Education

The information age has had a huge impact on education. Due to the advancements in technology the traditional methods of teaching have been significantly altered and many classes are now filled with a variety of different educational electrical devices. Whilst this is seen by many to be a fantastic change in how humans are schooled, others would disagree and claim it to be negative influence. It is now common for schools to own computers, laptops or tablets and teach ‘IT’, meaning information technology (the study and teaching of computing skills such as spreadsheets and databases); as well as making use of various other technological devices and practises.

Registration -

Traditionally, student attendance was kept track of using pen and paper. This method was highly inconvenient as it wasted paper and made it difficult for staff members to find old incidents of absences. Nowadays many schools use electronic registration software such as SIMS, with which teachers can log which students are present and easily use search functions to access a huge database of attendance data. Software such as this can tell users exactly how many times pupils have been absent that year, how many time this was with or without permission, and may be used to store various other data such contact information, exam marks, allergies and more.

Electronic Whiteboards -

Electronic whiteboards allow teachers to make use of the internet, video, games and the various other functions of computers. These tools grant them the ability to provide a unique blend of visual, audio and interactive materials for their students in order to aid their learning. Some websites which offer these include Youtube (a popular social video sharing service: www.youtube.com), BBC Bitesize (a website created by the BBC to help students with their education via audio, video and interactive games such as quizzes: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize) and Socrative (‘a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms though a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops and tablets’: www.socrative.com).

ICT (Subject) -

Due to the increasing need for computing knowledge in the workplace, many schools have introduced ICT (meaning Information and Communication Technologies) as a subject (in many cases it has been made compulsory for students up until GCSE level, where they can choose to drop it or stay on and work for a higher qualification). The course teaches students the basics such as Microsoft Office Usage, Database and Spreadsheet skills and other basics such as video editing and simple photo manipulation. As the students’ progress, they are taught harder and more complex skills such as animation, website design and coding.

Tablets -

The rise of popularity in touch tablets such as the iPad and Google Nexus has triggered a response from education, with an increasing amount schools opting for tablets over PCs. A major reason for this being so, is that tablets are considerably cheaper than laptops and desk computers; as well as offering a convenient solution to students carrying bags full of books to school (devices such as the amazon kindle offer thousands of book downloads at cheap prices). However, I personally believe that schools should stick with desktop computers and laptop because they are easier to use for working on and offer a far broader range of programmes (such as Microsoft Powerpoint, excel, Database, Adobe Flash, Video editing software, Photoshop and more).

Spelling -

Contrasting the positives, the information age is actually having a negative effect on a massive amount of youths’ spelling and grammar. The culprits of this are mobile phones and computing devices. These devices allow their users easy access to spell correcting software, which grant people an excuse to be lazy and not fully learn the spelling of their languages. Furthermore, vast quantities of people use mobile phone slang so as to lower their overall sending charges and save time. Both of these are resulting in a dumber, lazier and more illiterate younger generation of humans (traits which are sure to be passed down, resulting in a huge loss of intellect as a species and bringing about massive changes to languages).

Employment

Technology has vastly improved employment and becoming increasingly important (and often essential) to peoples jobs. It has allowed ease in communication, increased workplace productivity and a variety of new job types to appear. As it continues to advance, technology shall play a significant role in determining the future of the jobs and how we work.

Printers -

Printers are widely overlooked when it comes to improvements brought to employment in the information age, but they are one of the most significant new features available. In the past, people would have to rewrite whole documents by hand or typewriter if they needed more than one copy of their work. This made the creation of posters, leaflets, applications and other papers needing to be reproduced an extremely tedious chore. Nowadays people have the ability to produce a vast amount of copies of work with hardly any effort at all, a feature which many people take for granted.

Humans Replaced By Machinery -

Due to the massive advances in technology, machinery is starting to replace human workers in a selection of jobs highly dangerous, inaccessible or easier for machines to be doing. A prime example of this in action are military robots, these are used activities for bomb disposal (over 10,000 roadside bombs have been defused by robots in Iraq), remote controlled operations (via the use of unmanned air vehicles) and more. Moving away from saving lives and violent uses; many factories which mass produce products have significantly reduced their staff numbers so as to accommodate large automatic machines for faster and cheaper production (uses can range from food production, to car manufacturing, to model building and more). In terms of inaccessible jobs, machines uses include: space discovery via probes, mining, volcanic surveys and more.

Entertainment

In modern times online entertainment plays a major role in society. The internet provides us with a widely accessible and almost unlimited source of entertainment. The main factors of this entertainment are music, videos, art, gaming, reading and animation.

Videos -

On the internet there are huge amounts of locations in which people may view videos. Some of the more popular sites for doing so are Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/), BBC Iplayer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/) and Netflix (http://movies.netflix.com/). Netflix is a site which allows subscription paying members to view their huge collection of television programs and films via digital distribution. It currently offers over 100,000 titles and has more than 10 million subscribers. Due to this it has 2000 plus employees and a revenue of 3.2 billion dollars (source of statistics – Wikipedia). BBC Iplayer on the other hand is a free service which allows users within the UK to watch the latest episodes of TV programmes broadcast on channels owned by the BBC. Youtube (a website which was bought by Google for 1.65 billion dollars) however is unique when compared to these two services as it provides seemingly free video service with which anybody in the world may share videos on.

YouTube’s Pros:

•     Anyone anywhere can upload videos to the website for free.
•     People are able to reach large audiences with their content (the current most popular video on Youtube, ‘Gangnam Style’, has over 835 million views).
•    Is localized in 43 countries and across 60 languages.
•    Seemingly endless amounts of content (72 hours of video are uploaded to Youtube every minute).
• Popular users are able to earn money from adverts on their videos due to the partnership programme and Google AdSense.
• The content ID system prevents copyrighted audio and footage from being uploaded.
• Youtube has a thriving community of active video makers.

YouTube’s Cons:

• Users may occasionally stumble upon inappropriate material (e.g. violence, pornography, drug  use, extremely offensive language).
• Adverts may ruin the experience for some.
• Content can be stolen from the websites via the use of third-party software and websites.

A final video service which is available online is live streaming. Live streaming allows people to broadcast their video footage directly to the internet as it happens. This can be useful in cases such as sporting events and natural disasters, both of which often require almost instant publicity so as to notify members of the public about current events. Two popular live streaming websites are USTREAM (http://www.ustream.tv/new) and livestream (http://new.livestream.com/).

Gaming -

Gaming is one of the major aspects of online entertainment. The types of games available to people ranges from simple flash games (such as Angry Birds), to huge interactive multiplayer environments such as those found in World of Warcraft and Second Life, and even gambling. Focusing on one area of online gaming, the MMO (meaning ‘Massively Multiplayer Online Game’) market is hugely appealing to many. It allows users to virtually interact with people from all across the globe and perform various activities such as questing, exploration and raids. ‘World of Warcraft’ is by far one of the most successful subscription based MMORPGs (‘massively multiplayer online role playing games’) on the planet. It has been around since 2004, has experienced constant updating and currently has four expansions (‘The burning crusade’, ‘Wrath of the Lich King’, ‘Cataclysm’ and ‘Mists of pandaria’) and had over 10.2 million players at its peak. The subscription cost of the game is currently $14.99 per month which means that Blizzard (the company responsible for World Of Warcraft) would have been making over 1800 million dollars in a year. The game itself is set in the fantasy world of ‘Azeroth’ and allows its players to battle for either the ‘Alliance’ (the stereotypical ‘good’ side consisting of humans, elves, gnomes and more) or the ‘Horde’ (the ‘evil’ side consisting of the living dead, orcs, trolls and so on). Once in the game, the player will be able to freely roam the world, attempt quests, slay bosses and team up with other people who own the game. The game provides a vast amount of tricks and psychology persuades the users to continue playing and paying. These tricks include the element of reward for levelling up (new areas, items and skills will become available as they do so), the desire to discover (the land is full of secret areas and places which are hard to find, thus making the player yearn to play more) and the likelihood that a bond will be formed between other players. These bonds make it extremely hard for some people to quit playing, as they do not wish to disappoint or abandon their new friends and ‘guilds’ (basically just large groups of players which work together to make the game more enjoyable for each other).

Download Services

Download services allow people to store files from the various online services on their hard drives. These services can include audio (often MP3 or WAV format), videos (Mp4, QuickTime, WMV and more), pictures (Gif, Jpg, Png, etc), apps, software, games and more. These files are then available for users to use without the use of the internet; this can be extremely useful in situations such as airplane and bus journeys, holidays and other such events in which the user would be unable to access the internet. To add to this, many programs are simply too large and complex to supported in a browser and therefore require distribution via download.

