Bonus Question2: Why is second life not a game?


Firstly, let us ask ourselves, what does the term “game” means? According to Kramer Wolfgang, a game is any activity, which is executed only for pleasure and without conscious purpose. In this definition, every activity that brings pleasure is a game. For example, people dance, play musical instruments, act in plays, and play with dolls and model trains.

After exploring second life, I feel that it is not a game, rather a virtual part of you living in the virtual world. It is different from playing games. In second life, we have to first pick characters of our likes, aka avatars. Upon choosing, you be exploring yourself in a virtual world. While Second Life is sometimes referred to as a game, it does not have points, scores, winners or losers, levels, an end-strategy, or most of the other characteristics of games. (Wikipedia, 2007)

Furthermore, Second Life has its own economy and a currency referred to as Linden Dollars (L$).Residents create new goods and services, and buy and sell them in the Second Life virtual world. There are also currency exchanges where Residents can exchange US$ or other real world currencies for L$. These exchanges are open markets, except that Linden Lab sometimes changes in world Linden Dollar "sinks" or sells Linden dollars to attempt to keep the exchange rate relatively stable. There is a 3D modeling tool in Second Life that allows any Resident with the right skills to build virtual buildings, landscape, vehicles, furniture, and machines to use, trade, or sell. This is a primary source of activity in the economy.

In a game, there must be rules, goal, and competition. In rules, it defines and the stucture of the game. Everything that is in the rules is part of the game. Everything that is not in the rules does not belong in the game. The rules are the borders and the heart of the game. (Kramer, 2000) In every game, there is a goal. The goals of a game define the purpose of the game. Lastly, competition allows winners and losers- that provides players with a purpose and motivates them to get into the game. A competition needs a system, in which the game results can be compared. The competition and the measurement of the game results are criteria, which limit the game and the cause that certain feelings will not be fulfilled throughout the game as in books, movies, and music. (Kramer, 2000)

However relating the above paragraph to second life, it seems that second life is more of an simulation (an electronic equivalent of this type of role-playing and it serves to drive synthetic environments and virtual worlds) that game. Second life reminds me of “Sims City” A game with that is not considered a “real game”- mainly to build houses and estates. Second life can act as an entertainment or leisure, or something you do online with your friends to chat and to explore or create a virtual relationship together.




Citations:
Kramer, Wolfgang (2000, December). What is a game? Retrieved April 5, 2007, from Games journal Web site: http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/WhatIsaGame.shtml
Wikipedia, (2007, April 04). Second Life. Retrieved April 5, 2007, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_life
Fishwick, Paul (1995, October). What is simulation? Retrieved April 6, 2007, from http://www.cis.ufl.edu/~fishwick/introsim/node1.html
Levy (2006). "World of Warcraft: Is It a Game?" Retrieved April 3rd 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/print/1/displaymode/1098/
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benbasket at 3:42 AM

Citizens of Singapore!

In this week’s assignment, I am going to adopt a local blogger’s blog to address/discuss about politics in Singapore. His blog URL and title is: http://bleongcw.typepad.com/simple_is_the_reason_of_m/2007/03/the_first_world.html, Titled as. The First Worlds, Our Destination? His name is, Bernard Leong. He is currently an adjunct assistant professor in National University of Singapore Entrepreneurship Centre.

Key conversations:

In Bernard’s blog, he talks about how difficult it is to implement the vision to take Singapore to the first world. Furthermore, he listed 5 features that he feels that the first world should have. Bernard Leong wrote a very interesting piece about Singapore’s progress towards the First World. And, he outlined some characteristics which he thought represents what it means to be in the First World. I quote his opinion on the politics in a First World country.
“The real issue is that when you are in a first world country, you always hear all different points of views. One political party gains power and starts to undo the other’s legacy. So, in the end, political ideologies trump over public policies. Although it might not be as efficient as others, at least the politicians have to learn how to humble themselves to convince others to agree with them.”
I agree fully with Bernard’s opinion. Even the wackos get their say in first world countries. True, it is not time-efficient to listen to the opinions of wackos. But therein lies the rub. How do we know they are wackos? Could the “wackos” actually be geniuses in disguise, just that the majority has yet to acquire the capability of understanding what they are talking about?
Politically, I think that it is important for diversity of opinions. Government policies are usually not made for the short term. As such, the effects of policies are usually felt some time down the road, and if it turns out to be a wrong move, the cost of repairing the damage is usually very high. This is why it is important to hear as many different views as possible, and to actually account for such views in decision-making.

