CONCEPT 14 – THE INTERNET IS INFORMATIONALLY CREATED SPACE
The sense of space is essential for humans – or at least many humans – to be able to express their identities in special and rich ways.
(Allen, n.d.)
One of the most appealing aspects of the Internet for a large number of users is its capability to unite people regardless of geographical location. Websites such as Facebook allow people to keep in touch with their friends and loved ones whilst being able to share pictures, videos and regular updates of recent experiences. It has created an alternative real world, in which basically everything that happens to someone is chronicled on their profile page and notified to everyone on their friends list. Even if you do not live anywhere near that person or may not have spoken to them for years, you are still able to keep up with their daily life and vice versa.
While Facebook has managed to become a great communal meeting place, there are other forms of popular multiple player online communities known as MUDs (Multiple User Dimension, Multiple User Dungeon or Multiple User Dialogue) which do not rely on real life events or real identities in order to exist. These websites, or virtual spaces, do not tend to focus so much on being a communication tool in the same way Facebook and Twitter do, but rather on the creation of a shared virtual world which allows users to present themselves to the world in a much different manner, not bound by real life events or identities, but still not immune from the normal range of human emotions.
Users are allowed to create their own computerized character or persona, which is most commonly referred to as an avatar, and can then explore a virtual world, chat to other avatars, go on quests or create their own rooms in which to meet with other people. Early MUDs, unlike graphic multiplayer online worlds such as Second Life or MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) like World of Warcraft, were (and still are) described entirely in text, using wordly descriptions about the user’s world around them in order to convey a rich virtual environment.
Graphic MUDs on the other hand are rich, graphic intensive worlds which fully submerge the user into fantasy worlds, with users able to alter and edit every physical aspect of their avatar so even if you are a short, skinny twenty three year old with a hunchback in real life, you can become a hulking beast of a man who heroically trots from village to village going on quests and saving fair maidens. So popular have these types of virtual worlds become that even normal websites now tend to adopt a graphic intensive design which gives the impression of being in a virtual world or virtual store. For example you could be visiting a website of a certain sports brand, instead of clicking on a button labelled Apparel, you are instead given the option of clicking on a ‘door’ and taken to a page which resembles the inside of a retail store, with different clothes racks being the gateways to different clothing catalogues and so forth.
The fact that these types of virtual online communities allow people to detach themselves from the real world and create fantasy versions of themselves or identities gives a real sense of escapism while at the same time developing a real sense of community with other users, creating bonds with characters that may not exist in real life but are still cared for and appreciated not just by their creator, but everyone else present in its virtual world.
WEBSITES
Open Directory Project – Online games – MUDS
http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Online/MUDs/
This is a great website which gives you a list of over seven hundred and fifty MUDs available on the web. They can be sorted by Codebase, Clients or Development and also has a very informative FAQ which explains everything you need to know about MUDs and how to connect to a server and play them. It also has links to relevant articles, message boards, and can be transcribed to other languages.
MMORPG.com – Your Headquarter for Online Multiplayer Games.
http://www.mmorpg.com/index.cfm?bhcp=1
Much like the previous website, but appropriately enough, much more graphic intensive. Here you can access everything you ever need to know about MMORPGs. It has lists of all the games available, news, message boards, blogs and a ton of other features. The website has a real sense of an online community with users able to upload videos of their actual gameplay so they can share with the world their greatest moments and has a thriving message board with countless topics. There is also a chat option so users can text each other in real time. One of the coolest features available I think is the availability of blogs by game developers, which allow users to see what the latest news are with regards to their favourite game franchises.
CONCEPT 7 – NETIQUETTE
An overwhelming and many-faceted aspect of using email and similar asynchronous communication systems over the Internet is 'Netiquette'. Netiquette describes 'good' and 'bad' conduct in online communication (amongst other forms of Internet use). But what is important about Netiquette is the concept that there are these 'agreed' rules of what is good and bad.
(Allen, n.d)
What is netiquette? What may be considered courteous to one person may be considered a slight to someone from a different culture. The Internet is a global phenomenon so how can we regulate the manner in which different people perceive the same information?
