I. INTRO
“Web 2.0 is a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology that aims to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web” (StiltonStudios.net, pg 1). For the past couple of years, Web 2.0 applications have become very popular and important for people that use the internet. One Web 2.0 communication medium that many use is eBay. eBay is an online marketplace that allows its users to bid and auction off items. From day one, eBay was founded on what remain the company’s core values, a belief that: people are basically good, everyone has something to contribute, and an open environment brings out the best in people (eBay.com). On this belief, eBay has become one of the biggest online marketplaces. This application heavily relies on users to buy and sell items in order for the website to continue to function. Without users, the website would cease to exist. Therefore, it would be very important that eBay always have a lot of members and the members be satisfied. Although many people have had great success in finding items and also have acquired much wealth, there are a lot of problems with eBay that have resulted in many members leaving to find alternate websites. Even though eBay is an industry leader, it is currently struggling to adapt to the problems that have recently occurred in reference to user feedback, higher selling fees, and the decline of people wanting to participate in auction style shopping.
II. HISTORY
On September 3rd, 1995, a 28 year old software developer named Pierre Omidyar came up with a code that would eventually evolve into what we know as eBay today. Originally called AuctionWeb, this online auctioning site began with the listing of a single broken laser pointer that would eventually sell for $14.83. Pierre knew that he had created something special because when he contacted the winner of the bid, they knew the pointer was broken and still wanted it because he was a collector of broken laser pointers. This meant that people were willing to buy and collect all types of items, which changed the whole notion of what has value in the world. If people are willing to buy broken laser pointers, even more people are going to be willing to sell them. By 1997, AuctionWeb officially changed its name to eBay, short for Echo Bay, and became large enough to require the skills of a Stanford MBA, Jeffrey Skoll as president, and Meg Whitman, a Harvard graduate, as CEO. eBay finally went public on September 21, 1998, and both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires. In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized websites in 30 other countries (eBay.com)
III. COMMUNITY
The eBay community is made up of 212 million people around the world that want to sell and buy items. The community includes individual buyers and sellers, small businesses, and even enterprises. Seller’s and small businesses make up 95% of eBay’s members (TheBidFloor). The type of people that use eBay are people in need of certain goods, people who want to buy items at a cheaper rate, people who want to sell items for money, and people who rely on eBay as a primary source of income. One of the most important aspects of eBay is the fact that users help one another be successful on the site. They make connections and form communities because they share common interests of items that they buy or sell. These users form relationships with one another through discussion boards, chat rooms, Online Workshops, and eBay Groups. These forums help the users receive assistance from other users, share ways to be successful on eBay, or just to socialize.
IV. FUNCTIONS (HOW IT WORKS)
eBay works like an auction. It allows people to trade online at any time and any item that they want. People place bids on items of their choice and have a certain amount of time to keep bidding. When the bidding is over, whoever has the highest bid wins the item. You receive a message when someone outbids you and you can chose to continue to bid or try another item. You can also purchase items without bidding. However, the item may not be cheaper than if you were to bid.
There are three primary agents involved in eBay. First, I am going to talk about the seller. Sellers are users that have items that they put up for auctioning. These sellers have the option of three different types of selling auctions. They can do the most common one that allows the seller to offer one or more items for sale and for a certain amount of days. For this type of auction, the seller can start the bid at a minimum price they are willing to accept for the item. The other option is a fixed price format. This allows the seller to offer one or more items at a fixed price that they can purchase right away. The last type of auction allows the seller to offer two or more of the same item in the same auction (Wikipedia). Sellers are required to pay basic fees. The basic fee depends on the auction style the seller prefers. This includes an insertion fee when putting up the item for sale plus a final value fee when the item sells (eBay/Fees.com). Sellers are also able to set their own shipping and handling fees. Sellers have the option of putting up a picture of their item to attract more buyers. It’s important for the seller to do some research on the items they are going to sell so they have a good starting price and are not overpricing the items (Karp, 2006) According to a survey conducted for eBay by ACNielsen International Research located on TheBidFloor.com, 724,000 Americans reported that eBay is their primary or secondary source of income.
The next primary agent involved in eBay is the buyer. When you go onto eBay's front page, you can either search for an item by typing it in or searching by categories. This is helpful because sometimes you’re not completely sure what you want, but by looking at a list of things you may find something of your interest. There are also eBay stores where you can look at and purchase items. In addition, there are subsidiaries of eBay. These eBay sites include Half.com (textbooks), Motors.ebay.com (cars), PayPal, Kijiji, ProStores, Rent.com, Stubhub, and Shopping.com. There are about 19 million products on eBay, so sometimes people would rather “windowshop” for items in case they aren’t completely sure what they want. Some items include collectibles (most popular), clothing, appliances, electronics, furnishings, and other miscellaneous products. They can be rare and valuable, or old items that have not been used in years. Basically, anything can go for sale unless it’s illegal or violates eBay’s restricted items (TheBidFloor).
Most of these items that are purchased on eBay are done so by bidding through online auctioning. Bidding on eBay's auction-style listings is called proxy bidding. When someone goes on eBay and types in the item they want into the search bar, the hunt is on. People begin looking at what the lowest and best bid is so they can purchase the item at a cheaper price. When the item is found, the bidding begins. When a buyer first places their bid, they also have a maximum bid. There also is a bid increment. As the auction proceeds, eBay automatically increases the buyer’s bid on their behalf up to their maximum bid. By doing this, the buyer maintains their position as the highest bidder or to meet the item’s minimum price set by the seller. The bid increment is the minimum amount the buyer’s bid will be raised. It is based on most current high bid of the item (eBay.com). At first, I was not sure how eBay generated so much money and how people profited so much from it. After doing research, I found out that eBay generates revenue from a number of fees. There are fees to list a product and fees when the product sells, plus several optional fees(eBay.com/Fees). The company's current business strategy includes increasing international trade.
The third agent in eBay is the eBay administrators. They are the providers of the market place that mediate and police what items are being sold. There are some restricted items that cannot be sold on eBay, including alcohol, drugs, human parts, and even teachers’ editions of textbooks. eBay administrators are also in charge of making sure that people’s identity is kept safe. In order to ensure this, eBay now has an online payment system, known as PayPal. This is a secure service which instantly transfers payments from one members account to the other. What’s good about this is that no one has to reveal any credit card details, which makes people more comfortable to make purchases. The administrators of eBay also police the positive, negative, and neutral feedback that people receive. Feedback and commenting to other users is an important aspect of the Web 2.0 application that makes it different than Web 1.0. eBay requires a 4.3 average or better rating in order for the seller to continue to sell goods in reference to handling and shipping feedback. A 4 on the eBay scale is known as a “reasonable” transaction and a 3 on the scale is known as neutral (BusinessWeek). Feedback is a very important feature to eBay because it acts as the user’s reputation. This is important because having a good reputation is vital to the person selling items. If the person has a bad reputation, they aren’t able to sell products due to their account being suspended by eBay administrators. Many people base who they buy items from on the seller’s rating and feedback. According to the article, “How to Obey on Ebay” in the Economist, “Many of the traders on eBay have come to value their reputations greatly, and those with enough positive-feedback scores are allowed to participate in buyer-protection schemes, which offer refunds. But as in any market, the rule is always caveat emptor: let the buyer beware” (pg. 66, 2005).
V. IMPLICATIONS
As stated earlier, eBay does have some problems that are causing people to find other means of conducting their businesses and lives. According to an article in Businessweek, a couple received negative feedback and was not allowed to sell items anymore, which caused them to shut down their business because it was based on selling to customers all around the world through eBay. If a seller keeps receiving 4’s, this will potentially decrease their rating causing them to be suspended by eBay. They received under a 4.3, resulting in suspension. This is not fair because some people mistakenly click the wrong rating, some people are too lazy to leave good feedback, or some people think that the seller’s fees are too high. Sometimes seller’s fees have to be high in order for them to make money, since eBay raised the price of selling an item. As stated earlier, hundreds of thousands of people rely on eBay as a source of income. If people’s accounts are being suspended due to feedback, they are no longer able to conduct business and able to make a living. This is detrimental to people that rely on eBay as their primary source of income due to disability, age, or just the type of business they run. Another problem they had with eBay is the lack of communication from the corporate headquarters. The telephone system has automated messages and E-mails are met with similar responses. This is a problem when people have suspended accounts, questions, and/or comments.
eBay has also had its share of controversy, including cases of fraud. One of the biggest internet fraud cases in U.S history had to do with eBay. People were bidding and purchasing items that they thought were for sale on eBay, but they never received any of the items. The victims shelled out over 5 million dollars to these scammers(RenewAmerica). Other controversies of eBay include its policy of requiring sellers to use PayPal and concerns over forgeries in auction items. These problems are really hurting eBay because these angry sellers are going to a different website similar to eBay known as Shopify.com.
Earlier noted, there were different ways of auctioning off items that sellers could choose from. One of these options was having the item sell for a fixed price, known as Buy it Now. This is becoming more popular because people are getting sick of auctioning. Even though people can purchase items at a cheaper price, it can be time consuming. According to an article on Businessweek, a user named Dave Dribin talked about how he no longer wants to spend hours tracking an auction, especially if he does not win what he wants. Instead, he just buys things online in retail. People are becoming more interested in buying products quickly online at a set price. One of the main reasons people are not participating in auctions is because they have no time and are just too busy. Buyers are not the only ones who are getting tired; sellers are too now that no one is bidding on their items. According to an article in Businessweek, a member of eBay that has been selling posters and memorabilia for a decade has to stop due to the fact that people are using Buy it Now, rather than bidding for a couple of days.
Another problem with eBay is the fact that they have raised their fees. This has caused people to be hesitant of selling their items on eBay and causing them to find somewhere cheaper. According to the article, “Threatening eBay's Dominance, More Online Sellers Go It Alone,” more people are choosing not to use eBay anymore and start their own sites. Technology has helped people out a lot but the main reason is because of the disadvantages of paying higher fees and the dissatisfaction people are receiving from eBay.
VI. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, eBay has endured a lot of success as the world’s largest online marketplace. Even though right now it is struggling with user dissatisfaction and implications, it is still prospering and servicing millions of users all around the world. Many people cannot live without eBay, whether they rely on it for income or do it as a hobby. Even though there is a decline of online auctioning shopping, the Buy it Now feature of eBay will help these people still come to this website and buy items. eBay revolutionized the online market place and forever will be a place that people can buy whatever they want because there are always people that are willing to see anything.
Bibliography
Economist.How to Obey on eBay ; 6/11/2005, Vol. 375 Issue 8430, p66-66, 1/4p
Karp, David A. "Secrets of Selling On eBay." PC Magazine 25 (2006): 72-75. 2 Feb. 2006. EBSCOHost. SUNY Albany, Albany.
Mangalindan, Mylene. "Threatening eBay's Dominance, More Online Sellers Go It
Alone." The Wall Street journal 245 (2005): pg 1.22 June. 2005. EBSCOHost. SUNY Albany, Albany.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
eBay-Web 2.0 application (Rough Draft)
I. INTRO
“Web 2.0 is a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology that aims to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web” (StiltonStudios.net). For the past couple of years, Web 2.0 applications have become very popular and important for people that use the internet. One Web 2.0 communication medium that many people have used is eBay. eBay is an online marketplace that allows its users to bid and auction off items. From day one, eBay was founded on what remain the company’s core values, a belief that: people are basically good, everyone has something to contribute, and an open environment brings out the best in people (eBay.com). On this belief, eBay has become one of the biggest online marketplaces. This application heavily relies on users to buy and sell items in order for the website to continue to function. Without users, the website would cease to exist. Therefore, it would be very important that eBay always have a lot of members and the members be satisfied. Although many people have had great success in finding items and also have acquired much wealth, there are a lot of problems with eBay that have resulted in many members leaving to find alternate websites. Even though eBay is an industry leader, it is currently struggling to adapt to the problems that have recently occurred in reference to user feedback, higher selling fees, and the decline of people wanting to participate in auction style shopping.
II. HISTORY
On September 3rd, 1995, a 28 year old software developer named Pierre Omidyar came up with a code that would eventually evolve into what we know as eBay today. Originally called AuctionWeb, this online auctioning site began with the listing of a single broken laser pointer that would eventually sell for $14.83. Pierre knew that he had created something special because when he contacted the winner of the bid, they knew the pointer was broken and still wanted it because he was a collector of broken laser pointers. This meant that people were willing to buy and collect all types of items. This changed the whole notion of what has value in the world. If people are willing to buy broken laser pointers, even more people are going to be willing to sell them. By 1997, AuctionWeb officially changed its name to eBay, short for Echo Bay, and became large enough to require the skills of a Stanford MBA, Jeffrey Skoll as president, and Meg Whitman, a Harvard graduate, as CEO. eBay finally went public on September 21, 1998, and both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires. In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized websites in 30 other countries (About.com)
III. COMMUNITY
The eBay community is made up of 212 million people around the world that want to sell and buy items. The community includes individual buyers and sellers, small businesses, and even enterprises. Seller’s and small businesses make up 95% of eBay’s members (TheBidFloor). The type of people that use eBay are people in need of certain goods, people who want to buy items at a cheaper rate, people who want to sell items for money, and people who rely on eBay as a primary source of income. One of the most important aspects of eBay is the fact that users help one another be successful on the site. They make connections and form communities because they share common interests of items that they buy or sell. These users form relationships with one another through discussion boards, chat rooms, Online Workshops, and eBay Groups. These forums help the users to get help from other users, share ways to be successful on eBay, or just to socialize.
IV. FUNCTIONS (HOW IT WORKS)
eBay works like an auction. It allows people to trade online at any time and any item that they want. People place bids on items of their choice and have a certain amount of time to keep bidding. When the bidding is over, whoever has the highest bid wins the item. You receive a message when someone outbids you and you can chose to continue to bid or try another item. You can also purchase items without bidding. However, the item may not be cheaper than if you were to bid.
There are three primary agents involved in eBay. First, I am going to talk about the seller. Sellers are users that have items that they put up for auctioning. These sellers have the option of three different types of selling auctions. They can do the most common one that allows the seller to offer one or more items for sale and for a certain amount of days. For this type of auction, the seller can start the bid at a minimum price they are willing to accept for the item. The other option is a fixed price format. This allows the seller to offer one or more items at a fixed price that they can purchase right away. The last type of auction allows the seller to offer two or more of the same item in the same auction (Wikipedia). Sellers are also able to set their own shipping and handling fees. Some people set low fees and charge more for the item, while others set high fees and charge less.
There are certain ways in which people can be a more successful seller. Buyers are able to see pictures of their items and find out it is used or brand new. Sellers could use this as an advantage by making sure they take great pictures of the items. If people see a great picture, they are more likely to bid on it, rather than a bad picture or no picture at all. It’s critical to inspire trust from the buyers. This can be done by giving them a thorough description and flexible payment terms. It’s important for the seller to do some research on the items they are going to sell so they have a good starting price and are not overpricing the items (Karp, 2006) According to a survey conducted for eBay by ACNielsen International Research located on TheBidFloor.com, 724,000 Americans reported that eBay is their primary or secondary source of income.
The next primary agent involved in eBay is the buyer. When you go onto the eBay's front page, you can either search for an item by typing it in or you can search by categories. This is helpful because sometimes you’re not completely sure what you want, but by looking at a list of things there is always the chance that something can get you interested. There are also eBay stores where you can look at and purchase items. In addition, there are subsidiaries of eBay. These eBay sites include Half.com (textbooks), Motors.ebay.com (cars), PayPal, Kijiji, ProStores, Rent.com, Stubhub, and Shopping.com. There are about 19 million products on eBay, so sometimes people would rather “windowshop” for items in case they aren’t completely sure what they want. Some items include collectibles (most popular), clothing, appliances, electronics, furnishings, and other miscellaneous products. They can be rare and valuable, or old items that have not been used in years. Basically, anything can go for sale unless it’s illegal or violates eBay’s restricted items (TheBidFloor).
Most of these items that are purchased on eBay are done so by bidding through online auctioning. Bidding on eBay's auction-style listings is called proxy bidding. When someone goes on eBay and types in the item they want into the search bar, the hunt is on. People begin looking at what the lowest and best bid is so they can purchase the item at a cheaper price. When the item is found, the bidding begins. When a buyer first places their bid, they also have a maximum bid. There also is a bid increment. As the auction proceeds, eBay automatically increases the buyer’s bid on their behalf up to their maximum bid. By doing this, the buyer maintains their position as the highest bidder or to meet the item’s minimum price set by the seller. The bid increment is the minimum amount the buyer’s bid will be raised. It is based on most current high bid of the item (eBay.com). At first, I was not sure how eBay generated so much money and how people profited so much from it. After doing research, I found out that eBay generates revenue from a number of fees. There are fees to list a product and fees when the product sells, plus several optional fees. The company's current business strategy includes increasing international trade.
The third agent in eBay is the eBay administrators. They are the providers of the market place that mediate and police what items are being sold. There are some restricted items that cannot be sold on eBay, including alcohol, drugs, human parts, and even teachers’ editions of textbooks. eBay administrators are also in charge of making sure that people’s identity is kept safe. In order to ensure this, eBay now has an online payment system, known as PayPal. This is a secure service which instantly transfers payments from one members account to the other. What’s good about this is that no one has to reveal any credit card details, which makes people more comfortable to make purchases. The administrators of eBay also police the positive, negative, and neutral feedback that people receive. Feedback and commenting to other users is an important aspect of the Web 2.0 application that makes it different than Web 1.0. eBay requires a 4.3 average or better rating in order for the seller to continue to sell goods in reference to handling and shipping feedback. A 4 on the eBay scale is known as a “reasonable” transaction and a 3 on the scale is known as neutral. Feedback is a very important feature to eBay because it acts as the user’s reputation. This is important because having a good reputation is vital to the person selling items. If the person has a bad reputation, they aren’t able to sell products due to their account being suspended by eBay administrators. Many people base who they buy items from on the seller’s rating and feedback. According to the article, “How to Obey on Ebay” in the Economist, “Many of the traders on eBay have come to value their reputations greatly, and those with enough positive-feedback scores are allowed to participate in buyer-protection schemes, which offer refunds. But as in any market, the rule is always caveat emptor: let the buyer beware” (pg. 66, 2005).
V. IMPLICATIONS
As stated earlier, eBay does have some problems that are causing people to find other means of conducting their businesses and lives. According to an article in Businessweek, a couple received negative feedback and was not allowed to sell items anymore, which caused them to shut down their business because it was based on selling to customers all around the world through eBay. If a seller keeps receiving 4’s, this will potentially decrease their rating causing them to be suspended by eBay. They received under a 4.3, resulting in suspension. This is not fair because some people mistakenly click the wrong rating, some people are too lazy to leave good feedback, or some people think that the seller’s fees are too high. Sometimes seller’s fees have to be high in order for them to make money, since eBay raised the price of selling an item. As stated earlier, hundreds of thousands of people rely on eBay as a source of income. If people’s accounts are being suspended due to feedback, they are no longer able to conduct business and able to make a living. This is detrimental to people that rely on eBay as their primary source of income due to disability, age, or just the type of business they run.
Another problem they had with eBay is the lack of communication from the corporate headquarters. The telephone system has automated messages and E-mails are met with similar responses. Also, eBay has had its share of controversy, including cases of frauds, its policy of requiring sellers to use PayPal, and concerns over forgeries in auction items. These problems are really hurting eBay because these angry sellers are going to a different website similar to eBay known as Shopify.com.
Earlier noted, there were different ways of auctioning off items that sellers could choose from. One of these options was having the item sell for a fixed price, known as Buy it Now. This is becoming more popular because people are getting sick of auctioning. Even though people can purchase items at a cheaper price, it can be time consuming. According to an article on Businessweek, a user named Dave Dribin talked about how he no longer wants to spend hours tracking an auction, especially if he does not win what he wants. Instead, he just buys things online in retail. People are becoming more interested in buying products quickly online at a set price. One of the main reasons people are not participating in auctions is because they have no time and are just too busy. Buyers are not the only ones who are getting tired; sellers are too now that no one is bidding on their items. According to an article in Businessweek, ), a member of eBay that has been selling posters and memorabilia for a decade has to stop due to the fact that people are using Buy it Now, rather than bidding for a couple of days.
Another problem with eBay is the fact that they have raised their fees. People are hesitant to sell on eBay because of the recent fee increase. According to the article, “Threatening eBay's Dominance, More Online Sellers Go It Alone,” more people are choosing not to use eBay anymore and start their own sites. Technology has helped people out a lot but the main reason is because of the disadvantages of paying higher fees and the dissatisfaction people are receiving from eBay.
VI. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, eBay has endured a lot of success as the world’s largest online marketplace. Even though right now it is struggling with user dissatisfaction and implications, it is still prospering and servicing millions of users all around the world. Many people cannot live without eBay, whether they rely on it for income or do it as a hobby. Even though there is a decline of online auctioning shopping, the Buy it Now feature of eBay will help these people still come to this website and buy items. eBay revolutionized the online market place and forever will be a place that people can buy whatever they want because there are always people that are willing to see anything.
Bibliography
Economist.How to Obey on eBay ; 6/11/2005, Vol. 375 Issue 8430, p66-66, 1/4p
Karp, David A. "Secrets of Selling On eBay." PC Magazine 25 (2006): 72-75. 2 Feb. 2006. EBSCOHost. SUNY Albany, Albany.
Mangalindan, Mylene. "Threatening eBay's Dominance, More Online Sellers Go It
Alone." The Wall Street journal 245 (2005): pg 1.22 June. 2005. EBSCOHost. SUNY Albany, Albany.
“Web 2.0 is a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology that aims to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web” (StiltonStudios.net). For the past couple of years, Web 2.0 applications have become very popular and important for people that use the internet. One Web 2.0 communication medium that many people have used is eBay. eBay is an online marketplace that allows its users to bid and auction off items. From day one, eBay was founded on what remain the company’s core values, a belief that: people are basically good, everyone has something to contribute, and an open environment brings out the best in people (eBay.com). On this belief, eBay has become one of the biggest online marketplaces. This application heavily relies on users to buy and sell items in order for the website to continue to function. Without users, the website would cease to exist. Therefore, it would be very important that eBay always have a lot of members and the members be satisfied. Although many people have had great success in finding items and also have acquired much wealth, there are a lot of problems with eBay that have resulted in many members leaving to find alternate websites. Even though eBay is an industry leader, it is currently struggling to adapt to the problems that have recently occurred in reference to user feedback, higher selling fees, and the decline of people wanting to participate in auction style shopping.
