Ebay & Paypal vs. Australia

eBay - online auction web site which allows people to find items from all over the world to bid on or buy.

Paypal - online tool that allows you to pay for items online, especially eBay, without sharing your bank information.

From June 17, eBay buyers will no longer be able to use direct deposits, personal cheques or money orders to pay for items they win or buy on eBay. They claim this is to enhance security.

One of the issues that has arisen is Section 47 of the Trade Practices Act. It prohibits excluse dealing which involves one trader imposing restrictions on another's freedtom to choose with whom, in what or were it deals. Forcing customers to only use Paypal is not online unfair because it takes away our right to choose how we pay, but it is a blatant grab for profits on eBay's part. It may be more safe and secure, but it also makes eBay a lot more money from it's partnership with PayPal (Paypal was acquired by eBay in 2002). What gives them the right to tell its users how they are allowed to pay?

Another huge problem is for sellers who are forced to have Paypal as their only payment means. You are allowed to have pick up on your items but obviously that cuts down the amount of people that can bid because they are not local to you. The cost of eBay for a seller is atrocious anyway, without adding on the PayPal fees the seller has to pay. An eBay listing has an initial listing fee which starts with items 99c or under being 30c listing fee. Once the item has been sold, eBay take a percentage of the final price that the item is sold for. This can sometimes add up to a lot of money. If you put an item on for 99c and it is sold for 99c, you are still charged by eBay 5c (5.25%). This means that you have only made 64c. This may not seem like a huge difference, but once the items become more expensive, the more eBay take. To make this worse, Paypal take 30c + 3.4% of the amount that is put into your account.

The strange thing I think is that buyers don't have to pay more to use Paypal, it is the sellers that are getting stung every which way.

References

eBay Fees. 2008. http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/fees.html (accessed April 19, 2008)

Fees - Paypal. 2008. https://www.paypal.com/au/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside (accessed April 26, 2008)

Foo, F. 2008. ACCC to probe eBay policies. http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23548903-15306,00.html (accessed May 4, 2008)

Download for FREE

In the digital age, people are increasingly searching for free information on the internet. File-sharing has become one of the most frequent activities people involve themselves in whilst surfing the web. There are sites like Napstar, Kazaa, Limewire and others of the like, that came about to provide free music to the online community. Even though Napstar and Kazaa have both since then been changed to suit copyright laws, Limewire still exists as a free mp3 file sharing program. It is not only music is being shared online. Download.com is a great site that allows you to find free programs or access limited licenses for programs. There are other websites that do the same thing, such as tucows.com. For the purpose of this blog I would like to focus on copyright. This includes the music file-sharing programs and the issue of pirating programs illegally to distribute to the community.

The file-sharing format comes about from the idea that the internet should be kept free and open. There is also belief that once you have purchased a CD or any other type of media, you have the right to distribute it as long as you are not profiting financially from it (Harries, D. 2002. p87). The reason that the corporate controls are maddened by this file-sharing operation is the money that isn’t being spent by those who are downloading for free. Years ago if you found an artist that you wanted to listen to, you would go to the record store and find the album and buy it. These days you are able to search for particular songs that you like, and download them for free to listen to on your computer, or burn to a disc to listen to anywhere.

Napstar was an online music file-sharing program that operated between 1999 and 2001 when it was accused of major copyright violations. Napster still exists but you now have to pay for the download of songs. Kazaa also had problems with copyright infringement and now only allows access to non-copyrighted material. So how do programs like Limewire get away with presenting this material? They are a few loopholes in the laws that govern this type of activity. Limewire tell you that you shouldn’t download files that aren’t from a accredited source, but it allows you to make that decision yourself. You are the one responsible for the infringement, if they tell you not to do it in the first place.

Copyright infringement is not only in relation to music sharing. You can download programs as well. Sometimes these programs that you might download aren’t the real thing. Torrent sites such as Isohunt.com allow you to download torrent files to your computer that provide the particular program you are searching for. You can download movies, games, television shows, and applications from these sites and download them for free. In these days, it is more difficult to tell the difference between a copy and an original. These programs that you find to download are often pirated. Software piracy is the ‘unauthorised copying, reproduction, use or manufacture of software products’ (Harries, D. 2002. p85). It is said that for every authorised copy of software there is at least one unauthorised ‘pirated’ copy that is made (ibid).