Singapore’s political situation is in such a way that one party dominates the scene. This is not a bad thing in the sense that it allows the Singapore government to respond more quickly, and much more efficiently compared to other countries. However, this very strength could turn out to be Singapore’s own undoing, especially if the wrong policies were executed very efficiently.
I am aware that the PAP dominated Singapore government does its homework before embarking on any major policy. Nevertheless, the possibility of groupthink is very real. A bunch of highly intelligent policy makers might not be able to escape the effect of groupthink. Therefore, it is perhaps wiser to have a divided political system where no party is dominant. No doubt, that it is less efficient to try to convince another party, and to make some concessions in the process.

Therefore, I shall relate back to today’s topic of whether the internet (blogs) allows better democracy in Singapore. After reading Bernard’s blog, I think that blogs will definitely be a good way of playing in a part in desion-makings. As mentioned earlier, it is very important to hear different views from people around Singapore to truly know what they want and what they think about Singapore.

According to Alinta Thomton, Does Internet create Democracy, “citizens can exchange views on matters of importance to the common good, so that public opinion can be formed. This public sphere comes into being when people gather to discuss issues of political concern.” I agree with her argument.

Singapore in fact, allows freedom of speech and anyone can comment on anything they want. But in Singapore, one has to be careful of what they says and what they do. Because, in this “kiasu and kiasi” society, we as Singaporeans, often take what we can do for granted. Freedom of speech are often a way to scold the government and insult them.

To conclude, I think that Singapore can come out with an online blogging system which must be registered for. People all around Singapore can login and comment about issues and their thoughts. Just as what Bernard has stated in his blog, “in the west, you can say it with a considerable amount of comfort, but that also means that insults and personal attacks are more common as well.” Well, if such system is created, I am sure many Singaporeans will start blogging on “OUR” issues and not just “THEM” (the LEEs’)

Citations:

Thornton, A. (2002, October). Does Internet Create Democracy. Retrieved March 23, 2007 from http://www.zip.com.au/%7Eathornto/thesis_2002_alinta_thornton.doc

Bernard,L (2007, March) The First Worlds, Our Destination. Retrieved March 23, 2007 from http://bleongcw.typepad.com/simple_is_the_reason_of_m/2007/03/the_first_world.html
benbasket at 12:18 PM

QotW 7: Twitties

An online community is where people interact with each other in a virtual world- like instant messengers, IRC etc. Community is an important aspect of life for most people. Cooley (1983) says that all normal humans have a natural affinity for community. He suggests that the primary factor inhibiting the formation of communities, no matter what their scale, is that they are difficult to organize. The structural process that is associated with community is communication. Without communication, there can be no action to organize social relations. The intimate nature of this relationship is best illustrated in the words community and communications. (Fernback & Thompson, 1995)

Through communication and community, it revolves around the issues of brining people closer together, even those that you do not know. One example of such community communication would be Twitter.com. Although it is not as good as the instant messenger (which explains it all, as it is INSTANT), but it is quite cool to a certain extend. Imagine this, you invite all your friends into twitter and start a live update (conversation) of what you are doing. It connects you and your friends together, somewhat like mass chatting or rather what we call as a conference. I never expect it to be so cool, as I have technophobia. However, twitter really amazes me of what it is capable of. Certainly, twitter can be considered as an online community can do what a basic instant messenger could. Things like, making friends, project discussions, sharing of personal information and even making potential mate partners through it.

The concept of community commonly refers to a set of social relationships that operate within specified boundaries or locales, but community has an ideological component as well, in that it refers to a sense of common character, identity or interests. (Fernback & Thompson, 1995) Through twitter, one need not know the other person in order to start a conversation. There are not restrictions in whom or how many friends you make. Its is a place where people from all over the world, come together and experience a completely new form of online community. Twitter is a social networking service that allows members to inform each other about what they are doing and what they think. It allows users to send messages via phone or instant messaging. (Twitter, 2007) However, the sending of messages are only now avaliable on the US and UK (the place where twitter is first founded). Technology is changing in a rapid pace. Who knows that twitter might be the next “hottest” thing to be done in the next 3 to 5 years?