Apps -

Nowadays many mobile phones allow users to download ‘apps’ (such as games, gadgets and more) onto their devices. The two major online marketplaces for doing so are Apple’s ‘itunes store’ (http://www.apple.com/uk/) and ‘Google Play’ (https://play.google.com/store). These downloads have proved to be extremely popular that a hugely wealthy industry has been built up around them. An example of success in the app market is the game ‘Angry Birds’. ‘Angry Birds’ is a simple game in which the user must use a catapult to fire various birds into fortresses. Despite its simplicity, the game has made over $106 million in sales and has been downloaded more than 648 million times. Indeed its popularity is so great that ‘Angry Birds’ merchandise is now sold by many major retailers (including Toys R Us, Game, HMV and more).

Music -

As a result of the popularity of smart phones, iPods and various other music playing devices there has been an enormous increase in music downloads. So much so that music industry seems to be increasingly more focused on downloads. In 2011 the amount of albums sold via download in the UK increased by a huge 24% rise on the previous year; whereas CD sales decreased by 13% (Source - BBC News, see link for more information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16382648). One of the huge advantages to downloading music is that users are often able to purchase songs without needing to own the full album; for example somebody could download ‘We Will Rock You’ by Queen by Queen without needing to ‘splash out’ on the entire album, thus saving money and adding to the overall customer satisfaction of buying music. Some popular sites for music downloads include bandcamp (http://bandcamp.com/), Soundcloud (http://soundcloud.com/dashboard), iTunes (http://www.apple.com/uk/itunes/), Napster (http://www.napster.co.uk/start), Spotify (http://www.spotify.com/) and Beatport (http://www.beatport.com/).   

Software -

It is now common for software to be distributed via download. One major company whom largely distribute their programs with downloads across the internet is Adobe (software developed by Adobe includes Photoshop, Flash, After Effects and more, website link: http://www.adobe.com/). To combat illegal downloading of their products they protect the majority of their software with serial keys (randomly generated numbers which allow user authentication). Despite this however, internet criminals are still able to obtain the software for free via the use of cracks and keygens (serial key generators).

Issues -

The major issue with download services is that some people are able to transfer copied files to others for free via programs and websites such as piratebay (http://tpb.pirateparty.org.uk/), Mediafire (http://www.mediafire.com/), BitTorrent (http://www.bittorrent.com/), Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/) and more. The vast amounts of these illegal downloads are have a large impact on a variety of industries, the main two being music and video both of whom are losing literally billions as a result of the downloads (news story giving information about piracy in the UK: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19599527). It can also be crippling to smaller businesses which rely of the successes of their products download sales.

Online Banking

Online banking allows bank account owners to transfer various amounts of money and manage their banks remotely via the use of the internet. Nowadays many of the major banking chains offer this service to their customers, this includes: Natwest (http://www.natwest.com/personal.ashx), Lloydes TSB (http://www.lloydstsb.com/), Halifax (http://www.halifax.co.uk/home/home.asp), Bank of Scotland (http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/), HSBC (http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/) and more. This advancement in technology is largely what has allowed the internet to become the thriving source of commerce it is today. It has done so by enabling the public access to the seemingly endless supply of goods and services the internet has to offer. Due to its huge success, people have speculated that in the future high street banks shall shut down and become fully replaced by online banking.

Online Transfers -

Online banking allows people to transfer money to different bank accounts via the internet. This is extremely useful as it lessens the need to visit banks in person, therefore both saving time and money (travel costs, etc) and providing them with an easier and more enjoyable banking experience. It is often relatively easy to perform online bank transfers. The data normally required tends to be credit or debit card information (card number, card holders name, etc), personal information (address, first name and surname, telephone number, etc) and bank information. Once sites have the information needed, users may proceed to transfer various amounts of money to others. Sites which allow people to perform online transfers include: Paypal (https://www.paypal.com), Lloyds TSB (http://www.lloydstsb.com/), HSBC (http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/) and more.

Direct Debit -

Direct debit is a financial transaction in which funds are taken from a person’s bank account. Typically direct debits are used for recurring payments such as gas bills and credit card payments. Before the payments can take place, the account owner must notify their bank to inform them about the direct debit. However, once set up the amount of money being paid is able to change without notifying the bank.

Smart Phones -

Today people are able to make important bank transfers via the use of their mobile phones. A variety of ‘apps’ and websites are now available to make this possible. These include:

• Barclays Pingit (http://www.barclays.co.uk/PersonalBanking/P1242603570446?WT.mc_id=301RDpingit)
• NatWest App (http://www.natwest.com/personal/online-banking/g2/mobile-phone-banking.ashx)
• Lloyds Mobile Banking (http://www.lloydstsb.com/internet_banking/mobile_banking.asp)
• And many more (see article: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2148602/Best-banking-apps-Our-verdict-Pingit-First-Direct-HSBC-Lloyds-NatWest-Santander.html)

Due to these advancements, banking is now available at any time almost anywhere (provided that it has internet connection) to anybody with a new enough phone.