Netiquette seems to apply mainly to communication between users on the Internet and the widely shared beliefs and rules that help facilitate correspondence amongst users on online communities. While there are many different types of online communities, each with their own sets of norms and social conventions, they also seem to share a common bond with regards to what is considered appropriate and inappropriate when it comes to communicating with other users. Even websites and message boards with questionable moral stances follow the same rules as other more wholesome message boards in order to maintain a certain amount of control and structure that prevents everything from spiralling out of control. Given the lack of rules and regulations, most message boards and websites tend to maintain a surprising degree of self control as the majority of users realise that straying from the core rules of Netiquette will not only result in an unpleasant and frustrating experience for all involved but also increases the possibility of stricter rules being applied.
“In the arena of content control, one of the perceived virtues (though not unalloyed) of self regulation is the capacity of users to establish their own standards rather than be subject to a single imposed government standard.”
(Price & Verhulst, 2005)
One of the most interesting aspects of the Internet is that due to the fact that there are very little regulations, it is basically a free for all forum in which anyone can contribute, upload content and in some cases, offer views that would otherwise be considered unacceptable in the real world. The act of sitting behind a computer screen seems to act like a protective shield against morality, with people feeling freer to do or say inflammatory things knowing that there is no chance of instant physical reprisal as the worst that can happen is a few harsh words thrown your way by someone else who is also stuck behind a computer screen on the other side of the globe. Sticks and stones may break my bones but the net has never hurt me.
As Virginia Shea (1994) states in Netiquette “Humans exchanging email often behave the way some people behind the wheel of a car do: They curse at other drivers, make obscene gestures, and generally behave like savages. Most of them would never act that way at work or at home. But the interposition of the machine seems to make it acceptable”
This is readily apparent in forums and message boards where “Trolls” and flame wars are a frequent occurrence. In this cases people converse with each other in inflammatory ways in order to antagonise other users for no other purpose than to create a stir. Were this scenario transferred from a message board to somewhere in the real world like a pub or schoolyard, the troll would more than likely end up with a black eye, or at the very least, no one to talk to.
Ultimately, Netiquette, much like real world etiquette, relies on individual conscience and the desire to behave in a manner which is tolerant and considerate of others regardless of what rules and regulations are being placed upon you. It must also be taken into account that what may seem offensive to one culture may not to another, so it is prudent to maintain an open and tolerant frame of mind before taking it as an attack towards you.
WEBSITES
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
This website holds excerpts from Virginia Shea’s 1994 book Netiquette and states the core rules of netiquette. The site itself is great as it not only provides excerpts to Shea’s book, it also has the entire book available on online form. One reservation I have with this source is the relatively dated content, as the Internet is a lot different now to fifteen years ago. However, due to the fact that netiquette applies mainly to communication between users, a lot of the rules stated still ring true as the basics of text and email communication have not changed that drastically over time.
NETIQUETTE GUIDELINES
http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html
The Internet Engineering Taskforce’s (IETF) Netiquette guidelines, which were published in 1995 are available on this site and again, even though it is quite dated the rules still apply today. It covers guidelines for One to One communication in addition to One to Many communication, guidelines for Mailing Lists and also guidelines for administrators. The whole document is very thorough, cites many references and consists mainly of bullet points so it is very easy to read and gets the information across in a much quicker and efficient way than Virginia Shea as it is a memo as opposed to a scholarly book.
CONCEPT 17 – THE IMPACT OF TEXT BASED REAL TIME CHAT
Communicating in real-time with text enables a form of 'authoring of the self' that is similar to the processes of face-to-face speech but which is much more amenable to authorial control, experimentation and reflection. Further, text-based communication carries with it the possibility for multiple, differing conversations occurring simultaneously, relying on the ability of the human brain to deal with text much better than speech.
(Allen, n.d)
While technological advances have made it easier than ever to conduct online conversations with the aid of web cams and microphones, the large majority of Internet users still prefer to converse through the trusty old keyboard. While there are definitely some advantages to video conferencing, such as being able to see and hear the other person, it also requires a lot of bandwidth and can be quite costly.
“But there are great advantages to the text based approach. The bandwidth requirements are low, much lower than sending audio or video. The hardware requirements are low too: any computer or PDA has a means of entering and displaying text whereas not every machine has sound/video capabilities. And finally, there is a vast experience dealing with text with efficient and well known ways of archiving and searching huge amounts of it.”
