Key visual materials

It is a tool called 'Talk Net' that help us talk instantly with our friends on the Internet. People who use msn messenger or icq may use it to facilitate their communication with others.


It is downloaded from http://www.goelectronic.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/9/dus0049i.jpg


I include this picture because it helps me explain how people from all around the world can easily connected on the Internet via msn messenger or icq.























It is a visual sample of how a msn messenger looks like. Also, it shows some funny personalized things you can 'play' when using msn messenger.

It is downloaded from http://www.arama.bz/grafikler?gr1=msn


I include this picture because it shows some functions of msn messenger in a visual form.



























It is a picture showing how people can 'see' each other when chatting via msn live messenger.

It is copied from http://www.livemessenger.org.uk/


I include this picture because, again, it shows a function of msn messenger that link ourselves to others.





















This is a picture showing the outlook of a xanga diary. Users can customize their own xanga blog, just like this one. Many people use xanga as a online diary to share what they did to their friends. And, actually, the picture you see is my xanga blog!

The picture is made by myself.

I include this picture because I want to show how a xanga blog looks like.





























This is a picture showing how we can invite new friends to talk to via icq.

It is copied from http://www.vwenthusiast.com/junk/icq

I include this picture because it shows us how to get started to make friends on the Internet.

Key quotes

1/ ‘Online communication via discussion forums and synchronous text can offer an increased sense of community and cohesion for students in online education. Online education environments and the communication that supports them encourage and support inquiry, team projects, and problem-solving skills.’
(from a website :http://www.lts.rmit.edu.au/renewal/onlcomm/why.htm)


2/ ‘The researchers found that participants who had been assigned to the ‘deception’ condition were more likely than truth-tellers to choose avatars that looked different from themselves.’
(from a website: http://deception.crimepsychblog.com/?p=242)

3/ ‘IRC is a network of computers, referred to as IRC servers, which allows thousands of people around the world to have simultaneous contact with one another.’
(from a book called Person to Person on the Internet by Diane Reiner and Keith Blanton, AP Professional, 1997, p.64)

4/ ‘Oulu, a quiet university town on the Gulf of Bothnia in Finland, was the unlikely birthplace of what is now a computer network serving thirty nations and tens of thousands of users.’
(from a book called The IRC Survival Guide—Talk to the World with Internet Relay Chat by Stuart Harris, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1995, p.4)

5/ ‘Canadian weblog expert Peter Scott has developed a widely accepted definition of a ‘blog’or‘weblog’: it is, he says, ‘a Web page containing brief, chronologically arranged items of information’.
(from a book called Weblogs and Libraries by Laurel A. Clyde, Chandos Publishing, 2004, p. 2)

Links

1/ http://webmessenger.msn.com/

2/ http://www.lts.rmit.edu.au/renewal/onlcomm/

3/ http://spinproject.org/downloads/onlinecomms.pdf

4/ http://www.amazon.com/Networking-Computer-Add-Ons-Computers/b?ie=UTF8&node=172504

5/ http://deception.crimepsychblog.com/?cat=31

Annotated bibliography

Books

1/ Weblogs and Libraries by Laurel A. Clyde, Chandos Publishing, 2004

This book includes many useful things about weblogs. For instance, history of weblogs, types of weblogs and common features of weblogs, etc. However, the book links weblogs much to digital libraries. This book is easy to read.

2/ The Internet Today by Thomas J. Fallon, Prentice Hall, 2001

This book mentioned several kinds of modes of communication such as internet relay chat, email, etc. It looks difficult to read since it includes many specialized computer terms.

3/ Internet Revolution by Ian Graham, Heinemann Library, 2003

This book includes the topic entitled ‘communication on the Internet’, so it may be useful to me. The book is colorful and of many pictures. Also, it is easy to read.

4/ The IRC Survival Guide—Talk to the World with Internet Relay Chat by Stuart Harris, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1995

This book provides much information about IRC (Internet Relay Chat) including history of IRC, ways to use IRC, etc. This book is useful but quite boring since there is no picture inside.

