2009 November « Ntates's Blog

Archive for November 2009

Your life in a showcase

Nowadays it’s very popular among adults, youngsters and children to share their most intimate details with their friends on the Internet. People use blogs, websites, Hyves, Twitter etc. to tell their friends about themselves or others. This is not without a risk. Many of the readers may appear to be friends. In reality they have a whole different agenda. I’m going to highlight a few dangers of this popular pastime.

First, the information you share, is also accessible to everyone else. Therefore anything you write or show, can be used against you. Innocent words or pictures might end up in a different context. Criminals use all sorts of methods or sometimes even blackmail to pressure you, in exchange for not revealing your personal information.

Secondly young children are extremely vulnerable to be exploited by all sorts of perverts. Some of these adults look for a chance to get in contact with children in order to persuade them to tell things about themselves or worse to expose themselves. At first they try to get the confidence of children by presenting themselves as someone of their own age. Later on in the ‘relationship’ they’ll try to make real contact by setting up a date. The consequences can be disastrous and children may be damaged for life.

Short, adults can think for themselves, but children need to be protected. They have to be made aware of the dangers of sharing personal information on the Internet. This should be an important task for parents, teachers and other educators.

Add a comment November 22, 2009

Twitter: a valuable communication tool

Twitter is a valuable tool for communication. Ashton Kutcher underlined this statement by reaching 1 million followers on his Twitter account and therefore winning the bet with the Cable News Network. But how did Twitter help him to win his bet? What makes Twitter a valuable tool for communication?[1]

First of all, the usability of Twitter is very high because of its rudimentary social networking features. The only thing you have to do to participate in Twitter is to answer the question, ‘What is happening’. That makes it much easier than any other social networking site.[2]

Secondly, Twitter is up to date. The messages you post on Twitter are very concise therefore it doesn’t take much time to post your story. Besides by accepting messages send by sms, web, mobile web, instant message, or from third party API projects, Twitter makes it easy for you to post messages any time you want.

Thirdly, Twitter is very free of character. You don’t have to comment on your friends activities or receive messages if you don’t want to. It is designed as a social network that is easy in its use and suits your needs.

Fourthly, it is really enjoyable to Twitter. You can stay in close contact with your all friends and get to know things about people you might not have found out otherwise.

Thus Twitter is of great value to the way you communicate because it is rudimentary, up to date, free of character and overall enjoyable!

[1] http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/15/ashton.cnn.twitter.battle/index.html

[2] http://twitter.com/about#about

Add a comment November 22, 2009

Customization

Customization is a huge trend in society. These days we are living in a time where control and freedom are the keywords in our daily lives. There are in fact scientists who see customization more as a niche than a trend.[1] But not al forms of customization are so explicit as others. Therefore I’m going to make you more aware of it by giving several examples.

First a popular one: social networking sites like Facebook, Hyves etc. Almost every social network site contains a form of customization by giving people the opportunity to upload their own pictures, blogs or setting of the webpages.

Secondly, the fashion industry. People these days don’t want to look like everybody else. They want to distinguish themselves from others by wearing clothing or shoes that reflects their personality. This is a profitable market for many companies. Nike for instance has created a website where you can order your custom made shoe.

Next is the market of electronic devises. Nowadays you can customize your cell phone or PC with a variety of applications like ringtones, background, programmes and gadgets. Apple for instance has created loads of applications, ranging from games to GPS programmes, for the Iphone.

Fourthly, the government and the economic market also, took over the customization trend by providing websites, also called mashups, that combine two or more external sources to create a new hybrid service.

Although I have shown that customization is a huge and profitable trend it is questionable if it will develop into a niche market.

[1] http://mass-customization.blogs.com/mass_customization_open_i/customization_trends/