Chat

Signing up with Skype was an easy process. I followed a link from the Discussion Board and endeavoured to add all of my fellow students Skype addresses into my account.

From then I continued on with module 2 and was quite surprised when I was prompted into my first chat ever with Chris.

Somehow when I created my Skype account I had attached a music clip to my profile. Chris was interested in how I had done this, and to my disappointment, at my first opportunity, I couldn't remember for the life of me how I had created this.

Feeling nervous about the first chat and embarrassed because I couldn’t recall something that I had done, we continued our conversation. Chris in this time had worked out himself how to add a clip and then I in turn asked him how he had done it (Yes, a blonde moment).

On a second occasion, once again while I was working on module 2, Skype flashed at me again, this time a call from Fiona. Second time around I entered the chat with a bit more confidence and thoroughly enjoyed meeting Fiona. We reflected on the net11 unit so far and how we were coping with studies and family.

Our group chat was scheduled for Thursday night, July 3.

At 8pm I turned on my laptop and sat eagerly waiting to see Skype flash yet again. 8:05 it all happened. A third of my contacts were online and all were testing the water, hi’s here and there.

The conversation took of rather quickly and I found myself sitting in awe watching all the flicking pens and comments rolling one after another.

I attempted to jump in occasionally but found the subjects, gaming and flaming, were not areas that I felt could input. I was happy to observe and quickly noticed the difference in conversations compared to one on one.

There were approximately 15 people participating in the group chat.

The conversation tended to jump around. Obviously by the time a reply came in there were others in between. So the conversation was quite broken. Some people managed this with obvious experience and a few, like me, tried to keep up enjoying the moment all the same.

The following day I was fortunate enough to be available when Stefan and Kylie came online. I thoroughly enjoyed this particular chat experience. Our conversation was more controlled and I gained valuable confidence regarding chatting and our net11 studies from my two friends.

Thank you Stefan and Kylie:)

In reflection to module 2, it felt slow to start, considerable signing up to prepare for the tasks. I don’t think I would use newsgroups again but gained a lot of understanding in regards to chat. I understand that the need to be quick is an area to work on, but to be able to freely interact with a person/s with so much ease is definitely worth exploring more. I would be apprehensive though if I didn’t know the person on the other end. This task felt safe, even though we don’t know each other, we are a connected group.

Newsgroups

“One source of both information and communication is newsgroups. A newsgroup is a continuous public discussion about a particular topic. You can join a newsgroup at any time to become part of a huge conversation between hundreds or even thousands of people". Howstuffworks (1998-2008)

So thinking about the problems with setting aside a physical time to attend a community group, an online group gives you the flexibility to participate in a discussion at a time that suits you, without having to leave home. Information shared in this way has the capacity to expand a topic because your audience is not restricted to a particular area or number of people. Also you can decide whether you want to participate in a discussion or just read what people are posting to that topic at any time.

Sounds like a lot of benefits to sharing an interest in your own time but what could pose as a disadvantage with communication of this kind?

The participation within our internetstudies group was quite rewarding but then this group was specifically formed to aid the net11 students module 2 task.

On the other hand, my experience within the mylifeismine group was quite dull. I feel that this group is more of an advertising board rather than a place of personal communications in interest of the group topic. My message posted fine but my question has not been answered to this day. Not a personal group in my eyes.

I also joined a Google newsgroup, Smile-junkies, but I am unable to post a message within. I am informed that ‘This group is announcement only, I cannot post messages because I am not a manager’.

Reflecting my personal preference to what I have discovered so far, I feel more in touch with our Webct Discussion Board, the ease of searching topics and reply to individual people appears more user friendly.

Reference:

How Stuff Works (1998-2008) How Newsgroups Work, Retrieved 5 July from

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/newsgroup.htm

Email Lists

People that are passionate about a certain interest, enjoy sharing that interest with others.
Without the internet, Philip the Photographer, Gary the Gardener or Betty the Bookworm would pursue their interests by maybe joining a community group. Photography clubs, Bookclubs and more are all available to enrich people’s interests.

