Concept 7: Netiquette
“Good communication practice on the Internet is not something one 'learns', but something one 'practices' so as to teach others, less familiar than yourself, how it is done.” (Allen, n.d)
There are many different ways to communicate over the Internet. Email, online chat rooms, virtual worlds, discussion boards, forums and newsgroups.
What we need to remember as an advanced Internet user however is that behind all forms of communication is a person. In real life society we value good ‘ol manners and respect others. Because communications over the Internet are generally not face to face, our worth of conducting ourselves ethically can lapse. An advanced Internet user embraces the guidelines of good netiquette and utilises their skills, leading others by example.
Shea, V (1990-2006) “What is Netiquette? Simply stated, it's network etiquette -- that is, the etiquette of cyberspace. And "etiquette" means "the forms required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be required in social or official life." In other words, Netiquette is a set of rules for behaving properly online".
One of the most popular forms of communication available to Internet users is email. Email is the electronic way of writing to a recipient, used either for personal or business use.
Netiquette in the business sense should keep within certain guidelines otherwise your mail can become problematic or annoying to the person you are sending it to.
Internet netiquette need not be complicated and most guidelines cover all forms of communication.
A good place to start with efficient emails is an organized inbox.
Module 2 outlined the basics of good email applications and management. An advanced Internet user utilizes the tools available to keep their emails well organized for easier access when needed.
Folders
In paper society we use filing cabinets as a storage facility, mail received in our inbox can be stored in much the same way. Effective labeling of folders enables us to access information quickly and efficiently. For example in my work, I use a folder system that categorises Client quotes, Supplier orders, Advertising and Supplier product upgrades to name a few.
Filters
You can set filters within your emails to automatically act upon instructions relevant to your needs, therefore saving you time with organization. This is a great tool because your mail is organized at the time of message download. In my work an effective filter would be to highlight all messages from the address our framing program provider, as these emails are important supplier price upgrades, with a need to be acted upon quickly.
Inbox Clutter
If we neglect to check our mail regularly it can soon become congested and important messages may become lost amongst annoying junk mail or not even make it into our mailbox at all. An advance Internet user regularly checks, sorts and deletes their mail not only to maintain order but also to control mailbox capacity. When your inbox becomes full, new mail will no longer come through. Good organization reflects on the user, and the ability to be able to find messages with ease reflects good organization.
Aside from maintaining an efficient mailbox, we need to recognize how to send information effectively and professionally, having full control over the content of our messages, who we are sending to and the outcome sought.
The basics of good email content identifies that:
- Capitalization is regarded as shouting
- Subject lines should reflect the object of the content. Use of wording ie Urgent seeks attention of the recipient.
- Ensure recipient is capable of viewing attachments.
- Only reply to messages in business if completely necessary, email tag can be annoying/time wasting.
- Keep messages precise, to the point and polite.
Electronic communication is still personal and the advanced Internet user values their identity and others, conducting all communications with netiquette at the forefront at all times.
Arlene H Rinaldi sums up our responsibilities as Internet users within the structure of the Ten Commandments.
Rinaldi, A (1994) "THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR COMPUTER ETHICS" from the Computer Ethics Institute
1. Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
7. Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization.
8. Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
9. Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you write.
10. Thou shalt use a computer in ways that show consideration and respect.
Site 1: Core Rules of Netiquette /
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
The content is purely directed at user conduct on the Internet and each rule elaborates the importance of all communications and the most appropriate practices in this area.
AlbionBooks (1994-95-96) “Dubbed the "network manners guru" by the San Jose Mercury News,Virginia Shea has been a student of human nature all her life. She attended Princeton University and has worked in Silicon Valley since the mid-1980s”.
Site 2: The Net User Guidelines and Netiquette
http://www.wifak.uni-wuerzburg.de/wilan/sysgroup/texte/netiquet/netiquet.txt
This site guidelines all Internet protocols, covering the fundamentals of netiquette in a list form. The content informs the reader how to go about all forms of communication including Telnet, FTP, Email and Groups and Usenet.
Closing at the end of the site we are introduced to the ‘Ten Commandments for Computer Ethics’, lightheartedly telling the internet user what “Thou shalt not do”.
Rinaldi, H (1994) “The formulation of this guide was motivated by a need to develop guidelines for all Internet protocols to ensure that users at Florida Atlantic University realize the Internet capabilities as a resource available, with the provision that they are responsible in how they access or transmit information through the Internet (The Net)”.
