Net 12 Journal 1.3

WEBSITE EVALUATION:

http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/

http://www.webmd.com/

I have chosen to evaluate these two websites associated with the promotion of personal health and associated issues. Both of these pages operate as commercial sites as indicated by the “.com” domain extension and are published and promoted under the same titles as the respective web servers.

yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com

The name of the site, whilst advertising personal health, is co-sponsored by “ivillage” which in turn is sponsored by NBC Universal Inc. ivillage is a “media company dedicated exclusively to connecting women at every stage of their lives”.

In addition to the website NBC produces a Your Total Health tv program which is linked to the ivillage and selected episodes can be viewed from the site.

The webpage of the site has location tabs which offer assistance with popular areas of personal health with an emphasis on feature topics that are unique to women but with a data base of information relevant to both genders.

webmd.com

WebMD purports to provide health information, tools for managing health, and support to those who seek information. They state that the information is reliable and current. This site is supported by advertising for health and lifestyle related products.

There is a clear differentiation between WebMD content, sponsor influenced content and other independent third party content. The policy toward sponsors and advertisements is clearly documented on the site and it is easy to identify each category from the

Authenticity:

yourtotalhealth.ivillage I selected two health related conditions (diabetes & sleep disorders) and both topics opened up windows on articles (and links to related topics), that explained the condition and provided information that could be absorbed in the reader’s own time and establish a basis for discussion and enquiry with a medical practitioner.

Webmd provided similar information but when entering a disease or medical condition, the result opens a new “health centre” window e.g. “diabetes health centre”, which is easier to navigate.

The articles on both sites are reviewed by medical experts who’s profile and qualifications are available via a link.

Currency:

Both sites have been updated with current year (2009) articles and the selected articles had a date when it was last reviewed so the reader was aware of the currency of the information.

Objectivity:

Most of the health information is factual and reviewed by practitioners in the health field. Any bias of the site is toward womens’ health issues and the advertisements appear to target women although the actual product may be relevant to both genders.

Registration:

Both sites invite online registration to record personal details that are governed by the privacy statements of each site. The use of various software tools may require the collection of other health related data and this is also collected and subject to the privacy statement.

Preference:

At first glance, these sites could be twins; they have similar design (colour, layout, graphics) and provides the same quality of information. Either of these sites could be used as a platform for the next generation of interactive personal health information technologies.

I would choose to use WebMD as my first source because I found it easier as a first time user to browse and locate articles about specific health topics but would expect to use the yourtotalhealth site as it appears to have a greater “entertainment factor” using its multi media resources which may be a significant factor in combating the “Law of Attrition” Eysenbach G. The law of attrition. J Med Internet Res 2005 Mar 31;7(1):e11.

Net 12 Journal 1.2

Topic 1.2: Music: I want My MP3

The Role of Music in My Life:
Nostalgia: Listening to the music that I heard on the radio when I was a teenager and linking them to special events or moments that bring back memories (mostly pleasant).

I would describe my approach to music as intense rather than casual and private rather than public but only with those sound tracks selected from a variety of sources that make up my music library. Music for me creates very private feelings whether I’m in a crowded place or on my own and if a favorite song is played I prefer to listen and exclude everything else rather than have it play as background. (Music Media In Young People’s Everyday Lives)

I have used all the media types in the article and especially found the iPod a great way to locate quantities of music that come from a specific era or genre and download entire albums or just songs. I can carry around a massive library of music in my pocket that I can sort or scroll through and play without bothering anyone.

Does the music say who I am?
I like playing different music when I am doing different things like sport to get me motivated but I treat music as a way of enhancing the way I feel. For me its an intense medium that lets me drift emotionally without a preconceived direction.