II. HISTORY
On September 3rd, 1995, a 28 year old software developer named Pierre Omidyar came up with a code that would eventually evolve into what we know as eBay today. Originally called AuctionWeb, this online auctioning site began with the listing of a single broken laser pointer that would eventually sell for $14.83. Pierre knew that he had created something special because when he contacted the winner of the bid, they knew the pointer was broken and still wanted it because he was a collector of broken laser pointers. This meant that people were willing to buy and collect all types of items. This changed the whole notion of what has value in the world. If people are willing to buy broken laser pointers, even more people are going to be willing to sell them. By 1997, AuctionWeb officially changed its name to eBay, short for Echo Bay, and became large enough to require the skills of a Stanford MBA, Jeffrey Skoll as president, and Meg Whitman, a Harvard graduate, as CEO. eBay finally went public on September 21, 1998, and both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires. In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized websites in 30 other countries (About.com)
III. COMMUNITY
The eBay community is made up of 212 million people around the world that want to sell and buy items. The community includes individual buyers and sellers, small businesses, and even enterprises. Seller’s and small businesses make up 95% of eBay’s members (TheBidFloor). The type of people that use eBay are people in need of certain goods, people who want to buy items at a cheaper rate, people who want to sell items for money, and people who rely on eBay as a primary source of income. One of the most important aspects of eBay is the fact that users help one another be successful on the site. They make connections and form communities because they share common interests of items that they buy or sell. These users form relationships with one another through discussion boards, chat rooms, Online Workshops, and eBay Groups. These forums help the users to get help from other users, share ways to be successful on eBay, or just to socialize.
IV. FUNCTIONS (HOW IT WORKS)
eBay works like an auction. It allows people to trade online at any time and any item that they want. People place bids on items of their choice and have a certain amount of time to keep bidding. When the bidding is over, whoever has the highest bid wins the item. You receive a message when someone outbids you and you can chose to continue to bid or try another item. You can also purchase items without bidding. However, the item may not be cheaper than if you were to bid.
There are three primary agents involved in eBay. First, I am going to talk about the seller. Sellers are users that have items that they put up for auctioning. These sellers have the option of three different types of selling auctions. They can do the most common one that allows the seller to offer one or more items for sale and for a certain amount of days. For this type of auction, the seller can start the bid at a minimum price they are willing to accept for the item. The other option is a fixed price format. This allows the seller to offer one or more items at a fixed price that they can purchase right away. The last type of auction allows the seller to offer two or more of the same item in the same auction (Wikipedia). Sellers are also able to set their own shipping and handling fees. Some people set low fees and charge more for the item, while others set high fees and charge less.
There are certain ways in which people can be a more successful seller. Buyers are able to see pictures of their items and find out it is used or brand new. Sellers could use this as an advantage by making sure they take great pictures of the items. If people see a great picture, they are more likely to bid on it, rather than a bad picture or no picture at all. It’s critical to inspire trust from the buyers. This can be done by giving them a thorough description and flexible payment terms. It’s important for the seller to do some research on the items they are going to sell so they have a good starting price and are not overpricing the items (Karp, 2006) According to a survey conducted for eBay by ACNielsen International Research located on TheBidFloor.com, 724,000 Americans reported that eBay is their primary or secondary source of income.
The next primary agent involved in eBay is the buyer. When you go onto the eBay's front page, you can either search for an item by typing it in or you can search by categories. This is helpful because sometimes you’re not completely sure what you want, but by looking at a list of things there is always the chance that something can get you interested. There are also eBay stores where you can look at and purchase items. In addition, there are subsidiaries of eBay. These eBay sites include Half.com (textbooks), Motors.ebay.com (cars), PayPal, Kijiji, ProStores, Rent.com, Stubhub, and Shopping.com. There are about 19 million products on eBay, so sometimes people would rather “windowshop” for items in case they aren’t completely sure what they want. Some items include collectibles (most popular), clothing, appliances, electronics, furnishings, and other miscellaneous products. They can be rare and valuable, or old items that have not been used in years. Basically, anything can go for sale unless it’s illegal or violates eBay’s restricted items (TheBidFloor).
Most of these items that are purchased on eBay are done so by bidding through online auctioning. Bidding on eBay's auction-style listings is called proxy bidding. When someone goes on eBay and types in the item they want into the search bar, the hunt is on. People begin looking at what the lowest and best bid is so they can purchase the item at a cheaper price. When the item is found, the bidding begins. When a buyer first places their bid, they also have a maximum bid. There also is a bid increment. As the auction proceeds, eBay automatically increases the buyer’s bid on their behalf up to their maximum bid. By doing this, the buyer maintains their position as the highest bidder or to meet the item’s minimum price set by the seller. The bid increment is the minimum amount the buyer’s bid will be raised. It is based on most current high bid of the item (eBay.com). At first, I was not sure how eBay generated so much money and how people profited so much from it. After doing research, I found out that eBay generates revenue from a number of fees. There are fees to list a product and fees when the product sells, plus several optional fees. The company's current business strategy includes increasing international trade.
The third agent in eBay is the eBay administrators. They are the providers of the market place that mediate and police what items are being sold. There are some restricted items that cannot be sold on eBay, including alcohol, drugs, human parts, and even teachers’ editions of textbooks. eBay administrators are also in charge of making sure that people’s identity is kept safe. In order to ensure this, eBay now has an online payment system, known as PayPal. This is a secure service which instantly transfers payments from one members account to the other. What’s good about this is that no one has to reveal any credit card details, which makes people more comfortable to make purchases. The administrators of eBay also police the positive, negative, and neutral feedback that people receive. Feedback and commenting to other users is an important aspect of the Web 2.0 application that makes it different than Web 1.0. eBay requires a 4.3 average or better rating in order for the seller to continue to sell goods in reference to handling and shipping feedback. A 4 on the eBay scale is known as a “reasonable” transaction and a 3 on the scale is known as neutral. Feedback is a very important feature to eBay because it acts as the user’s reputation. This is important because having a good reputation is vital to the person selling items. If the person has a bad reputation, they aren’t able to sell products due to their account being suspended by eBay administrators. Many people base who they buy items from on the seller’s rating and feedback. According to the article, “How to Obey on Ebay” in the Economist, “Many of the traders on eBay have come to value their reputations greatly, and those with enough positive-feedback scores are allowed to participate in buyer-protection schemes, which offer refunds. But as in any market, the rule is always caveat emptor: let the buyer beware” (pg. 66, 2005).
V. IMPLICATIONS
As stated earlier, eBay does have some problems that are causing people to find other means of conducting their businesses and lives. According to an article in Businessweek, a couple received negative feedback and was not allowed to sell items anymore, which caused them to shut down their business because it was based on selling to customers all around the world through eBay. If a seller keeps receiving 4’s, this will potentially decrease their rating causing them to be suspended by eBay. They received under a 4.3, resulting in suspension. This is not fair because some people mistakenly click the wrong rating, some people are too lazy to leave good feedback, or some people think that the seller’s fees are too high. Sometimes seller’s fees have to be high in order for them to make money, since eBay raised the price of selling an item. As stated earlier, hundreds of thousands of people rely on eBay as a source of income. If people’s accounts are being suspended due to feedback, they are no longer able to conduct business and able to make a living. This is detrimental to people that rely on eBay as their primary source of income due to disability, age, or just the type of business they run.
Another problem they had with eBay is the lack of communication from the corporate headquarters. The telephone system has automated messages and E-mails are met with similar responses. Also, eBay has had its share of controversy, including cases of frauds, its policy of requiring sellers to use PayPal, and concerns over forgeries in auction items. These problems are really hurting eBay because these angry sellers are going to a different website similar to eBay known as Shopify.com.
Earlier noted, there were different ways of auctioning off items that sellers could choose from. One of these options was having the item sell for a fixed price, known as Buy it Now. This is becoming more popular because people are getting sick of auctioning. Even though people can purchase items at a cheaper price, it can be time consuming. According to an article on Businessweek, a user named Dave Dribin talked about how he no longer wants to spend hours tracking an auction, especially if he does not win what he wants. Instead, he just buys things online in retail. People are becoming more interested in buying products quickly online at a set price. One of the main reasons people are not participating in auctions is because they have no time and are just too busy. Buyers are not the only ones who are getting tired; sellers are too now that no one is bidding on their items. According to an article in Businessweek, ), a member of eBay that has been selling posters and memorabilia for a decade has to stop due to the fact that people are using Buy it Now, rather than bidding for a couple of days.
Another problem with eBay is the fact that they have raised their fees. People are hesitant to sell on eBay because of the recent fee increase. According to the article, “Threatening eBay's Dominance, More Online Sellers Go It Alone,” more people are choosing not to use eBay anymore and start their own sites. Technology has helped people out a lot but the main reason is because of the disadvantages of paying higher fees and the dissatisfaction people are receiving from eBay.
VI. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, eBay has endured a lot of success as the world’s largest online marketplace. Even though right now it is struggling with user dissatisfaction and implications, it is still prospering and servicing millions of users all around the world. Many people cannot live without eBay, whether they rely on it for income or do it as a hobby. Even though there is a decline of online auctioning shopping, the Buy it Now feature of eBay will help these people still come to this website and buy items. eBay revolutionized the online market place and forever will be a place that people can buy whatever they want because there are always people that are willing to see anything.
Bibliography
Economist.How to Obey on eBay ; 6/11/2005, Vol. 375 Issue 8430, p66-66, 1/4p
Karp, David A. "Secrets of Selling On eBay." PC Magazine 25 (2006): 72-75. 2 Feb. 2006. EBSCOHost. SUNY Albany, Albany.
Mangalindan, Mylene. "Threatening eBay's Dominance, More Online Sellers Go It
Alone." The Wall Street journal 245 (2005): pg 1.22 June. 2005. EBSCOHost. SUNY Albany, Albany.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Observations for the final essay
For the past couple of weeks, I have been observing the Web 2.0 medium eBay. On this website, people are able to buy and sell items from other people or businesses. I previously have used eBay therefore I have my own account. Being a member provides me with reminders, a summary of my account, items that I am watching or bidding on, items that I am selling, and items that I have won and not won. When you first go on the site, there are categories to choose from or you can type in what you want. Now that it’s getting closer to Christmas time, there is even a link of Christmas gifts you can purchase for your significant other and family members. You can purchase items from businesses or eBay users.
eBay relies heavily on trust. People must trust the person that they are buying the item from that it is exactly what they said it was and that they ship it to them. What helps with this is the option of rating the seller and making comments about them. People are less likely to buy a product from you if you have a low percentage and there are negative comments written about you. I once purchased an item on eBay and never received it, but thankfully to the new payment system PayPal (electronic way of making payments and money transfers), I received my money back. You also get feedback from the seller so if you did not have a good transaction due to not paying fast or not paying at all, that hurts your reputation as a buyer.
I really do not know that much about eBay and plan to do a lot of research to further my knowledge and become a better user on it.
eBay relies heavily on trust. People must trust the person that they are buying the item from that it is exactly what they said it was and that they ship it to them. What helps with this is the option of rating the seller and making comments about them. People are less likely to buy a product from you if you have a low percentage and there are negative comments written about you. I once purchased an item on eBay and never received it, but thankfully to the new payment system PayPal (electronic way of making payments and money transfers), I received my money back. You also get feedback from the seller so if you did not have a good transaction due to not paying fast or not paying at all, that hurts your reputation as a buyer.