Concept 13: Communication is not complete upon receipt
“The key to effective email management is to consistently and conscientiously respond to and act upon the email you receive, while recognising that others may not be as efficient as yourself”. (Allen: n.d)
Effective email management, especially in business, reflects an organized inbox and efficiency in how we send and respond to messages.
A busy, active mailbox requires constant attention. We can have a great folder and filter system in place, but if we fail to check incoming messages regularly, we risk missing important mail.
Depending on the purpose of the mailbox, daily monitoring ensures control, especially if the mailbox receives customer orders / enquiries. In a retail sense, an unarmed mailbox would be like a shop without any service. It wouldn’t take long to lose valuable customers.
Jerz, D (2008) “If you want to appear professional and courteous, make yourself available to your online correspondents. Even if your reply is, "Sorry, I'm too busy to help you now," at least your correspondent won't be waiting in vain for your reply”.
Acknowledging a customer requests as priority, and responding to the message immediately, is positive etiquette practise. Even if more time is needed to meet a request, a courtesy response ensuring that you acknowledge the request and will get back to them as soon as you can, portrays professionalism and care.
The flipside of receiving and managing mail is the users ability to send effective mail messages.
Thinking about where and who we are sending the message to, do we need to include a cc (carbon copy) to a second party? Do we require a copy of the original message to be sent bc (blind carbon copy) to a second party recipient without the primary recipient knowing?
Jerz, D (2008) “Use BCC instead of CC when sending sensitive information to large groups. (For example, a professor sending a bulk message to students who are in danger of failing, or an employer telling unsuccessful applicants that a position is no longer open.) The name of everyone in the CC list goes out with the message, but the names of people on the BCC list ("blind carbon copy") are hidden. Put your own name in the "To" box if your mail editor doesn't like the blank space”.
Once establishing who is going to receive the message, what is put in the subject line, will reflect on how quickly the message will be read. Failure to fill in the subject line may leave the message open to being deleted without being read at all.
Mind Tools, (1995-2008) “Use the subject line to inform the receiver of EXACTLY what the email is about in a few well-chosen words. You might include a call to action such as "Please respond by 7 November", and if your message is one of a regular series of mails, such as a weekly project report, include the date in the subject line too”.
Establishing effective primary information informing the recipient at a glance before they even open an email then needs to be backed by solid presentation of content. Keeping our messages clear and precise, ensuring our attachments are readable to the recipient’s computer, ensuring working links and direction of what we are asking reflect an organized body.
In a work sense I feel my emails have been effective when I have required a response. On the other hand though, some responses have been unnecessary and if I thought about the time devoted to reading these replies, I could now implement more effective content with what I have learnt. I now feel more focused on what I am sending in my recipient’s eyes rather than just my perception. The cliché of not being a mind reader behind messages sent. Thinking about how they will interpret your message before you send it could save time in the end.
A well-precipitated email message values respect of the recipient’s time and in turn enables smooth communication; a message is not effective if it attracts no reply.
Site 1: Mind Tools, Essential skills for an excellent career.
http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/EmailCommunication.htm
Mind Tools.com claims to be one of the Internets most visited career skills resources. You can link to an analysis that outlines the methodology of this statement.
The website offers different resources including subscription to the Mind Tools Ebook and Career coaches.
The sub heading ‘How to communicate powerfully by email’ encourage me to use this site, backed with information delivered straight to the point.
I found the content to be brief and informative, covering all aspects of email management and delivery. You can also link to an article containing Writing Skills, (http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/WritingSkills.htm), useful points of consideration to help when writing as a form of communication.
Site 2: Writing Effective E-Mail: Top 10 Tips
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/e-mail.htm
This website is revised and maintained by Dennis G Jerz. He is an Associate Professor in English – New Media Journalism, Seton Hill University, Greensburg Pennysylvania.
The website was originally posted Dec 2000 by Jessica Butler (UWEC Student)
This site demonstrates 10 tips to writing effective professional emails. Each tip outlining do and don’t examples for each subject. As a resource the information here is extremely explanatory and visual examples help the reader to understand the importance of email formatting.
The reader will cover subjects from message content to flaming, to proofreading and privacy, all reflective to better utilize our email knowledge.
Concept 26: Privacy and Security
“The Internet is a profoundly ‘open’ system and advanced Internet users are cautious about either accepting or sending material from and to unknown sources and are careful in releasing information about themselves in any form. Conceptually, the Internet challenges us to take greater responsibility for the protection of privacy and security than perhaps we are used to when dealing with the media”. (Allen, n.d)
As convenient as computers and the Internet are today, a silent threat that should be in the forefront of our minds whenever we log on, is privacy and security.
