Vic's Space

Social Networking - Facebook

2009-12-10T05:27:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago if you asked a class of students if they participated in social networking I think the majority would have said no, however these days ask our class and you would be hard pushed to find anyone who doesnt encounter some form of interactive social networking environment on a daily basis. This form of social networking has swept the globe and become an addictive part of everyday life for most 12-30 year olds.

Im sure most people in our eBusiness would say that they check their Facebook accounts at least once a day and now with so many different social networking sites - checking all accounts is becoming more and more time consuming - with Bebo, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, MySpace, Second Life and the list goes on and on.

Sites like Facebook are great for not only chatting with friends but also for finding out how friends are getting on and what their doing through status updates, also communicating and reconnecting with old friends and even family with whom contact has been lost.

Facebook is also a good way of sharing onformation such as photos, videos and links to other websites.

Social networking sites are addictive, some people say how can you spend so much time on Bebo or Facebook... well I say to them how can you not?? When I log in to Facebook before I even get to look at my home page or the facebook home page there is a half hour procedure of checking your notifications, then you might have friends requests to accept which are not just people who want to be friends with you but also applications which friends want you to join or if you've already joined them then there are 'gift requests', 'hug requests', seasonal 'snow ball fight requests'.

Even if you were just to click ignore on all of them its still time consuming. Then you finally get to looking at the home pages and certain things catch your eye like such and such has UPLOADED NEW PHOTOS, and off you go... And just when you think you've had enough and go to sign off that person starts 'a chat' and your stuck there for another hour.

Here is a snap shot from my Facebook page and while its not very clear you can see that there are many different aspects attracting the eye at the one time. For instance on the right hand side at the top of the Facebook page their are numerous requests and at the bottom of this side there are notifications which appear with a red speech bubble...

I have used Facebook a lot to describe social networking, but obviously it is not the only form.. It is simply the one which I am most aware of, and the one which I interact with each and everyday (free broadband in my college house :)!)

Social networking is a phenomenom which has took the world by storm and has brought the Internet in particular and latterly its users into a new and exciting era of interaction.

Its the best thing since sliced bread - or should I say texting... Walking through Dublin last weekend I stopped at the spire and as I was standing there two boys where saying goodbye and one said 'So when are we meeting tomorrow night?', the other replied 'I dont know yet but I'll facebook you when I find out..'

Facebooking has turned into a verb now??

Social media will dominate the world, I fear, and I say 'fear' because it seems inevitable that verbal communication is largely being swapped for technological exchanges of data and evermore people are getting on there laptops to communicate with friends rather than walking down the street or picking up the phone...

Is there a place for religion in modern society?

2009-12-10T04:41:00.000-08:00

I can't speak for everyone my age but in my opinion religion still has a significant palce in modern society. I also cant speak on behalf of my fellow classmates as I have a different experience of religion. For my family, church holds a great place in our family life. All through my childhood I remember every Sunday morning Mum would come up and wake us and there was absolutely no excuse good enough to get you out of going to church. But obviously as children we were not in the slighest bit interested in church. For at church, we would have to go to Sunday School and I didnt enjoy that at all. We learnt all week at school so the last thing I wanted to do was go to school again at the weekend.

Now years later the pressure from Mum has eased with the usual nagging on Sunday changed to a simple request to accomply her.

I always thought that once I finished Sunday School and got confirmed at 12 or 13 that I would never go to church again, I would be free and only go on special occasions. But this was far from the truth!
Yes there have been times when I havent attended church for a long time but generally I go at least every second ween. I even undertook teaching a Sunday School class. Although I dont think I have the same qualities as the people who taught me in my day.

That is why I do believe that the value of religion has changed. In our parish once teenagers are confirmed they dont feel they have a reason to attend church anymore 'their too good for that', maybe it affects their image to a certain extent. But in excess alot of these people are still attending services regularly and keeping youth in the church.

This is all very personally related but on a general note... Ministers in the Church of Ireland differ widely in their deliverence of services. Some are old and stuck in their view that church services should be old fashioned and conducted in a traditional manner. However there are a few out there including my minister (thank goodness!) that are using innovative and modern methods in their deliverence of services. This involves use of powerpoint instead of the traditional hymn book and audience participation during the sermons.

I believe altering services to be more modern is key to the survival of religion in the future.

In conclusion, I feel that yes religion still holds a place in modern society, however now instead of dictating to a community, religion now acts as a support to that community...

This video gives a general view of the changing views in Ireland regarding religion..