Scams and Hacking -

Despite the many advantages of online banking a fairly large amount of people are unwilling to use it as a service. A major reason for this is due to the existence of scams and hacking. Scams trick users into giving away their money to the maker of the scam or various misleading websites. One of the most popular scams is the ‘Nigerian Scam’ in which a supposed wealthy foreigner (whom tends not exist) who needs assistance moving a vast amount of money from his homeland and in return with reward the person with a percentage of the fortune. The scammer will then collect the victim’s bank and credit or debit information in order to steal their money. Here is an example of one of these scams:

(Source: http://www.snopes.com/fraud/advancefee/nigeria.asp)

Another form of scam that can be found online is the selling of false items. These scams will trick the victim into believing that they are legitimately purchasing an item online, however the scammer will take their money or bank/card information (which will later be used to steal from the victims bank account) and never send them the item which they believed they were buying. Here are some links to various scam stories which have appeared in the news:

• £4,000 lost in online Puppy scam (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-18968077)
• Woman duped out of £1,000 in online cat sale scam (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-16283527)
• Fans warned about online ticket scam (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12682515)
• Christmas tree farm website revealed as scam (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-20172672)

Hacking however is far more complicated than scamming. Instead of simply tricking you into parting with valuable bank, card and other such information they will hack into and steal it from your computer or the websites which you have given your information to (e.g. PayPal, eBay or Amazon). One way they are able to do this is by placing a keylogger (a program which tracks every key that is pressed) on the victim’s computer in order to steal passwords and other such information. This is commonly done by installing a keylogging Trojan via a virus or worm. However there are vast amounts of other ways in which computer hackers can acquire people’s information. The reason why all this information is so valuable is because online banking allows funds to be easily transferred by anybody with enough information (personal details of the account owner, card details, bank information, etc). For example if somebody were to find out a person’s PayPal information (email address and password) they could transfer hundreds or thousands of pounds to various different bank accounts.

Personal use of Online Banking -

Personally the only online banking service I use at the moment is PayPal. I use because it allows simple and easy money transfers to the majority of the larger online shopping sites such as Steam (a popular gaming service by a company named Valve) and Ebay (an online auctioning website). I use it to purchase various items and receive money from the online money making services I use, so far I have never been hacked or foolish enough to be tricked by a scam.

E-Government

Definition: ‘The employment of the Internet and the world-wide-web for delivering government information and services to the citizens.’ (United Nations, 2006; AOEMA, 2005) (Quote Source: Wikipedia).

E-Government provides internet users easy access to government information, aid and forms. People are now able to complete vital government documents such as vehicle licencing, censuses, tax and more, thus allowing for a more environmentally friendly (less tree shall need to be cut down to provide the vast amounts of government documents such as censuses therefore slightly less deforestation and pollution shall occur) and widely accessible form of government.

Gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/) -

Gov.uk (a website which has replaced Directgov and Businesslink) is a website designed to provide the public with government information and services relevant to them and the areas in which they are living. The website bares the slogans ‘The new place to find government services and information’ and ‘Simple, clearer, faster’ thus indicating the apparent domination over its predecessors Directgov, Businesslink and other such sites. Its homepage directs users to various sections of the website via the use of links, these sections are as follows:

• Driving, transport and travel (Includes passports and car tax)

• Benefits (Includes tax credits and eligibility)

• Businesses and self-employed (Tools and guidance for businesses)

• Employing people (Includes pay, contracts and hiring)

• Education and learning (Includes student loans and admissions)

• Working, jobs and pensions (Includes holidays and finding a job)

• Housing and local services (Owning or renting and council services)

• Crime, justice and the law (Legal processes, courts and the police)

• Money and tax (Includes debt and Self Assessment)

• Births, deaths, marriages and care (Includes civil partnerships and Lasting Power of Attorney)

• Disabled people (Includes your rights, benefits and the Equality Act)

• Citizenship and life in the UK (Includes voting, how government works)

It is clear that this website makes full use of using the internet as a means to deploy large amounts of government information, services and more. Thus it is likely to strengthen the link between the government and the people of its country.