Every site visited, potentially can amass personal data of ourselves. It is up to us how much information we give and are aware of security threats defined with computer use.
Passwords are as common on the internet as our pin numbers are to bankcards. In order to log on to a site, we generate a password. Some sites can valuate the strength of a password when you are registering, but even the most intricate of passwords is ineffectual if you don’t keep it secret to yourself.
When choosing a password, consider using a mix of capital/lower case and numbers. Don ‘t use combinations of real names or birthdates, and to ensure that it stays safe, change the password periodically.
National consumers league (n.d) “If you get an email that looks like it's from your Internet Service Provider or someone else with whom you have an account asking to confirm your password, don't respond until you've checked with the company directly”.
Communications, such as email are open to privacy and security issues. Whether it be confidentiality of messages or virus threats planted in attachments.
A computer accessed by more than one user is open to public scrutiny. In this case, be aware of content and definitely don’t conceal personal information in messages. If you supply a password to log on, then you must also log off when you are ready to leave the site.
Be very aware of spammers. A regular threat to many mailboxes is the message from a Banking institution advising you that your account has been frozen and to remedy this they require your personal details.
Some email accounts automatically send unsolicited mail to a junk Email folder, or you can set up your own filters in the aim to control unwanted mail. If you think a message is spam, don’t open it, delete it straight away or direct any future messages from that address to the junk Email folder. Here you can delete bulk messages in one hit, just like emptying trash.
In order to register with a website, we are asked to provide certain information. Only fill out fields requesting an *. Most times you only need to provide a name, email address and password. There is no need to provide personal addresses or financial information.
Online surveys are another way of exploiting personal information. Fill in a survey with information like, you enjoy drinking wine and going on holidays, and chances are you will receive a phone call from a wine or holiday company pushing you to purchase something.
With the convenience of online banking and shopping, our financial security is also open to jeopardy. Once again, always protect your password and always log off.
Pay Pal is one safe consideration when purchasing online. This keeps your banking details under the one roof so to speak.
Grabianowski, E (n.d) “PayPal touts its presence as an extra layer as a security feature, because everyone's information, including credit card numbers, bank account numbers and address, stays with PayPal. With other online transactions, that information is transmitted from the buyer to the merchant to the credit card processor”.
An advanced internet user is well aware that any activity with internet use is open to privacy and security accountability. They protect their system with effective up to date virus protection, log on and off website visits at all times and are aware that email and other forms of communication via internet are not private by any means.
Active awareness regarding how and where personal information is used remains the responsibility of the user. Evaluating websites, searching forums for positive or negative feedback on particular subjects, protecting passwords and financial information and keeping computers clear of viruses all heighten meticulous protection practices.
http://www.nclnet.org/technology/essentials/privacy.html
This website is endorsed by the National Consumers League in partnership with Dell. Internationally known as a major company in manufacture and support of computers, Dell has continued to develop since the 1980’s.
The website covers in brief, all essential information covering online privacy, security and child safety. Each link explains what we need to be aware of when accessing the Internet.
The E-ssential website has a page link specifically for additional information about online privacy and security and also another page outlining a summary of terms related the topics covered.
Even though it is only summarized information, I trust it to be credible information being a .org domain.
Site 2: How Stuff Works, How PayPal Works
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/paypal2.htm
How stuff works was introduced to me through my Net11 study modules, so I chose it in confidence when looking for Pay Pal information. I understand I could have sought information directly from the Pay Pal site but found the abundant information available with How Stuff Works to be quite descriptive and informative.
The information available on the subject of Pay Pal covers an introduction, the Pay Pal infrastructure, account types and how to use the system. There are links expanding each topic and screenshots giving more visual understanding.
Anybody seeking specific information about any key areas regarding Pay Pal would find this website very user friendly.
How Stuff Works was founded by Professor Marshall Brian in 1988 and has evolved into an online resource helping millions of online users.
Concept 32: Virtually a Library
“A library is, fundamentally, a system organised according to shared, accepted sets of classifications and organisations, and on the basis that it is impossible to access the information except through categories (either in a catalogue or by browsing collocated books on a shelf). The World Wide Web has no such shared system, and is technologically capable of a large degree of searching for information directly – ‘full text searching’. What advanced users seek to do is to exploit the advantages of the idea of a library in a way that suits their personal needs, effectively creating personal virtual libraries” (Allen, n.d).
The difference between searching for information in a traditional library and searching for information on the Internet is categorisation and search facilities.
