This week's exercise: "Tutvu mõne vabalt valitud virtuaalmaailmaga (Second Life sobib, aga soovi korral võib ka mõni muu olla) ja kirjelda ajaveebis oma kogemusi."
I personally have not dealt with Second Life virtual world, and nowadays there is not enough time to devote them some time. However, as games can also be considered as virtual world I would like to describe my experiences with a game named Counter-Strike.
"Counter-Strike" is a first-person multilayer shooter. Players have an option to join one of the teams: terrorists or counter-terrorist. Players can also join to be a spectator. The team tries to complete the mission, for example: plant a bomb or rescue hostages. The mission can also be completed by eliminating the opposite team. The round starts with both teams spawning simultaneously, usually, in different areas of the map.
As the round starts, players are allowed to buy weapons of different categories inside the buy zones, like pistols, shotguns and rifles. When the round ends, killed players are resurrected and all players respawn at their base.
Players can communicate among themselves using a chat. They can write messages to everybody or only speak to the team. There is also a possibility to use a microphone. But the shooting should stay inside the game, inside the virtual world, but the communication should be in the real world.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Märgendamine ja folksonoomia
This week's excirsise: "Otsige veebist kaks näidet folksonoomia kohta - üks selline, kus see väga hästi töötab, ning teine, kus see eriti ei taha toimida."
The term "folksonomy" is new to me. I will try to give the definition in my own words. It is a way of categorizing information using special words, called tags. But when does tagging information work?
A bad example where tags can not work are blog hosting websites, like Digg or Blogger. If you are searching for some blogs through a search engine, then it already will find you some material based on the content of an article. Instead of using tag words, the words can be used in the article itself.
A good example, where tagging works is a website for storing pictures. By this, I mean something like Flickr or Picasa. Picture filenames can be "DSC00001.JPG", or similar, but for a search engine it is not clear what the picture contains. Ofcourse, algorithms can detect faces and the color of the picture. But what better way to describe a picture by tagging it something like "City of London skyline from London City Hall - Oct 2008.jpg". This will make the picture easier to discover.
The term "folksonomy" is new to me. I will try to give the definition in my own words. It is a way of categorizing information using special words, called tags. But when does tagging information work?
A bad example where tags can not work are blog hosting websites, like Digg or Blogger. If you are searching for some blogs through a search engine, then it already will find you some material based on the content of an article. Instead of using tag words, the words can be used in the article itself.
A good example, where tagging works is a website for storing pictures. By this, I mean something like Flickr or Picasa. Picture filenames can be "DSC00001.JPG", or similar, but for a search engine it is not clear what the picture contains. Ofcourse, algorithms can detect faces and the color of the picture. But what better way to describe a picture by tagging it something like "City of London skyline from London City Hall - Oct 2008.jpg". This will make the picture easier to discover.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Wiki-maailm
This week's exercise: "How can Wikipedia be improved?"
Wikipedia is a web-based online encyclopedia, where every user can contribute their knowledge. Whenever I need some information on any subject, I always turn to Wikipedia, because it has information on almost anything. But can it be improved somehow? Here is a couple of thoughts how this can be done.
Even though there may be a lot of text in every article, there is almost no way to verify, that what you are reading is reliable. This is a big drawback, because you cannot use it as a reference if you are doing some research. The problem is that everybody can edit the page anonymously, even without giving a reason why he did this or that change.
One way this can be improved is giving the person the ability to comment on the changes done, thus describing his motives.
Another way how this can be done is to restrict public editing. Everybody who would want to make a change, must log in first. Would be even better logging in with user's real name. This way users can be traced as individuals thus making them think first before article harassment.
One more way is that users would give opinions on articles. This can be done by commenting or "Like"-ing, as it is done with all activity on Facebook.