I really do not know that much about eBay and plan to do a lot of research to further my knowledge and become a better user on it.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Issues of Privacy
For today’s reading, we had to read “A privacy paradox: social networking in the United States” by Susan B. Barnes. This reading is about the privacy issues with social networking in regards to teenagers. According to the reading, one of the biggest problems with teenagers interacting in these networks is that they are learning how to use them from their friends, not from their parents or teachers. This is a problem because teenagers reveal most of their intimate thoughts and behaviors online. So when they believe that their information is private, not only do marketers read what is being revealed, but also college administration, teachers, and parents (Barnes, 2006). They need to realize that sharing personal information on social networks with online friends also means sharing with parents, future employees, and university officials. This can directly influence a student’s education, employment, and financial future (Barnes, 2006).
According to the reading, another problem with privacy is that the government agency marketers collect personal data about them using this information. This is seen as a problem because many people don’t even know that their privacy is being jeopardized and they do not know how to keep their personal information safe (Barnes, 2006). According to Barnes, adults are concerned about the invasion of their privacy, while teenagers give up their personal information so willingly.
Later on in the reading, it talks about how when teenagers are giving up their personal information, this information could also be used by data-miners. Some of the solutions discussed in the reading include getting the parents more involved. Also, some schools have tried to make the students aware of the possible dangers of giving up too much information, even not allowing some students and athletes to be on any of these social networks.
After reading this, I realized that I too may be putting too much personal information about me on these networks. Although I do not have MySpace, I do have my name, address, birth date, and e-mail address on Facebook. I did not see it as that much of a problem because I thought my friends were the only ones that could see it. I knew that once I got out of college that I was either going to delete my Facebook, or change the privacy preferences on it so no pictures or information about me was available to anyone I didn’t authorize. After reading this, I might be doing that sooner than later.
Barnes, Susan B. (2006)A privacy paradox: social networking in the United States. First Monday, 11. Retrieved on August 21, 2008 from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_9/barnes/index.html
According to the reading, another problem with privacy is that the government agency marketers collect personal data about them using this information. This is seen as a problem because many people don’t even know that their privacy is being jeopardized and they do not know how to keep their personal information safe (Barnes, 2006). According to Barnes, adults are concerned about the invasion of their privacy, while teenagers give up their personal information so willingly.
Later on in the reading, it talks about how when teenagers are giving up their personal information, this information could also be used by data-miners. Some of the solutions discussed in the reading include getting the parents more involved. Also, some schools have tried to make the students aware of the possible dangers of giving up too much information, even not allowing some students and athletes to be on any of these social networks.
After reading this, I realized that I too may be putting too much personal information about me on these networks. Although I do not have MySpace, I do have my name, address, birth date, and e-mail address on Facebook. I did not see it as that much of a problem because I thought my friends were the only ones that could see it. I knew that once I got out of college that I was either going to delete my Facebook, or change the privacy preferences on it so no pictures or information about me was available to anyone I didn’t authorize. After reading this, I might be doing that sooner than later.
Barnes, Susan B. (2006)A privacy paradox: social networking in the United States. First Monday, 11. Retrieved on August 21, 2008 from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_9/barnes/index.html
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Bloggers vs. Traditional Journalists
A blog could be described as a personal diary that one can use to post their ideas and receive feedback on. For my fourth essay, we were assigned to explore the blogosphere and explain our experiences using a blog of our choice. Aaron Barlow, author of Blogging America, talks about how the blogosphere is a public sphere in which people are open to comment on and criticize anything that they please. Barlow raises many themes of how blogging affects the internet, media, and the people who have access to it. One theme that really caught my eye was the tension between bloggers and traditional journalists, when they are not at all that different. These Journalists take on a more vertical prospective, which means they believe there is a passive audience that they have to provide information to. They do not believe that the audience should be writing about things that they may not necessarily have the proper resources and education to write about. The horizontal perspective, in contrast, believes that blogs and amateur journalism can still be successful even if people who write them are not professional journalists. According to Barlow in Chapter 5, traditional journalists fear the horizontal structure that comes with bloggers because they are able to revise and participate on thesejournals, unlike the past. In the blog that I observed for seven days, the author shows that the new breed of journalists is capable of writing informative and successful blogs. This provides a whole new idea of journalism, where the reader can actively participate (Barlow, 2008).
The blog that I decided to use is entitled debbieschussel.com, and it features blogs that cover mostly politics. After reading her biography, I found out that besides from having her own website (where she is the only author of the blogs), she also blogs twice weekly on a column for PoliticalUSA, and occasionally for the New York Post. She is an attorney, a radio talk show host, and has other successes that have led to her being famous. She is #83 on Top Blogs and a finalist for the 2005 Weblog Awards. With all this being said, I believe her to have a lot of credibility and believe what she says is true, and not fictitious. I also do see how opinionated she is, and how a traditional journalist would think she was just ranting and raving. She also can be bias towards certain groups of people, which may hurt her chances of being credible to some.
It is understood that according to Barlow, traditional journalists see blogs simply as opinions. I completely agree. As stated before, I instantly was able to tell that she was Jewish and very Conservative just from reading two or thereof her blogs. However, I also was able to tell that she was very intelligent, knew what she was talking about, and definitely had done research in order to write what she writes. Although I didn’t always side with her beliefs, she had such strong arguments that actually made me think about where she was coming from and even once almost changing my mind. Also, reading people’s comments helped me to think about it from her point of view. This is something that a journalist would have a lot of trouble doing since they do not get reader participation.
One thing that I was disappointed about was that even though her website is a blog where people are suppose to leave all type of comments, there was not a lot of negative feedback. This plays into the belief that blogs aren’t interesting to everyone except the group of people that share common interests. One of the negative comments that I did see, was someone agreed with the paper and said that Debbie was wrong .Then, someone else commented after about them being a “troll”. I wouldn’t be surprised if the person who did write that to Debbie was in fact a journalist agreeing with the paper, or just someone who was an Obama fan. This is another form of tension that goes on. I also never received any feedback when I posted a comment, on debbieschlussel (gamegrl23).I found it funny that when Debbie was asked why she moved from journalism to blogging, she actually replied that she wanted to do something more creative. This is another tension where bloggers see themselves as creative and intelligent, where traditional journalists just see them as ranting.
Although there is tension between the two groups of people, I believe in the long run it would be better for them to come together and help each other out. There are blogs out there that I find absolutely unintelligent and ignorant, so I can see where journalists are coming from. There are also people who comment and blog irrelevant things which can frustrate anyone. However, there are two sides to every story. As much as these journalists disagree with blogging, it is inevitable to stop it and blogging will only get more and more popular.
Bibliography
Barlow, Aaron. (2008). Blogging America. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
The blog that I decided to use is entitled debbieschussel.com, and it features blogs that cover mostly politics. After reading her biography, I found out that besides from having her own website (where she is the only author of the blogs), she also blogs twice weekly on a column for PoliticalUSA, and occasionally for the New York Post. She is an attorney, a radio talk show host, and has other successes that have led to her being famous. She is #83 on Top Blogs and a finalist for the 2005 Weblog Awards. With all this being said, I believe her to have a lot of credibility and believe what she says is true, and not fictitious. I also do see how opinionated she is, and how a traditional journalist would think she was just ranting and raving. She also can be bias towards certain groups of people, which may hurt her chances of being credible to some.
It is understood that according to Barlow, traditional journalists see blogs simply as opinions. I completely agree. As stated before, I instantly was able to tell that she was Jewish and very Conservative just from reading two or thereof her blogs. However, I also was able to tell that she was very intelligent, knew what she was talking about, and definitely had done research in order to write what she writes. Although I didn’t always side with her beliefs, she had such strong arguments that actually made me think about where she was coming from and even once almost changing my mind. Also, reading people’s comments helped me to think about it from her point of view. This is something that a journalist would have a lot of trouble doing since they do not get reader participation.
One thing that I was disappointed about was that even though her website is a blog where people are suppose to leave all type of comments, there was not a lot of negative feedback. This plays into the belief that blogs aren’t interesting to everyone except the group of people that share common interests. One of the negative comments that I did see, was someone agreed with the paper and said that Debbie was wrong .Then, someone else commented after about them being a “troll”. I wouldn’t be surprised if the person who did write that to Debbie was in fact a journalist agreeing with the paper, or just someone who was an Obama fan. This is another form of tension that goes on. I also never received any feedback when I posted a comment, on debbieschlussel (gamegrl23).I found it funny that when Debbie was asked why she moved from journalism to blogging, she actually replied that she wanted to do something more creative. This is another tension where bloggers see themselves as creative and intelligent, where traditional journalists just see them as ranting.
Although there is tension between the two groups of people, I believe in the long run it would be better for them to come together and help each other out. There are blogs out there that I find absolutely unintelligent and ignorant, so I can see where journalists are coming from. There are also people who comment and blog irrelevant things which can frustrate anyone. However, there are two sides to every story. As much as these journalists disagree with blogging, it is inevitable to stop it and blogging will only get more and more popular.
Bibliography
Barlow, Aaron. (2008). Blogging America. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
blog #5
Today, being Veteran’s Day, I figured that Debbie would’ve posted a lot of blogs about it. To my surprise, she only posted one. I had the same feelings as she did about how not a lot of attention from the media dedicated to this day. I would’ve never even have known based on the Wall Street and Albany news that it was a holiday and actually a parade down the road from me occurred. I commented, under the name gamegrl23, about how I agreed with her and enjoyed the two pictures that she put up. I also decided to look at her movie reviews today, which I had not done before. I felt she was a little harsh on one particular movie, “Role Models”, because I didn’t think it was as bad as she is. I also found it interesting that she had a “Discussion” tab on her blog that was a group dedicated to promoting, discussing, and publicizing her writings. The category that was used for what type of group it was is “Journalism.” One question that was asked on her discussion board was about how she jumped from journalism to something more creative. I find this interesting because people think of blogging as more creative then journalism, something that professional writers may have a problem with.
Monday, November 10, 2008
blog #4
One of the blogs that Debbie wrote today was about the USA today paper and how it was promoting tourism to Iran. She goes on to say that now with Obama as president-elect, we will be seeing a lot more of these types of things. What was very interesting today was that someone stuck up for the paper and disagreed with Debbie, than was later called a troll by another commenter. I find this interesting because I had yet so see any type of troll activity, but I guess after today there is. One criticism I do have for Debbie’s blogs is that sometimes they are just too long. A lot of this is due to the fact that she posts a lot of long paragraphs from newspapers. She also is very harsh on Obama and other Democrats, but after all the wrong and mean things that have and are still being said about McCain, it’s such a change to hear Obama bashing. A lot of her writing also has a lot of emphasis on Jewish people and the false information that has been passed through history. With her being Jewish, it’s kind of hard to look past any type of bias that she may have.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
blog #3
I really enjoy reading Debbie's blogs because not only is she funny, but she says things that no one else will say. People are still leaving comments about how amazing she is and no one disagrees with her. This is surprising to me because she is very opinionated and no one is challenging her. Hopefully in the next couple of days someone will disagree with her and she will write back.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
blog #2
On the blog today, Debbie talked a lot about Obama. It's obvious that a lot of republicans read her blog because no one posted anything that was argumentative. It was interesting to read people's comments because they were either backing her up and adding more information to her topic. She's very opinionated, but I like reading what she has to say. She's very intelligent and successful. It's nice to read something from someone who speaks their mind.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
For my fourth essay, I decided to observe and comment on the blog Debbieschlussel.com, which I found off of Technorati. For the past couple of days, I have been observing what Debbie, the only blogger, has been posting and the comments people are making. The blogs cover mostly politics. She is a conservative political commentator, radio talk show host, columnist, and also an attorney. I decided to pick something like this because I am interested in what she has to say about the events leading up to and after the 2008 election. On the side of the blog, she has a blogroll and ads by Google. She is rated #83 on Top Blogs and a finalist for the 2005 Weblog Awards. She appears to blog between 7-10 times a day, always keeping up with recent news. In order to comment, I had to join TypeKey and get my member name and password. To much of my surprise, a lot of the comments are in favor of what she is saying and not opposing them. However, maybe after a couple days some of these negative comments will surface. I’m excited to see what more blogs are to come and also to comment on them.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Reaction Chapter 4
For class today, we had to read chapter 4 of Blogging America by Aaron Barlow. The chapter starts off comparing two different perspectives of viewing the internet. The horizontal perspective is one in which decisions come through a group as a whole. This differs from the vertical perspective which consists of hierarchy and people tending to rise up until they reach a level where they are unable to perform efficiently (Barlow). He later goes on to talk about how blogs usually fit more into the horizontal structure, while commercial and news organizations have more of a vertical format. Barlow also talks about two different types of journalism, the traditional oppose to the newer journalism. The “newer” type of journalism consists of bloggers and citizen journalists who are sometimes called amateur because they do not have the appropriate resources, skills, and ethics to write news like the traditional journalists. There is also the problem of them just giving their opinions and not the important facts, according to Barlow.
