause the decline in the diversity of material offered and result in a tendency that voices of those lacking economic power will not be taken into account (Branston et al., 2008:179). On the other hand, it is argued that market driven media owned and controlled by big media corporations ‘can actually improve the value of the service, the flexibility of topics and the competence of the contributers’ as well as enable technological developments, change the elitism of media professionals and create new general awareness (Grant, 2009). Another aspect of media convergence that can be seen as its major drawback is what Jenkins (2006:23) calls the ‘participation gap’. This concept refers to the fact that while media convergence in general has encouraged audiences to participate in the process of content creation, it requires extended access to modern technologies, familiarity with the new forms of media, as well as developing certain skills (ibid.). As a result, certain segments of the audience arguably remain neglected and unable to fully participate in the new media culture.

Drawing on the definitions of media convergence outlined above, it can be argued that one of the ways of understanding media convergence is in terms of interaction between old and new forms of media. This concept can be explained more clearly using the example of television industry and its development over the years. The idea of transition from analogue media to digital media stands at the core of media convergence debate. The term ‘analogue’ is used to describe something ‘that resembles something else’ (Dewdney and Ride, 2006:227), therefore signals transmitted through television can be seen as being analogous to the light and sound of the actual scene (ibid.). In the case of analogue media, each form was separate and independent from the others due to the need to use different ‘materials, properties and apparatuses’ (ibid.). With the introduction of digital code however the situation changed rapidly and opened new possibilities for media creation and convergence, for example, new forms of interaction between producers and consumers

Emerging Trends for Mobile Technology

IT Services the usage of mobile apps has exploded over the past few years. With the ever growing adoption of modern smart phones, more and more consumers are using apps to order their favorite food, book tickets, perform banking transactions, listen to music on the go, etc. Today, our world is a digital sphere, where keeping in touch with friends across boundaries is no more a chore, and as the number of mobile apps keeps on increasing, so does our ability to perform hitherto difficult tasks.

The growing demand for more functional apps has also resulted in widespread interest in mobile app development, especially amongst independent and freelance developers. Since an operating systems' mobile app store is a level playing field, anyone can create an app which could become the next smash hit. Flappy Bird, the indie game, raked in $50K daily at the height of its popularity, resulting in the immense success of its small-time developer!

As we have stepped into this New Year, there are quite a few interesting mobile app trends which mobile app developers, such as you, should keep a lookout for. From brand new technologies to older ones finding their feet, a spurt of new programming languages, etc., 2018 has a lot in store not only for the consumers but for the developers as well.

10 Emerging Mobile App Development Trends

Mobile App Development1. Cloud Technology Finally Finds It's Place: No surprises here. From the average consumer to the tech professional, everyone has heard about the benefits of cloud technology, and how it can to change our collective lives. Today, cloud computing is not only fast, easy to deploy, and inexpensive; but also makes a good working argument for both large-scale enterprises and small mom-and-dad joints.

Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive are just the tip of the iceberg, as in 2018, we can expect new powerful apps which directly run on the cloud and take minimal space in the phone storage. Syncing data - working on an app on the phone and then continuing it from a tablet or desktop will also see a huge acceptance.

Mobile App Development2.   Enterprise Mobile Apps Get a New Lease of Life: It's not a secret anymore that more and more developers are gravitating towards developing enterprise mobile apps. The reason being that such apps, which make it easy to keep large teams connected, as well as track key metrics and KPIs, are now required by almost every small and large business to some extent.

43% of the enterprise app developers earn more than $10,000 per month, as compared to the 19% of the developers who develop consumer-focused apps. Enterprise app stores are also predicted to become the next big thing, as with more B2B interaction, a tremendous opportunity will be offered to new developers.

Mobile App Development3. IoT will Open New Possibilities: IoT, or the Internet of Things, is already a $19 trillion industry, and over the next five years, more than 5 billion people are expected to be using an IoT-driven technology in some form or the other. Today, IoT is present in modern wearable technology, smart thermostats, smart bulbs, dimmable streetlights, etc.

In the coming year, expect this technology to be rapidly adopted for mobile application development, while allowing for more personalized user experiences across a variety of devices.

Mobile App Development4. Location-based Wi-Fi Services Become Commonplace: Mobile location services and Beacon technology are now starting to blur the boundaries between online and offline advertising, especially in the retail sector. Apple had already integrated the technology within iBeacon, and in 2016 Android followed suit.

In the following years, Wi-Fi will be used for more than just internet access, as more and more public hotspots would also double up as location access points. App developers are also expected to follow suit, by building apps which take advantage of such location-based Wi-Fi services.

Mobile App Development5. m-Commerce to be the Next Great Opportunity: As e-commerce giants such as Amazon and eBay flourish, the usage of m-Commerce apps is also expected to increase in the coming years. With more smartphones featuring technology such as NFC, Fingerprint recognition, etc., using a mobile phone to pay for transactions, amongst others, will also find ready acceptance. Developers will also have the opportunity to build m-Commerce apps which can provide additional functionality to the consumer.Read our article which describes the models, benefits, and future trends of mobile payment solutions.

Mobile App Development6.   High-quality UX to be the Norm of the Day: Besides a nice look and feel, smartphone users today expect their apps to be more intuitive and provide more relevant content suited to their own likes and dislikes. In the coming year, developers will have to focus more on answering burning customer questions such as whether the app is secure enough or whether they need too many user permissions, etc.?

Mobile App Development7. In-App Advertising and Purchasing Will Grow Steadily: With a growing number of smartphone users using their mobile apps to perform mundane, day-to-day tasks, the revenue generated from in-app advertising and purchasing is also steadily increasing. According to the latest figures, in-app purchasing from mobile devices touched approximately $9 billion in 2017. In the coming years, expect application development trends to move away from simple banners and integrating advertisements in a fun, non-obnoxious manner for the end-user.

Mobile App Development8. More APIs to Accelerate Innovation: As we move towards a future where mobile app development necessitates rapid development across a variety of target devices, an API-first approach ensures both the agility and flexibility with which the app can function.

Today, one of the hottest mobile app trends to impact 2018 is the ability with which developers can leverage a large catalog of JSON/REST APIs, ensuring a lot of backend work such as data storage, retrieving information, etc. is taken care of.

Mobile App Development9. Application Security Becomes Necessary: With rapid technological advancements being made on a daily basis, application security, as well as general smartphone security is a major concern. Currently, most of the top 100 apps in the Google app store have already been hacked, and the picture isn't that pretty on the iOS side as well.