Typical online communities can bring you more cons than pros if one were to view it in the long-run. Why? People of normally sign up for such communities would actually get “hooked” into such ways of communications, thus turning them away from real-relationships with their family and friends (Hiltz and Turoff, 1993). They will lose physcial communication with their friends and kin and end up being the best of friends with their “feelingless” computers. However much, Twitter does not breach this concern of turning your friends and family members into your personal computer. It is somewhat a mixture of social network community, but provides real-time updates that can be send through sms (Short Message Service) via hand phone as well. I believe that twitter and other online communities will make it big in time to come. As not only it brings strangers and strangers together, but also, it aids people by maintaining and strengthening friendships between one and other, regardless of how far you are away from each other.

Citations:

Fernback, J., & Thompson, B. (May, 1995). Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?. Retrieved March 16, 2007 from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html


Twitter (2007). Retrieved March 16, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter


Hiltz, Starr Roxanne, Kenneth Johnson and Murray Turoff. 1986. "Experiments in Group Decision Making: Communication Process and Outcome in Face-to-face Versus Computerized Conferences." Human Communication Research 13 (2): 225-252.
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Com125 Qotw6: Privacy

The British sociologist Anthony Giddens has described the ways that citizens in a risk society can no longer rely on tradition or fixed hierarchies to establish their identity or to give them reliable guidance about whom to trust in a society of strangers. Confused and anxious about status in a world where status is constantly shifting, we feel increasing pressure to expose details of our personal lives to strangers in order to win their trust, and we demand that they expose themselves in order to win our trust in return. (Rosen, 2004) Examples of these “exposures” are like when you register online for a free E-mail account- they would ask personal questions like what is your name and your date of birth. My question to these questions would be, “how are they even relevant to what I am subscribing for?” Personally, I believe that my online identity must be kept as a secret, or rather not revealing every part of my body to the naked crowd.

Psychologists tell us boundaries are healthy, that it is important to reveal yourself to friends, family and lovers in stages, at appropriate times. However, few boundaries remain. The digital breadcrumbs you leave everywhere make it easy for strangers to reconstruct who you are, where you are and what you like. In some cases, a simple Google search can reveal what you think. Like it or not, increasingly we live in a world where you simply cannot keep a secret. (Sullivan, 2006) We have to be clear with the conjunction of revealing myself to my friends and families and the revealing myself online towards people I don’t even know, who claimed to be your “friends”.
Privacy invasion is not just happening on the internet- in fact, do you even know that you are being spied on online and offline? In America, the legal, ethical, and policy issues surrounding personal sousveillance are largely yet-to-be-explored, but let us consider a simple parallel example, namely the recording of telephone conversations. Telephone tapping is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. In America, such activities are very common. What is amazing is that a simple conversation with your friend is being exposed on the papers the very next day and everyone is talking about it- the best part is you do not even know about it. Even on business today, people are being spied on, for example, Hewlett Packard executives hiring private investigators to spy on employees and journalists. ( Sullivan, 2006).
The invasion of privacy is like an on-going trend that is spread around the globe- I think it is even faster than the SARS. Certainly, people just do not want to be left behind and instead following the trends- especially Singaporeans. For example, I saw a website in the internet. It is about Singaporeans with their hand phone, going around and taking videos. With respect to the first video on the website, it is about a dispute between two people over a car accident. However, the most hilarious thing I realize upon watching the video is that- the one who is taking the video is the main culprit of the accident. (Posted by Kevin, 2006)
The internet has vastly increased the opportunities for individuals to subject themselves to the demands of the personality market, resulting in ever increasing confusion and anxiety about how much of ourselves to reveal to strangers. (Rosen, 2004) We must be careful with what we do in and off the internet. The bottom-line is, never to reveal too much of yourself when you are unsure of the circumstances.

References:

Rosen, J. (2004). The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age, Random House.

Sullivan, B. (17th October, 2006). "Privacy Lost: Does Anyone Care?". Retrieved on 8th March, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/

Sousveillance. (2007, February 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance

Internet Website Posted by Kevin: http://philiptiongson.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/12/singapores_aunt.html
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Do you really believe in whatever I describe myself to be in this blog? This is the question many have to ask themselves, while chatting or reviewing others’ online identity. Identity plays a key role in virtual communities. In communication, which is the primary activity, knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating an interaction. Yet in the disembodied world of the virtual community, identity is also ambiguous (Donath, 1996).