Police.uk (http://www.police.uk/) -

Police.uk is website created to inform English and Welsh civilians about crime in their local areas. Its homepage has a very simple layout, providing users with a search bar in which they can enter their address, postcode or place name in order to be provided with statistics about local crime found near to their location, police information and contact (local email and telephone number) and when and where the next public meeting is being held. Using this service I discovered that in September 2012, within 1 mile of my house there were 26 crimes reported which consisted of:

• 13 Anti-Social Behaviour Crimes

• 4 Burglaries

• 3 Criminal Damage And Arsons

• 2 Other Thefts

• 2 Vehicle Crimes

• 1 Violent Crime

•  1 Shoplifting

As well as this, the website provides links to external websites with information about police and crime commissioners, internet safety, fraud, preventing child abuse, domestic violence, business security, crimestoppers, neighbourhood watch, 101 (the police non-emergency number), volunteering in policing and links to individual UK police force websites. The information provided by Police.uk is extremely useful as it allows citizens to have a feel of what sort of crimes are expected to occur in their local area and may help when deciding where to buy new houses.

NHS Direct (http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/) -

The NHS is a UK based health care system (NHS stands for National Health Service). The website offers health advice, services and solutions to many of the problems. One of the most important sections on the website is ‘Check your symptoms’ which allows users to self-diagnose and establish what actions need to be taken. To make this possible it provides people with a choice of topic, A to Z and a body map with which to help find their problem, the topics are as follows:

• General Health

• Allergies

• Bleeding

• Children

• Dental

• Ear, Nose and Throat

• Head and Neck

• Injuries

• Mental Health

• Pains

• Pregnancy

• Sexual Health

• Skin

• Seasonal Health Advice

Education

Nowadays education has spread beyond the classroom and is now available to the masses. Due to the use of the internet we have an almost unlimited source of human knowledge with which to expand our understanding of anything and everything.

Online Revision -

Online revision websites such as BBC Bitesize, SAM Learning and Mymaths allow students to improve their understanding of their subjects and therefore boost their skills thus increasing the chances of them doing well in various exams. With all of this being available from the comfort of the student’s homes pupils are able achieve their full potential and beyond without needing to ‘splash out’ on expensive books and tutoring. The aim of these websites is to provide people with easily accessible source of information to help educate them. BBC Bitesize is a free online study support created by the BBC and provides education resources for Key Stage One, Scottish First Level, Key Stage Two, Scottish Second Level, Key Stage Three, GCSE, TGAU, Standard Grade and Higher students. These resources include passages of useful information, exercises, online tests, education videos and interactive activities. It can be accessed almost anywhere due to its multi-platform support and mobile phone access and is therefore extremely useful for last minute revision on exam facts.

Personal Use Of Online Revision:

Personally I use online revision websites a lot. When studying for my GCSE exams it was my third most frequently used technique, only being succeeded by rereading sections of my textbooks and written notes.

Online Past Exam Papers -

Most exam boards allow members of the public to download past and sample exam papers. With these students can get a grasp of what to expect in their upcoming exams and allow them to make preparations for unexpected questions and topics which need to be studied further. They are extremely helpful and are used by teachers and students alike. Exam boards which offer this include AQA (http://web.aqa.org.uk/), Edexcel (http://www.edexcel.com/Pages/Home.aspx) and more.

Wikipedia -

Wikipedia is free online encyclopaedia which contains information about pretty much everything there is to know. It is so immensely large due to its user generated content. The website allows users to upload their own articles on the site, which if good enough may be published as an official Wikipedia page. It currently has about 100,000 active contributors and in 2011 received an estimated 2.7 monthly page views from the USA alone. However it is commonly used and abused by students to take shortcuts with their homework assignments. It is now common for teachers to receive work from their classes containing large sections copied directly from Wikipedia. Unfortunately not all information on Wikipedia is accurate and the users whom publish the articles occasionally may leave their work laced with spelling errors and incorrect facts. To add to this, anyone can edit the articles and therefore destroy the accuracy of them. Therefore despite Wikipedia being a massively useful resource, it has gained a degree of infamy in places of education.

E-Commerce

E-Commerce is the act of purchasing and selling items or services via the internet.

Online Banking -

Online banking allows bank account owners to transfer various amounts of money and manage their banks remotely via the use of the internet. Nowadays many of the major banking chains offer this service to their customers, this includes: Natwest (http://www.natwest.com/personal.ashx), Lloydes TSB (http://www.lloydstsb.com/), Halifax (http://www.halifax.co.uk/home/home.asp),  Bank of Scotland (http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/), HSBC (http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/) and more. This advancement in technology is largely what has allowed the internet to become the thriving source of commerce it is today. It has done so by enabling the public access to the seemingly endless supply of goods and services the internet has to offer.