Going back to Barlow and the two different structures, the newer journalists see themselves writing in a horizontal fashion, while the professionals are seen more as experts and as gatekeepers. Barlow begins to talk about the concept of crowdsourcing. This is an attempt to combine both of these groups together to help each other create better journalism. The reading talks about how commercial news media could release stories that aren’t completely “newsworthy” to the internet, where the amateur journalists can do research and put the story out there faster and to more people. This proves the point that journalism does not have to be set up in a vertical structure in order to work (Barlow). According to the reading, many news media are unwilling to try this new concept due to resistance by professional journalists. If they are willing to give up some of their vertical control, then journalists could also work with their readers to develop stories. This would strengthen the public sphere, bring the community together, and help create an informed populace (Barlow).
I believe that citizen journalism is a good idea. I know that when I read news online, I always scroll to the bottom to see what people think and are blogging about. I like to see what other people’s opinions are and how they are interpreting what I am reading. Although it hasn’t really hasn’t taken off, I think that the lessons Dan Gilmor provided in the Barlow chapter would really help it become more successful.
Barlow, Aaron. Blogging America. (2008). The Blogs, Political Issues, and the Press (Chapter 4).
Going back to Barlow and the two different structures, the newer journalists see themselves writing in a horizontal fashion, while the professionals are seen more as experts and as gatekeepers. Barlow begins to talk about the concept of crowdsourcing. This is an attempt to combine both of these groups together to help each other create better journalism. The reading talks about how commercial news media could release stories that aren’t completely “newsworthy” to the internet, where the amateur journalists can do research and put the story out there faster and to more people. This proves the point that journalism does not have to be set up in a vertical structure in order to work (Barlow). According to the reading, many news media are unwilling to try this new concept due to resistance by professional journalists. If they are willing to give up some of their vertical control, then journalists could also work with their readers to develop stories. This would strengthen the public sphere, bring the community together, and help create an informed populace (Barlow).
I believe that citizen journalism is a good idea. I know that when I read news online, I always scroll to the bottom to see what people think and are blogging about. I like to see what other people’s opinions are and how they are interpreting what I am reading. Although it hasn’t really hasn’t taken off, I think that the lessons Dan Gilmor provided in the Barlow chapter would really help it become more successful.
Barlow, Aaron. Blogging America. (2008). The Blogs, Political Issues, and the Press (Chapter 4).
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
For Com430z, I had to read Chapter 2 of Blogging America by Aaron Barlow. Barlow talks about how incredible popular blogging has become. According to Barlow, blogs can be seen in many ways. They could be seen as; nothing more than newsletters, people venting, or as being harmful. There are many negative characteristics of blogging discussed in this reading. These include how blogs are difficult to tell if they’re true or fictitious because of the fact that anyone can say whatever they want without it being filtered. Also, there is the opportunity of being threatened on a blog. In the reading, there were two different individuals, Clarke and Moulistas, that had different opinions on whether or not to consider these threats seriously. I agreed with Clarke because even though it may not turn out to be serious, threats should always be taken with precaution no matter what the context of it is.
Another characteristic about blogging from the reading is that people are no longer hiding their identity with pseudonyms, but instead telling people who they are because they want to be known. With giving up anonymity, there is always risk of putting oneself out in the public. Also, according to the reading, blogging can be risky when people write before they think and write something that may cause them harm.
Although I am not very familiar with blogging, I do think that they are mostly harmless and really are just people voiceing their opinions. I agree with Barlow when he talks about a negative characteristic of blogging being that anyone can write whatever they want with no filters and do not have to write facts. This could cause people to get false information and also have false information written about them. However, through this class, I have learned concepts that help me to decipher what is bias, not credible, and something that I should not believe to be a fact.
Barlow, Aaron. Blogging America. (2008). The Blogs in Society (Chapter 2).
Another characteristic about blogging from the reading is that people are no longer hiding their identity with pseudonyms, but instead telling people who they are because they want to be known. With giving up anonymity, there is always risk of putting oneself out in the public. Also, according to the reading, blogging can be risky when people write before they think and write something that may cause them harm.
Although I am not very familiar with blogging, I do think that they are mostly harmless and really are just people voiceing their opinions. I agree with Barlow when he talks about a negative characteristic of blogging being that anyone can write whatever they want with no filters and do not have to write facts. This could cause people to get false information and also have false information written about them. However, through this class, I have learned concepts that help me to decipher what is bias, not credible, and something that I should not believe to be a fact.
Barlow, Aaron. Blogging America. (2008). The Blogs in Society (Chapter 2).
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Searching and Determing Quality of Information (Essay #3)
People these days need to make sure they are being careful while searching for credible information on the Internet. There are a lot of websites that provide false, discrediting, and unreliable information that people mistake for being true. Although many websites may seem factual, it is important to be able to distinguish what is a reliable website, and what is not. This includes knowing the author/publisher of the website, if it has a good reputation, if it is frequently updated, if it does not have a lot of advertisements, it’s not bias, and it’s not poorly laid out (Tensen, 2004). For this third essay, I decided to use three different search engines (Google, Yahoo, and EBSCOhost) to help me look up information regarding the Web 2.0 communication medium I chose to research, which is eBay. EBay is a Web 2.0 communication medium that allows buyers and sellers to come together to trade products from all over the world. In this essay, I will share my results and evaluate the utility of the search engines/databases that I used, and the quality of information that I acquired.
The first search engine I used was Google. The first keyword I typed in was eBay, but most of the results were for the actual website, or subcategories of eBay. I decided to change my keyword search to “The history of eBay” and found a lot more results. My first source was an article titled “Learn how eBay began as a small business in someone's living room and grew into one of the top earning Websites on the Internet.” This article was located on a website called Happynews.com Although the author, Amy Mullen, provides a great history of eBay, I would not use this site because it’s old, there are numerous advertisements, and I do not trust the site’s reputation. Also, the layout of the page does not appear scholarly. The second source I found using the same keyword, was an article titled “The eBay Way”, which was located on Businessweek.com. This is a good source because of the excellent reputation businessweek has and the fact that I know that it is credible. Although it is a little outdated, it is a good source for the keyword I typed in because it gives me the complete and accurate history of eBay. The third source I found through Google was an article titled “How Did eBay Start,” from the website About.com. This is a credible website for finding out about the history and also finding out what eBay has to offer. It is frequently updated, has an author and publisher, and is well organized. It lacks a scholarly appearance, but it treats eBay with a certain amount of complexity. For my forth source, I decided to change my keyword. I went to advanced search and typed in how is successful, and also typed in eBay for exact wording. I came across an article titled “Why is eBay so Successful”, on AssociatedContent. comI do not consider this a good source because it was outdated, the writer only received a 2.9 out of 5 stars, I am not familiar with the reputation of the site, and there are so many ads between Google and AssociatedContent.
The second search engine I used was Yahoo.com. The second search engine I used was Yahoo.com. I decided to use the keywords “what is”, and exact phrase being eBay. The first source I found was an article titled “Technology Tip Number 163:
How do I eBay something?”, on 180Technologytips.com. This is not a credible source because it doesn’t have an author, publisher, date of publication, or any type of information. There are more ads on it then information, so therefore I would not use this site at all. Also, it had grammatically incorrect errors. The second source I got was from Yahoo!Small business. This was also not a credible source because it turned out to be bias. It was someone asking a question, and someone answering it. Even though the information was accurate, it is not credible to get a source of information this way because there is not an established author or publisher, it is just a person answering the question. For the next source, I changed the keyword “eBay auction”. One of the first things that came up was called “eBay” from the website Wikipedia.com. This website provides an abundant amount of information on eBay, however, I do not think it is credible because it is Wikipedia. This means that anyone can edit the information and it is not a scholarly source. I would make a reference to this site, but would not use it as a source in an essay.
The third search engine I used was EBSCOhost. For all three sources that I got from EBSCOhost, I used the keywords eBay and online auctions. All three sources are reliable, and I would definitely use them in my final essay. The three articles i found were EBay Opens Web Services API by Gregg Keizer, EBay to Launch OEM Trade in Program by Amy Gilroy, and How to Obey on eBay. It was easier than LexusNexus to find information because of the option of using and/or. The only thing about EBSCOhost was that it was hard to find relevant information on eBay. When I tried refining my search and making it narrower, including making the keywords eBay and history, or eBay and what is it, I didn’t find anything that related to it and sometimes didn’t find anything at all. For all my EBSCOhost searches, I changed the preferences to have the articles sorted out by relevance first. The best source I found, however, was through EBSCOhost. The article talked about the plans of eBay and how it opened up its web service application programming interface for buying and selling online. When I tried to use the NYTimes as a search engine and used the keyword eBay, it only gave me qualitative information, as oppose to quantitative. Although NYtimes is a good site, I just decided not to use it because it had irrelevant information.
According to Tensen, most internet search engines compile results by ranking pages according to what term you used. When using Google and Yahoo, whenever I typed in eBay, I would get the same results, which were just subcategory pages of eBay. When I used keywords such as history, what is it, about eBay; I received more refined information to what I was looking for. I am more familiar with Google so I find this search engine much more effective with Yahoo. After using it many times a day, I find it easy to decipher which site I click will have relevant information. EBSCOhost is very effective because it is a scholarly and academic source. However, it‘s hard to find exactly what you’re looking for. The use of keywords is very important in this search because if you use the right keywords, you can find exactly what you’re looking for in this database.
Many people rely on search engines to find information on research papers, reports, and everyday things. It's important to know the credibility of the website you are getting your information from so you know what is correct and what is not. Using Tensen's "quick check" and evaluating the website, people will be able to better realize what is fact, fiction, or opinion.
