For webskills, I had to make a video using windows media player about myself. A certain hobby, something personal in my life, my favorite country, etc.
I chose to make a video about my backpacking trip around Australia. I started in Sydney, and travelled down south to Melbourne and did the Great Ocean Road. After that, I went back up north and travelled the whole East Coast. I did this from February 5th till May 15th this year. I decided to make this the topic of my video because it has been the most memorable experience of my life. I think the pictures I took give out a certain feeling, especially with the music that goes along with it.
I decided to keep the video very simple. I picked one song for the entire video, only used pictures, had the same color and font headings for each part of the video, and didn’t use too many video-transitions. I did this because I wanted the theme of the video to really come across, and for people not to be distracted from this theme by all the other things going on.
I hope you will enjoy the video and get a feeling of the experience.
My previous article was about connectivity, in particular social networking websites such as myspace. In this article I will focus on a website called twitter, which is also in fact a social networking site. The key difference though, is that most social networking sites require the use of a PC whereas twitter functions mainly through the use of a mobile phone.
Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows people to send messages, limited to 140 characters, via sms, instant messaging, or email to the twitter website. Updates are sent for example by sms, and are then displayed on the user’s profile page. The messages are also instantly delivered to all the users who have requested to receive them. “Twitter was founded in March 2006 by San Francisco start-up company Obvious Corp.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter).
All different sorts of messages can be found on twitter. For example, looking at the website at 12:04 on Sunday September 16 2007, the second message from the top warns users for a virus. Most of the messages however, are silly updates on what someone is doing at the moment, such as someone writing that they have just taken a shower.
In the video added at the bottom of the article, CBS has done a short report on twitter, how it works, and whether it is an interesting addition to the loads of social networking websites that already exist.
In my honest opinion, which is obviously also shared by the lady in the video, twitter is completely useless and pretty lame. I don’t understand why people are interested to know what someone is doing every single moment of the day, or why people would take the effort to send a text message or email to let people know what they are doing. I wonder if modern technology has allowed people to go a bit too far.
However, I do think that it is amazing what can be done in the area of mobility. Modern technology never stops renewing itself and is always being challenged to produce newer and better things. It makes me curious to see what new things will be formed in five or ten years.
In the past few years, there has been an explosion of connectivity websites on the internet. By connectivity, I mean social networking. Some examples of these websites are facebook, myspace and hyves.
These websites are created for people to interact with one another, build a social network and come in contact with people who have certain interests or qualities in common. Often, these websites have directories with which they can come in contact with people they know or have known. An example is finding old classmates when searching through the directory of your old school. When having found for example an old classmate, you can request to become their friend. When you have become someone’s “friend”, you can not only see their profile but also who their friends are. You can request to become their friend’s friend, and in return see who their friend’s friend’s friends are. You’re social network can become huge.
These websites often become a part of people’s daily routines. Checking if their “friends” left any messages for them and leaving them messages in return. Updating their status, moods, pictures, blog, etc. Instead of checking their email first thing in the morning, it becomes more normal to check their myspace for new messages.
Myspace is probably the biggest connectivity website that exists to date. It was created in August 2003, and was a new initiative of the internet company eUniverse, which is now called Intermix. “It is currently the world’s sixth most popular English-language website and the sixth most popular website in any language, and the third most popular website in the United States, though it has topped the chart on various weeks.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace). The website reportedly has a rate of 230,000 per day. In September 2007, myspace has over 200 million accounts.
It is amazing how easy it is for different people all over the world to connect with each other. Websites such as myspace, facebook and hyves have certainly made it easier to do so. In the past couple of years the popularity of these social networking websites has grown hugely and they will probably continue to do so.