Library, institution (1997-2008) “Because libraries usually contain a vast amount of material, users might never find the information they need if this material were not carefully organized. For this reason librarians have developed systematic procedures to organize their collections in ways that provide users with convenient and logical access to materials.
Although no two libraries are organized in exactly the same way, nearly all libraries use some type of system to catalog, or index, their collections. In addition, libraries use similar systems to classify and arrange their materials on library shelves. For these reasons, library users require a basic understanding of the common types of catalogs and the principles of classification to easily find the information they need”.
The Internet is fundamentally a wealth of information at our fingertips, but we need to utilize good search skills to find what we are looking for.
Organizing Search Information was the focus of module 4, and through the tasks I was able to better understand search capabilities of the Internet user.
The primary tool for finding information on the Internet is a ‘Search Engine’.
One of the most common search engines used is Google. Your search is based on keywords, so how specific you are with your request will determine how relevant your results are to your search.
An advanced Internet user however, uses search engines to their full potential, with the knowledge of advance searching and deep web searching. Basically, our choice in words or phrases and exploring different concepts of a topic sought will bring up different search outcomes.
Understanding how keywords interact within a topic will give the user possible scenarios when searching for specific information.
For example if you click on a category of ‘Cars’, you can then broaden your search within the cars directory, thus searching Makes and Models etc.
As information from the Internet is bountiful from all types of sources, it may be necessary to evaluate whether the source you have chosen from your search results is a viable one. A little bit of research could save the user from Internet scam or miss leading information.
Kirk, E (1996) “The World Wide Web offers information and data from all over the world. Because so much information is available, and because that information can appear to be fairly “anonymous”, it is necessary to develop skills to evaluate what you find. When you use a research or academic library, the books, journals and other resources have already been evaluated by scholars, publishers and librarians. Every resource you find has been evaluated in one way or another before you ever see it. When you are using the World Wide Web, none of this applies. There are no filters. Because anyone can write a Web page, documents of the widest range of quality, written by authors of the widest range of authority, are available on an even playing field. Excellent resources reside along side the most dubious. The Internet epitomizes the concept of Caveat lector: Let the reader beware”.
Evaluating the Web in Module 4 covered the key steps to understanding the authenticity of a website and its author. This process need not be time consuming, and the more we understand about websites, the easier it is to evaluate them.
At a glance, the URL will disclose the publisher and domain. If seeking reference material .edu as a top level domain confides an instant valid source.
Locate the author. This is generally disclosed within the website and further searching of the Authors name can help to confer their credentials. An informative Author credential will give their name, occupation, and contact details. Links may also validate Authors integrity.
When was the website last updated. Some source material may not need to be current to still be valid, the question is, does this need to be taken into consideration for your search requirement.
Another aspect if referring to the Internet as a library is classification of content. Thinking about children, as minor Internet users, we need to be aware that Search Engines may bring up more than we bargained for as keywords can be digested in sincere and elicit form.
There are programs or filters, such as Net Nanny, that work to regulate content censorship. The type of information and how we retrieve it becomes the responsibility of the user. The Internet is an open library, abundant with content but not biased to who seeks it.
Site 1: Checking the Source ”Bare Bones Lesson 5: Evaluating Web Pages /
http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/lesson5.shtml
The original Author of this site is Ellen Chamberlain, (At the time of publication she was Library Director at the University of South Carolina Beautford Campus)
Bare Bones 101 is currently managed and updated by Melanie Hanes-Ramos (Assistant Director of the Usc Beautfort South Campus Library)
This website, as an educational resource, offers informative tutorials into the subjects of Internet communications.
Evaluating web pages covers all aspects of Search Engines and Directories. Search strategies and tips. The user is also guided through the process of evaluating a website when found and even offers an assignment to test your evaluating skills at the end.
Site 2: Evaluating Information on the Internet /
http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating/
The Author of this site is Elizabeth E Kirk. Evaluating Information on the Internet written as an Educational Resource from the Johns Hopkins University, The Sheridan Libraries.
There are 8 subjects covered in this site all being consistent with the evaluation process.
Each subject covers in detail what the Internet user should expect to find or seek when concluding whether or not information given in a website is authentic.
Areas covered are Authorship, Publishing bodies, reader content, referral to other sources and dates of publication. We can expect to learn that not all content is valid and the importance of understanding the origin of content as a result of our searches.
Bibliography
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http://webct.curtin.edu.au:80/SCRIPT/305033_b/scripts/serve_home
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