The danger of putting information on the web

A Sydney Telco employee was caught faking illness for his absence from work when his employer was able to access and see Kyle Doyle's facebook status update of "Kyle is not going to work, f--k it im stll trashed, SICKIE WOO!" While this is quite an idiotic move on the part of the now unemployed Kyle, it incites the issue of how much information one should release into the public sector on the internet. As our guest lecturer was saying the other day, information once put on the web is public and can ultimately be never made private again. For more information the story can be viewed here.

Its scary that people like this still exist in this country..

Become a reporter... in 15 minutes?!

The news university provides a 'be a reporter' game which teaches the basics of reporting in only 15 minutes.

Just ask Arnold!

The White House seat will be occupied by the man with the biggest celebrity status and appeal, says USAToday.

Should this be the general rule of thumb?

Youtube's launches a program which offers users the chance of hearing their comments said back to them.

twitter world

Surprisingly twittering is easier said than done. It works well on the web because we have links that can elaborate on the twitter.

The kind of beast you want

The “Daily Beast” website is the most enthralling read on the web. It is like that friend who sorts through the good stories and fills you in.

Web expert Jakob Nielsen responded to the question of "how users read on the web?" by stating bluntly "They' don't." Online readers of news scan only. This can be accounted for by a few reasons. Firstly, the clarity and resolution of a screen is not as high as print media and users generally read 25% slower on screen than on print paper. Also, the computer age has gone hand in hand with an acceleration in how busy the lives are of the average person. To counter this, online news is generally divided into headings and subheadings to allow the users to quickly identify and select a certain portion of the story.

The effects of all this? Naturally this change in the scope of how the majority of us consume news had created what i'll call the 'self-prescribed expert'. What is happening now is that in general people are exposed to more news stories in a more immediate time frame. However this scanning aspect which was touched upon above has meant that users are simply taking in a plain account of events rather than reading through what would be in print, more lengthy analysis. Hence we are all becoming experts on an event that we may know little about, without reading the opinion and arguments of actual experts. Admittedly this can be both a good and bad thing for society.

Its good because people in general are more knowledgeable, but it tends to be only surface deep. User comments and blogs have allowed the amateur and inexperienced to voice opinions online that often have no substance. It seems that this phenomenon spills over into conversation now also.

a good use of multimedia

The website i have been following, , has a great example of a good use of multimedia. The article is on the new underwater "Atlantis" hotel in Dubai. The article is presented on the front page with just a thumbnail and a caption underneath. By clicking on the headline, the user can go to the whole story ( which includes a photo board and images), or the user can click on the thumbnail and this links to just the photo gallery with commentary. From this point the user can choose the whole experience, by clicking 'autoplay' or the user can select the specific thumbnails the are interested in.

Initially i just read the text, and i was pleased to see there was the multimedia attachments because it is the kind of story which perfectly suits additional components. The story is only important because this hotel has a 'new look' that other hotels have no had in the past. So obviously, the visual presentation of this new look hotel is key to the story.

Instances like this demonstrate when multimedia online is so much more effective and a 'whole package' then that of print media.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/photogallery/travel/dubais-incredible-atlantis-hotel/2008/09/30/1222651066716.html

follow up on pc ad

This may be a case of being ruthless in evaluating the information you are given, because after revising the articles carefully i concede that there is no definitive proof, rather there are accusations.

But, decide for yourselves, here are a few links..

http://www.smh.com.au/news/digital-life/laptops/articles/im-a-pc-made-on-a-mac/2008/09/24/1222216094448.html

http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20080919/hi-im-a-pc-and-i-was-made-on-a-mac/

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/19/microsofts-im-a-pc-a.html