Therefore, with Google, Microsoft, and Apple all raising the stakes and making security a big target for the coming few years, developers also need to focus on cyber security and implement new-generation security features within their apps.

Mobile App Development10. New-gen Mobile Games See the Light of Day: With the advancements being made in the field of social connectivity and cloud technology, now is the time for developers to focus on games which have an increased multiplayer focus rather than developing only single player games.

By developing new-generation games based on the latest game engines, which also make use of easy access to cloud technology, developers can push frequent and rapid updates to enhance the UX.

Social Media

Social media is a phrase that we throw around a lot these days, often to describe what we post on sites and apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and others.

The term is used so vaguely that it can basically be used to describe almost any website on the internet today. Or maybe not. Some people have more of a restricted view of social media, often equating it to mean the same as social networking (a.k.a. Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Other people don't consider blogs to fall under the social media category.

Rather than define the term using a bunch of boring jargon that would probably only complicate things further, perhaps the best way to get a clearer understanding of it is to break it down into simpler terms. To start, let's look at each word individually.

The "social" part: refers to interacting with other people by sharing information with them and receiving information from them.

 The "media" part: refers to an instrument of communication, like the internet (while TV, radio, and newspapers are examples of more traditional forms of media).

From these two separate terms, we can pull a basic definition together: Social media are web-based communication tools that enable people to interact with each other by both sharing and consuming information.

Yes, it's a broad definition – but keep in mind that social media is a very broad term. This is likely as specific as we can get without zeroing in too much on a more specific subcategory of social media.

Common Social Media Features

The following list of common features are dead giveaways of a social media site. If you're questioning whether a particular site could be classified as social or not, try looking for at least one of these features.

User accounts: If a site allows visitors to create their own accounts that they can log into, then that's a good sign there's going to be social interaction. You can't really share information or interact with others online without doing it through a user account.

Profile pages: Since social media is all about communication, a profile page is often necessary to represent an individual. It often includes information about the individual user, like a profile photo, bio, website, feed of recent posts, recommendations, recent activity and more.

Friends, followers, groups, hashtags and so on: Individuals use their accounts to connect with other users. They can also use them to subscribe to certain forms of information.

News feeds: When users connect with other users on social media, they're basically saying, "I want to get information from these people." That information is updated for them in real-time via their news feed.

Personalization: Social media sites usually give users the flexibility to configure their user settings, customize their profiles to look a specific way, organize their friends or followers, manage the information they see in their news feeds and even give feedback on what they do or don't want to see.

Notifications: Any site or app that notifies users about specific information is definitely playing the social media game. Users have total control over these notifications and can choose to receive the types of notifications that they want.

Information updating, saving or posting: If a site or an app allows you to post absolutely anything, with or without a user account, then it's social! It could be a simple text-based message, a photo upload, a YouTube video, a link to an article or anything else.

Like buttons and comment sections: Two of the most common ways we interact on social media are via buttons that represent a "like" plus comment sections where we can share our thoughts.

Review, rating or voting systems: Besides liking and commenting, lots of social media sites and apps rely on the collective effort of the community to review, rate and vote on information that they know about or have used. Think of your favorite shopping sites or movie review sites that use this social media feature.

What's the Difference Between Social Media and Social Networking?

As mentioned earlier, a lot of people user the terms social media and social networking interchangeably as if they mean the exact same thing. Although the difference is subtle, they're not the same. Social networking is really a subcategory of social media.

The easiest way to understand the difference between social media and social networking is by thinking about the terms "media" and "networking" separately. Media refers to the information you're actually sharing–whether it's a link to an article, a video, an animated GIF, a PDF document, a simple status update or anything else.

Networking, on the other hand, has to do with who your audience is and the relationships you have with them. Your network can include people like friends, relatives, colleagues, anyone from your past, current customers, mentors and even complete strangers.

They certainly overlap, which is why it gets confusing. For example, you can share media with your social network to gather likes and comments–a form of social networking. But you can also just upvote a link on Reddit, which is a social media platform, to help out the community and give your say in the matter without any intention of building relationships with other users.

Still confused? Try to think of social media like fruit. Apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, berries, melons and pineapples are all part of the broader fruit category the same way that social networking, social news, social bookmarking, wikis, blogs and private web messaging are part of the broader social media category.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is the current state of online technology as it compares to the early days of the Web, characterized by greater user interactivity and collaboration, more pervasive network connectivity and enhanced communication channels.

One of the most significant differences between Web 2.0 and the traditional World Wide Web (WWW, retroactively referred to as Web 1.0) is greater collaboration among Internet users, content providers and enterprises. Originally, data was posted on Web sites, and users simply viewed or downloaded the content. Increasingly, users have more input into the nature and scope of Web content and in some cases exert real-time control over it.

The social nature of Web 2.0 is another major difference between it and the original, static Web. Increasingly, websites enable community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Types of social media sites and applications include forums, microblogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation, and wikis.

Elements of Web 2.0

Wikis: Websites that enable users to contribute, collaborate and edit site content. Wikipedia is one of the oldest and best-known wiki-based sites.

The increasing prevalence of Software as a Service (SaaS), web apps and cloud computing rather than locally-installed programs and services.

Mobile computing, also known as nomadicity, the trend toward users connecting from wherever they may be. That trend is enabled by the proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices in conjunction with readily accessible Wi-Fi networks.

Mash-ups: Web pages or applications that integrate complementary elements from two or more sources.

Social networking: The practice of expanding the number of one's business and/or social contacts by making connections through individuals. Social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

Collaborative efforts based on the ability to reach large numbers of participants and their collective resources, such as crowdsourcing, crowdfunding and crowdsource testing.

User-generated content (UGC): Writing, images, audio and video content -- among other possibilities -- made freely available online by the individuals who create it.

Unified communications (UC): The integration of multiple forms of call and multimedia/cross-media message-management functions controlled by an individual user for both business and social purposes.

Social curation: The collaborative sharing of content organized around one or more particular themes or topics. Social content curation sites include Reddit, Digg, Pinterest and Instagram.

 Unit 3

Traditional v/s Online Journalism-difference in news consumption, Presentation and Uses

The digital medium is one where content is totally interlinked with the product.

Reporters at a newspaper are not really expected to know how a printing machine operates! But in the digital space, content teams are expected to have knowledge about how search-engines work, be receptive towards trending-topics, drive the site's interactive elements, use multimedia tools for better packaging and in general be aware of what goes into the management of the site.