The push factor for communicating in ambiguity is due to their reputation and online identity; that are often the motivating factors that push people to actively participate in forums and online communities. (Donath, 1996) However, due to the current widespread use of the internet as its many communication applications has brought the 'identity' factor to a whole new level. Along with this new freedom have emerged many unique issues and problems (Lackaff, 2003).

Having an online identity, one can include whatever they like on it. They can have fake names, fake pictures and fake profiles. But why did they fake up all these? To me, it seems like a privilege to set-up online identities, as no one knows who you are and that means you can type or chat about almost anything and everything. Creating false identities and masquerade are often present in online chat forums. One good example is the chat application called Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

In a Chat forum, it doesn’t literally means that people actually talk to each other and hear each other’s voices. Instead, it means that you hold live keyboard “conversations” with other people on the Internet- that is, you type words on your computer and other people on the Internet can see those words on their computers immediately. One can also hold simultaneous chats with people all over the world. There are a number of ways people can establish an online identity and start chatting on the internet- one of the most popular ones would be the Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

IRC follows a client/server model, which means that both client and server software are required to use it. Many IRC clients are available for many types of computers, so whether you have a PC of Macintosh, or Unix, you can use IRC. Each topic you join is called a channel. When you join a channel, you can see what other people on the channel type on their keyboards. You can also hold individual side conversations with someone. To me, this is the best time to use fake online identity. I am sure most of you have done that before. By distinguishing yourself as a female, when actually you are a male, to tap on girls online and relishing the conversation with another stranger. This happens very often! IRC is also a place for geeks to make friends. Why so? Probably they can find someone who they can really talk to online, be it personal problems or other issues, they will not know who you are unless they start asking a meet-up in person session. That is where disappointments comes in. The contents of the posting can reveal a great deal more about the writer. It may include overtly identity-related data: name, age, etc. More importantly, it provides a chance to get a sense of the writer's "voice'' and to see how he or she interacts with others in the on-line social environment. (Donath, 1996).

However much, there is a setback on the use of IRC. Other people or even your friends can use your nickname and hack into your account. They can simply tarnish and destroy your reputation in a second. This means a lot to some people; especially regulars who never change their nicknames and had constantly chatted or even made friends online. Furthermore, users can make people believe in what they said, when it is untrue. This can lead to serious outcome, depending on how much they believe in. Lastly, it is also advisable not to meet up in person with your online-chat friend. Because, you will never know what might happen if you met up in person. For example, you might be very disappointed in his/her looks and gets pissed on the fact that he/she did not live up to your standards as described over IRC.

The growth of internet usage in the past decade has changed both human society and the medium itself (Lackaff, 2003). In this modern era, it is so easy to create false identities. It may or may not be a bad thing- depending on what you are looking for. However, it is advisable that you do not reveal too much of yourself as the fact that we cannot prevent others to create false identities.

Work citations:

Donath, Judith (1996, November 12). Identity and the virtual community. Retrieved February 23, 2007, from Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community Web site: http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Lackaff, D, (2003). A review of moderation regimes. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from Norm maintenance in online communities Web site: http://lackaff.net/node/20

E-mail Spam. (2007, February 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 23, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRC
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Giving that ask for no returns

What confused me most when the topic, “Gift Economy”, was thrown onto me is do I look at it in a “layman” term, or do I look at it in-depth? Well, after reading ample amount of sources, I finally understood.

There are actually two types of economy, a commodity economy and a gift economy. In a commodity (or exchange) economy, status is accorded to those who have the most. In a gift economy, status is accorded to those who give the most to others. (Pinchot, 1995)

A gift economy simply means, giving and receiving. Gift exchanges should not involve explicit bargaining or demands that the gift be reciprocated, but a relationship in which there is only giving and no receiving is unlikely to last. The contrast to a gift exchange is a commodity transaction, in which no obligation exists after the exchange is consummated – the bottle of water purchased at a convenience store does not create an obligation to buy something there again. A gift is also tied in an inalienable way to the giver. This is to say that gifts are unique: it is not simply a sweater, but rather the sweater-that-Bill-gave-me. (Kollock, 1999) The Gift Economy offers us a means to learn, to understand, to take charge, and to change our world. It is a natural economy, steeped in millions of years of pre-civilization human culture and the culture of all life on Earth. If enough of us embraced it, the modern 'market' economy, built on the faulty and inhuman foundations of inequality, scarcity, false quantification of value, and acquisition, could not survive. (Pollard, 2005)

When dealing with a gift economy, price is not the main concern. That means, when I give you something, I do not expect any financial return from you, also I do not expect any direct return from you. Indeed, gifts of information and advices are not just subjected to an individual, rather, to a group as a whole. Gifts of information might be offered to a group that has a clearly defined membership (a private discussion list, for example) or to groups that are more loosely defined. (Kollock, 1999) In contrast to a gift economy, the commodity economies are benefits that come from making improvements in the technology of production. Price is often the main driving factor in this case. To sum it off, It is important to note that gift exchange and commodity transactions are ideal types, and any economy will be a mix of these two types of exchange as well as many intermediate cases between them.