To sum up, copyright infringement is a never-ending issue for internet users. It is becoming harder and harder for the big companies to be able to bring down the people that are either downloading or creating these files. The quality of reproduced media is no longer something that is lessened in quality.

References:

Harries, D. ed. 2002. The New Media Book. London: British Film Institute

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 - What's the difference between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0??

This diagram dictates the main difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Within the years 1996 and 2006, the users of the web have escalated from 45 million to over a billion users. It also shows that there were approximately 250,000 sites in 1996. It jumped to over 80,000,000 sites in 2006. The other thing this diagram exhibits is the amount of user-generated content in relation to published content. Over the ten year period, the number of people that were contributing to the web instead of just accessing it skyrocketed.

What is Web 2.0?

Tim O'Reilly (2005) uses this model to show examples of different applications or web services that demonstate the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0:

Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0

Doubleclick vs. Google Adsense
Ofoto vs. Flickr

Akamai vs. BitTorrent
mp3.com vs. Napster
Brittanica Online vs. Wikipedia
personal websites vs. blogging

evite vs. upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation vs. search engine optimisation
page views vs. cost per click
screen scraping vs. web services
publishing vs. participation
content management systems vs. wikis
directories (taxonomy) vs. tagging (folksonomy)
stickiness vs. syndication

Through this list we can see that Web 1.0 sites were more about accessing information such as that of Brittanica Online. It's Web 2.0 counterpart, Wikipedia, allows everyday people to contribute to the information that can be accessed. Web 2.0 allows for user interaction.

The differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are also shown in this comparison also presented by O'Reilly:

Web 1.0 was about reading, Web 2.0 is about writing

Web 1.0 was about companies, Web 2.0 is about communities

Web 1.0 was about client-server, Web 2.0 is about peer to peer

Web 1.0 was about HTML, Web 2.0 is about XML

Web 1.0 was about home pages, Web 2.0 is about blogs

Web 1.0 was about portals, Web 2.0 is about RSS

Web 1.0 was about taxonomy, Web 2.0 is about tags

Web 1.0 was about wires, Web 2.0 is about wireless

Web 1.0 was about owning, Web 2.0 is about sharing

Web 1.0 was about IPOs, Web 2.0 is about trade sales

Web 1.0 was about Netscape, Web 2.0 is about Google

Web 1.0 was about web forms, Web 2.0 is about web applications

Web 1.0 was about screen scraping, Web 2.0 is about APIs

Web 1.0 was about dialup, Web 2.0 is about broadband

Web 1.0 was about hardware costs, Web 2.0 is about bandwidth costs

These two models by O'Reilly clearly show us the technical differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.

There is a site called Go2Web20 (http://www.go2web20.net/) that gives a comprehensive list of websites that are in the Web 2.0 platform. Check them out to gain more perspective on the difference between sites such as Britannica Online.

References

Hinchcliffe, D. (2008) http://web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com/

O'Reilly, T. (2005) http://joedrumgoole.com/blog/2006/05/29/web-20-vs-web-10/

O'Reilly, T. (2005) http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Shopping Online???

In the world we live in today where people expect everything on the 'right now', it is in my opinion that we experience a lack of patience. This can be as simple as getting aggravated by dialup internet speeds when we are used to broadband or cable. Many years ago we would have never known the difference and were somewhat content with what we could get. This is also similar to the topic of Online Shopping. The internet world has been flooded with online shops and online auction sites such as eBay. Years ago we were happy to go down the the local shopping centre to make our purchases, but today we need something else... but why?