(Roddy & Eppelman-Wang, 1998)
Quasi synchronous text based real time chat, or Instant Messaging, allows the user to multi task while still holding the other person’s attention. With video conferencing, one must dedicate their full attention to the other person in much the same way one would in a real life conversation. In most cases it would be deemed rude to perform other tasks or talk to other people while someone is talking directly to you. That is not a problem with text based chat, and it also allows one to be more deliberate with what you say and the manner in which the conversation takes place.
"Participants are able to manage multiple threads because of the quasi-synchronous nature of text chat. That is, unlike face-to-face conversations where comments follow one another with minimal or no pauses, in text chat only the completed comment is entered, thus there are gaps while participants type. In addition, rather than listening, which is a continuous process, the typed comments are persistent and so can be read relatively at will." (O'Neill & Martin, 2003)
Personally, when chatting to friends on Messenger, I tend to write and re-write a lot of my sentences before pressing SEND. Sometimes the first thing to pop into your mind is not the necessarily the best thing to say, so text based real time chat allows you to prevent any embarrassing or hurtful situations.
The way you put yourself across can also be altered by text chat. Unlike, video chat, your appearance is only known to you, so it gives you the freedom to stretch the boundaries of the truth. One drawback to this is the fact that this false identity caper is often used by sexual predators in order to entice future victims.
Text based chat also allows the other person to clearly follow what you are trying to say, and although tone of voice can never be fully conveyed on a simple text line, the use of emoticons, caps lock and fonts makes it easier to convey your feelings across.
Also, due to the fact that the Internet is global, text chat allows people who may not speak the same language to interact more efficiently as reading text is much easier than oral comprehension. The fact that you can also look back through your chat history means that text messaging is better for recollection of old conversations as opposed to having to rely on one’s memory.
WEBSITES
E-mail, Online Chat and Text Messaging Acronyms
ttp://www.sharpened.net/glossary/acronyms.php
LOL? ROFL? RTFM? There are a lot of different acronyms used during online text chatting, almost turning into a language of its own. This website is fantastic for those who are not very experienced at online text chatting as it gives a comprehensive list of acronyms most commonly used during conversation. I have to admit, I consider myself a quite experienced hand when it comes to online chatting but there are some acronyms here that I've never heard of before. EnlighteningChat Rooms -Online International Chat Rooms
http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/TextChat.asp
One of the things I love most about the Internet is its ability to unite people regardless of geagraphical location, race or religious beliefs. This web site is designed to be used as a language learning forum, in which you can converse with people all over the world in various languages and practice with native speakers. There are also lesson plans and allows you to save your chat session so you can revise the text at a later time.
CONCEPT 33 – INFORMATION AND ATTENTION
In the era of the ‘attention economy’, readers and users of Internet information must be carefully craft, in their own minds, the kind of metadata which will – almost instinctively – ‘fit’ with the metadata of the information sources they want, so that – in the few brief moments of initial exchange, when a seeker of information encounters information being sought, rapid, effective judgments are made that ‘pay off’ in terms of further reading, accessing and saving.
(Allen, n.d)
Due to the explosion of information available on the world wide web, it has become more important than ever to create web sites that are able to engage the reader in a quick and efficient manner. There is simply way too much data available on the Internet for one person to fully process and revise everything out there. This has created an attention economy in which web site developers and advertisers treat human attention as a commodity, with an emphasis on trying to deliver the information the web user requires as early and easily as possible, otherwise, if the user does not find his desired information within seconds of opening and scanning the page, he will more than likely move on to a different website.
A good website should be able to not only lure web surfers but also keep them interested and coming back for more. While the graphic design of the web page is considered an important aspect due to its ability to quickly gain a user’s attention, ultimately it comes down to the strength of the content and its relevance to the user’s desired information that plays the most pivotal role. There are some very simple websites out there that are extremely popular such as http://craiglist.org/ whose design has barely changed since its inception but remains amazingly popular as an online classifieds source for over 50 countries.
