second life

This link is to a website acout entrepeneurs. It has an article about how a woman named anshechung who was second life's first millionaire selling clothes, perfumes, property etc.
First of all, second life can be defined as an international virtual world first established by linden labs inc via mainstream in 2003. This definition was achieved from a wikipedia article on second life. The article explains what second life is and lists its positives and negatives, e.g it helps people to make friend. We are told about people who quit their day jobs in order to start making money on second life. The article even tells us of a man who has never met his partner face-to-face - becuase they are together through second life. One of the negatives of second life that are outlined is that foreign businesses are taking advantage of entrepreneurial opportunities by using inexpensive labour and cheap overhead. We are told that this isn't yet an issue on second life but may become a problem in the future. Finally, the article gives ideas on how to earn money on second life These ideas include architect, tour gide and publicist. I believe that this kind of business is a good idea as it can be enjoyable. The fact that anshechung made millions on second life shows us that it is possible and this information spurs a lot of people on to make businesses on second life. The market is even expanding today, This website tells us that in the last seven days, 502,944 new members have applied. (Updated 13th november).

myspace killer

this article on Times online is about a finnish gunman who predicted the attack on you tube. the article tells us that this kind of illegal act has been commited before. Also, we are told that this kind of act is common not only in England and the USA, but all over the world. So generally, the article is outlining how dangerous the internet has become for all that use it.
The article says that the intention was for these people 'to seal their place in history,' if this really is the case, then it shows us the wide range of misuses the internet goes under. There have been other cases like this one for issues ranging from pornography to paedophilia. This is why it is essential that the internet is used safely in the making of my project.
This article is form the same website but is about a man who predicted the school massacre in america on you tube. Both these articles put into perspective for us how misused the internet is nowadays, but this video is more threatening and dangerous than the last, which backs up my point about the wide range of misuses the internet goes under. The fact that this one is more threatening also tells us that it was not made by people who just want to be slightly famous, it carries an actual threat. The fact that these videos and blogs etc that send these threats are personalized makes it even easier for people to misuse them as they can put almost anything they like into them.
The telegraph online posted an article about the same story but from a different viewpoint. They say that the killer used the software as a forum and they say that it is something that has happened before and will happen again. The viewpoint of the writer seems to be that these kinds of things can not be prevented as there are not enough regulators to prevent these acts of crime. I believe that there can be more restrictions to prevent these happeneings as the safety of internet users should be worth spendindg extra money on it.

what is web 2.0

This page has information about what web 2.0 is, how it evolved from web 1.0 and how it is helpful for designers. It tells us that web 2.0 is a perceived second generation of the world wide web. It involves websites that include interactivity and customization. i.e websites in which the user takes a physical part and is engaged in the website. The main advantage of web2.0 is that information can be pulled out of a number of different places and can be personalized to meet the needs of a single user. This means that information will flow freely and users can express their ideas without fear of repression. I believe this is an advantage as it will make certain websites less complicated to use. Another advantage is that the population as a whole can get its information from more than one source rather than just one. An example of this is being able to read newspaperws from various different countries in the world. The main disadvantage of web2.0 is dependance. i.e. people become too dependan ton the internet and if the system crshes or won't work, they will not be able to get any information. This also means that services that people are dependant on can be targeted by hackers. The only way to stop this is to make sure that you keep a hard copy of your work. e.g floppy disk or memory stick. You should always have back up!