Bibliography
Economist.How to obey on eBay ; 6/11/2005, Vol. 375 Issue 8430, p66-66, 1/4p
Gilroy, Amy. (2004). Ebay To Launch OEM Trade-In Program. TWICE: This Week in Consumer Electronics; 12/20/2004, Vol. 19 Issue 26, p86-86, 1/4p
Keizer, Gregg (2005). EBay Opens Web Services API. Dr. Dobb's Journal: Software Tools for the Professional Programmer; Feb2005, Vol. 30 Issue 2, Special section p3-3, 1p
Tensen, Bonnie L. (2004). Research strategies for a digital age (chapter 5). Boston: Wadsworth
The first search engine I used was Google. The first keyword I typed in was eBay, but most of the results were for the actual website, or subcategories of eBay. I decided to change my keyword search to “The history of eBay” and found a lot more results. My first source was an article titled “Learn how eBay began as a small business in someone's living room and grew into one of the top earning Websites on the Internet.” This article was located on a website called Happynews.com Although the author, Amy Mullen, provides a great history of eBay, I would not use this site because it’s old, there are numerous advertisements, and I do not trust the site’s reputation. Also, the layout of the page does not appear scholarly. The second source I found using the same keyword, was an article titled “The eBay Way”, which was located on Businessweek.com. This is a good source because of the excellent reputation businessweek has and the fact that I know that it is credible. Although it is a little outdated, it is a good source for the keyword I typed in because it gives me the complete and accurate history of eBay. The third source I found through Google was an article titled “How Did eBay Start,” from the website About.com. This is a credible website for finding out about the history and also finding out what eBay has to offer. It is frequently updated, has an author and publisher, and is well organized. It lacks a scholarly appearance, but it treats eBay with a certain amount of complexity. For my forth source, I decided to change my keyword. I went to advanced search and typed in how is successful, and also typed in eBay for exact wording. I came across an article titled “Why is eBay so Successful”, on AssociatedContent. comI do not consider this a good source because it was outdated, the writer only received a 2.9 out of 5 stars, I am not familiar with the reputation of the site, and there are so many ads between Google and AssociatedContent.
The second search engine I used was Yahoo.com. The second search engine I used was Yahoo.com. I decided to use the keywords “what is”, and exact phrase being eBay. The first source I found was an article titled “Technology Tip Number 163:
How do I eBay something?”, on 180Technologytips.com. This is not a credible source because it doesn’t have an author, publisher, date of publication, or any type of information. There are more ads on it then information, so therefore I would not use this site at all. Also, it had grammatically incorrect errors. The second source I got was from Yahoo!Small business. This was also not a credible source because it turned out to be bias. It was someone asking a question, and someone answering it. Even though the information was accurate, it is not credible to get a source of information this way because there is not an established author or publisher, it is just a person answering the question. For the next source, I changed the keyword “eBay auction”. One of the first things that came up was called “eBay” from the website Wikipedia.com. This website provides an abundant amount of information on eBay, however, I do not think it is credible because it is Wikipedia. This means that anyone can edit the information and it is not a scholarly source. I would make a reference to this site, but would not use it as a source in an essay.
The third search engine I used was EBSCOhost. For all three sources that I got from EBSCOhost, I used the keywords eBay and online auctions. All three sources are reliable, and I would definitely use them in my final essay. The three articles i found were EBay Opens Web Services API by Gregg Keizer, EBay to Launch OEM Trade in Program by Amy Gilroy, and How to Obey on eBay. It was easier than LexusNexus to find information because of the option of using and/or. The only thing about EBSCOhost was that it was hard to find relevant information on eBay. When I tried refining my search and making it narrower, including making the keywords eBay and history, or eBay and what is it, I didn’t find anything that related to it and sometimes didn’t find anything at all. For all my EBSCOhost searches, I changed the preferences to have the articles sorted out by relevance first. The best source I found, however, was through EBSCOhost. The article talked about the plans of eBay and how it opened up its web service application programming interface for buying and selling online. When I tried to use the NYTimes as a search engine and used the keyword eBay, it only gave me qualitative information, as oppose to quantitative. Although NYtimes is a good site, I just decided not to use it because it had irrelevant information.
According to Tensen, most internet search engines compile results by ranking pages according to what term you used. When using Google and Yahoo, whenever I typed in eBay, I would get the same results, which were just subcategory pages of eBay. When I used keywords such as history, what is it, about eBay; I received more refined information to what I was looking for. I am more familiar with Google so I find this search engine much more effective with Yahoo. After using it many times a day, I find it easy to decipher which site I click will have relevant information. EBSCOhost is very effective because it is a scholarly and academic source. However, it‘s hard to find exactly what you’re looking for. The use of keywords is very important in this search because if you use the right keywords, you can find exactly what you’re looking for in this database.
Many people rely on search engines to find information on research papers, reports, and everyday things. It's important to know the credibility of the website you are getting your information from so you know what is correct and what is not. Using Tensen's "quick check" and evaluating the website, people will be able to better realize what is fact, fiction, or opinion.
Bibliography
Economist.How to obey on eBay ; 6/11/2005, Vol. 375 Issue 8430, p66-66, 1/4p
Gilroy, Amy. (2004). Ebay To Launch OEM Trade-In Program. TWICE: This Week in Consumer Electronics; 12/20/2004, Vol. 19 Issue 26, p86-86, 1/4p
Keizer, Gregg (2005). EBay Opens Web Services API. Dr. Dobb's Journal: Software Tools for the Professional Programmer; Feb2005, Vol. 30 Issue 2, Special section p3-3, 1p
Tensen, Bonnie L. (2004). Research strategies for a digital age (chapter 5). Boston: Wadsworth
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The Role of Expertise in Navigating Links of Influence
For class on Wednesday, we were assigned to read “The Role of Expertise in Navigating Links of Influence” by Eszter Hargaittai. In this essay, the author focuses on the importance of links and search engines and how they can allocate user attention. However, they also have negative consequences. Hargaittai talks about how too much links can overwhelm a system, making information inaccessible. Other consequences include “Google bombing”, which is “the practice of manipulating search engine results by aggressively targeting links to a specific site with the same anchor text where the anchor text refers to the text that links to another page” (Hargaittai, pg 92). Although most of them aren’t harmful, they still can be quite bothersome. According to the author, their main purpose is to come up high or first on search engine results and get money by getting people to click on the link, which I have fell victim to many of times by clicking the first result on a page.
One of the main points the author talks about is how people’s socioeconomic status exhibit a statistically significant relationship with online savvy. Hargittai finds a correlation between people who scored higher on their college entrance exams and whose parents have high level of education to have more familiarity with both main-stream and more advanced Internet-related terms. I do not know how much I agree with these findings because I had a high score for my college entrance exam, my father has a very high level of education, but I knew none of the terms being brought up. I do not feel this has anything to do with my college entrance exam or my father’s education level, it’s just I have never taken an Internet course in my life, and didn’t even have a computer class in high school. The author concludes with that fact user’s levels of expertise are mediated by links. Also in the reading, the author claims that since it appears that people with a higher socioeconomic status have higher Internet savvy, the Internet very may well be contributing to social inequalities.
It was interesting to find out that Blogspot, the very website I am posting this on, appears to be one of the most spam-infested sites. It was also interesting to read that many people do not know how to filter e-mails, websites, and links or know if any of these are secure. After reading this I realized I was on of those people and how careless I am when I do engage in Internet activity. I also believe I have gained a lot of knowledge about computer terms and also securing myself and my computer.
Hargittai, Eszter. (2008). The role of expertise in navigating links of influence. In Joseph Turow and Lokman Tsui (Eds.), The hyperlinked society: Questioning connections in the digital age (pp. 85-103). Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
One of the main points the author talks about is how people’s socioeconomic status exhibit a statistically significant relationship with online savvy. Hargittai finds a correlation between people who scored higher on their college entrance exams and whose parents have high level of education to have more familiarity with both main-stream and more advanced Internet-related terms. I do not know how much I agree with these findings because I had a high score for my college entrance exam, my father has a very high level of education, but I knew none of the terms being brought up. I do not feel this has anything to do with my college entrance exam or my father’s education level, it’s just I have never taken an Internet course in my life, and didn’t even have a computer class in high school. The author concludes with that fact user’s levels of expertise are mediated by links. Also in the reading, the author claims that since it appears that people with a higher socioeconomic status have higher Internet savvy, the Internet very may well be contributing to social inequalities.
It was interesting to find out that Blogspot, the very website I am posting this on, appears to be one of the most spam-infested sites. It was also interesting to read that many people do not know how to filter e-mails, websites, and links or know if any of these are secure. After reading this I realized I was on of those people and how careless I am when I do engage in Internet activity. I also believe I have gained a lot of knowledge about computer terms and also securing myself and my computer.
Hargittai, Eszter. (2008). The role of expertise in navigating links of influence. In Joseph Turow and Lokman Tsui (Eds.), The hyperlinked society: Questioning connections in the digital age (pp. 85-103). Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Essay #2
Developed in 1981 by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, Usenet is a pre-World Wide Web communication medium that allows people to discuss their opinions through message boards, forums, discussion groups, and e-mail lists (Kollock). Prior to this assignment, I was unfamiliar with Usenet and the many components that it had. After observing for the last couple weeks, I’ve learned how fun and informative it is to read and participate on these message boards. Although there is a great exchange of information, there are some problems that are common across all Usenet groups. With this medium, people have the opportunity to create any “character” that they want, which is intriguing to some, but can also be deceiving. The main problems that greatly affected the group that I observed included the inappropriate use of bandwidth (capacity to carry and store information) and the free-rider problem (Kollock). These two re-occurring themes seemed to dominate the message board and really set the tone and behavior of the members that were represented.
As stated before, I have been observing a Usenet group. I decided to observe and subscribe to a group that was dedicated to the New York Knicks. I found this through Google groups and it's called alt.sports.basketball.pro.ny-knicks. Most of the interactions were humorous; this is due to members either mocking each other, Knick players and coach, or George W. Bush. There were also some disputes between people on player’s abilities, trades, and who should coach. I would receive an e-mail when and where people posted messages because I joined their e-mail list. This was very helpful because it kept everything organized by having the link right there, instead of me going to the message board and finding it myself.
There seems to be some dominate people in the Usenet group, including Dan Gater, Doctor Chen, Frank Rizzo and CaptnO. Discussions ranged from trades, players, politics, and even a player’s blog. Dan Gater took on the role of a journalist, posting articles and then asking a question at the end. Although just asking questions and not answering them is something a free-rider would do, I do not believe he is one in this case because some posts he would comment (Kollock). There is also a woman who decided to blog and I know this because of her signature, “Laurel T In the eyes of the political elite, dissent is acceptable... until it becomes effective” (alt.sports.basketball.pro.ny-knicks). It’s quite obvious from her signature that she’s not just here to talk NY Knicks, which ends up being the case. She turned the message content from the reputation of Josh Howard as he disrespected the national anthem by saying how he doesn't celebrate it because he is black, to a political debate about how the national anthem isn't American. She is an example of using bandwidth inappropriately. She completely changed the topic, and when people try to change it back, she again turns the discussion into something else political. By being off-topic, she threatens the organization that the Usenet is being supported by (Kollack). More examples of this include when Dan Gater’s would post a long article, to which people would paste the whole article and then reply, as opposed to just summarizing or just copying the part they wanted to comment on. This made it difficult to tell where the previous post ended and where they’re new post started. It also made it difficult to want to keep looking for people’s responses because there were just so many words.
Another characteristic of the Usenet group was the theme of role-playing. Someone actually pretended to be a player from the NY Knicks, Jamal Crawford. They put it in a blog format, meaning it was almost out of a diary. “He” talked about seeing himself on two magazine covers in the airport, how hard he has been working out, and an update of the guys on the team. At first I honestly thought this person was Jamal Crawford. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Some person, Syfo-Dyas, takes on the role of Jamal and deceives people into thinking that they are actually him. I am sure this person gets a thrill out of it, since he gets a whole different outlook on Usenet and the group. I wish I decided to take on a role, but I made the mistake of using my AOL screen name, which has girl in it, as my nickname in the group. I wanted to tell people how I actually went to basketball camp with two Knick legends, but thought because of my screen name, I would have no credibility. This is where gender comes into play. From the names of people and what I observed, it was definitely a made dominated group and I just didn’t think I would fit in.
Although free riding was a problem, it’s hard to tell who’s free-riding and who’s not. One of the biggest free-riders I would say was me! I gathered information about the Knicks and kept it to myself and I read ongoing discussions for the last couple of weeks and never once commented on them (Kollock). There are 120 subscribers, but I only saw about ten members actually contribute to the discussions. Although there seems to be a lot of free-riders, there also seems to be the problem of spam. For every 3 or 4 topics posted, there would be a spam topic about a nude celebrity or something of that sort. Even with these problems, the group does a good job of keeping on topic and having informative, fun, and thoughtful discussions.
After observing this Usenet group, it’s safe to say that I will continue to look at people’s discussions and maybe join another group. It’s hard to think that people use such an early medium of the Internet to interact with other people and get their opinions across. I became much more familiar and realized how the themes we read in class apply to people’s behavior in these forums. Whether it is intentional, or unintentional, people are always going to be free-riding and abusing bandwidth. For now, however, it’s still a fun, interactive way to talk about what you like and not be afraid to voice your opinion.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.sports.basketball.pro.ny-knicks/topics
Kollock, Peter & Smith, Marc. (1996). Managing the virtual commons: Cooperation and conflict in computer communities. In Susan C Herring (Ed.), Computer-mediated communication: Linguistic, social and cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 109-128).
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
What is Web 2.0
For Wednesday’s class, we had to read the chapter called “What is Web 2.0” by Tim O’Reilly. There are different meanings to the term “Web 2.0” and in this chapter he attempts to clarify exactly what it means. According to the chapter, “Web 2.0” is a more advanced version of “Web 1.0”, but there are certain characteristics that make them different. One of the most important aspects that I believe O’Reilly talks about is how people need to remember that the internet is not a product, it is a service. With that in mind, it’s important to make the services cost efficient so people are interested and not turned away. It is also to important to be able to trust the people that are using the services, because people add value (O’ Reilly). Another important characteristic of “Web 2.0” is that it has to understand how important long tailing is. According to the text, “the long tail is the collective power of the small sites that make up the bulk of the web’s content” (O’Reilly pg 6). By understanding this concept, companies like Google and Overture were able to place friendly ad’s on any web page, which opened up their market (O’ Reilly). He later goes on to talk about iTunes and TiVo which are very popular now days. TiVo and iTunes are the first applications that are able to bring together web content to portable devices. They also show collective intelligence, which in this case is the collaboration of different media (O’ Reilly) To me, “Web 2.0” is still confusing. I use Google, iTunes, and Wikipedia all the time, but never thought of what category they fit into.
As I sit here and write this blog, I am listening to iTunes and also looking up lyrics to my favorite song on Google without even taking into account all the hard work that goes behind it. O' Reilly helped me realize how competitive the web is and how "being a platform will beat an application every time" (O'Reilly pg 7) Microsoft is an excellent example of this, taking over Windows with Excel, Word, and Internet Explorer (O’ Reilly). The main point in O’ Reilly’s chapter is that if the application does not become a platform and follow the core competencies, it doesn’t look like it’s going to last in “Web 2.0” very long.
O’Reilly, Tim (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. Retrieved August 21, 2008 from http://oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html.
As I sit here and write this blog, I am listening to iTunes and also looking up lyrics to my favorite song on Google without even taking into account all the hard work that goes behind it. O' Reilly helped me realize how competitive the web is and how "being a platform will beat an application every time" (O'Reilly pg 7) Microsoft is an excellent example of this, taking over Windows with Excel, Word, and Internet Explorer (O’ Reilly). The main point in O’ Reilly’s chapter is that if the application does not become a platform and follow the core competencies, it doesn’t look like it’s going to last in “Web 2.0” very long.
O’Reilly, Tim (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. Retrieved August 21, 2008 from http://oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html.
Blog 5
So on my final observation, there was the re-occurance of spam. However, there was one post that caught my attention. Someone pretended to be a player from the NY Knicks, Jamal Crawford, and post a blog about the team and what his predictions are. This person, Syfo-Dyas, acts as if hes Jamal Crawford by going as far as to talk about landing in the aiport and seeing himself on the cover of two magazines. He later goes on to talk about each returning player and give updates on how they are doing and what they will be offering the team this season. Syfo-Dyas is obviously role-playing and pretending to be a NY Knick. This person actually gets feed back from obviously Dan Gater and Capn'O. By their responses, its obvious to tell they dont believe this person is acutally Jamal Crawford either. They respond with critism to what he says about each player, calling him out on just trying to be nice and not saying the truth.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Blog 4
After observing today, there seems to be a continuing pattern. Dan Gaters appears to be a journalist who writes something about a player or something that's going on with the team. Group members in turn respond with their feelings on each topic. Today, he wrote about a former player, Allan Houston, and whether or not he's going to come back after a devastating injury. No one has yet to reply to this message. From what I have previously seen, the only responses that people are probably going to write are negative ones about Allan Houston because he was not a force for the team last year. There was again more spam posts. There was also another post today about acquiring someone from a trade, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Im excited to see tomorrow what people have responded to these two posts and if my prediction was right.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Blog 3
Today, for the first time, I observed that there was a woman who actually blogged on the Usenet group. The reason I knew this was because after her comment, she had a signature note at the bottom revealing her name. Also for the first time, there was an actual debate among people in the group. I hate to say this, but this female member actually turned the message content from the reputation of Josh Howard as he disrespected the national anthem by saying how he doesn't celebrate it because he is black, to a politcal debate about how the national anthem isn't American and then turned the topic to about the war. I think this could be a reason why people may disguise their gender because here is a woman that turns a basketball related story, into something completely differnet. Although the members of the group don't mind and actually apologize for what they said or even agree with her, what Josh Howard did was completely forgotten.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
blog 2
On my second observation, I noticed how Dan Gaters again started a message and people began replying to it. He asked if people thought that Marbury should be waived or not. Some of the responses were funny and the debate even turned somewhat political. One guy said Marbury returning is like letting Bush return for a third term. Another guy commented on the economy and asked if people would still want Marbury if the alternative was Republican Vice President Sarah Palin. There doesn't seem to be much arguing, most people agreeing that Marbury is a cancer to the NY Knicks. Dan Gater seems to dominate the postings on what I observed today. There also seems to be some spam, but not as much as the other groups I looked at joining before which is good.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Essay 2-Blog 1
For the second essay, I decided to observe a Usenet group that was dedicated to the New York Knicks. I found this through google groups and it's called alt.sports.basketball.pro.ny-knicks. I observed that most of the posts were about the NY Knicks, although there was some spam about celebrities and nudity. There was some debate between whether or not the Knicks made a good trade. Most of the replies were in favor for the trade, but the debate really was about whether Patrick Ewing Jr was any good. There seems to be some dominate people in the Usenet Group, including Dan Gater, Doctor Chen, Frank Rizzo and CaptnO. It also seems to be dominated by males. Doctor Chen seems to use profanity and be somewhat confrontational. It seems he likes to push people's buttons. Dan Gator seems to be comical and CaptnO and Frank Rizzo just like to put their two senses in. It's fun reading all of these people's replies and agreeing and disagreeing with them. At one point one person made a reference to Doctor Chen actually really being a doctor. They didnt think he was because of his "bedside manner."
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Internet: The basics
For class today, we had to read the article The Internet: The basics by Jason Whitaker. I thought this was going to be a straightforward reading about the many basics of the internet, but it was very complex and a lot of the information he talked about went right over my head. Although much of the information was hard for me to understand, I was able to grasp many of the basics he did talk about and was able to gain information from this article.
Whitaker talks about the fundamental component of the World Wide Web, which is hypertext. Hypertext is the ability to link information to other information and he claims without it, the web would not exist (Whitaker, 2002). Whitaker later goes on to talk about what the core of a web page is, Hypertext Markup Language. HTML is the “basic set of commands used to format pages for display across the World Wide Web” (Whitaker, pg 74)..
Whitaker begins to talk about the elements of a web page that HTML makes possible. This includes text, color and images, the layout, and hyperlinks. All of these are important to making sure that the website is conveying the information necessary and is also not distracting or turning away any visitors. If the text is too small, the colors represent different meanings in different cultures, the layout makes it difficult for the viewer to navigate through the window, and there are no hyperlinks; the web page is not going to get the full potential of viewers the designer wants (Whitaker, 2002).
The reading goes on to talk about how there are some problems with HTML that the inventor could not foresee. This includes the separation between design and content. It states that through the use of style sheets or CSS, the cascading style sheet system, this problem can be overcome. Style sheets “provide information governing the position and styling of text and can also be created separately to HTML files and linked to them” (Whitaker, pg 77). Through this system, Whitaker says that the burden of presentation design from HTML will be removed.
When Whitaker was talking about the font and colors of a webpage, it brought back the memory of making an AOL profile circa 2000. All these codes were needed to pick the font and color people wanted, which is the same process used to make web pages. Although I did not understand a lot of what he talked about in this article, I did understand web production and new media. Apparently, the basics of the internet are not that basic to me and the internet continues to be something that boggles my mind.
Whitaker, Jason. (2002). The Internet: The Basics (chapter 3). New York: Routledge
Whitaker talks about the fundamental component of the World Wide Web, which is hypertext. Hypertext is the ability to link information to other information and he claims without it, the web would not exist (Whitaker, 2002). Whitaker later goes on to talk about what the core of a web page is, Hypertext Markup Language. HTML is the “basic set of commands used to format pages for display across the World Wide Web” (Whitaker, pg 74)..
Whitaker begins to talk about the elements of a web page that HTML makes possible. This includes text, color and images, the layout, and hyperlinks. All of these are important to making sure that the website is conveying the information necessary and is also not distracting or turning away any visitors. If the text is too small, the colors represent different meanings in different cultures, the layout makes it difficult for the viewer to navigate through the window, and there are no hyperlinks; the web page is not going to get the full potential of viewers the designer wants (Whitaker, 2002).
The reading goes on to talk about how there are some problems with HTML that the inventor could not foresee. This includes the separation between design and content. It states that through the use of style sheets or CSS, the cascading style sheet system, this problem can be overcome. Style sheets “provide information governing the position and styling of text and can also be created separately to HTML files and linked to them” (Whitaker, pg 77). Through this system, Whitaker says that the burden of presentation design from HTML will be removed.
When Whitaker was talking about the font and colors of a webpage, it brought back the memory of making an AOL profile circa 2000. All these codes were needed to pick the font and color people wanted, which is the same process used to make web pages. Although I did not understand a lot of what he talked about in this article, I did understand web production and new media. Apparently, the basics of the internet are not that basic to me and the internet continues to be something that boggles my mind.
Whitaker, Jason. (2002). The Internet: The Basics (chapter 3). New York: Routledge
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Pre-Web Internet-Usenet
In COM430z, I was assigned to read “The Pre-Web Internet-Use Net” in the book Managing the Virtual Common: Cooperation and conflict in computer communities. This article discusses the problems of cooperation and social dilemmas in cyberspace, especially with Usenet. This includes the free-rider problem and not using bandwidth wisely.
According to Kollack, “Usenet is on of the largest computer-mediated communication systems in existence. It is similar in many ways to conferencing systems and e-mail distribution lists.” In the reading, it talks about how Usenet has a number of newsgroups that contain requests for information, replies to requests, discussions of the validity and accuracy of replies, and other further questions brought up by the discussion and members involved.