While a print journo will focus more on the language while framing a headline, a digital media person will think in terms of keywords, trending topics and ease of discovery for the user.

Writing style

Given that digital-content today is not only consumed on the computer, but across multiple platforms, writers are conscious about attention spans. While a print journalist may take pride over an elaborate article that spans over pages; in digital, brevity is the name of the game. Writers are conscious of the fact that their stories are being read on screens smaller than five-inches.

Some of the crafty expressions that would be a pleasure to read in print might not gel well with the digital consumer. Use of complicated phrases is also bad for content discovery, as the average user searches using terms from spoken English. For writers who switch from print to web, this is usually the biggest aspect they find hard to unlearn.

Feedback

The Internet is a ruthless medium and writers are usually not good at handling criticism. But due to the two-way nature of interaction on the web, online reporters are far more used to feedback, as compared to their print peers.

Most online-writers begin as bloggers, so they have an appetite for making as well as digesting nasty comments. But amidst all this commenting-noise there is also space for healthy, constructive criticism.

Web writers are accustomed to regular reality checks from users in case of errors or potentially polarising points of view. And due to this continuous stream of author-user interaction, web-writers are far more detached from their copy, flexible in style and less emotionally invested in their story.

Need for speed

Background research is of top priority to any good journalist. But online writers do not always have the luxury of time. In the era of phablets, digital teams have 24x7 access to their site. And page lineups change several times in response to trending topics. So content that may be 'hot' in the morning might be totally irrelevant by afternoon.

Which is why there are cases of irresponsible reporting, based on Twitter rumours, just to appear high on search. While basic rules of journalism do not change, content writers in the digital space have to have a strong sense of quality check, and constantly filter the information overload.

Convergence

Traditional media still has the advantage of infrastructure. Digital has the power of speed and multimedia presentation.

Unlike print, thinking purely in terms of text doesn't work here. So whether it is using a video from a TV bulletin or a slideshow of images, they all make for engaging tools to hook the reader, and provide a complete audio-visual experience. The packaging and aesthetics of the content are of supreme importance and digital journalists think of this aspect very seriously, while planning and publishing their story.

User generated content

The Internet exposes journalists to a plethora of user-generated content. At a time when camera-phones and social-media have made citizen journalism a reality, reporters have to pay attention to the voice of the reader.

So while purists may find Kolaveri Di trivial, news websites cannot ignore viral content. A print journalist may wait for viral content to become a rage, before considering it for a story - But the online counterpart has to identify a trend way in advance, and sense its viral potential much before mainstream media.

If print journos have to be alert about the world around them, the ones on the web have to be in touch with the sentiment of the online community, which can often be very unique from the real-world-view.

Way forward

Given the dynamic mature of the medium, and real-time access to analytics, content writers have to keep an eye on the performance of their story, and make tweaks based on traffic rankings and search results. These digital media reporters have earned their stripes in the age of social-media, where headlines are driven by trending hash-tags. And the speed, at which you publish your story, is almost as important as the story itself.

So while the Internet still reports the same facts as traditional media, the ones writing for the web care a lot more for user engagement than self-satisfying literary indulgence.

The digital journalist is a lot more in tune with what's on people's minds, and is perhaps more of an opinion moderator/aggregator rather than an opinion generator. News has become totally democratic and the digital medium is where journalists are truly talking to the people and not 'at them'.

Online Writing & Editing: Do’s and Don’ts

Content writing the field of content writing is unlike any other form of writing in terms of its style, audience, and tone. This makes getting started on content writing a tricky task. However, with the correct technique, you’ll be on the right track in no time. Read on if you want to improve your content writing skills.

Do remain professional

While it’s important to create a personable, humanized online presence to attract customers, you don’t want to make the mistake of getting too casual. Remember that, however laid-back your customers may appear, a few poorly chosen statements could alienate them. Avoid swearing, slurs, or expressing personal opinions and viewpoints outside of a business context when creating your content. Nothing in your blog should offend your target customers.

Don’t overdo it

Graphics are great, but when there are too many, your blog will be like a house with too many Christmas decorations. It will look tacky and it will load slowly. Don’t forget that some of your clients may not have the fastest Internet speeds, and a website that has to load too many graphics will end up discouraging potential customers from revisiting your site. Focus on content writing, not on adding flashy backgrounds.

Do practice content writing

Whoever invented the phrase “practice makes perfect” understood writing. Like anything else, content writing takes practice. You’re already taking the first step in improving your writing if you’re reading this blog. The next step is to research good content writing. Write a few practice blog posts, and send them to friends for feedback. Don’t hesitate to listen to customer feedback either. You never know who is commenting on the blog, and he or she may just be a professional.

Don’t plagiarize

You probably remember the lectures about plagiarism from your school days, but you may not realize that those rules continue to apply. The difference is that, when it comes to Web content, plagiarism can cost you a lot more than a passing grade. It’s okay to hunt around websites and blogs to get ideas, but when it comes to content development itself, you need to come up with your own material. If you are inspired by another site, you should cite the source and link back to the original piece. Give credit where credit is due.

Do keep your content writing updated

Outdated content bores readers. Make sure to update your blog regularly. Outdated content reflects poorly on your business. It makes readers—and possible clients—think that your business is out of touch. At the very least, readers may think that you don’t have enough business to maintain an active blog. While none of these assumptions may be true, you don’t want to assume that your audience will give you the benefit of the doubt. If you’re having a tough time content writing frequently enough to keep your site updated, it may be time to outsource.

Don’t repeat yourself

Your article writing should be innovative, interesting, and fresh. Don’t just repeat what other people are saying. The best writing is authentic and brings a new perspective. Think about what you have shared in the past, and why you found it useful.

BlogDefinition

A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.

Information

Blogs, or weblogs, started out as a mix of what was happening in a person’s life and what was happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/news site.

The word “blog” is a shortened version of web logs or weblogs. Besides being shorter and catchier, “blog” seems less likely to cause confusion, as “web log” can also mean a server’s log files.

People maintained blogs before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the rise of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com, which lowered the technical barrier to entry for formatting and organizing posts. Now, self-hosted platforms such as WordPress offer new levels of functionality, with a large ecosystem of talented designers and developers serving the varied needs of millions of users.

Despite its grassroots beginnings, blogging has also become a popular platform for business, from companies trying to humanize their brand to solopreneurs seeking to make a full-time income online. But with increased opportunity comes increased competition, and it takes more to stand out now than in the early days of blogging. Still, there are so many more people online today, so the potential rewards are higher for bloggers who break through.

