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Introduction Throughout this Stem, we have concentrated on the technical detail and how data is transferred. In this topic, we will be concerned about the issues related to sharing information and knowledge. When communication is face-to-face, one's physical appearance, cultural background, gender and physical location are on display. These factors greatly influence the communication that takes place. When communicating electronically, such factors remain largely unknown. Both positive and negative impacts arise in the use of communication systems. In this section, we examine some of the social and ethical issues raised by communication systems. Messaging systems Messaging systems have improved communication between people; however, they have raised a number of issues: • Social context. Ideas delivered by messaging systems appear less forceful and caring than ideas delivered personally.Messaging systems have difficulty when communication depends on users expressing their feelings. • Danger of misinterpretation. Communication often depends on the context, inflection in the speaker’s voice, and body language. For example, ‘this has been a great day’ could have a negative or a positive meaning depending on the way the words are spoken. This phrase could easily be misinterpreted using email or a fax. There are also dangers with voice mail and the telephone, as body language is not communicated. • Power relationships. Messaging systems may change the relationship between people in an organisation. For example, email could provide an easy avenue for the lowest paid worker of an organisation to provide information to the senior manager. The normal method of communication through middle management is affected. • Privacy and confidentiality. A characteristic of messaging systems is that the messages are stored. Email and voice mail store messages on servers, and these can be accessed by the people who are providing the service.Hackers may also break the security of these servers.Telephone conversations can be intercepted, and fax messages can be read by anybody near the machine. Clearly,messaging systems do not guarantee the privacy and confidentiality of messages. • Electronic junk mail. Unwanted mail is a problem for messaging systems. People can send an email message to one person or thousands of people (spamming) very easily. It may simply be a message about a product or service. However, if a person receives hundreds of junk emails each day, it takes up valuable time. Prohibiting this practice would be difficult and compromise our free society. • Information overload. This term refers to the enormous amount of information that people have to absorb.Messaging systems are a source of information. The large amount of email and voice mail received by some people has increased their workload and caused stress. There is often an expectation that people will respond more quickly to email and voice mail than to a letter or to a telephone message written down by someone else. Censorship One of the most controversial issues to have arisen with the Internet is censorship. The Internet provides access to a large amount of offensive material, such as pornography, racism and violence, and the information is not hard to find. The Internet allows children to access any material they wish, either deliberately or unintentionally. Some people believe that offensive material should be banned, while others argue that banning any material compromises our free society. There have been many unsuccessful attempts to censor material on the Internet by governments and law enforcement bodies all around the world. The Internet Industry Association (IIA) represents Australian ISPs. It has released a code of conduct that deals with censorship of online content. The code requires ISPs to remove offensive content from their servers and to block access to classified material hosted on overseas sites.The federal government has passed a law requiring ISPs to subscribe to the IIA’s code. The difficulty with enforcing censorship is the enormous number of Web sites and the fact that thousands of new sites are published daily.Monitoring Web sites on a global basis is impossible. Clearly multinational agreement is needed on offensive material. However, this agreement may be difficult to obtain and regulate. The prime responsibility for preventing children from accessing offensive material rests with parents and teachers. Internet banking Internet banking allows customers to view their account balances and transaction histories, transfer money between accounts, and pay bills using Bpay. It provides banking services 24 hours a day but cannot cater for cash withdrawals or for cash or cheque deposits. Issues arising from Internet banking include: • Security. All banks are determined to make their online banking services safe from inference and secure for customer details.Data encryption is used to secure the data transfer between the customer’s computer and the bank’s computer. • Changing nature of work. People working for the bank are not carrying out the services provided by Internet banking. Banks require more people with information technology skills and fewer people with banking skills. • Branch closures and job loss. With many customers using Internet banking, EFTPOS and ATMs, there is less need to access the facilities provided by a bank branch. This has resulted in branch closures and job losses. Radio and video The number of services delivered by the Internet is rapidly increasing. Two examples of this development are radio and video. There are currently thousands of Web sites broadcasting radio from around the world. These radio stations cater for a variety of tastes. For example, it is possible to listen to a major sporting event live on the Internet. In addition to the Internet providing radio services, there are many Web sites with video. Video on the Internet is replacing videotapes and other media. It allows organisations to create unlimited video channels. These video channels are used for sales, training, communication and a host of other purposes. Video on the Internet saves time, reduces costs and provides the ability to view the video globally. The size and quality of the video is currently less than that of a normal television broadcast; however, it will improve with developments in technology, such as increasing bandwidth. Working from home Communication systems have led to an increase in the number of people who either choose or are asked to work from home. This is called telecommuting. Telecommuting is working at home and electronically communicating with the office (see Figure 3.21). Even though working at the office is not likely to disappear, advances in telecommunication are likely to make telecommuting more common in the future. Factors that will affect the future of telecommuting include the availability of bandwidth, the perceived value in telecommuting, and the opportunities to work collaboratively across large distances. The Internet has provided the means for a new type of organisation to develop whose employees work almost entirely through telecommunication with an occasional face-to-face meeting. The main advantages of telecommuting are greater flexibility in work hours; saving money on transport, clothing and food; and saving time. In particular, it benefits people who are physically impaired or required to look after small children. The employer saves on overheads, such as office space and furniture. However, working from home can have its disadvantages. People can miss the social and professional contact offered by an external place of work. They experience feelings of loneliness and isolation. Telecommuting can also blur the distinction between work and home life. The home is no longer a place where the pressures of work can be forgotten, and work may be interrupted by domestic chores. There are many other issues that arise when people work from home, such as:
Virtual Communities A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. Some of the most pervasive virtual communities are online communities operating under social networking services. The term virtual community is attributed to the book of the same title published by Howard Rheingold in 1993. The book's discussion ranges from Rheingold's adventures on The WELL, computer-mediated communication and social groups and information science. Technologies cited include Usenet, MUDs (Multi-User Dungeon) and their derivatives MUSHes and MOOs, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), chat rooms and electronic mailing lists. Rheingold also points out the potential benefits for personal psychological well-being, as well as for society at large, of belonging to a virtual community. Virtual communities all encourage interaction, sometimes focusing around a particular interest or just to communicate. Some virtual communities do both. Community members are allowed to interact over a shared passion through various means: message boards, chat rooms, social networking sites, or virtual worlds.[1] Pros & Cons There are both good and bad about all things and social media is no different.
What does Virtual Community mean?A virtual community is a group of people who share common interests, feelings or ideas, or pursue similar goals over the Internet or over any collaborative network. Social media is the most common vehicle for this sharing and interaction, which can potentially transcend geographical boundaries, race, culture, political views and religion when people are connected by another common interest or agenda. This term is originally attributed to Howard Rheingold’s book "The Virtual Community," which was published in 1993. In it, Rheingold describes the virtual community as social aggregations that emerge from the Internet when people continue discussions long enough and with enough emotion to form real human relationships within cyberspace. For whatever other reason, virtual communities are built around certain needs and goals. Here are some common examples of virtual community types: Forums, online chat rooms, specialized information communities, email groups These are made up of people who either discuss or share about a common topic/theme. They may also act as a place to ask experts in a specific field for help. Virtual worlds The people in virtual worlds share the common interest of the world itself. These worlds are often massively multiplayer games like "World of Warcraft." Social networks Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are the most common social networking hubs, and they all allow people to form smaller communities based on other interests. Other communities in this category, such as Pinterest and YouTube, focused on media sharing. https://www.techopedia.com/definition/15504/virtual-community |
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