In this modern era, the World Wide Web is taking part in most of our lives- thus we must be aware of this wonderful online gift and make full use of it. Today, information and advices can be found in many different websites. They act as a gift to all of us and indirectly fulfill our needs and enriched us in many ways. Information may lose value over time, but it certainly has the capacity to satisfy more than one. In many cases, information gains rather than loses value through sharing. While the exchange economy may have been appropriate for the industrial age, the gift economy is coming back as we enter the information age. (Pinchot, 1995)

“Google” is the world’s leading start and search engine. To me, information is best received through “googling”. If I need information about shopping, sports and entertainment, instead of going to websites and try to find the most suitable website to browse through, I will just go online and fire up my Google and start searching. This Google Company was founded in 1998 and became the largest search engine on the Internet in 2000. This site is a relatively new phenomenon to many. The secret to Google’s speed and accuracy are the algorithms it uses when it searches. It uses many factors to determine which are the most relevant pages that match our search, including how popular the page is, where the search term is found within the page. Furthermore, Google does not stop at only considering the page’s popularity; it also looks at the quality of pages that link to that page. Google started out as a search engine, but it has become much more than that today! It is practically its own universe. It has its own sites that tells and help you buy things online (Froogle), a mapping site (Google Maps), an email service (Gmail)- bet most of you didn’t know that! New services are introduced practically every month. Adding on, there are also different languages/versions of Google that suits people from different country- example, you are a Chinese that only speaks and read in Chinese. Fear not, Google has it all! They provide a Chinese Google website to suit you. This is simply amazing! (Google, 2007)

In conclusion, the changing economies of online interaction have shifted the costs of providing public goods – sometimes radically – and thus changed the kinds of groups, communities, and institutions that are viable in this new social landscape. (Kollock, 1999)Therefore, like what Gifford Pinchot said, “Not all economies are based on maximizing personal gain, some are founded on giving.”


Kollock, Peter (1999). 'The Economies of Online Cooperation; Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace" Retrieved February 9, 2007 from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm
Pinchot, Gifford (1995). "The Gift Economy" Retrieved February 6, 2007 from http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC41/PinchotG.htm
Pollard, Dave (2005). "The Gift Economy" Retrieved February 6, 2007 from http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/04/17.html
Google. (2007, February 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:40, January 26, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
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QOTW3: Sharing, Copyright and Creative Culture.

“Piracy is Crime”

Today’s internet is made up not just of text, but sound, video, animation and more. Every once in a while a new feature or application takes the internet by storm and not only changes the way many people use the internet, but, at times, even change the world beyond the internet’s borders.

So what is it that we should be concern about copyrights? It did all this by putting into effect a very simple idea- let people share their music with each other over the internet. Despite all the hype, technology and lawsuits, that is what it all comes down to.

People nowadays can make digital copies of their CDs by using piece of ripping software that turns CD tracks into digital files (Windows Media Player, I tunes. Etc) – most of these commonly files are in the mp3 music format. With the evil heart of some, copies of these CDs where made repeatedly and sold throughout the whole nation on the verge of being catching and prosecuted. Yes, so what if you are being caught? Thousands and thousands of copies had already been sold and distributed around the globe. If this goes on, what will happen to content creators? Music industries and moviemakers? This has to be stopped! If you want to make copies of your own, follow the rules and oblige the law.