Blogging Tools

These are the basic blogging tools we use and 💚 at marketingterms.com

Domain Name – Namecheap

WordPress Hosting – WP Engine

(optional) Page Builder – Beaver Builder

(optional) Page Builder Addons – Ultimate Addons

To go beyond the basics, visit the lists of WordPress and marketing tools.

RSS

RSS is technology used to monitor rapidly changing information on the web in an organized and user friendly way.

There is a lot of confusion surrounding the little orange and white RSS icon that is found all over the world on news and blog sites. People find it odd that when you click on it, you're taken to a webpage that looks unfinished. Did the website designers forget to do something here? In fact the opposite is true. Putting that little orange symbol  Rss icon on a webpage is the final touch in making website information available to everyone as soon as it is put on the internet. The strange webpage you are taken to is written in what's called XML code. XML is a special set of instructions to an RSS feed reader that tell it when the information for that particular webpage has changed or been updated. People who visit a webpage often for "up to the minute" information use this amazing technology to bring them the

Rich Site Summary

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary and it is not limited to monitoring news sites. It also allows a user to monitor blogs, Twitter or Facebook pages, financial information, daily deals, classified sites, and government alerts to name just a few. By posting a "feed" on their page, web site owners allow rss readers to search their site to continuously look for fresh and new information all the while maintaining user privacy.

Subscribe button

Sample Feed Button

RSS is what brings new news to your attention.

RSS aggregators work in any language and reach every country around the globe. If you click on the recognizable icon found all over internet sites and see an screen your browser can't digest, copy and past the URL into your RSS feed reader. If you want to be an RSS subscriber, download an RSS feed reader by doing a Google search for RSS Feed Reader. If you're a web site owner and would like to give your users the freshest information possible download the RSS Creation Tutorial.

Atom (Web standard)

User interface of a feed reader

The name Atom applies to a pair of related Web standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol (Atom Pub or APP) is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.

Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a website. To provide a web feed, the site owner may use specialized software (such as a content management system) that publishes a list (or "feed") of recent articles or content in a standardized, machine-readable format. The feed can then be downloaded by programs that use it, like websites that syndicate content from the feed, or by feed reader programs that allow Internet users to subscribe to feeds and view their content.

A feed contains entries, which may be headlines, full-text articles, excerpts, summaries, and/or links to content on a website along with various metadata.

The Atom format was developed as an alternative to RSS. Ben Trott, an advocate of the new format that became Atom, believed that RSS had limitations and flaws—such as lack of on-going innovation and its necessity to remain backward compatible— and that there were advantages to a fresh design.

Proponents of the new format formed the IETF Atom Publishing Format and Protocol Workgroup. The Atom syndication format was published as an IETF proposed standard in RFC 4287 (December 2005), and the Atom Publishing Protocol was published as RFC 5023 (October 2007).

Usage

The blogging community uses web feeds to share recent entries' headlines, full text, and even attached multimedia files.[2] The providers allow other websites to incorporate a blog's "syndicated" headline or headline-and-short-summary feeds under various usage agreements. As of 2016 people use Atom and other web-syndication formats for many purposes, including journalism, marketing, bug-reports, or any other activity involving periodic updates or publications. Atom also provides a standard way to export an entire blog, or parts of it, for backup or for importing into other blogging systems.

It is common to find web feeds on major websites, as well as on many smaller ones.[citation needed] Some websites let people choose between RSS- or Atom-formatted web feeds; others offer only RSS or only Atom. In particular, many blog and wiki sites offer their web feeds in the Atom format.

A feed reader or "aggregator" program can be used to check feeds and to display new articles. Client-side readers may also be designed as standalone programs or as extensions to existing programs like web browsers.

Web-based feed readers and news aggregators require no software installation and make the user's "feeds" available on any computer with Web access. Some aggregators syndicate (combine) web feeds into new feeds, e.g., taking all football-related items from several sports feeds and providing a new football feed.

 Podcasts

What’s a podcast?

A podcast is an audio show, usually spread across a series of episodes, which can be downloaded from the Internet and listened to either on a computer or an Mp3 player. The term, which was coined in 2004, is portmanteau of ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’.

Who makes them?

Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can make and freely distribute podcasts, making it a bracingly democratic and vibrant medium. In the early days of podcasting, it was largely an amateur concern – the Internet’s answer to CB radio – but in the last few years dozens of major broadcasters, magazines and news organisations have rolled out large-scale podcast operations of their own.

Are they free?

Yes, almost entirely. Some podcast makers, like Marc Maron, have recently started to charge for access to their archives, but it’s the exception rather than the rule.

How can I find them?

If you've got a smartphone or tablet, the easiest way to find and listen to podcasts is through a dedicated podcasting app. Dozens are available; if you're unsure where to start, I can recommend Pocket Casts, which is available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

On a computer, the most popular way to find and listen to podcasts is through Apple’s iTunes software, which has a dedicated podcast section listing thousands of different episodes and programme strands; and a built in system for downloading episodes and transferring them to an iPod or iPhone.

Podcasts are also widely available on the Web; typically a podcast creator will upload their content to a website (for instance, the BBC’s podcast website), where users can either listen online or manually download the files. A quick Google search ("This American Life", e.g.) will usually bring up the relevant page.

What’s an Internet radio station?

An Internet radio station is like a terrestrial station except that instead of being broadcast over the airwaves it reaches listeners via the Internet. Many Internet radio stations also broadcast conventionally in their countries of origin and run a simultaneous Internet broadcast so that people elsewhere in the world can tune in (Argentina’s FM Tango, for instance). There are also a multitude of dedicated Internet radio stations, which broadcast only in cyberspace.

Listen to our new guide to digital radio: The Pod Couple

The Telegraph has launched a new weekly audio guide to the best podcasts and digital radio, hosted by our award-winning radio critic Gillian Reynolds and our podcast expert Pete Naughton. It's called The Pod Couple and you can find it here.

How can I listen to Internet radio?

There are three main ways to tune in to an Internet radio station.

Firstly, you can visit the Website of a station; there’s usually a ‘listen now’ button somewhere prominent on the home page, which will open up a window with a radio player in it. There are also a variety of Websites like shoutcast.com which allow users to browse through and listen to a large selection of different stations.

Secondly, there are a handful of useful radio apps for smartphones (TuneIn Radio is a popular choice) which enable users to search a large global index of radio stations and listen on their phones.

