Chat part 4

Jumping into the chat room this morning I meet up with some NET11ers, and they showed me how to embed the meebo chat into my blog. It's so cool!

Have a go it works.

Thanks Bee and Collzz, the beautiful people from NET11

Chat 3–group task

I've now used both ICQ through Meebo and the internetstudies · NetStudy Netizens list group on Yahoo and found both to be useful in different directions.

ICQ is great just to catch up and have an informal "chat" with friends and relatives and keeps the phone costs down. I found it particularly useful just having the browser run in the background with Meebo going and seeing from time-to-time small automatic pop-ups when messages came in. I could react quickly to the messages and continue the conversation unlike email. However the conversations tended to be a bit ephemeral and esoteric, much like talking to one's mates, still a worthy experience. This was a new for me and it's a big YES, I will continue to use this service. The only criticism I have, and it's only small, I couldn't always keep up with the typing and some of the conversation tended get a bit jumbled (thread order was mixed), especially if it's a group session (maybe voice control would be good). Also, I would NOT use this method of communication if I required the message I sent to be kept on record or I required the receiver to action the information and I wanted proof that I had sent the information on.

I found the list group on Yahoo to be a bit cumbersome and slow when I tried to use it in the same manner as a chat room. I quickly came to the conclusion that this service was more to keep groups updated, information that I may like to act on, but more importantly, I could contribute and feel part of the community that it was trying to embrace. I found that the success of the group greatly depends on the contributions and, even at this early stage the group looks likely to fail (not the NET11 unit), but die off into cyberheaven where all the calculators and photocopiers rest in peace and in pieces.
Still, there is a place for this type of asynchronistic communication although I don't see myself keeping up with it as it requires strength of character, perseverance and discipline to continually contribute to such groups. Me, I'm a bit lazzzy (Yes that with 3 z's).

On the other hand the Uni Blackboard messaging system is entirely different again and for communication in another direction. Messages can be posted and then responded to while maintaining the "thread" of the conversation for all to see in the group. This works well in the learning environment as questions are asked and answered and displayed for anyone who has similar questions. (You know the type, the 'frequently asked questions'). It's not for general chatter although people tend to abuse it for this and what happens as a result is the discussion area gets over crowded with pointless banter. People get frustrated if they are search for answers and all they see is a pseudo chat room.


How is it different from the methods I normally use?
As I indicated above, I have only ever used emails up to now for communication over the web—obviously when I was just chatting with email I was abusing it. But now I know differently.

emails uses:

1. messages that need to be kept
2. messages that require the receiver to action (do something)
3. messages for when people are away from the chat room (I wonder if I can access the chat room by mobile)
4. messages when I don't want to get caught up in the chat (I can waste a lot of time chatting)
   

chat rooms use:

1. quick and easy talk (honey, I'll be late home tonight)
2. no proof of conversation, hopefully! (come down to the pub and play pool with the mates tonight)

Blackboard use:

1. ask questions and receive (correct) answers
2. general information that I can use at a later date, "Asynchronous electronic communication is not the opposite of real-time, synchronous communication: rather it describes forms of communication that appear differently 'located in time' depending on the perspective of the sender and receiver."

Caution
I still have major concerns over the type of people using the chat rooms although I have read somewhere, can't remember where, that the CIA scan these types of services and look for key words to catch terrorists and others. I feel safer that big brother is watching, but it's not me that I worry about, it's my kids.

Chat-part 2

I have now been monitoring ICQ since 18 March and I have noticed something fascinating. Most of the participants 'speak in tongues' or some derivative of an ancient dialect from a remote part of the world. It reminds me of the South African movie The Gods Must Be Crazy where the main character, a bushman, speaks in clicks and other phonetic sounds.

I appreciate it's just a shorten version of the English language which has been abbreviated to save key stokes, but I wonder with kids being so tech savvy and essentially knowing how to code the written word, how will the spoken word evolve over the next few generations.



Getting past this, I have been aware of ICQ and IRC for some years now but have never used the service. I believed it to be just a waste of time or a playground for troubled people but this form of synchronistic communication has developed into a very useful tool. I'm connected with ICQ using the meebo service which is incredibly easy to use especially if you use Firefox add-ons. Meebo runs in the background of the browser, so if your connected to the web your live and ready to communicate. This type of chat would suite a more informal method of communication than email and would appear to have adequate security if you engage encryption of the traffic at the socket level. So yes I will probably continue to use the service if I can get someone to chat to. I have posted my number on the Yahoo group and on the BB asking if any will chat but I haven't received any responses to the request—maybe no one like me after my rants :(
I did pick up a copy of The weblog handbook by Rececca Blood so I hope to learn some netiquette soon.

Now talking about netiquette and getting back the chat rooms there appears to be no rules within this type of society. The language used as state above is abbreviated and difficult to follow unless your experienced (I wonder if there is netiquette siting inside the code like CSS) and if your not accepted into the discussion they others simply ignore you. It's like being in New York City without the muggers. This tactic of ignoring others is probably a survival practice of the tech savvy kids.

Just as I was finishing this entry I was luck to have a chat with a couple of NET11ers students in ICQ. It was great to catch up out of Uni in the cyberpub.

rethink-part 2

My point is, people who use the internet should be by now very aware of the security issues we face with online fraud. However, there is a broader issue of personal security. In brief we do not want to face another 9/11 or see repeated stories in the news where children have sexually abused or worse through the use of web dating. I know most kids are aware that chat rooms are potentially unsafe environments, but there will always be someone who is more vulnerable than others. Chat rooms in particular need to be mediated for content because parents can't have 24 hour control over their children nor should they. As responsible web uses we have a care of duty to provide a safe learning experience for all who wish to use it. I don't hate these types of communication, I think they need special attention from the authorities to clean it up but I guess this would be problematic given the current economic problems, climate change ....................

The list is endless so usually the innocent will suffer.

rethink

After the tutors comments on the Discussion board about relating the exercisers to the concepts, it may appear that all my rants have been a waste of time.

I will need to refocus and rethink why I'm attempting to do a BA in Internet Communication.

For the time being I will put aside my prejudice and use the time as a discovery process.

I still think there's too much crap on the web so you will have to forgive me if I regress into a rant.

Chat part 1

OK, I can see now I may have been an bit too harsh on "Lists", the real deviant is the chat room.

more soon