In busy times, this kind of interaction may not be available if say the local bookclub only meets on Thursday evenings at 7pm, and you can’t attend.

What about the internet?

Yes a user can find a wealth of information with a google search on a particular subject, but finding a website on a particular subject is limited to providing the user with information. Online communication on the other hand enables you to interact with other people who share a common interest?

EMAIL LISTS (List Server).

An Email List is a communication tool, used for distributing messages to a list of suscribers who have a shared interest in a particular subject.

For this task, I created and email account with Yahoo.

I then searched for our net11 internetstudies’ group and another group outside of our studies called ‘mylifeismine’.

Signing up for the internet studies group was quick and easy. I posted a reply message to 'Cherna' and then in a matter of 10 minutes 'Joel' came back with an uplifting reply to my message:) Thanks Joel.

I was interacting within the messages page and found out later when leaving the area that the posts were also received in my Yahoo inbox. This observation will present itself in my task question I am sure. But before then, I would like to reflect on my experience with the other group I joined.

I chose 'mylifeismine' because I am very interested in anything based around the Law of Attraction.

I prompted to sign in, but unlike our internetstudies group I had to wait until I was accepted before I could participate. This process didn’t happen for a couple of hours, that was OK, I would look into this group more the next day.

(Next day) I posted a message (#480) but nobody has responded yet. It seems more of a group where the messages are just general topic entries, not personal communication on a topic. Oh well, I much prefer our own group, you feel like a real person there.

Question time…..

1: What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards? (Allen n.d)

I would think that an advantage of email lists could be because the communications are email based. Therefore, rather than having to visit multiple websites to participate in group topics, all messages are sent to your inbox. You can receive communications from different topics but view them in the one area. We are all accustomed to checking emails, this type of discussion process can therefore be time efficient.

On the other hand, our inbox at the best of times can take some managing. My inbox after just a couple of days indicates that if not viewed regularly, could become overwhelming, posing as a disadvantage.

The pros of a Discussion Board would seem evident that the organization of Threads enables the reader to readily select which topics they would be interested in reading and which to ignore. You don’t need to manage the Board, no need to delete messages as you would an inbox. You can follow or search for discussion topics quite easily and don’t need to access an email account to view a Discussion Board.

The flipside of these pros could regard the users limit to topics in one area. A Discussion Board may be about a core subject and have many internal topics based on that core, but if you wish to pursue a totally different topic then you would need to find another Discussion Board.

2: Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other? (Allen n.d)

Being new to both forms of communications my thoughts would be with the idea that communication based around study, is best suited to Discussion Boards. Managed topics and search capabilities simplifying what each user is looking for and points of interest typical to access in organized areas.

Curriculum Reference:

Dr Matthew Allen (n.d) Curtin University of Technology; Net11 The Internet Communications, Module Two. Email Lists, Retreived 2 July 2008 from http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_b/scripts/serve_home

EMAIL TASK continued......

2: In what cases would you find it useful to use the cc, bc and reply all functions of email? (Allen n.d)

If you are sending an email message and would like to send the same message to another recipient, then you would use the cc field. CC is an abbreviation meaning Carbon Copy.

I use this function everyday at work when I send daily reports to the owner of the business. I cc the report to the person who handles our business Admin. The recipient of my message can see that I have included Admin with a carbon copy of the report.

If I was communicating with a client who had an outstanding account, I could bc those emails to the owner or Admin. BC meaning blind carbon copy would provide me with a discreet way of keeping the owner informed of a situation without the clients knowledge of the double communication.

I also use the reply function when I am responding to a customer enquiry or quote.

Responding with the Reply All feature will include all recipients of cc or bc messages and the original sender.

As we deal with a lot of Designers (I work in Picture Framing), if I sent an independent email with a quote for a job say two days after the enquiry, my response could be overlooked if I didn’t include clear information of the original email.

By using the reply function, the recipient can see my response above their original message to me. It also saves me time when replying because I can refer to the original message easily while I respond. Sometimes a message might go back and forth quite a few times also, the convenience of all communications being available in the one email is invaluable when you are dealing with emails of similarity each day.