The music industry were badly affected because of this. Remember the Napster case? Napster went to court on copyright violations. The court cases dragged on for a while, but ultimately Napster lost and was put out of business. It may resurface as a legal, for- pay music sharing service at some point. However, despite the lawsuits, the genie is out of the bottle. Other software and file-sharing networks enable people to do the same thing. (Ares, Limewire. Etc)

The first important thing that people cannot forget is that: copyright is important. Initially, the creation of copyright is to give creators of new music, video etc. special rights to their creation for a limited time. The purpose of these copyright laws is to ultimately benefit the public by promoting “the progress of science and useful arts;” that is learning and knowledge. With these laws being implemented, creators can benefit from their creation and earn themselves fame and money-, which is a form of incentives towards them. On the other hand, the public’s interest is also being taken care of. The public benefits because the authors and inventors continue creating original works that these creators may not have otherwise developed and because these creations are freely usable by the public once the limited time has passed. It is important to strike a balance between both the interest of content creators and public good. (Ovalle, 2005)

It proposes that we adopt a legal architecture that encourages but does not compel copyright owners to make their works available for widespread sharing over digital networks, and that we incorporate into that architecture a payment mechanism, based on a blanket or collective license, designed to compensate creators and to bypass unnecessary intermediaries. (Litman, 2003)

One important thing that can be done, which is mentioned by Jessica Litman from her article, is to encourage music file sharing, as a distinguish from merely tolerating it. To do that, it should incorporate some licensing mechanism that can cut through the thicket of overlapping and conflicting rights. In addition, the legal defaults of such system need to be reset to “share” rather than “hoard”. So long as shareable is the legal default, we do not need to make sharing compulsory. We can allow creators who would like to prevent their music from being shared to make an election. The system should allow customers, computers and software to ascertain, easily, whether music is being hoarded or shared, and thus encourage the design of computer software allowing the sharing of shareable music while making it difficult to share hoarded music. (Litman 2003)

Another way of treating this matter is to let the public know and understand the set of rules behind sharing and copyright related law issues. For example, letting the public know what a “Fair use” is all about; that is, doctrine that allows certain limited uses of copyrighted material without the copyright owner's permission. While there is no bright line test defining the scope of Fair Use,states four general parameters that must be considered: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including the commercial or noncommercial nature of the use; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount of the copyrighted work that is used; and (4) the effect of the use on the potential market or value of the copyrighted work. Fair Use commonly provides for educational and non-profit entities (i.e., schools and libraries) to disseminate copyrighted material. It allows students and teachers to copy reasonable amounts of material from books and other publications. Fair Use also allows journalists to use certain portions of copyrighted works in their reporting. However, keep in mind that the fact you are using the material for educational or journalistic purposes by itself does not give you carte blanche to use whatever you want. All four of the above parameters must be considered and the determination of what fits within the scope of Fair Use is complex. (Brady, 2004)

There are more of these set of rules that can act as a guideline for us, so as to not violate the law and remain a good public user.

A whole new application has sprung up recently: business peer-to-peer software. The most notable example is Microsoft-owned Groove software that enables people in corporations to create their own private workspace where they can share files, messages, and software. Multibillion-dollar corporations have already signed on and using the software. This could another alternative to accommodate both public and content creators’ interest. In addition, businesses also use Bit Torrent as a way to more efficiently distribute software. So ironically, a technology that started as guerilla music- sharing software might find fruition as a corporate mainstay.



Citations:

Ovalle, C. (2005). What is Copyright? Retrieved on February 3, 2007, from http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/3.php


Litman, J (2003). Sharing and Stealing. University of Michigan. Social Science Research Network. Retrieved on February 3, 2007, from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=472141#PaperDownload


Brady, K (2004). Copyright FAQ: 25 Common Myths and Misconceptions. Retrieved on February 3, 2007, from http://users.goldengate.net/~kbrady/copyright.html
benbasket at 12:38 AM

Benjamin Chen Bao Da.

The history of internet draws us back to the early development of communication network. Communication network allow different computers to be able to communicate with each other. With the conjunction of today’s development and infrastructure, we are linked together by internet. There are various forms of internet that people use today as a form of communication. For example electronic mail, hypertext and IRC (also know as online chat channels).

However, in my essay, I am going to talk more about how electronic mail (aka E-mail) we use today is being influenced by this development. Electronic mail, or e-mail might be the most heavily used feature of the internet. One can use it to send messages to anyone who is connected to the internet or connected to a computer network that has a connection to internet. As such, millions of people send and receive e-mails everyday. E-mail is a great way to keep up with distant relatives, friends, co-workers.

