Tutorial 5:

Tutorial 5:User-Generated Content

on the Internet

• Session 5.1– Understand push and pull communication– Learn about Web 2.0– Examine email-based communication– Understand Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds– Explore the technology used in podcasting– Use a mashup site

New Perspectives on the Internet, 9th Edition 2

Objectives

Objectives

• Session 5.2– Explore different methods of chat communication– Examine online social and business networks– Learn about photo- and video-sharing sites– Learn about blogs and microblogs– Explore ways to protect your online privacy,

identity, and reputation


Session 5.1 OverviewPull Technologies


New Perspectives on the Internet, 9th Edition

Push and Pull Communications

• Some communication methods use push technology to send content to users who request it– Chat– Instant messaging– Online social networks– Photo- and video-sharing sites– Blogs

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Push and Pull Communications

• Pull technology has subscribers “pull” content to their computers when they want it– Mailing lists– Newsgroups– Feeds– Podcasts– Mashups

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Web 2.0• Web 2.0 is a term coined to describe the changed Internet

in which users interact with content– Creates users who actively participate in writing the

content that they are viewing—hence the term “user-generated content”

– Users interact with content and are given new and easy ways to create it

– Term indicates a change in the way people use the Web• A virtual community, called an online social network,

provides a way for people to discuss issues and share information using the Internet or cellular networks



Email-Based Communication• A popular way of sharing information is to join, or

subscribe to a mailing list• Mailing lists:

– Use a list server to send subscribers messages from other list members

– Might be moderated, in which case an individual or group called the list moderator monitors messages sent to the list and discards inappropriate content; this type of list is called a moderated list

– If it has a list administrator who oversees the list’s members, the list is called a closed list

– If anyone can subscribe to a mailing list, it is called an open list8


Email-Based Communication• The Usenet News Service, or Usenet, was founded in 1979 at

Duke University as a way of collecting information and storing it by topic category– One of the first large, distributed information databases in the world– Originally devoted to transmitting computing news and facilitating

discussions among employees of university computing departments on topics such as operating systems and programming languages

– Topic categories on Usenet originally were called newsgroups or forums; now called Internet discussion group

• A distributed database is stored in multiple physical locations, with portions of the database replicated in different locations

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Email-Based Communication

• Newsgroups:– Are similar to mailing lists in that they accept messages from

users and make them generally available to other users– Do not use a list server to forward copies of submitted

messages to subscribers– Stores items on a server as articles or postings

• The server that stores a newsgroup is called a news server

• The collection of news servers connected to the Internet make up Usenet

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Email-Based Communication• When Usenet News Service began, the only way to read or post

articles to newsgroups was to install and run a software program called a newsreader

• Now, you can easily search and read newsgroup articles by using a Web site that archives articles



Getting Information from RSS Feeds

• Usenet is an example of a feed (also commonly called a newsfeed or a Web feed) that uses pull technology to deliver changing content to users; content might be from:– A blog– A Web site– A news organization

• The format that is used to syndicate (distribute) published content from one site to another is called RSS, an acronym for Really Simple Syndication; another format is Atom

• Feeds are similar to newsgroups in that they let you subscribe to content that you want to receive on your device

• Feeds differ from newsgroups because of the way that content is delivered to subscribers:– Newsgroup postings are delivered via email messages– Feeds are delivered through a program that includes a summary and a link to the

published or actual content 12

Getting Information from RSS Feeds

• Feeds are used by organizations and individuals that create and maintain blogs, and on social networking sites as a way to publish content and alert subscribers to changes in the content

• To receive feed content, you can install an aggregator on your device• Most Web browsers, email programs, and social networking sites have built-in

aggregators that let you subscribe to, view, and remove feeds



Podcasting• Podcasting lets a user

subscribe to an audio or video feed, then listen to it or watch it at the user’s convenience on a compatible device

• The software to subscribe to a podcast is called a podcatcher; it manages the schedule for downloading files to your device

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Mashups• A software program uses an application programming

interface (API) to communicate with an operating system or some other program– Written with a specific goal in mind– Reduce the amount of coding for third-party software

programs– A company writes an API and makes it available to any

developer who wants to use it—usually for free• The term Web services describes the process of

organizations communicating through a network to share data without needing extensive knowledge of each other’s systems

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Mashups• In a mashup, a

developer combines the services from two (or more) different sites using the APIs to create a completely new site that uses features from each site

• Generally, customized advertising generates revenue for a mashup site

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Session 5.2 OverviewPush Technologies



Internet Chat Communication• Originally, chat described the act of exchanging typed

messages, or a text chat• Early networks included many computers that ran a program

called Talk that allowed users to exchange short text messages• In 1988, Jarkko Oikarinen wrote a program that extended the

capabilities of Talk; he called his multiuser program Internet Relay Chat (IRC)– By 1991, IRC was running on more than 100 servers throughout the

world– IRC became popular among scientists and academicians for

conducting informal discussions about experiments and theories with colleagues at other universities and institutes

– IRC is still widely used today around the world18

Internet Chat Communication• In the 1990s, people used their Web browsers to visit a

virtual chat room, where they could send text-only messages to other users in the room or just read the messages without contributing to the discussion (lurking)

• Today, chats can involve exchanging pictures, videos, sounds, data, and programs

• In voice chat, participants speak to each other in real time

• In video chat, participants can see and speak to each other



Internet Chat Communication• Instant messaging (IM) software lets users chat in real time

using an Internet-connected device• The first instant messaging program, ICQ (pronounced “I seek

you”), started in 1996 and still has millions of worldwide users• There are many instant messaging software products available:

– America Online (AOL) created its own instant messaging software called AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)

– Microsoft created MSN Messenger (called Windows Live Messenger in Windows Vista and Windows 7)

– Yahoo! Created Yahoo! Messenger– Other portals and software vendors released their own products

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Internet Chat Communication• IM is now widely available, with built-in support on many

social networking sites and other types of Web sites, and for many types of devices including computers and cell phones

• A text message is another type of instant message which occurs over a cellular network between users who are connected to the network using cell phones or other mobile devices– Uses different technology than instant messaging, but its

communication is very similar– Lets users send and receive very short messages (usually 140

characters or less) in real time

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Internet Chat Communication• Voice Over Internet Protocol

– Some instant messaging programs include support for voice communications

– Another option for voice calls is VoIP, which is an acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol

– A cost-effective alternative to the traditional “landline” telephone service

– VoIP providers rely on the Internet as their network– VoIP eliminates monthly service fees and taxes and usually includes

long-distance and international calling for free or for a nominal charge– Most VoIP providers include calling features that you expect from

landlines, such as caller ID, call forwarding, call waiting, and voice mail services

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Internet Chat Communications

• Voice Over Internet Protocol (continued)– VoIP is a way to reduce

costs by routing conversations over existing Internet networks while at the same time providing other business services

– The primary disadvantage of VoIP is its limitations in identifying a caller’s physical location for 911 operators



Online Social Networks

• Social networks connect people with specific common interests

• Craigslist was an early online social network• Connecting with Friends

– An early pioneer of Web 2.0 was Friendster, launched in 2003– Facebook began in 2004 as a closed network for college

students; now open to anyone 13 and older with an email address

– Many social networks operate in niche markets– By building up a set of connections, members can develop

contacts within a community

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Online Social Networks

• Advertising Revenues from Social Networks– Most social networking sites rely heavily on

advertising to generate the revenue they need to operate

– Many corporations now use social networks as a way of connecting with consumers by:

• Harvesting data in user profiles and displaying relevant advertising

• Garnering product feedback• Offering coupons and other incentives for purchasing their

products and services

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Online Social Networks• Advertising Revenues from

Social Networks (cont.)– Facebook is a

particularly attractive site because of its large number of active users

– The largest social network in the world, Facebook has become an essential communication tool for individuals and a valuable marketing tool for corporations



Online Business Networks

• Users of online business networks are looking for specific business solutions – A company recruiting employees with specific

skills– A vendor hoping to place its product in a

particular retail outlet– An organization searching for a consultant who

can provide assistance on a specific topic

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Online Business Networks• Examples:

– LinkedIn – social network started in 2003 for business professionals; has more than 135 million individual members

– Sermo – a site restricted to credentialed U.S. physicians that has more than 120,000 members

– Ryze – a business network site; stands for “rise up” (has 500,000 members)


Sharing Pictures on the Web• Existing photo-processing services began allowing consumers

to upload their digital images to a Web site, print photographs, and purchase items sold by the site imprinted with those images

• New sites (called photo-sharing sites) started offering these same services plus enhanced tools that made it easy for users to upload pictures and create more complex items– Shutterfly and Snapfish let users upload pictures and print

them in different ways, and share them with other users– Flickr lets users tag images by category or person and

share these photos as part of the Flickr social network or with other social networks



Sharing Videos on the Web• Similar to photo-sharing sites, a video-sharing site lets users

post video content– Might be short clips shot with a cell phone– Professionally produced movie trailers, news segments, or

interviews• YouTube was an early (2005) and hugely successful video

sharing site; now the primary place where people post and watch video content on the Web

• YouTube now has strategic partnerships with many major television and cable networks and music labels to broadcast their content

• YouTube relies heavily on display ad placement, brand channels, and contests to generate revenue 30


Blogs

• A blog is a Web site that is published to express the blogger’s opinions about a particular topic

• Some blogs function much like news organizations by disseminating information about a specific story or from a specific organization

• A blog might contain only text and comments, but it usually includes photographs, links, videos, and other content, and lets readers integrate the blog content they are viewing into their own social network

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Blogs• Many blogs are published using free blogging tools available

from sites such as Blogger, WordPress, and Windows Live Writer

• Blogging tools often include:– Templates that format the blog’s content and provide the

blog’s overall design– Create a form to post comments– Create a widget of tools to post the content on other

sites– Provide code snippets to create hyperlinks and embed

photos in the postings



Microblogs• A microblog is a form of blogging that sends short

messages – usually 140 characters or less – on a very frequent schedule

• Microblog postings are sometimes called tweets • The act of microblogging is sometimes called tweeting• A follower is a person who is receiving microblog updates• Many microbloggers use the same text message

acronyms that you find in instant messages• Users include user-defined keywords called hashtags to

create topical categories that link to other messages with the same hashtags

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Protecting Your Privacy and Identity on Social Networks

• Considerations include:– Many people have the same name– Falsified ages– Cyberbullying, or using Internet communication to

harass, threaten, or intimidate someone– By making your information public, you put

yourself at risk

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Protecting Your Reputation• Although postings can be

deleted, information is archived• Schools monitor online sites• Your online profile can be

accessed by people in positions of authority

• False information can be posted about people

• There are companies that specializes in online reputation management

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Documents

Tutorial 5: