Tutorial Blog 3: The Social Web - The World Wide Web in the 21st Century

Hello everybody,

Picture 1: Social web (Source: www.squidoo.com)

Welcome to my third tutorial blog. Today I will talk about the world wide web in the 21st century as it has tremendously changed the way people communicate with each other. The term social web describes online tools that help people communicate nowadays and is one part of the concept of web 2.0 which sees the end user of web content not only as the user but also as a participant. So in essence, social web describes the way people interact with each other by creating a new universe of web content - the social web.

One important part of social web is social networking. Social networking sites are numerous and the most well-known and popular for personal use and to connect with friends are Facebook, MySpace and Twitter and for building business networks linkedin. There are also other networking applications like chat programs such as Skype and Windows Live Messenger. These networks build a social structure in which people are connected due to some kind of interdependency like friendship, common interests, knowledge or beliefs. Via these networks, people exchange their own created contents like commentaries, photo albums, videos, blogs and so on. The following website and video gives some more information on the topic.

Squidoo - What is Social Networking?

Another popular part of the social web is blogging. This is actually what I am doing right now. I am creating my tutorial blog 3 and you are reading it. Blogs are websites maintained by an individual or a group who post regular commentaries or descriptions of events. This blog is also interactive in a way that you can add comments to it. Blogs are also usually about a specific subject. Many people document their experiences that they have on trips or write about another topic on a regular basis. The following video will give you deeper insight into blogging.

Another interesting topic in the social web is the so-called podcasting. This word actually replaced the initial name of webcasting due to the popularity of Apple's iPod and the use of that format on this device. A podcast is a series of digital media files, audio or video, that are released episodically and then downloaded by users using a so-called podcatcher, a program that downloads podcasts and checks them for updates. ITunes for example is a popular podcatcher and I frequently use it for downloading podcasts. The lectures of my Computing in the Business Environment course and other courses at the University of Florida are also offered in the form of podcasts. It is a very useful technology and most contents are free for everyone. If you plan on learning Chinese for example, you can download free Chinese language podcasts and start today! The following video will give you some more insights into the world of podcasting.

There are numerous other parts of the social web such as forums and social bookmarking and so on. The web is more and more becoming a place that is not only created for end users, but by end users. I spend approximately half of my time on the web by creating content. I am active in a number of social networks and right now, I am blogging. I even manage some contacts to people that I almost never see in person over the web. Without this possibility I would most probably have lost these contacts eventually. As you can see, I am a fan of the social web and web 2.0. I think it is highly valuable as long as you do not let it become a replacement for your real life. Social networking via the internet can also be dangerous. A proof of that is a computer game called World of Warcraft. It is half game half social network. People there build personal avatars with which they walk through a simulated world and can interact and even talk to other people's avatars with their computer's microphone. Some people get so addicted to this game that they spend all their time in this virtual world just to eventually lose their contacts in the real world. These people are more the exception though and it should just give you an example of the dangers of social networking via the internet. 

I hope you have enjoyed my blog and will come back soon!

Best,

Funky Fred

Sources:

http://www.squidoo.com/whatissocialnetowrking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
http://www.youtube.com

Database Project - Microsoft Access

Hello everybody,

Today I am going to tell you about my database project experience. This week I had to optimize a database for a gym. First of all I had to import the data of the gym's members from a text file into Access. 

Picture 1: Importing text in Microsoft Access

On this picture you see how it looks like when you import text. Fortunately, the text was already formatted with delimiters, characters in a text file that separate fields, for example a comma or a semicolon. So it was easy to import the text and Access already recognized the correct record and field sizes and data types. A really useful function of Access.

The next step in the project was to build a query that only returns those members of the gym with individual membership types and have left the gym within the last six months. 

Picture 2: Creating a query in Microsoft Access

 Building a query is also very intuitive and lets you easily display only desired parts of a database without having to sort it all out by yourself. Imagine the work you would have to do if it is a huge database. So again this part of the project taught me a valuable lesson.

The next two steps were creating a form and a report. Pictures 3 and 4 show how that looks like.

Picture 3: Creating a form in Microsoft Access

Picture 4: Creating a report in Microsoft Access

A form is a good way to display a database to users. It is in essence a nice user interface and lets you determine which fields can be changed and which ones are read only for example. Furthermore you can omit certain fields. Users can e.g. easily add new members to the database using a form.

The report is an illustrative tool. Using this function, one can quickly make a printout of the database, sorting it in a certain way and modifying its appearance.

One important issue with having huge databases is security. Especially in an example like this, a gym with a lot of customers, data security is extremely important. Penalties imposed on violators are potentially huge and the loss of reputation will most probably drive such a business out of the market. One solution to this is using a secure SQL server for data storage and MS Access only as the front end.

Her you'll find an article about Access as a front end to a SQL database.

In summary I can say that this project again taught me many useful things. Especially Access is a software within the Microsoft Office suite that I did not use for a long time. It is very important to have the basic skills in Access because most employers will demand that from their future employees. So, thanks Computing in the Business Environment course for teaching me something useful again!

Thanks for reading!

Best,


Funky Fred

Sources:

All images are screen captures from my computer.

Creating an Avatar

Hello everybody,

Today I'm going to tell you about my experience of creating an avatar with doppelme.com. Using this website you can create your own, very simple first avatar within only a couple of minutes. Just click on create, choose a gender and skin color and then make some modifications to the appearance of your avatar. You can choose from many looks. You can change your:

• facial expressions
• hair
• eyewear
• hats
• tops
• bottoms
• shoes
• extras
• accessories
• background of your avatar image.

In the end my avatar looked like this:

Picture: My first Avatar (created with doppelme.com)

As you can see, I was able to create a funny looking avatar that I can use as my profile picture in any social media in only just a few minutes. You should try it too. Go on doppelme.com and give it a try!

Thanks for reading!

Best,

Funky Fred

Presentation Project

Hello everybody,

Today I would like to talk to you about the presentation project of the course Computing in the Business Environment. This project was really fun and challenging at the same time because I have never done a complete presentation on my computer without speaking to an audience. The challenge about it was also to find a good topic and make it catchy and interesting. As we have learned, we have only 30-60 seconds to catch the attention of the audience. This is why I have chosen a topic especially interesting (hopefully) to Americans. In my presentation, I encourage Americans to support WWF in urging senators to pass the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act of 2010. Since Alaska will be the future center of oil production in the US, this act will help to ensure that catastrophes as the Deep Water Horizon oil spill of 2010 will not happen again. Alaska is an especially dangerous place for oil drilling because of its remoteness and its unpredictable and extreme weather conditions. The act will set appropriate and binding safety standards for oil companies. Furthermore, I encourage environmentally conscious behavior in my presentation. Here it is:

Video: My presentation

I have learned a lot while creating this presentation. To make a video with audio of my presentation, I had to use a new program called Camtasia Studio 7. Picture 1 shows a screen capture of the loading screen of Camtasia Studio 7.

 

Picture 1: Capture of Camtasia Studio 7 loading screen

This program comes with an add-in for PowerPoint that lets you record a video of your presentation with audio and/or web cam capture while presenting. Fortunately, a free 30 day trial of the software is freely available on the web. After you have recorded your presentation you can also work on it, cut parts out, add parts, include music and much more. A very useful program after you have played around with it for a while and have found out how to use it. See picture 2 for a screen capture of the working environment of Camtasia Studio 7:

 Picture 2: The working environment of Camtasia Studio 7

I can see many opportunities for its application in business settings. Distributing presentations in high quality online is no issue at all with this program. You can even let the program post the video for you on websites. It could for example be used to share presentations with peers via email or the company intranet for instance. If you are a superior traveling around a lot, it is a good way to communicate important new issues to your peers without being physically present.

Concerning my self-evaluation I have to say that I of course tried to pay attention to the points mentioned in the Presentation Evaluation Rubric. Even though I have no agenda, I think my presentation has a logical flow and is easy to follow. I actually consciously avoided using an agenda because we learned in the presentation skills week that you should jump right in. I also tried to answer any question that might arise right away like how can you support WWF and why should you try to fight global warming, if you don't believe in it. In hindsight I have to say though that after evaluating another presentation, it might have been appropriate to give some more general information about WWF. I assumed everybody is more or less familiar with it. I don't think that it is a big issue though because anyone who is interested can go on their website and inform him/herself.

A great deal of my effort went into grabbing the viewers attention in the beginning. I tried to establish an emotional connection with the audience by playing a very emotional song, Michael Jackson - Earth Song, and by showing pictures that viewers can relate to. In the course of the presentation I tried to spark curiosity to the topic by posing questions like "have you ever experienced outcomes of global warming?" and then giving examples of national and international scope. I validated my claims by putting the source under them. Overall I tried to consider all the evaluation points.

When evaluating the presentation of a peer, I recognized that he did a presentation as I would have done it in front of an audience. It was a regular PowerPoint presentation of the kind I have seen a lot in my tutorials in Maastricht. I think he did a good job. He had an agenda in the beginning and did not grab my attention in a special way but that was my only point for improvement. The other points in the evaluation form were all addressed in a good way. He had a clear structure, sparked curiosity with questions and answered my questions that arose during the presentation proactively. He used a good video in between and I thought it matched the content very well. Overall he did a very different presentation than I did. His was more fact based while I tried to do a very emotionally catchy presentation. I learned that it can also be done like this. 

In summary I can say that this project was very interesting, demanding and really taught me some new things like all the prior sessions in this course did. I hope that you liked my presentation and that I might have inspired you to support WWF and help fight global warming. Have a great weekend and I hope that you will come back to my blog soon.

Sources:

Please read my source document for information about the sources I used.


Please go to the WWF homepage to get more information about WWF and to support them.