Although Usenet provides a great environment for people to give and exchange information, I read in the reading that there are many conflicts that make it incapable to provide collective goods to everyone. Bandwidth is a key resource on Usenet. The term bandwidth refers to “the volume of information per unit time that a computer, person, or transmission can handle.” Basically it means the amount of information that can be carried and stored to its members. According to the reading, there are great concerns on Usenet of overusing bandwidth which include: the posting of extremely long articles, not summarizing previous posts and instead reproducing long sections, posting articles that are off-topic, and posting the same message to many newsgroups, as appose to just one.
Also in the reading, there is the problem of free riding: asking questions but not answering them; gathering information but not allocating it out to other people, or just simply reading discussions but not contributing or adding information to them. By providing several thousand different types of topics, Usenet allows individuals with common interests to find and interact with each other. According to the reading, this helps the success of a newsgroup. In the reading it states how there has also been designs to have successful communities. They include decreasing group sizes, having set rules and institutions, and monitoring and sanctioning of people’s behaviors.
I believe that the free-rider problem and abusing bandwidth are two huge problems that affect cyberspace. I know that I have been in a forum and reading people’s post even on Blackboard and had people post unnecessary and irrelevant information. When one person disrupts ongoing conversation like that, it can potentially ruin the whole persona of the discussion. The ways that Usenet is trying to eliminate the problems are cost effective and hopefully can work. However, cyberspace has a double edge. Kollack concludes with monitoring people’s behavior but sanctioning behavior does not. Communication costs of large groups are decreased, but free-riding is increased. Lastly, having several thousand newsgroups that have interests that people exchange information make it easier for people who want to disrupt them do so.
Kollack, Peter & Smith, Marc. (1996)
According to Kollack, “Usenet is on of the largest computer-mediated communication systems in existence. It is similar in many ways to conferencing systems and e-mail distribution lists.” In the reading, it talks about how Usenet has a number of newsgroups that contain requests for information, replies to requests, discussions of the validity and accuracy of replies, and other further questions brought up by the discussion and members involved.
Although Usenet provides a great environment for people to give and exchange information, I read in the reading that there are many conflicts that make it incapable to provide collective goods to everyone. Bandwidth is a key resource on Usenet. The term bandwidth refers to “the volume of information per unit time that a computer, person, or transmission can handle.” Basically it means the amount of information that can be carried and stored to its members. According to the reading, there are great concerns on Usenet of overusing bandwidth which include: the posting of extremely long articles, not summarizing previous posts and instead reproducing long sections, posting articles that are off-topic, and posting the same message to many newsgroups, as appose to just one.
Also in the reading, there is the problem of free riding: asking questions but not answering them; gathering information but not allocating it out to other people, or just simply reading discussions but not contributing or adding information to them. By providing several thousand different types of topics, Usenet allows individuals with common interests to find and interact with each other. According to the reading, this helps the success of a newsgroup. In the reading it states how there has also been designs to have successful communities. They include decreasing group sizes, having set rules and institutions, and monitoring and sanctioning of people’s behaviors.
I believe that the free-rider problem and abusing bandwidth are two huge problems that affect cyberspace. I know that I have been in a forum and reading people’s post even on Blackboard and had people post unnecessary and irrelevant information. When one person disrupts ongoing conversation like that, it can potentially ruin the whole persona of the discussion. The ways that Usenet is trying to eliminate the problems are cost effective and hopefully can work. However, cyberspace has a double edge. Kollack concludes with monitoring people’s behavior but sanctioning behavior does not. Communication costs of large groups are decreased, but free-riding is increased. Lastly, having several thousand newsgroups that have interests that people exchange information make it easier for people who want to disrupt them do so.
Kollack, Peter & Smith, Marc. (1996)
Monday, September 8, 2008
Defining Characteristics of the internet
Many people say that the Internet is different from television, and that is a correct statement. I believe that there are five defining characteristics of the Internet that make it unique and different than other forms of communication Medias. According to the Adam’s and Clark’s reading, Rafaeli and Newhagen (1996) suggests qualities that define the Internet including how it is multimediated, hypertextual, (a) synchronous, interactive, and digital. These characteristics of the Internet have had foundations in other media that have come before it including books, newspapers, telephone, radio, and of course the television (Adams and Clark pg 8). Through the Internet, people are able to interact with one another, have the Internet interact with them, watch videos, listen to audio clips, play online games, and research information. The Internet is able to do and access many things that the television and other medias are not, which makes it but both very helpful and entertaining to people all over the world.
In this class, I read Adam's and Clark's chapter "How Did We Get Here?", which gives a brief history of the Internet. In the reading, it talks about how in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, the cold war and the fear of nuclear attacks led to the conceptualization of the Internet. However, not until the early 1990’s was the Internet actually opened to commercial institutions and was it able to become something that the average person could learn to use for everyday things. The Internet was a very important concept because it would allow people to communicate and interact with each other in ways that no one had ever seen before. A characteristic that makes the Internet different from the television is that it is multi-mediated. Although the television combines audio and visual forms, the Internet goes way beyond this and combines all different forms and a wide range of media. Now days, we are seeing more convergence because our television and computer are becoming one in the same. (Adams and
Another key characteristic that makes the Internet different is hypertextuality. “Hypertextuality is essentially the ability to link any type of content to any other type of content” (Adams and Clark pg 11). This means that when you are visiting a site, clicking on an underlined word may bring up a completely different document or clicking on any type of graphic may produce a sound (Adams and Clark pg 11). A great example of this is wikipedia. When someone researches say DJ Tiesto, not only can information be accessed from this page in reference to him, but people can click on other links that link them to the place he was born, the Olympic games he performed at, get a sample of the music he plays, and can even get a video of him performing. Hypertextuality also makes the web easier to navigate because it is three key implications: intertextuality, multivocality, and de-centering. These three things make a person’s internet experience much more educational and better.
Another characteristic that makes the Internet a great communication medium is interactivity. The user experience with the Internet is a lot different than with any other media. With television and radio, content comes to them. With the Internet, ability to go looking for content that you want gives the person a lot more control than with the television and the radio (http://techdirt.com/articles/20060406/0326237.shtml). People can choose to interact with other people through instant messages, chat rooms or emails, and people can purchase items off the Internet. In both of these instances, people receive interaction which is not something other Medias contain.
Another characteristic of the Internet is (a) synchronous. On the Internet, people are able to communication at the same time. This includes instant messages, video conferences, e-mails, and web pages. Both televisions and telephones have the capability of being (a) synchronous, but both are augmented by the use of answering machines and VCR’s (Adams and Clark pg 14). This is an important characteristic because I would say this is one of the more popular qualities that people use because it is efficient and fun at the same time.
Last, but not least, the Internet is digital. What’s important about this quality is that information is now transported electronically. This makes it less time consuming and inexpensive. With the Internet being digital, it has had a huge impact on the way people use communication. Data can now be coded and even manipulated to a smaller size so it can be downloaded faster (Adams and Clark pgs 15-17).
The Internet has truly impacted the communication aspect of the world. Messages are able to be relayed at faster speeds and which has made talking to loved ones, friends, employer/employees, and teachers/students so much easier and helpful. The abundance of information people can access on the Internet is astronomical. Being able to watch videos, see graphics, talk to friends, send emails, talk in chat rooms, blog, play interactive games, listen to music, and research information have made communication in the 21st century such a huge improvement then when it was first introduced in the 1950’s.
Bibliography
Adams and Clark (Chapters 1 and 2)
http://techdirt.com/articles/20060406/0326237.shtml
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
This reading is about how the internet acts as a medium that connects us to other people and things. It allows people to interact with either one person, or hundreds of people. Therefore, it is a macromedium because it is able to reach such large audiences on a global scale. The internet has 6 keys qualities that change our communication patterns. I never realized how much I relied on these qualities whether it was for school or to gather information from my favorite website. I also never realized how much convergence the internet has between radio and television. This reading is about how the internet acts as a medium that connects us to other people and things. It allows people to interact with either one person, or hundreds of people either through instant messages, emails, or even chat rooms. Therefore, it is a macromedium because it is able to reach such large audiences on a global scale. Now a day, people are able to listen to the radio on their computer, or even watch some of their favorite television moments on the computer, like on you tube. The internet has evolved so much since it was first established and always looking to improve and get better. I also didn't realize how much easier hypertext has made the internet and people's lives. It allows you to multitask between documents, pictures, and even audio/video clips. The internet is also asynchronous, meaning that we can exchange communication but have time to think in between. An example of this is emails. I know for a fact that sometimes if I get an email that requires me to make a big decision, its nice to know I have all the time in the world to get back to the other person and not put on the spot like on a telephone. This reading gave me a different interpretation of how to view the internet. I usually see the internet as a source of information or communication, but this chapter opened up my mind to the vast opportunities that the interne holds. Although it seems the internet can not be more advanced or improved, everyday people are working on ways to make it more reliable, faster, and able to reach any and everyone. I felt a little embarrassed after reading this because I realized how much of the internet I do not use and do not even know how to use! When the reading talked about burning CD’s, I realized how I didn’t even know how to do that and how I had to get one of my friends to teach me how to use an MP3 player. I was actually confused during some of the reading when it talked about bits about bits and the technical stuff. However, I plan on learning a lot about the internet through this class so I can take advantage of this wonderful opportunity and not let it go to waste.
Reading for Sept 3
This reading is about how the internet acts as a medium that connects us to other people and things. It allows people to interact with either one person, or hundreds of people. Therefore, it is a macromedium because it is able to reach such large audiences on a global scale. The internet has 6 keys qualities that change our communication patterns. I never realized how much I relied on these qualities whether it was for school or to gather information from my favorite website. I also never realized how much convergence the internet has between radio and television. This reading is about how the internet acts as a medium that connects us to other people and things. It allows people to interact with either one person, or hundreds of people either through instant messages, emails, or even chat rooms. Therefore, it is a macromedium because it is able to reach such large audiences on a global scale. Now a day, people are able to listen to the radio on their computer, or even watch some of their favorite television moments on the computer, like on you tube. The internet has evolved so much since it was first established and always looking to improve and get better. I also didn't realize how much easier hypertext has made the internet and people's lives. It allows you to multitask between documents, pictures, and even audio/video clips. The internet is also asynchronous, meaning that we can exchange communication but have time to think in between. An example of this is emails. I know for a fact that sometimes if I get an email that requires me to make a big decision, its nice to know I have all the time in the world to get back to the other person and not put on the spot like on a telephone.
This reading gave me a different interpretation of how to view the internet. I usually see the internet as a source of information or communication, but this chapter opened up my mind to the vast opportunities that the interne holds. Although it seems the internet can not be more advanced or improved, everyday people are working on ways to make it more reliable, faster, and able to reach any and everyone. I felt a little embarrassed after reading this because I realized how much of the internet I do not use and do not even know how to use! When the reading talked about burning CD’s, I realized how I didn’t even know how to do that and how I had to get one of my friends to teach me how to use an MP3 player. I was actually confused during some of the reading when it talked about bits about bits and the technical stuff. However, I plan on learning a lot about the internet through this class so I can take advantage of this wonderful opportunity and not let it go to waste.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Summarizing of the First Reading
This reading was about how much the internet and computers have helped enhance communication in the world through technology. It spoke about the history of the internet and how it came into what it is now, starting only as ARPNET and helping the US Military during the war time. It stated how much communication through the internet was important through certain times of the last couple of decades and how much people are relying on it. It reiterated a lot of things that was already known to me, but still interesting to read. It gave us the four inovations that led to the envanced internet that we know today including audience and other important aspects.
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