Personal use of Online Banking:

Personally the only online banking service I use at the moment is PayPal. I use because it allows simple and easy money transfers to the majority of the larger online shopping sites such as Steam (a popular gaming service by a company named Valve) and Ebay (an online auctioning website).

Advertising -

Advertising is one of the largest sources of income online. The method used online is relatively simple, people wishing to promote their sites, business or products will pay site owners to host their adverts. In exchange for money they shall receive traffic (people clicking on the advert and therefore visiting the site of whoever created it). Money is often paid per or for hosting the content for a certain amount of time.

The largest source of online advertising is from Google’s AdWorlds and AdSence. AdWorlds allows advertisers to pay for their adverts to be hosted on any site using AdSence; and AdSence allows websites to host adverts in exchange for income. In the first quarter of 2011 Google earned over 2.43 billion dollars via AdSense alone. This platform for advertising has been a huge success and has become a prime source of income for some people. For example, one extremely successful Youtube user whom goes by the name ‘RayWilliamJohnson’ is estimated to be making between £191.4 thousand and £1.8 million per year (statistics found via Socialblade, link:  http://socialblade.com/youtube/user/RayWilliamJohnson). However, despite these achievements various problems can arise. Two of these are Click Fraud and Inappropriate Content. Click Fraud occurs when the pay per click method of advertising is in use. Either people can click their own adverts therefore earning ‘free money’ or use software to automatically do so for them. This is highly illegal and companies such as Google often take measures to prevent this, but there are often loopholes in systems which tend to be exploited.

Personal use of Online Advertising:

The only real use of online advertising I have ever had was with Google’s AdSense via the popular video sharing site Youtube. I was able to make about £65 via the service one month, however I have since stopped using it.

Online Shopping -

Online Shopping has revolutionised the purchasing of products. Popular sites for online shopping include Ebay (an online auctioning service), Amazon (a website which allows users to buy items from an enormous range of products and have them delivered via post), ITunes (a service which allows users to purchase music and video downloads, which may then be stored in various ‘Apple’ products such as the Ipod, Iphone and Apple MacBook), Steam (an online service which allows users to pay for and then download games onto their computers) and many more. This form of shopping has become so popular due a variety of different reasons. One reason being that the internet provides a far greater range of products than any local stores could offer; also it is far easier to find exactly what you are looking for, due to search engines such as Google and Bing. Other reasons for its success include users not having to leave the comfort of their homes to purchase items (this is extremely useful for people whom are too busy, may have issues such as depression which prevent them leaving their houses or are too shy to go shopping at real shops), that there are often large waiting lines which people must endure to buy products and that shopping online provides a more personal experience (allowing users to change website themes, suggesting items they may want to buy and sometimes even allowing them to personalise the product they wish to buy, all done via the use of cookies). In theory, due to online shopping a person could survive without ever having to leave their home.

Online Auctions -

Online auction sites are forms of online shopping. However the between online auctioning and normal online shopping is that instead of simply buying an item for a set price (E.g. a CD costing £7.99) users must outbid others in order to ‘win’ the item which they seek and have to maintain the place of highest bidder until the auction for the product is finished. One of the more popular online auctioning websites is Ebay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/). Ebay was founded in 1995 and is now a multi-billion dollar business. The main reason for its success is that it allows anyone to sell anything (that isn’t illegal) to anybody.

Real-Time Information

Flight Tracking -

Flight tracking is a stream of data which allows people to track the current whereabouts of airplanes and obtain various information such as the airline, destination and where it came from, aircraft, registration, altitude, speed and so on. It allows the public and airline workers (airline workers will receive far more detailed information and via different sources) to keep tabs on flight progress (e.g. tracking your families whereabouts as they fly to Australia for vacation), conclude when flights will arrive (e.g. if your flight has been delayed and you wish to see where it currently is) and determine where planes that you have just seen are heading (e.g. one flying over your house with a destination of Norway). A popular website for airplane tracking is Flightradar24 (http://www.flightradar24.com). It allows the public to access a constantly updated stream of airline data which is available all-day every day. This is made possible by automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast (ADS-B) which works as follows:

1. Aircraft gets its location from a GPS navigation source (satellite)
2. ADS-B unit on aircraft transmits a signal containing the location and much more
3. ADS-B signal is picked up by a receiver connected to Flightradar24
4. Receiver feeds data to Flightradar24

Parcel Tracking -

When items are purchased online via various websites such as Amazon, HMV and FedEx users are often given the opportunity to track the status of their product, this is called parcel tracking. Generally the extent to which people can track their parcels is fairly limited as the cost of attaching GPS tracking devices to deliveries would be steep, prices of items would be increased and it would be massively inconvenient for the company to do so. What users tend to find is that parcel information will be updates as it reaches key stages in its journey to the house of whoever purchased it such as manufacturing, shipping, delivered and so on. To track the package, users are often provided with a unique code which when entered to the website of the provider will supply them with the current progress of the parcel.