M-Commerce

2009-12-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

Technological Advances are so different today than in the years people my age were growing up.. When I was in primary school there was no worries everyone was just the same and only different was on non-uniform days when the fashion competition took place. But then when I hit secondary school thats when things started to change. This is when I discovered the F word... Fon (yes I realise that should be phone, but it was 'cool' to spell it like that for texting) So anyway everyone started getting mobile phone they started out big and got smaller and fiddlier every year! I must have been the last person in my class to get a mobile because my first phone wasnt even a brick.. Technology had moved on.. My first mobile was a Nokia 3410i and looking back a cant believe how basic it was compared with my current one. No digital camera, colour screen or music player in them days... No way.. Nearest to that would have been the making your own ringtones.. Remember that??

Or remember the phones where you could make your own covers??

Nowadays mobile phones have advanced to the extreme and shows no signs of slowing down. And we have become sooooooooooo dependent on our mobiles or should I say mobile device.. I know a can't leave the house at all without my phone it just feels like somethings missing. Gone are the days when you if you needed picking up from town you would head to the phone book and ring home. Everybody has a phone of some description, and not only the common age group of 16 - 40. Its scary to think that in the youth group that my 9 year old brother attends the majority of children including younger than him have a mobile phone! No wonder he is plaguing my parents..

What is the world coming to?? Well its all to do with M-Commerce (Mobile commerce)

Something which has really taken of in the last 10 years. Mobile phones have become an interface for distributing digital information - sharing photos, videos music not just text... Access to Internet is not even thought of as a special features on mobiles anymore its more of a necessity..!

So just why is M-Commerce taking off?

Well its just so practical and at the end of the day that's what everyone wants.

People want handiness, convenience and technology. Having all of this in one device is a major advantage. Mobile Devices have other advantages which include they are always available (providing its charged your mobile will always be usable), also the mobile is personalised and acts as a platform to combine the current physical world with the virtual interactive world..

M-Commerce is not however only to do with mobile phones, it is the use of mobile technology and wireless devices to make purchases on the Internet. This type of business is on the increase and revenues have increase rapidly from 2000 to current day.

Wi-Fi - Wireless Fidelity... What??

This is the trademark name describing the use of high frequency radio signals to transmit and receive data over distances of approx. 30-50 metres.

This is the type of technology you will experience in most airports and hotels, with most hotels offering 'hotspots' at a charge to their paying guests.

So basically Wi-Fi is a way of accessing the Internet without making a physical connection

The issue with wireless connections and m-commerce is whether it is security enough and will signal interference disrupt the smooth running of the connection?.. Also it has been argued - how can we make money from Wireless? Examples of how money can be made comes from the hotel industry where they charge their guests to use their wireless facility..

These problems will all have to be overcome in order to enter the next phase of this technology. 1G and 3G already exist.. What's next 4G??

NAMA Drama - What's that?!

2009-11-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

NAMA - National Asset Management Agency

On being asked to write a blog about NAMA last week I must admit I wasn't thrilled at the prospect initially... Then after a few minutes I realised that this was a great opportunity to finally learn about what I ignored in the news because of not understanding it. All I could remember from news reports was 'toxic debts'

Being away on Erasmus last year really gave me an excuse to ignore the financial situation back home and the extent of the damage that was being done to our economy. Living in Portugal, were there already was extreme poverty meant that we saw first hand how people there survive troubled times. Coming back to Ireland in June from what everyone had been telling us, I was expecting similiar conditions, and what I came home to was a complete contrast. Things hadnt really changed! But I guess visually there really wasnt any change except for quieter shops... It was underneath that things were crumbling. The economy had definately become unstable and suddenly people weren't sticking their hands in their pockets so easily. This transposed to the housing market and thus action needed to be taken..

Step in and take a bow NAMA.. The supposed answer to all the problems... Well not quite is more like!

From my understanding with brief research NAMA was an agency set up to pay over the odds for bank debts with tax payers money. This was with the aim of stopping the banks from going bankrupt.

Example
Borrowed - €1,000,000 for house
Now worth - €500,000
NAMA Buy - €750,000

NAMA pay the bank so the bank can continue operating as normal

Why? Why would they do this? Why would they buy up all these failing debts?

NAMA are not just trying to save the banks, they are in no uncertain terms a profit making organisation.. They hope that by collecting up all these assets that in time these assets will return to a higher value and then the government will make their money back and then some...

This is just my view of NAMA and of course I have probably misinterpreted it to a certain extent.

Offically NAMA is defined by http://www.finance.gov.ie/ as the following:

'NAMA will be established on a statutory basis, under the aegis of the National Treasury Management Agency. Assets will be transferred from the banks to the NAMA to strengthen their bank balance sheets and ensure that uncertainty over bad debts is reduced. This will facilitate a sustained flow of credit on a commercial basis to individuals, households and businesses in the real economy.