There is a book written by Richard Seltzer titled "Shop Online the Lazy Way" which examines online shopping and attempts to rationalise it. He (1999) says "what could be easier than hopping in your car and driving to the mall ... and fighting for a parking space, and walking from store to store and aisle to aisle looking for the items you want, and waiting in the check-out line, and carrying those bags out to the car through a drenching rain storm, and driving home through the traffic as the rain turns to ice beneath your wheels?". The effort it takes to go shopping these days with overcrowded shopping centres with too little parking, too many shops, and too many screaming children, is not worth the product that you are after. If there was a way where everybody could stay at home and get their shopping chores done, why isn't everybody doing it?

Seltzer also says that there are other advantages to online shopping other than not having to leave your home. He says that if you are a bargain hunter, you are able to shop around for the cheapest price without having to go from store to store. There are also various sites that help you compare prices for your seeked items. Another positive attribute of online shopping is that you are able to find rare items that aren't sold everywhere. For example, if you have an older and not a run of the mill car and you are looking for parts for it, you may try searching on eBay because you might be able to find the item. Without this access to people or stores that have the things you want, you could be looking for a long time and still never find it.

The main thing about online shopping is that it is only really great if you know exactly what you want. Many people look online for hours to find a great product, but if you know what you want, the internet is a great place to just get it without having to have the hassle of the shopping centres.

References

Seltzer, R. 1999. why shop online? http://www.samizdat.com/shopintro.html (accessed April 19, 2008)

Information & Knowledge

Data - Information - Knowledge - Wisdom

http://www.wipro-campusarena.com/site/learning-development-understanding-ld/

This graph represents the heirarchy of data, information, knowledge and wisdom. On the left axis it has four different contexts that apply to the model. The bottom axis shows the transitition in understanding between data, information, knowledge and wisdom. What is interesting about this graph is that brings together context and understanding and then shows them in relationship to the model.

The whole structuring of this information management system is called DIKW (which is an acronym for Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom). It is though that data is the most basic level. Information adds meaning. Knowledge adds HOW to use the information and Wisdom tells WHEN to use it.

Data are numbers, words, images etc. Data is raw. It just exists.

Information is when you take these numbers, words or images and create meaning.


Knowledge can be acquired when information has been memorised. It is surpassed by Understanding. Understanding is when knowledge can be put into use. If the information is not understood, it can not be applied to more complex situations. Memorised information is still acceptable, but when the information can be understood, it is a lot more useful. The knowledge that is aquired when the information is understood, is far greater than that of a memorised nature. An example is when children learn the times table. They know that 2 times 2 is 4. But when asked what 2548 times 143 is, they are not able to comprehend the question. It is not until you have an understanding of this knowledge that you can apply it to more difficult equations (Bellinger, Castro, Mills. 2004).


Wisdom is more difficult to describe. It is a state of being. Once the information has been understood, there is a humanly state where we learn to discern, or judge, between right and wrong, good and bad about that information.

References

Wipro. 2008. Learning and Development: Understanding L & D. http://www.wipro-campusarena.com/site/learning-development-understanding-ld/

Bellinger, Castro, Mills. 2004. Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom. http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm

My first blog

Hi, my name is Ashleigh. I am a third year drama student at QUT. Firstly.. Virtual Cultures. I did not realise how many different cultures there are out there online. I belong to Myspace and Facebook. The internet is somewhere that people can go to share a common interest that they may not have found in the 'real world'. For example, people that are interested in dressing up as animals for sexual expression. These people may not have had this opportunity to find others like themselves if not for the use of an online community.

Social networks allows for you to keep in touch with your friends and family whilst being able to make new friends. I was not interested in social networking until I was introduced to it last year. The myspace platform was intriguing. It allows for you to choose your own background and page design. At first I was putting many pictures, toys and gimmicks but now I realise that less is more. Facebook was never something I intended on doing. A friend at University that I was in a group with was using it and asked me to join so we could converse about the assignment. Now, I am addicted. I go onto Facebook every day. There are many positive outlooks on social networking. It also allows people to upload photos, which can be useful for those that live far away from loved ones.

Overall, social networking allows people from all over the world to connect to discuss common interests, allows people to keep in touch with old friends and make new ones, and gives the opportunity for distanced people to stay up to date with people's lives.