Due to the overwhelming amount of relevant data now available to someone through a simple web search, the search results are rarely precise so there are many instances in which the first link clicked is not in fact considered worthwhile to the user, and has led to browsing patterns that consist mainly of clicking on a page, scanning it, and quickly clicking the BACK button to try again. While this may lead to a large number of visitors to a certain page, the amount of hits is irrelevant if the user does not spend any significant amount of time actually browsing the page and in turn absorbing some of the advertisements present on said site. This has become known as Stickiness, and is now a major factor in e-commerce, as advertisers are shifting away from the old adage that the more hits a website gets the more lucrative it is as an advertising platform and instead have started to analyse different aspects such of web site development that may influence potential customers such as integrating design concepts with certain products.
Davenport & Beck (2001) cite three common parameters that are used to measure stickiness and these are (1) the total amount of time spent on a site, (2) the number of visits per person and (3) the number of pages viewed per person. While these figures may be able to give a better understanding of consumer habits, ultimately the best way to ensure that a website is successful is to ensure that it is relevant, engaging, has a community aspect to it such as message boards that further engage the reader and is convenient to all involved.
WEBSITES
The Attention Economy: An Overview
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/attention_economy_overview.php
This is a great, informative article by Alex Iskold which explains the main points and concepts of the Attention economy theory. It makes great use of charts and graphs to show the reader how the explosion of blogging and other types of online information has created an information overload age. He also goes into great detail explaining concepts such as Attention Trust, the Technology of attention and the challenges that lay ahead to ensure that this future marketplace is healthy. The article also contains some very useful and relevant references and links so one can familiarise his self with the topic further.
Browsing Through the News: Determining Predictors of Linear Behaviour on an Online News Site.
http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p191625_index.html
This is an excellent article which attempts to determine the individual factors that play a role in browsing behaviours. It is extremely thorough and cites a large number of previous studies. The difference between linear media such as film, televison and print which encourage the user to develop a sequential thought process and the internet is touched upon, as the internet is a non linear form of media that through the use of hyperlinks allows continous access to several pieces of information at once. It is quite a lenghty article but nonetheless there is a lot of very informative content in there that will definitely help someone learn more about the changing user browsing patterns over time.
REFERENCES
Allen, M. (n.d.). Internet Communications Concepts Document,
NET11 The Internet - Communications, Curtin University of Technology. http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_14736_1%26url%3d
Davenport, T.H. & Beck J.C. (2001) The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business. Harvard Business School Press
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=FuuKd3on9psC&oi=fnd&pg=PA35&dq=internet+attention+economy+theory&ots=RI-LBz4-Wu&sig=yIX3-tboESfBAuxGjkbdP5flcb8#PPP1,M1
Mongue, P.R. & Contractor, N.S. (2003) Theories of Communication Networks. Oxford University Press, USA.
http://books.google.com/books?id=5z3oPq8M5NwC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=instant+messaging+theories&source=bl&ots=H1bmsiqVlS&sig=9vMcOE9ahCFlpRUAEvHZuRSKdis&hl=en&ei=-90WSoXaG8-HkQXji6H8DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5#PPA9,M1
O’Neill, J. & Martin, D. (2003) Text Chat in Action. ACM New York, USA.
http://doi.acm.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/10.1145/958160.958167
Price, M.E., & Verhulst, S.G. (2005). Self Regulation and the Internet. Kluwer Law International.
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ssIvjfunkO8C&oi=fnd&pg=PP8&dq=netiquette+self+regulation&ots=7N6yAo3Onw&sig=B_qcpbKbIrayc9VlX9xrQqShT9Q#PPA12,M1
Rittenberg, J. L. and Tewksbury, D. , 2007-11-15 "Browsing Through the News: Determining Predictors of Linear Behavior on an Online News Site" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the NCA 93rd Annual Convention, TBA, Chicago, IL Online
Roddy, B.J. & Epelman-Wang, H. (1998) Interface Issues in Text Based Chat Rooms. ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, Vol 30 Issue 2. New York, USA.
http://delivery.acm.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/10.1145/280000/279172/p119-roddy.pdf?key1=279172&key2=9539003421&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=15605080&CFTOKEN=55032916
Shea, V. (1994). Netiquette . Retrieved May 22, 2009, from
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/index.html
The Attention Economy: An Overview http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/attention_economy_overview.php
The Internet Engineering Taskforce’s Netiquette Guideline
http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html
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