When you elect to reply to a message, the recipients address is automatically entered in the To field and the subject displays Re: to subject you are replying. Another time saving automatic feature of the reply function.

3: In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver? (Allen n.d)

Attachments to an email need to be of compatible applications to the recipient you are sending them to.

Up until recently (at work), the main PC that we use in a network of 5 unfortunately was old, and obviously for this reason ran such programs as Word 97 etc. For years we put up with this with the hope that one day it would die on us, prompting the owner to upgrade:) Until that wonderful day arrived one of the frustrations of trying to work on this thing was the countless email attachments that I was unable to open.

Checking with your recipient what applications they are running will save a lot of frustration.

Consider:
· If it is a Microsoft Office file, is your version newer than the recipients. If so, then when you save the file, elect to change the version to one that suits.

· PDF files are read with Adobe Reader, if the recipient doesn’t have Adobe, it can be downloaded free.

· Make sure files are not too big or the message you are sending may be returned as undelivered.

I like to inform my recipients in the body of my emails, briefly, the content of what I have attached. ie ‘Please find photo’s attached’ or ‘Please find pricelist attached’.

4: What sort of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose? (Allen n.d)

I have never used filters in my personal email up until now. For this exercise, I found in my Options menu the above Filter Options. I have nominated that my Filter Rule deletes any messages I receive from Avanquest Software

Other options available are highlighting messages from nominated recipients or moving certain messages to an elected folder rather than your inbox.

Filters are a tool you can use to keep your Inbox ship-shape and tidy and place importance on messages you wish to keep an eye on.

What a nifty little application, I like it:) Once again, another detail I haven’t explored before, I can proudly say that I am learning something new every day!

5: How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why? (Allen n.d)

I like to create folders for my emails. It keeps messages filed where I can find them easily if I wish to keep them. I like all my messages to come to my Inbox first hand, but when I have read them I usually file them away.

A few Folders I use in my personal Email:

· Ebay (generally I store any invoices from items I have won here)
· Personal (I use this one for general information)
· Studies (obviously a newbie)

Some other example of Folders I use at work:

· Customer quotes
· Supplier Pricelists
· Special Clients (the folder is titled under their name)

I find Folders extremely efficient for keeping emails at hands reach. Could you imagine a filing cabinet if you didn’t tag the files - Wouldn’t be good hey.

Curriculum Reference:

Dr Matthew Allen (n.d) Curtin University of Technology; Net11 The Internet Communications, Module Two, Email Task, Retrieved 26 June 2008 from http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_b/scripts/serve_home

EMAIL TASK

1: What information about a user’s email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message? (Allen, n.d)

When first opening an email the user can identify at a glance, when the message was sent, who the message is from and what information may be in the message.

From the above email I can see the following:

· The message was received on Thur, 29 May 2008 14:08:08
· The message was from * OpenCurtin@curtin.edu.au

* The first part of the address is the user name (eg. homer@ or homer241@)

*The second part of the address is the domain. This address is .edu.au (education domain in Australia), you may also come across free domains (eg. Yahoo and Hotmail) or Government domains (.gov.au).

· The To field is the receiver of the email. If it is your inbox then it would be you.

The above message says To: Undisclosed recipients ( because this is an email regarding studies, I would imagine that it would be sent to all the Net11 students. Undisclosed hides the other students details)

· The Subject field gives a brief inclination of what the message is about.

If a message is urgent, you may see a subject as eg URGENT : school interview cancelled

· In the field labelled Path(s) I can see that the message has 4 attachments

The above attachments are documents outlining my course.

· The body of the email contains the whole message and as this one, the signature of who sent it.

In reflection of the Email Task question, when I gleaned this message for more information, I found the following screenshot within ‘Message Source’. I perceive from this information that the message passed through 4 servers from Curtin to my Inbox.