Shared Tastes?
There are some music tracks that I like for personal pleasure but would be reluctant to talk about because of the personal meaning they have for me that probably wouldn’t be appreciated by the people and groups I now have contact with. On the other hand I have shared new music with my children and friends and we sometimes share music that we all enjoy and we use it for public entertainment. (Gospel Music)

Methods of “Pick Up” of Music:
iPod search for a genre.
Radio


The article by David Beer highlights for me, the changes, not only in promotion of music but also the methods of acquiring sound tracks. I apologise in advance for my indulgence in nostalgia but I remember watching Top Of The Pops in the sixties and although it was entertainment watched with my family and not my personal preference it put faces to the groups and music I heard on the radio and introduced the audience to new fashion as well as dance moves. On reflection, it was the only visual program that advertised new music like the Beatles and all the other UK and American rock bands of the time. So with a virtual monopoly I think it influenced the style and popular preferences of its viewers and pushed the music the record companies wanted to sell along its new lifestyle. It reminds me of CountDown and Bandstand that have gone the same way as Top Of The Pops.

Now the TV media is competing with the internet which provides me with information about new music at any time and lets me download tracks at any time. I’m not sure whether the internet has isolated music as a product or whether it still sells a lifestyle as well.

Download Music?
I collect music by download to my iPod but do not watch video clips or participate in online profiles or research. Having said that I guess that iTunes would have a record of the type of music I have downloaded which would be part of a huge statistical pool that would be used for their sales and marketing.

Studying The Internet

My first encounter with the Internet:

At university in late 70’s and early 80’s a lecturer was introducing us to the library services. He mentioned a new resource called “arnet” (or something like that) that was available to access the university library and other libraries. I can’t seem to find a reference to it on the internet so maybe this isn’t the correct spelling. It operated with a system similar to telnet and it didn’t impress me because at the time I felt that the library had all the resources I needed and an adequate local database index system to locate the relevant books.

The next time I was introduced to the internet without realizing that it was similar technology was at work when we started using on-line ordering for some of our supplies. It didn’t really come as a technological shock but rather a practical solution to streamlining our supply chain.

The versatility of the internet really attracted me when I understood how to use a search engine like Yahoo. Then it became popular with my peers and I actually had people I could email. It probably wasn’t until the mid 90’s that I was using the internet in a limited way for email and file transfer but as more internet services have gone on-line like banking, games, remote access, education etc. I have gradually come to rely on its convenience and now view it as a tool that has unlimited potential.

I still seem to be catching up with the concepts and products that are available but I accept that there are volumes of applications that I have access to and can experiment with for my personal and professional use. The internet has created an enormous resource and it now seems so easy to have the information so easily accessible.

Is it different or part of my everyday life?
My life revolves around work, family and church.

• At work, the use of internet for commercial tasks is being promoted as a way of streamlining functions and reducing costs so using and promoting the use of software via the internet is a major part of my work.
• Everyone in my family uses the internet; for school, communication with friends, playing games, downloading programs, ordering groceries or buying on eBay.
• I use the online Bible and the numerous websites dedicated to discussion about religious topics to prepare lectures and talks.

If a task or function can be performed via the internet then I will gladly use it.

Net 12 Journal 1.1

1.1 CYBERSEX: How far would a partner/spouse have to go before it is considered cheating?

I think this is a personal value judgment but I’ve googled “cybersex’ and looked at three sites that invite me to enter into a conversation with the girl on the screen and anyone else who is in the chat room. I guess if the intention is to substitute this internet relationship for the one you have with your spouse/partner, then you are cheating but this is a generalization and there may be hundreds of personal reasons for trying what seems to me to be a very unsatisfactory alternative to the real thing.

I also looked at three sites that explain what a cybersex site is and how I should have the right equipment i.e. a webcam and microphone and how I should behave with dialogue that steers us to a crescendo of mutual (erotic?) pleasure.

I don’t know if this is a common theme on all the “instruction” websites but the ones I read do seem to treat it as a form of light entertainment or a way of faking a strong libido or trying to find a way to have a long distance sexual encounter without the fear of social rejection.