Thirdly, some high-end DAB radios now also come with an Internet radio function, where they can connect to a user’s WiFi network and stream the stations directly, without the need for a computer.

WIKIS

DEFINITION

A wiki (sometimes spelled "Wiki") is a server program that allows users to collaborate in forming the content of a Web site. The term comes from the word "wikiwiki," which means "fast" in the Hawaiian language.

A wiki provides a simplified interface. It is not necessary to know HTML. At any time, contributors can review the history of the page they are working on or preview the Web page before publishing it.

A wiki Web site operates on a principle of collaborative trust. The simplest wiki programs allow users to create and edit content. More advanced wikis have a management component that allows a designated person to accept or reject changes. The best known example of a wiki Web site is Wikipedia.

The work “wiki” actually means “quick” or “fast” in Hawaiian. It was first used in 1994 by Ward Cunningham in Portland, Oregon. He developed his “WikiWikiWeb” after being inspired at Honolulu International Airport by an airport employee advising him to take the “Wiki Wiki Shuttle” between terminals; it was an alternative to “quick,” as he wanted to avoid the phrase “quick-web.”

The main characteristic of a Wiki is the ease with which a web page, called a “wiki page,” can be created and edited, often accepted without review or modification. Many wikis are open to the public and require no registration. Some do recommend logging in to provide for a “wiki signature cookie” to automatically sign edits. However, edits often appear in real-time. Private wiki systems may require registration and user authentication to edit, or even read, the content.

Wikipedia versus Britannica

There are a number of differences between Wikipedia and Encyclopedia, though they both perform the same duty of distributing knowledge to people. Kids of today may not be aware of encyclopedias because of a sea of knowledge and information available to them on the internet for free. However, not much time has passed when parents bought encyclopedias for their kids to help them in their quest for knowledge. The world is full of encyclopedias; some of them belonging to a particular subject matter, while some running in volumes and being a treasure house of knowledge of many subjects. With the advent of internet, many websites tried to take on the mantle of encyclopedias, but none succeeded to a great extent other than Wikipedia, which is one site that takes pride in running without the help of any advertisement, and providing up to date information on anything under the Sun. Let us see how Wikipedia fares against an encyclopedia.

What is Encyclopedia britannica?

Encyclopedia is a book or a set of books that offer information about a number of subjects. This can also be information about different aspects of the same subject as well. All these information is arranged in the alphabetical order. When it comes to the encyclopedias of the world, the one people have heard the most is Britannica. The encyclopedia Britannica, though it was compiled in 1911, is still regarded as final, authoritative, and unmatched in terms of knowledge that it imparts. Many of us who have been privy to Encyclopedia Britannica remember the reverence in which it was held and how much importance, even teachers have attached to the information contained in it.

What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a nonprofit organization that is totally dependent upon contributions from readers as they are the creators of all that is there on the website. All information inside Wikipedia is for everyone, and people have the liberty to edit and put updated information on any webpage of the site. This is enough to put doubts in the minds of readers as to the extent up to which they can rely on such information. But, Wikipedia tries to put to rest all such doubts by saying that there are editors that verify the information submitted and thus, the information is not wrong at all.

Wikipedia vs Encyclopedia

However, there is no denying of the facts that, in today’s world, where internet is the best medium for dissemination of knowledge, to even think of encyclopedias getting the kind of readership that Wikipedia is enjoying (2.5 billion page views per month) is ridiculous. Also, the fact that Wikipedia is growing by the minute and today contains more than 4, 733, 235 articles (2015) in English Wikipedia is astounding. Also, these articles contain much more than what Britannica has to offer to the readers. It is also a fact that Wikipedia is the easiest of the sources to look up for information on anything under the sun rather than trying to find that information in any other encyclopedia.

What is the difference between Wikipedia and Encyclopedia britannica?

• Wikipedia is a sea of information that is being contributed by readers present in all parts of the world, and the content on the site is growing by the minute.

• Encyclopedias are literary works that are definitive and authoritative, which cannot be said about Wikipedia. Especially, in the academic world, though encyclopedias are accepted as sources, Wikipedia is not accepted as a reliable source.

• Wikipedia is easily available to all, and anyone can edit and update the information, which is not possible in the case of encyclopedias.

• Though Britannica is trying hard to fight a battle of readership with an online version and even CD’s and DVD’s of Britannica being available apart from the regular hard copy, it is a foregone conclusion that Wikipedia is going to emerge victorious.

• Wikipedia is free. That means, if you have an internet connection, you do not have to pay to use Wikipedia. However, you have to pay to use an encyclopedia. To use one, you have to buy one. Even if you use a library book, the library has already paid to purchase the book. Also, online versions too charge money for subscriptions.

• Wikipedia is found only as an internet encyclopedia while other encyclopedias are available as hard copies and internet sources.

Photo Sharing

It’s quite straight forward really. Instead of people publishing pictures in hard copy and exhibiting to friends over a cup of tea, photo sharing websites allow users to upload their images to share with their online friends, or indeed the entire web.

Photo sharing has been around since the 90s

Whatever device was used to capture the image, users can publish anything.

Photo sharing has been around since the 90s. However, in recent years, with the proliferation of cheap digital cameras and high-spec camera phones, websites specifically developed for uploading and sharing have become more popular.

Young people in particular are keen users of digital photography. Many teens like taking pictures of socialising with friends and share the images online through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Most photo sharing sites are free to use and offer plenty of handy tools.

Users can edit, crop and group images together on many of the websites as well as put together slide shows and other display options.

Photo Sharing: the Most Popular Websites?

Here is a list of some of the most popular and widely-used photo sharing websites:

Flickr: Flickr is perhaps the most popular photo sharing website around. It’s probably one of the oldest too, having been on the go since photo sharing became popular. It allows users to join groups similar to their interests in order to share images and there is a big focus tagging

Picassa: This is Google’s photo sharing offering. It’s easy to use for Google Mail subscribers and offers many of the same things as the other sites. It also offers users the chance to upgrade their package to have more space and editing tools in return for a fee

PhotoBucket: According to some, the most popular photo sharing site in the US, PhotoBucket is fast becoming popular in Europe. The site has many of the same features but also includes instant chat options and operates closer to the way traditional social networking websites do

Instagram: Instagram is perhaps the fastest growing photo sharing website. It is popular with Twitter and Facebook users in particular as it allows people to upload to their profiles. It works well on mobile platforms. Instagram also has good and easy-to-use editing tools which makes it popular

Photo Sharing: the Risks?