Webcams -

Webcams (in this case hosted by websites) are cameras which provide a live or regularly updated stream of photos or videos across the internet. The majority of websites hosting these webcams often do not charge users for accessing them, thus providing us with a free source of instant weather information (people will be able to see if it is raining, sunny, etc) and showing the current condition of the area in which the webcam is located (for example whilst researching a holiday destination people may desire a more recent and unbiased view of the area than various holiday websites may provide, for this they may use a webcam). Webcams such as this are usually located in areas of general interest such as airports (website example: http://www.airportwebcam.net/), beaches (website example: http://magicseaweed.com/) and holiday destinations such as ski resorts (website example: http://www.latania.co.uk/webcam/) or used to stream live events such as concerts, vlogs (video blogging) and spaceship launches on sites such as Livestream (http://new.livestream.com/) and Usteam (http://www.ustream.tv/new).

Satellite Navigation -

Satellite navigation (also known as ‘SAT NAV’ for short) use GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking devices (which work via signals from an array of orbiting satellites) to track the locations of users and provide them with live visual and audio navigation assistance. Often these devices come built into cars or as an attachment or phone application. These days they provide a vital role in journey planning as they are faster and easier to use than maps as they allow users access to almost instant automatically generated route planning and often provide current location on a virtual map shown on screen. 

Disadvantage to satellite navigation include:

• Expensive prices for devices
• Possible bizarre detours from route such as down country lanes and through small villages
• Unexpected glitches or syncing errors thus resulting in unusual outcomes such as showing you vehicle to be miles out at sea

News and Traffic Updates -

Advances in technology have allowed news to develop to the point of being available to from people around the globe almost as soon as the event happens. Unlike newspapers (printing is required) or television (video crews may be too slow), the internet allows news and weather reports to be published instantly and allow the public notify them of currently occurring incidents (for example if people were to witness a car crash they could email or ‘Tweet’ a local news station thus provide them with information on the accident almost as soon as it happens). Some major Websites include BBC news (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/), BBC Weather (http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/) and BT Yahoo (http://home.bt.yahoo.com/). Personally, I use BT Yahoo for news updates as it provides instant access to interesting and important news stories and has a rather useful email system.

Bookings -

Online booking has made it increasing easy for people to discover and attend a huge variety of activities. When it comes to events with a limited amount of spaces or seats (e.g. football matches and cinema showings) real-time information is put into use. To touch on the subject I shall use Odeon as an example. Odeon (a chain of cinemas) allows users to purchase cinema tickets for specific films and seats online. It constantly updates itself using an automatic system to tell users which seats have already been bought, thus preventing clashes due to users buying the same seat as each other and overselling. The most recent ticket I bought online was to the Barclaycard Wireless Festival 2012 (a music festival in London featuring musicians such as Deadmau5, Knife Party and Zedd)

Online Communication

Forums -

Internet forums are online message boards in which users may discuss various topics of interest with other site members. Forums are usually divided into key areas (e.g. music, gaming and video) which contain various subgenres (e.g. music sections may contain various sections such as ‘Jazz Music’, ‘Dubstep’ and ‘rock & roll’). Within the subgenre sections users are often allowed to create or respond to an assortment of topics (also known as threads) created by either admins or normal site members. These threads often begin with a question (e.g. “How do I turn off my computer”) which is may then be debated and answered by a variety of site members. However, occasionally threads may become off topic or spammed thus resulting in confusion and possibly arguments. Due to this, admins and moderators are often needed to maintain the forums of websites. To do so they are granted special privileges such as the ability to remove posts, ban users and lock topics so as to keep discussions relevant, lower the level of spammers or people posting inappropriate text and/or pictures (e.g. gruesome gifs and chain messages) on the site and so on.

Personally I rarely use forums; occasionally however I will use them to find solutions to problems with software, to download mods and plugins and to join small creative projects. The most successful of these being an animation collaboration which I was able to join via the forums on a site named Newgrounds. The project received over nineteen thousand views and achieved a solid four out of five stars.

Email -

An email is a way of messaging others via electronic devices. Currently over 600 million people use email as a method of communication in the modern world due to its ease of use and accessibility. It is estimated that an average of 90 trillion emails are sent every year.