Not showing in the email used here, you are also able to see whether the message has been forwarded to you from the sender (eg the subject will show Fw: bla bla bla)

Also whether the message has been CC to another host. (eg a copy of the email is sent to another recipient other than you) This feature will be covered in more depth in question 2:)

Curriculum Reference:

Dr Matthew Allen (n.d) Curtin University of Technology; Net 11 The Internet Communications,Module two, Email Task, Retrieved 25 June 2008 from http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_b/scripts/serve_home.

Email Task to be continued.......

IMVU 'IM NOT' my reflection

Today I decided to sign up with Second Life. My registration kept saying to 'try again in a few minutes and keep entering the code'. After an hour I decided to give up, I really do have better things to do.

Returning home from shopping my next attempt at registration was with IMVU. Well this was much easier. I had a name, Zotess, a look, and was ready for my first experience with virtual communication.

I put a "Hi"out there and then found something I was familiar with - A Blog Page:)

I posted a message of my visit and then had another look around.

The first thing that yukked me out was a 'flashing message' saying I had 2 crushes. I clicked on the message and found that my cell no was requested. OK, remember, protect your personal information!

I left quietly.

The second thing that rang horror bells was a conversation with another female.

Started out fine, the general Hi's and then I was asked if I was straight. When I replied yes, she engaged "Yay, I wasn't another Lesbian and she could have a good conversation".

This chat seemed harmless for like 30 seconds, then she turned vulgar and abusive. I quietly left again and realised that this type of communication is sooo not cool to a mother of three.

I have enough integrity to walk away, but what about our children?

My 11 year old daughter spends time on HABBO. I would monitor her now and then and didn't find any harm in what she was doing. Apart from the fact that she did spend probably too much time on it.

This was all OK until we noticed on two phone bills, a 1900 number had added a hefty $100.

Surprise surprise, it was Habbo. What and when these calls took place (my daughter was so horrified that she maintained that she didn't make them) brings home that an 11 year old has no idea the impact of these actions. How can it be so easy for a chat site to encourage a child to rack up a phone bill so silently. And like with my earlier experience, who is she really taking to?

If I see IMVU on the family PC I will be sure to keep uninstalling until she reaches 18!! I do think as a parent it is a much harder job to try and keep our kids, kids nowadays. That's it, isn't it - all this cyber technology at our fingertips is both useful and destructive.

As I sit here writing this post, my daughter is glued to the Saturday night movie, my husband is texting our eldest son and not a word is spoken.

I remember as a kid feeling frustrated when my Dad was always reading the paper, and here I sit night after night behind my laptop screen.

I have no need for virtual communication and hope that this unit only requires us to visit the experience. I much prefer the discussion boards and our blogs:) Keep it real

Thats it for me this weekend. FAMILY TIME:) See you next week with Module 2

PING Exploration

Oh my...... I just experienced out of control zing with my ping. Please excuse me for a moment while I recover.

I went to hypersnap my screenshot and in my moment when I couldn't remember what to do, I went to capture the screen and then OUT OF CONTROL:) the camera started clicking madly for what felt like an eternity!! Once again I was at the mercy of this machine that has the capabilities of turning my world upside down at just one click. When it decided to finish its Hissy Fit (I know, caused by me) I had captured just about everything it could find. Well they got the name right then - HYPERsnap!

Ok .... take two

"Ping the webct site and compare the time with the time taken to Ping from the net tools site. Is it less or more than you expected?" (Allen, n.d)

First Ping curtin.edu.au from centalops.net

The statistics show that 5 packets were sent and 5 received, average time taken 250ms.

Second Ping curtin.edu.au from Zoe's laptop

The statistic show that 4 packets sent, 4 received, average time taken 96ms

My results confirmed what I would have expected. A shorter time from Qld to Perth than US to Perth.

But interesting observation when conducting a trace from Centralops to Curtin, the first 11 hops within the US were faster than when it hit au Sydney at the 12th hop.

I assume that the longer time taken for each hop to reach curtin could be that Australia's network speed is slower than that of the US. Hmm

Curriculum Reference

Dr Matthew Allen (n.d) Curtin University of Technology; Module One Task, Internet Tools; Retrieved from http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_b/scripts/serve_home 21 June 2008.