Another problem with Wikipedia arises when you first hit the "Edit" button. If you would like to make a simple change, you will get a lot of cryptic text, semicolons, brackets, tags, also known as Wiki-markup. This may make it hard to orient for less experienced users. It would be better if there would be the possibility of using a WYSIWYG editor, to see your changes instantly.
But so far I, personally, have never encountered neither the reliability nor the editing problems.
Wikipedia is a web-based online encyclopedia, where every user can contribute their knowledge. Whenever I need some information on any subject, I always turn to Wikipedia, because it has information on almost anything. But can it be improved somehow? Here is a couple of thoughts how this can be done.
Even though there may be a lot of text in every article, there is almost no way to verify, that what you are reading is reliable. This is a big drawback, because you cannot use it as a reference if you are doing some research. The problem is that everybody can edit the page anonymously, even without giving a reason why he did this or that change.
One way this can be improved is giving the person the ability to comment on the changes done, thus describing his motives.
Another way how this can be done is to restrict public editing. Everybody who would want to make a change, must log in first. Would be even better logging in with user's real name. This way users can be traced as individuals thus making them think first before article harassment.
One more way is that users would give opinions on articles. This can be done by commenting or "Like"-ing, as it is done with all activity on Facebook.
Another problem with Wikipedia arises when you first hit the "Edit" button. If you would like to make a simple change, you will get a lot of cryptic text, semicolons, brackets, tags, also known as Wiki-markup. This may make it hard to orient for less experienced users. It would be better if there would be the possibility of using a WYSIWYG editor, to see your changes instantly.
But so far I, personally, have never encountered neither the reliability nor the editing problems.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Blogosfäär
This week's exercise: Descrbe the possible blogging motives and give examples.
There are lot's of reasons why people can blog, but most of them can be put into categories, described below.
Fun. This reason can be for a lot of youngsters. They can be doing this because their friends do it also, they are bored or they just want to experiment in this area. Teenagers may want to start receiving money from their posts, but mostly that is not the case. They post random pictures about themselves, their lunches or pets.
Money. Greed motivates us to do many things. There are a lot of top and professional bloggers who are paid to do reviews to keep the conversation going. Good examples of this can be blogs about technology, like http://www.engadget.com/ and http://gizmodo.com/ who do just that. There are a lot of affiliate tools like Google's AdSence, that pays for placing ads directly into the blog. After all, it's not such a bid idea to earn a couple of euros for sharing your views with the world. We can't deny that some extra cash is always welcome.
Public relations. A lot of companies, especially start-ups, start blogging to reveal themselves or their products or services. An example of that can be either http://www.ignite.ee/display/IGNITE/Blog or http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
For a cause. The digital revolution has allowed people to promote their causes and connect with the like-minded. A lot of blogs can be found from the people of Libya, who are asking help in fighting for their freedom, or, for example, from the people of Japan, who wrote blogs asking for medical help after the earthquake hit them in April 2011.
Desire to become an author. Some people want to write and publish their book(s). But this is quite a long and expensive process. First you must find a publisher, market the book and wait for reviews. But with blogging this goal can be reached almost instantly and without spending any extra cent. Just get your laptop, write down your feelings and click the 'Publish' button. Soon enough people will read the blog, write reviews and give feedback.
There are lot's of reasons why people can blog, but most of them can be put into categories, described below.
Fun. This reason can be for a lot of youngsters. They can be doing this because their friends do it also, they are bored or they just want to experiment in this area. Teenagers may want to start receiving money from their posts, but mostly that is not the case. They post random pictures about themselves, their lunches or pets.
Money. Greed motivates us to do many things. There are a lot of top and professional bloggers who are paid to do reviews to keep the conversation going. Good examples of this can be blogs about technology, like http://www.engadget.com/ and http://gizmodo.com/ who do just that. There are a lot of affiliate tools like Google's AdSence, that pays for placing ads directly into the blog. After all, it's not such a bid idea to earn a couple of euros for sharing your views with the world. We can't deny that some extra cash is always welcome.