The man credited with its invention in 1972 was Ray Tomlinson. Ray Tomlinson worked as an ARPANET (the system in place before the global internet) contractor and it was he whom chose the @ symbol to denote exchanging messages between peoples computers, thus providing people with an easy way to identify who exactly the message was from and whom they were sending to. The first email ever sent between was between two computers located within a short distance of each other and read “QWERTYUIOP”. In 1975 a man whom was named John Vital created a piece of software to organize emails, this was a huge advancement for emails and has led to further developments of the sort. However, even before these advances there was an early method of computer messaging. It began with people leaving small message files on people’s computers (as one would do so with office notes), then evolved into a system which allowed messages to be sent between users of a single computer; until eventually allowing people to message people on other computers at close range and has continued to advance to what we have today.

Chat rooms -


Chat rooms are websites in which users use real-time messaging systems to anonymously ‘talk’ to complete strangers via the use of self-picked or automatically generated usernames. Chat rooms may provide a variety of graphics to use (e.g. ‘smileys’ and gifs), minigames (e.g. pong) and video/voice use to improve the overall experience of site members. Popular chat room websites include Chatroulette, Omegle and Tinychat.

SMS -

SMS stands for Short Messaging Service and is a vastly popular method of communication. It allows short messages of text (up to 160 characters per message) to be exchanged between mobile phones or fixed lines. Currently over SMS has over 3.6 billion active users (78% of total mobile phone subscribers) and in 2010 over 6.1 trillion messages were sent using the service (193000 messages per second). Reasons for its huge success include its ease of access (is a available on the majority of mobile phones) and cheap costs (the average price being $0.11, however many networks provide deals which entitle users to unlimited SMS message usage for a monthly contract).

Video Steaming -

Video Steaming allows users to communicate face to face without needing to be physically present via the use of webcams (small cameras which are capable of streaming real-time video footage across the internet). This is incredibly useful for businesses as it allows them to communicate with other companies around the world without having to travel the distances, for example a company based in New York (America) could have a professional meeting with business partners in Rome (Italy) to discuss future plans, without having to leave their offices thus saving the time and money of the company. Another popular use of the software is the communication between members of families whom are located in different countries or parts of the country. For example a soldier in Afghanistan is now able to see and talk with his family despite him being located thousands of miles away from them, this helps troops overcome homesickness and maintain a close relationship with their loved ones. One of the more popular platforms for video communication is Skype (it allows free video calls from computers to computers, but charges a small fee when communicating with mobile phones and telephone landlines via Skype).

Here are some facts about Skype (source: www.statisticbrain.com):

• Total number of Skype users as of Jan. 2012 - 31 million

• Average time spent on a Skype conversation - 27 minutes

• Number of time that active Skype users spend on Skype per month - 100 minutes

• Total percentage of small businesses that use Skype as primary communication service - 35%

• Number Skype enabled television sets - 50 million

• Number of iphone Skype downloads in 2010 - 7 million

• Number of people who have ever used Skype - 560 million

• Total percentage of Skype calls that are video to video - 40%

• Average spent yearly by a paying Skype user - $96

• Skype revenue in 2010 - $406.2 million

• Number of monthly log-ins to Skype - 124 million

• Number of monthly paying Skype users - 8.1 million

• Amount of money spent by Microsoft to acquire Skype - $8.5 billion

Social Networking -

Social networking sites allow people to create personal profiles with which to share photos, videos, personal information, interests and random other ‘posts’ with friends, family and various other acquaintances using the website. Major social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google Plus and MySpace (MySpace was extremely large a few years ago but has declined in public interest and active users). Social network sites have become increasingly more important in society and now are used for a mass of different activities such as messaging radio stations, storing photos, arranging activates with groups of people and sharing a variety of things which users consider to be worth putting online (e.g. ‘I’m having toast for breakfast, lol!’ followed by a delightful picture of a slice of toast with an amusing caption such as ‘the toast’).

Here are some interesting statistics for the social networking website Facebook:

However social networking does contain a variety of issues. Due to social networks being used essentially as a personal diary by the general horde of users there are many privacy concerns surrounding social networks. If users are not careful with the information they share online and the setup of their profiles (e.g. leaving the publicly visible setting on) they risk the leakage of their personal information on the internet (such as hobbies, desires, photos, contact details and more). It can be extremely difficult to remove things posted on the internet and therefore people run the risk of having their past mistakes come back to cause trouble for them in later life (e.g. photos of them drunk or preforming  undesirable actions as a teenager may be found by future employers and therefore reduce their chances of obtaining a job).