E-mail is often known as the killer application. Killer application in this case means, a computer program that is so useful or desirable that it proves the value of some underlying technology. This shows how powerful E-mail is today. E-mail started in the year 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate. Then, E-mail is being used to distribute news and bulletin board-like messages and it soon grew into discussion groups/ newsgroups. People in the 1970s would make use of E-mail to discuss about technical issues and cultural topics. (With reference to an online reading, History of the Internet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

As compared to the modern era, 2007, e-mail had been totally revitalized to something people use in their daily lives. We use e-mail for multiple purposes today. For example, in a business organization employees communicates with their employer through e-mail and in our daily social life, we are making use of e-mail as a personal communication. The creation of e-mail has affected all of us so greatly that even in schools, students are taught to use e-mail and other forms of internet engines.

However, the question of how exactly e-mail works is something that not many know of. Well, here is a brief explanation of how the e-mail works. E-mail messages are sent in the same way as most internet data. The TCP protocol breaks your messages into packets, the IP protocol delivers the packets to the proper location, and then the TCP reassembles the message on the receiving mail server so it can be read. In the modern era, one can also attach binary files, such as pictures, videos, sounds and executable files to your e-mail messages. (With reference from textbook: How The Internet Works and Online readings: History of the Internet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

One of the most contentious issues that surface on the internet in the last few years has to do with what internet users called spam. Spam is unsolicited junk e-mails that commercial companies send out, be it asking you to buy or review their services. Individuals are also capable of spamming too. Do you know that spam can cause major problems? Spam floods the internet with unwanted mail, which can lead to delayed or lost of mail. It clogs the Internet pipeline, making other information slower to send, or even delayed. Furthermore, spammers usually hide their real e-mail addresses and that made it even more difficult to track them down and block them from your e-mail.

Spam has other dangers as well. Spam is often used to swindle unsuspecting victims, for example by sending out false e-mails claiming someone needs to log in to a bank, and then sending the person to a spoofed bank site. The spammer then steals financial information. This technique is called phishing. Phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out using e-mail or an instant message, although phone contact has been used as well.

In conclusion, it is advisable to block spam. Various ways have been devised to block spam, including having e-mail filters on e-mail software- which is very common among most users nowadays. This software also examines the content of e-mail messages to try and determine whether it is spam. Furthermore, by enforcing technical requirements of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) can be used to block mail coming from systems that are not compliant with the RFC standards. Many spammers use poorly written software or are unable to comply with the standards because they do not have legitimate control of the computer sending spam. (Information retrieved from online readings: E-mail Spam From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)


Works Cited

Preston, Gralla. How Internet Works, Eighth Edition. Indianapolis, IN 46240: Que, 2007.
History of the internet. (2006, August 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:23, January 26, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_Internet&oldid=70771572

E-mail Spam. (2007, January 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:30, January 26, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam

Phishing. (2007, January 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:40, January 26, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

benbasket at 11:00 AM

It was one of the worse weekend of my life. Pills, medicine, sleep and CONGEE... i cannot eat anything else as im down with fever and acute tonsilitis. Anyway i get acute tonsilitis very often, like once every 2 moths. I hate that man! its really terrible and you are like helpless. i vist the clinic so often that the doctor recognizes me. Thats not something to be proud of. Alas, i went to the doctor and he gave me the medicine that i always eat (antibiotics and paracetamol) and as im recovering on Sunday, im struck with fever and cough again~!! and i spend the whole of yesterday coughing and coughing. when today arrives, i cannot take it anymore, thus i visit the same clinic today. Im recuperating now and hopefully i can get back to school tom! hopefully!
benbasket at 8:39 PM

Hi, i am benjamin Chen. currently studying in UB-SIM. Sad to say, this is my last semster before i set forth for ARMY life----irritating. Anyway, its the route to being a man~. i am one with not much talents. the most applicable one to talk about would be playing soccer and basketball--but its been a long time since i work out, so i can only last for at most 30mins. after which i will be so breathless that i cant even spell my own name! im serious!
this is pretty cool~ i never dreamt that i will actually be writting a blog--and its gonna be read and viewed! i never had an interest in reading and writting blogs, as (to be honest) i think its a waste of time. But after attending the lecture on Com 125 (introduction to internet), it changed my view totally. There is actually more than just writting a blog. people acutally blog for other purposes, e.g. talk about products be it gadgets or diamonds.. showcase reviews on products they bought and many more. There is actually more to it. Well thats all for the introduct. thank you for your time. Will post in new stuff tomorrow!
benbasket at 11:48 AM