Photo sharing websites come under the social networking umbrella. They are similar to the Facebooks and Bebos of the internet, in that they allow people to connect and share online.

However, as with social networking, photo sharing also presents many of the same risks for users, particularly young people.

Privacy is perhaps one of the biggest risks with photo sharing websites.

Privacy is perhaps the biggest risks with photo sharing

While there are privacy settings, many pictures posted can be accessed, downloaded, copied and edited by anyone.

Teens can sometimes forget that what they post is essentially a form of publishing and, unless profiles are set to private, anyone can view the pictures.

Often, teens post too much personal information online and some photos can be very revealing in terms of information we would rather not release publicly.

Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous people who trawl the internet searching for vulnerable people and sometimes photo sharing websites are targeted, as with most social networking websites.

Cyberbullying has also found a home on photo sharing websites and with the proliferation of camera phones, bullies are now capable of posting embarrassing pictures of people online without their authorisation.

And the very nature of photo sharing means that pictures can be spread across the internet very quickly, which means maximum psychological damage for victims.

As well as this, there can also be content on some photo sharing websites that we would prefer young people did not see.

Despite the existence of filters on photo sharing websites, not all filters are 100 per cent accurate and often some images of an explicit nature can find their way online.

 Podcasting

Podcasting is the preparation and distribution of audio files using RSS to the computers of subscribed users. These files may then be uploaded to digital music or multimedia players like the iPod. A podcast can be easily created from a digital audio file. The podcaster first saves the file as an MP3 and then uploads it to the Web site of a service provider. The MP3 file gets its own URL, which is inserted into an RSS XML document as an enclosure within an XML tag.

Once a podcast has been created, it can be registered with content aggregators, such as podcasting.net or ipodder.org, for inclusion in podcast directories. People can browse through the categories or subscribe to specific podcast RSS feeds which will download to their audio players automatically when they next connect. Although podcasts are generally audio files created for digital music players, the same technology can be used to prepare and transmit images, text, and video to any capable device.

Podcasting has been likened to TiVo because it allows users to listen to their selected podcasts whenever they like, similarly to the way time-shifting lets viewers watch television programs when it suits them. Furthermore, because of the portability of the player devices, users can listen to audio files from the Internet as they go about their daily activities - for example, listening to a news blog entry while at the gym, commuting, or just walking around.

Content producers are increasingly turning to podcasting as an inexpensive and user-friendly new distribution channel that has the potential to reach a large audience. Not surprisingly, musicians and bloggers are prevalent among the early adopters, but mainstream media organizations, including ZDNet and National Public Radio (NPR), are beginning to venture into podcasting as well.

Video podcasts

Dead End Days (2003–2004) is commonly believed to be the first video podcast. That serialized dark comedy about zombies was broadcast from 31 October 2003 through 2004.

Since the spread of the Internet and the use of Internet broadband connection TCP, which helps to identify various applications, a faster connection to the Internet has been created and a wide amount of communication has been created. Video podcasts have become extremely popular online and are often presented as short video clips, usually excerpts of a longer recording. Video clips are being used on pre-established websites, and increasing numbers of websites are being created solely for the purpose of hosting video clips and podcasts. Video podcasts are being streamed on intranets and extranets, and private and public networks, and are taking communication through the Internet to new levels.

Most video clips are now submitted and produced by individuals. Video podcasts are also being used for web television, commonly referred to as Web TV, a rapidly growing genre of digital entertainment that uses various forms of new media to deliver to an audience both reruns of shows or series and content created or delivered originally online via broadband and mobile networks, web television shows, or web series. Examples include Amazon Video, Hulu, and Netflix. Other types of video podcasts used for web television may be short-form, anywhere from 2–9 minutes per episode, typically used for advertising, video blogs, amateur filming, journalism, and convergence with traditional media.

Video podcasting is also helping build businesses, especially in the sales and marketing sectors. Through video podcasts, businesses both large and small can advertise their wares and services in a modern, cost-effective way. In the past, big businesses had better access to expensive studios where sophisticated advertisements were produced, but now even the smallest businesses can create high-quality media with just a camera, editing software, and the Internet.

In a two-year study, 2012-2013, conducted by a South African university a question was raised; over the years of podcast development, is podcasting socially inclusive. The results of this study concluded with minor quarks, podcasting is socially inclusive.

Screencasts

A screen cast is a narrated video recording of your computer screen. Unlike a video recording of a classroom lecture, in a screen cast the person giving the lecture is not the primary visual focus — rather, their presentation material is the primary visual focus.

A screen cast can comprise anything from still images (for example, slides containing text or photographs) to full motion (for example, the movement of your mouse cursor, drawing or writing on slide, video clips from lab demonstrations, and so on). Screen casts can be enhanced with the inclusion of "call outs" (such as arrows or circles that emphasize certain parts of the screen image) or title cards (which are slides with text that introduce a new section of the screen cast).

The benefits of screen casts

Free up class time

Screen casts can allow you to deliver content outside of class, which means that class time can be spent on more productive and interactive learning activities. This is called flipping the classroom.

Screen casts also allow instructors to deliver course content that they don't want to cover during class. For example, after giving your students a test, you might not want to spend an hour going over the test questions to explain the correct solutions. Instead, you could create a screencast that explained the solutions, which your students could watch (and re-watch) at their convenience. Using screen casts in this way can also help students catch up on remedial content. For example, the instructor of a history course might find that many of their students don't know how to properly reference sources. Instead of covering this remedial content in class, it is delivered via a screen cast that is accessed by those students who need it.

Increase access

Screen casts allow students to access the content from any location and whenever they need it. They can watch screen casts multiple times. They can review them prior to final examinations.

Screen casts can also benefit students whose first language is not English (they can watch the screen cast multiple times, and you can include captions with your screencast), and for students with certain learning disabilities.

Unit 4Cybercrime

Cybercrime, or computer oriented crime, is crime that involves a computer and a network. The computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target. Cybercrimes can be defined as: "Offences that are committed against individuals or groups of individuals with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim or cause physical or mental harm, or loss, to the victim directly or indirectly, using modern telecommunication networks such as Internet (networks including but not limited to Chat rooms, emails, notice boards and groups) and mobile phones (Bluetooth/SMS/MMS)". Cybercrime may threaten a person or a nation's security and financial health.[4] Issues surrounding these types of crimes have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding hacking, copyright infringement, unwarranted mass-surveillance, sextortion, child pornography, and child grooming. There are also problems of privacy when confidential information is intercepted or disclosed, lawfully or otherwise. Debarati Halder and K. Jaishankar further define cybercrime from the perspective of gender and defined 'cybercrime against women' as "Crimes targeted against women with a motive to intentionally harm the victim psychologically and physically, using modern telecommunication networks such as internet and mobile phones".[3] Internationally, both governmental and non-state actors engage in cybercrimes, including espionage, financial theft, and other cross-border crimes. Cybercrimes crossing international borders and involving the actions of at least one nation state is sometimes referred to as cyberwarfare.