5/ Internet Literacy by Fred T. Hofstetter, Irwin McGraw-Hill, 1998

This book include a chapter called ‘communicating in real time’, so it may be useful to my topic. This book is easy to read with many annotated diagrams.

6/ Person to Person on the Internet by Diane Reiner and Keith Blanton, AP Professional, 1997

This book answers questions like ‘how to meet people from all over the world on the Internet?’ and ‘how to chat live with others’, etc. Also, it mentions netsex which is seldom found in other books. It is useful and easy to read although it is a thick book.

7/ Skype vs msn 全球網路通 by 廖俊喆, 文魁資訊股份有限公司, 2006

This book introduces how to set up a skype and msn messenger account as well as how to use them to communicate with others efficiently. And it is a Chinese book. It is easy to read with a lot of pictures inside the book.

Websites

1/ http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?vinst=PROD&attempt=1&fmt=6&startpage=-1&ver=1&vname=PQD&RQT=309&did=725976781&exp=10-24-2012&scaling=FULL&vtype=PQD&rqt=309&cfc=1&TS=1193385153&clientId=25836

This is a manuscript by some professionals and is related to online chatting which is the focus of my topic. This is hardly linked because it contains the pdf file.

2/ http://onlinedatingpost.com/

This is a site that includes many things about online dating. Also, news about this field is also mentioned. However, some of them may not be a credible source.

3/ http://www.firstclickfriend.com/

This is a site that provides online dating service. Reason of online dating is also mentioned. This is a good example of this kind of service!

Research questions…

1/ When xanga, facebook, icq and msn messenger get started? Who creates this kind of technology? (History of the four)

2/ How can we use these to communicate with others?

3/ Why xanga, facebook, icq and msn are so popular among youngsters? What is the magic behind them?

4/ Any disadvantage of using these to communicate?

5/ Does the fever of online communication imply some other kind of social phenomenon? If yes, then what is it?

6/ What is the future development of the four? Will they become the most popular ways of communication in the future? Will virtual communication replace direct face-to-face communication in the future?

Why online communication?

Hello all! The topic of my blog is ONLINE COMMUNICATION! I’m interested in this topic simply because I am inspired by the phenomenon around me—the popularity of using the Internet as a platform to communicate with others. Maybe you will ask, ‘there are lots of modes of online communicating with others, such as using email, xanga, facebook, chat room, icq, msn messenger, forum, etc., then what particular parts are you going to focus on?’ Well, to be honest, I really have great interest in many of the items mentioned above, but in order to narrow down my topic to give a paper in detail on some particular parts but not a general one that includes whole lots of things at the end of the semester, I want to focus on the communication network of instant online chatting on the Internet as well as weblogs that include no instant online connection with others. For instant online chatting, I choose msn messenger and icq as the samples to deeply research them. For weblogs, I choose xanga and facebook. I choose these four because they are the hottest modes of communicating with others on the Internet nowadays.

For msn messenger, it seems to have a pressure on youngsters in Hong Kong to set up a msn messenger account and use it to communicate with their friends. If you don’t have a msn account, maybe you will be identified as an outdated person. I guess, maybe when you arrive home, you will immediately turn on your computer and click the icon of msn messenger, right? For many of my friends, they really do so. Also, some of them may chat with their friends till midnight and it may hinder their job or study since they may have no energy to work on the next day. Not only people will online communicate with someone they already known, some will meet new friends through msn messenger. And some will find their love on the net! Since msn messenger is really very popular among youngsters nowadays, I decide to set it as my focus of my blog and paper in order to disclose the magic behind it.

Personally, I own a msn messenger, icq and xanga account, (you can feel free to ask me if you want, haha!) but I have not yet tried facebook. So, I hope after researching about this topic, I will be familiar with facebook and I will try to use it to communicate with my beloved friends later on! Hope you all will enjoy my blog! Thanks!

Hello!!! I am Shadow Choi!!
Welcome to my blog~
Enjoy it ^^