"Pleasures Of the Fur" & "Burned Furs"

I guess my limited imagination has only let me explore what I think are “mainstream” or “conventional” websites and functions of the internet that support the practical aspects that make up and support my every day life. In this case a significant community has developed around a common attraction for Anthropomorphics which degenerated into a cultural argument over the purpose of the community and an attempt to retrospectively invent/impose rules to control the formation of sub cultures in the community. (I had to write this down to get a reality check on the quirky subject matter of this group)

Mainstream Coverage:

• A common interest group has become popular.
• It has grown to a size that extends beyond a group and now has formed a community.
• The community exists without any obvious control or philosophy to guide its citizens.
• Special interest groups are able influence the community by weight of numbers.

Subcultures:

I think that subcultures exist in every community (e.g. religious, economic, sex, political etc.). There is always going to be friction where the interests of each subculture overlap such as sex and religion, sex and business, sex and politics. It seems that sex has such a polymorphic behavior that it can assume relevance in almost any area of a community if there is nothing to control it.

This online community appears to have changed itself into a different animal that started off as an interest in combining animal and human characteristics to a venue that explores a number of social/sexual dysfunctions. Who would have expected such a dramatic transformation to affect such a perfectly normal interest????

Everyday Life:

I cannot in all honesty say I appreciate the behaviour of the people in “Pleasures of the Fur”. Has the internet changed their character to the point where the online community becomes acceptable behaviour in the real world? If I visited an online community as an “avatar” would I try and be my online character while I was offline every day?

Module 1 - Blinkinlights

Telnet Blinkinlights:

It took the author that made this animation out of 13,935 individual frames to create this version of star wars. He has been very ingenious in using numbers & symbols to create the character images which depict the star wars characters.

This example of animating dots & dashes is a forerunner of using a computer as a medium that displays images as well as text and numbers to communicate information. The software applications that are available today make this
animation look primitive but it demonstrates the concept that information can be packaged using a variety of formats. Graphics have expanded the development of techniques to enhance the presentation of data with multimedia applications that exist on our computers and on the net.

Module One

Traceroute to Curtin University:

Module 3

Blinklist v HTML:

BLINKLIST: - is a specialized web based application for creating a personalized bookmarking site. It has intuitive features designed to file and manage bookmarks according to personal preference and other variables such as favorites, popularity, recently visited and a most used “cloud” which graphically enhances the font, type and color of each bookmarked site in the “cloud” to give a visual overview of the sites that have been visited the most.

The bookmark “tag” that the user attaches to a site enables the link to be filed with other links with the same tag. The intuitive bit happens when Blinklist starts suggesting “tags” based on those you have already used. This provides some consistency in the filing method and should make it easier to maintain lists of references that are managed with an element of personal preference. Multiple “tags” means that the reference link has the potential to relate to any number of related topic enquiries.

Blinklist automates the task of creating and managing a personalized reference library that will become more advantageous as the list expands. This is an end-user application that can be integrated with other applications such as blogs and other Web 2.0 applications.

At first glance, the Blinklist has all the preferred format features such as scannability, easy to navigate and a simple and ordered appearance that make it easy to read and experiment with.

HTML: - reference list has, up to a point, provided the same results as Blinklist and any time difference taken in the initial construction of both lists was probably negligible. However, the html source code would have been very labour intensive and the process would require manual updating each time a new link/reference was added.

The absence of a cross reference link or tag would mean the individual references were isolated from each other and links to other related sites would require separate browser software. This highlights the dependency of this html list version on a server rather than the web (as in Blinklist).

The appearance of the html document is functional and ordered in headings but not graphically enhanced as Blinklist.

My Preference: - would be Blinklist as it is a tailored application that contains a package of features that focus on executing its function. It combines automation to handle large amounts of data and establish relationships within the data, with an ability for the user to include personal preferences e.g. tag names. There are several ways that the data can be stored and accessed and the tags give it access to other related data.

Html is a functional format but would be cumbersome if used to manage large amounts of data manually. It requires other server functions to perform similar tasks that are all contained in Blinklist.

If the web is going to be filled with these types of “Web 2.0” products then using “mashable” applications like Blinklist to expand the potential of other applications like Blogs would be preferable.