A report (sponsored by McAfee) estimates that the annual damage to the global economy is at $445 billion; however, a Microsoft report shows that such survey-based estimates are "hopelessly flawed" and exaggerate the true losses by orders of magnitude.[third-party source needed] Approximately $1.5 billion was lost in 2012 to online credit and debit card fraud in the US. In 2016, a study by Juniper Research estimated that the costs of cybercrime could be as high as 2.1 trillion by 2019.

Types of Cyber Crimes

Computer Intrusion

Computer intrusion is any malicious activity that harms a computer, or causes a computer or a computer network to work in an unexpected manner. These attacks involves spreading of virus, denial of services or exploitation of the operating system or a software feature.

Social Engineering

The term “social Engineering” means to fool a user by sending him an email or calling him to provide confidential data like passwords etc.

Masquerading

In this type of attack a system is fooled into giving access by sending a TCP Packet that has a forged source address which makes the packet appears to come from a trusted host.

Denial of Service (DOS Attack)

This type of attack intent is to make resources or service unavailable to its intended users. Such DOS attacks are carried out on websites to stop them from functioning.

Smurf Attack

This attack generates large amount of traffic on a victims network, which causes the network to crash. Smurf Attack is a type of DOS attack.

Fraggle Attach

It is a type of DOS attach where the attacker sends a large amount of UDP echo traffic to IP broadcast addresses.

Email Bombing

Email bombing means sending thousands of email to a victim causing the victim’s mail account or mail server to crash.

Logic Bomb

A logic Bomb is an event driver attack. This type of attack activates only if certain even occurs.

Salami Attack

This type of attack is carried out for financial gains. In Salami Attack, the key is to make changes so small that in a single case it can go unnoticed. For instance, a bank employee deducts 2 Dollars from every single customer or transaction. The customer is unlikely to notice the change but the employee gets a fortune.

What is cyber security?

Cyber security comprises technologies, processes and controls that are designed to protect systems, networks and data from cyber attacks.

Effective cyber security reduces the risk of cyber attacks, and protects organisations and individuals from the unauthorised exploitation of systems, networks and technologies.

What are the consequences of a cyber attack?

Cyber attacks can disrupt and cause considerable financial and reputational damage to even the most resilient organisation.

If you suffer a cyber attack, you stand to lose assets, reputation and business, and potentially face regulatory fines and litigation – as well as the costs of remediation.

The cyber threats organisations face

Although larger organisations tend to have a realistic appreciation of the cyber threats they face, many small to medium-sized enterprises are unclear about the ways in which they’re vulnerable, and as many as 45% mistakenly think they’re not a viable target.

In fact, all Internet-facing organisations are at risk of attack. And it’s not a question of if you’ll be attacked, but when you’ll be attacked. The majority of cyber attacks are automated and indiscriminate, exploiting known vulnerabilities rather than targeting specific organisations. Your organisation could be being breached right now and you might not even be aware.

Creating a solid cyber security foundation

The most effective strategy to mitigate and minimise the effects of a cyber attack is to build a solid foundation upon which to grow your cyber security technology stack.

Solution providers often tell their clients their applications are 100% compatible and will operate seamlessly with the current IT infrastructure, and for the most part, this is true. The problem arises when we start adding IT security solutions from different manufacturers regardless of the granularity of their configuration settings – technology gaps will always be present.

And technology gaps will always appear for one simple reason: developers will always keep certain portions of their code proprietary as part of their competitive advantage. Hence, true compatibility and interoperability may only be 90%. These are known as technology gaps. It is through these gaps that attacks usually occur.

A solid cyber security foundation will identify these gaps and propose the appropriate action to take to mitigate the risk of an attack.

A solid foundation provides organisations the confidence to build their cyber security strategies.

Cyber Laws & Ethics and the difficulty in enforcing them

What is Cyber Law?

According to Wikipedia, “Cyber law or Internet law is a term that encapsulates the legal issues related to use of the Internet. It is less a distinct field of law than intellectual property or contract law, as it is a domain covering many areas of law and regulation. Some leading topics include internet access and usage, privacy, freedom of expression, and jurisdiction”.

In other words, Cyber law can be considered as a part of the overall legal system that deals with the Internet, E-commerce, digital contracts, electronic evidence, cyberspace, and their respective legal issues. Cyber law covers a fairly broad area, encompassing several subtopics including freedom of expression, data protection, data security, digital transactions, electronic communication, access to and usage of the Internet, and online privacy.

The Indian Information Technology Act was passed in 2000 (“IT Act”). On the other hand most of the companies are still uninformed of the strict provisions of the law. The rising use of Information and Communication Technology has given go up to serious compliance concerns, which if unnoticed may attract various civil and criminal sanctions.

All the companies who are connected cyber business are required to fulfill with the requirements of the law. There are quite a few cyber law firms in India that has given so much for the growth and development of cyber law of India.

Cyber Ethics

1.      Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid.

2.      Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.

3.       Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.

4.      Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you are writing or the system you are designing.

5.       Thou shalt always use a computer in ways that ensure consideration and respect for your fellow humans.

6.      Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.

7.      Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.

8.      Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's computer files.

9.      Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.

10.  Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.

Limitations of law enforcement in fighting cyber crime

The FBI recently broke up the largest cybercrime ring in history when more than two dozen people were arrested in the United States and around the world in a sting operation dubbed “Operation Card Shop.”

Federal authorities cracked down on online financial fraud, in which suspects allegedly stole credit card and banking data, and exchanged it with each other over the internet, a practice known as “carding.”

The bust came on the heels of another takedown earlier this year when the Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit, along with U.S. marshals and a consortium of financial services security firms, orchestrated a high-profile and successful strike against a significant cybercrime operation that may have taken more than $100 million from tens of thousands of people. Known as “Operation B71,” the bust made headlines by taking out servers and computers infected with the Zeus malware.

On the surface, these recent activities appear to support the idea that the good guys are making progress in the fight against cybercrime. But a closer inspection of the complaints highlight the limitations of law enforcement and the existing legal code as an effective weapon.