Public relations. A lot of companies, especially start-ups, start blogging to reveal themselves or their products or services. An example of that can be either http://www.ignite.ee/display/IGNITE/Blog or http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
For a cause. The digital revolution has allowed people to promote their causes and connect with the like-minded. A lot of blogs can be found from the people of Libya, who are asking help in fighting for their freedom, or, for example, from the people of Japan, who wrote blogs asking for medical help after the earthquake hit them in April 2011.
Desire to become an author. Some people want to write and publish their book(s). But this is quite a long and expensive process. First you must find a publisher, market the book and wait for reviews. But with blogging this goal can be reached almost instantly and without spending any extra cent. Just get your laptop, write down your feelings and click the 'Publish' button. Soon enough people will read the blog, write reviews and give feedback.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Sotsiaalsed võrgustikud
This week's exercise: Analyze any social network according to the Matt Webb's criteria.
Selected social network: http://facebook.com
Identity: Most users use their real names to identify themselves, even though it is not mandatory. However, using real names makes it easier for people to find other people.
Presence: . Users can see if the other is online or not by the presence of the green dot next to the the other user's name. However users can go "offline" and turn this feature off.
Relations: Until not long ago, everybody in the contact list was a "friend", regardless of who the person in real life. Recently Facebook has introduced the "Lists" functions, where users can manage their contact list, creating their own lists, like "Classmates", "Co-workers", etc. Another type of relations is "Family", where users can make other user their relatives, such as father, mother, sister, etc. One more type of relation is "Relationship status", where users can define their maternal status with other users, such as "Married", "Divorced", "Engaged", etc.
Conversations: Users can chat among themselves using the "chat" function. This is useful, because one can not always install a particular instant messenger to chat with other users. Also, users can write on other users wall for everybody to see the message.
Groups: Users can create groups, based on some common interest. After that people can either join themselves, or they can be invited my other group members. Each group has a wall, where people can post news, links or videos. As soon as it's done, other group members get notifications about the activity.
Reputation: Facebook does not provide any special indicator about a person's reputation. However some may judge a person's reputation by the amount of friends: the more friends, the higher the reputation.
Sharing: Facebook has a rich set of sharing capabilities. People can share statuses by writing them on their own wall, links, pictures, videos and events. People can even watch videos without leaving Facebook. Users can upload their own photos and videos to the site. Access to the information can be defined by the user and changed at any time.
Selected social network: http://facebook.com
Identity: Most users use their real names to identify themselves, even though it is not mandatory. However, using real names makes it easier for people to find other people.
Presence: . Users can see if the other is online or not by the presence of the green dot next to the the other user's name. However users can go "offline" and turn this feature off.
Relations: Until not long ago, everybody in the contact list was a "friend", regardless of who the person in real life. Recently Facebook has introduced the "Lists" functions, where users can manage their contact list, creating their own lists, like "Classmates", "Co-workers", etc. Another type of relations is "Family", where users can make other user their relatives, such as father, mother, sister, etc. One more type of relation is "Relationship status", where users can define their maternal status with other users, such as "Married", "Divorced", "Engaged", etc.
Conversations: Users can chat among themselves using the "chat" function. This is useful, because one can not always install a particular instant messenger to chat with other users. Also, users can write on other users wall for everybody to see the message.
Groups: Users can create groups, based on some common interest. After that people can either join themselves, or they can be invited my other group members. Each group has a wall, where people can post news, links or videos. As soon as it's done, other group members get notifications about the activity.
Reputation: Facebook does not provide any special indicator about a person's reputation. However some may judge a person's reputation by the amount of friends: the more friends, the higher the reputation.
Sharing: Facebook has a rich set of sharing capabilities. People can share statuses by writing them on their own wall, links, pictures, videos and events. People can even watch videos without leaving Facebook. Users can upload their own photos and videos to the site. Access to the information can be defined by the user and changed at any time.
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