The effort needs to shift from what happens once fraud has been perpetrated to prevention of the crime in the first place. And that requires an entirely new skill-set.

 
Elements & Principles of Web Designing

What is Web Design?

Design is the process of collecting ideas, and aesthetically arranging and implementing them, guided by certain principles for a specific purpose. Web design is a similar process of creation, with the intention of presenting the content on electronic web pages, which the end-users can access through the internet with the help of a web browser.

Elements of Web Design

Web design uses many of the same key visual elements as all types of design such as:

Layout: This is the way the graphics, ads and text are arranged. In the web world, a key goal is to help the view find the information they seek at a glance. This includes maintaining the balance, consistency, and integrity of the design.

Colour: The choice of colours depends on the purpose and clientele; it could be simple black-and-white to multi-coloured design, conveying the personality of a person or the brand of an organization, using web-safe colours.

Graphics: Graphics can include logos, photos, clipart or icons, all of which enhance the web design. For user friendliness, these need to be placed appropriately, working with the colour and content of the web page, while not making it too congested or slow to load.

Fonts:  The use of various fonts can enhance a website design. Most web browsers can only read a select number of fonts, known as "web-safe fonts", so your designer will generally work within this widely accepted group.

Content: Content and design can work together to enhance the message of the site through visuals and text. Written text should always be relevant and useful, so as not to confuse the reader and to give them what they want so they will remain on the site. Content should be optimized for search engines and be of a suitable length, incorporating relevant keywords.

Principal of Web Design

Besides the basic elements of web design that make a site beautiful and visually compelling, a website must also always consider the end user. User-friendliness can be achieved by paying attention to the following factors.

Navigation: Site architecture, menus and other navigation tools in the web design must be created with consideration of how users browse and search. The goal is to help the user to move around the site with ease, efficiently finding the information they require.

Multimedia: Relevant video and audio stimuli in the design can help users to grasp the information, developing understanding in an easy and quick manner. This can encourage visitors to spend more time on the webpage.

Compatibility: Design the webpage, to perform equally well on different browsers and operating systems, to increase its viewing.

Technology: Advancements in technology give designers the freedom to add movement and innovation, allowing for web design that is always fresh, dynamic and professional.

Interactive: Increase active user participation and involvement, by adding comment boxes and opinion polls in the design. Convert users from visitors to clients with email forms and newsletter sign-ups.

Toronto web design professionals create excellent User Interface (UI) Design for a satisfying web experience. They use critical planning and analysis for the design and they pay attention to individual client specifications, converting the intricate process into a simple and elegant piece of art.

 Basic Programming for Web Designing-- HTML

Web Programming

Definition - What does Web Programming mean?

Web programming refers to the writing, markup and coding involved in Web development, which includes Web content, Web client and server scripting and network security. The most common languages used for Web programming are XML, HTML, JavaScript, Perl 5 and PHP. Web programming is different from just programming, which requires interdisciplinary knowledge on the application area, client and server scripting, and database technology.

Web programming can be briefly categorized into client and server coding. The client side needs programming related to accessing data from users and providing information. It also needs to ensure there are enough plug ins to enrich user experience in a graphic user interface, including security measures.

1.      To improve user experience and related functionalities on the client side, JavaScript is usually used. It is an excellent client-side platform for designing and implementing Web applications.

2.      HTML5 and CSS3 supports most of the client-side functionality provided by other application frameworks.

The server side needs programming mostly related to data retrieval, security and performance. Some of the tools used here include ASP, Lotus Notes, PHP, Java and MySQL. There are certain tools/platforms that aid in both client- and server-side programming. Some examples of these are Opa and Tersus.

HTML : How to start in HTML and web design

Getting Started

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the primary building block of creating a website. HTML is a very basic markup language and requires memorization of a few dozen HTML commands that structure the look and layout of a web page. Before writing any HTML code or designing your first web page, you must decide on an HTML editor or text editor, such as Notepad or WordPad.

Once you have obtained an HTML editor and are ready to begin setting up your website, think about how you want the site to look and be set up. Consider even drawing out your ideas, to help visualize the site and pages in the site. Below are some considerations to think about when designing your web page.

How are you going to store all the files? Are all the files going to be in the same folder or directory? If you plan on having lots of different pictures and files, it's recommended that you store the pages, files, and pictures in separate directories.

Are the HTML files going to be stored as .HTM or .HTML files? There is no advantage or disadvantage of going with .htm or .html. However, it is a good idea to stick with the same extension.

Do you plan on having a template for the pages? Are all the pages going to have the overall same look and feel?

How is the navigation going to be handled? Do you feel its better for the navigation menu to be on the left, bottom, or top of each page?

Tip: Realize that your web page is going to change over time as you find things that do not work. Over the life time of the Computer Hope website, we have changed our complete site several dozen times.

Writing basic HTML

After installing an HTML editor and setting up a folder, you are ready to begin creating your page. Begin by creating a file named index.htm or index.html as your start page. All servers on the Internet look for an index file if no file is specified. For example, when typing https://www.computerhope.com, the server is really accessing the https://www.computerhope.com/index.htm address.

Once you have created the index.htm or index.html file and it is open in your HTML editor, we recommend inserting the below source code into your page. If your HTML editor automatically places HTML code into your page or you have a WYSIWYG editor, you can skip this step.

The above code is a very basic example of the code that helps make up every web page. As you can see, the code starts with <html>, which is defining that everything within <html> is HTML code. Next, you have <head>, which is defining the heading of your HTML document. Third, we have the <title> section within <head>, which defines the web page title that is displayed at the top of the Internet browser window. Finally, the <body> section contains what is shown on the web page.

Below is additional code that can be placed in the <body> section of the code to help familiarize you with some of the most commonly used HTML commands.

As you can see from looking at the above code, you will realize that the basic HTML commands are fairly simple to use. First, we start off with <center>, which is telling the browser to center the information within these tags. Next, the <h1> or heading one statement tells the browser to display the text in the largest heading style. Next, the <hr> tag tells the browser to display a line straight across the screen. The third line contains <br> that creates a line break on the page. Next, the <p> is short for "paragraph" and helps separate the text on the page. Next, the <b> tag is short for bold and will bold the text contained within the tag. Next, the <ul> starts a bullet list and each bullet is represented by the <li> tag. Finally, the "<a href" tag is a method of creating a link to another location. In this example, we are creating a bulleted list of links to Computer Hope and Google.

Please Add your comment