The Agency will purchase the assets through the issue to the banks of Government bonds. This will result in a very significant increase in gross national debt, to be offset of course by the assets taken in. The cost of servicing this debt will be offset, as far as practical, from income accruing from the assets of the new Agency. The debt will be repaid from funds raised through the realisation of those assets over time.'

This is what I know aboout NAMA and what I have read about on the Government website. Aside from this I am stil unfortunately much in the dark about NAMA. But I am hopefully that some good will come out of it in the long term!

Online Adult Industry

2009-11-14T10:05:00.000-08:00

This week in eBusiness class we started to learn about a new topic, and a topic that I definately wasn't expecting to have to deal with in college! The topic was......... wait for it...... The Sex Industry and E-SEX!! Initially I was unaware what the sex industry had to do with eBusiness, I actually thought it was just our lecturer playing a joke on us to see if we were paying attention, when I read the first slide of the handout in class..
As class progressed I quickly realised that this industry has been the instigator and initial user of many of the key eBusiness tools we have learnt about over the course of the term.
Discussion in class in relation to this controversial taboo subject was marred, obviously, by judgements, with remarks passed on everyone who dared to make comments about what they knew. 'Oooohhhh how do you know about that' or 'Is that what you get upto in your spare time then', were amongst the common 'slags'. It seemed as if you were damned if you said anything!
But in saying this I think everyone leaned a lot from this topic. Reading over the notes you get an extent of the scale of this industry. Its a $57 billion worldwide industry

Were definately in 4th year.....

2009-10-27T13:31:00.001-07:00

There's no chance of lying back this year that's for sure. Right from the first week I realised that this year is definately not something we can just scrape through and do the bare minimum, and its going to be extremely stupid to leave all the projects to the last minute. We have 5 assignments due in on the same week and the deadline is fast approaching... Also we have a E-Business assignment based on a speaker we had in, which is definately not going to be an easy one!!
Working on the International Business & Trade project at the min its 100% ca so obviously it needs to be good, but I just cant seem to settle to write it up, loads of research but not much concrete.

And since we're in fourth year it seems like at the back of my mind is always what Im going to do after I graduate.
We went to the Gradireland Careers Fair last week and I think I would of been better staying at home and researching the companies online because it was off little or no use to me. Most of the companies sent people who were just there to hand out leaflets and only answered the most basic questions, these people were mainly still on the graduate programme which could of been a good thing because they were in our foot last year, but I really think it would of been of more benefit to send senior personnel. Also we were told they would take our CVs but they wouldnt.

Although it seems like it was all bad, it wasnt, there were a few very helpful people, and I was pleasantly surprized by Lidl and Aldi.

But still the resounding message we got was...

Travelling

2009-10-09T04:53:00.000-07:00

One benefit Ive found came out of my Erasmus year abroad last year was the great interest I found in travelling. Well although I say I found it, I think it was more that I developed it because I had always had an interest in travelling just never the money to do anything about it.. During Erasmus last year I travelled Portugal extensively and really felt like I got to know each of the areas very well. So that inspired me to go Amsterdam and Liverpool over the Christmas break last year. Now this Christmas Im heading to Belgium - Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp. Cant wait. Then Summer 2010 its off to Greece. Im taking it one small step at a time but hopefully Ill get there eventually.
My goal is to visit every country in Europe...
Checked Off:
- Italy
- Spain
- Portugal
- France
- Italy
- UK
- The Netherlands
- Belgium (Jan '10)
- Greece (Jul '10)
- Bulgaria (Jul '10)

While it would be class to go travelling for a month or two its just not possible so for now this is my only option, doing it in stops and starts!!

SEO and SEM

2009-10-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

At the minute in our E-Business course we are just finising up the section on SEO and SEM which I am finding extremely interesting, I cant get over how different this E-Business module is to the one we took in Erasmus last year. This year its possible to combine the Practical and Theorical aspects of E-Business as oppose to last year when our lecturer just detailed us loosely to establish a website and design it.

Anyway,

SEO = Search Engine Optimisation

SEM = Search Engine Marketing

From the offset these could be thought to be the same things however SEO is all about improving the volume of traffic through your web page from a search engine's 'organic' links. 'Organic' links are the links which the search engine itself deems relevant to particular keywords. The organic links can be seen to have an advantage for the listed companies and web pages because the search engine (eg. Google) sees them as a quality page under the users inputted key phrase. So its almost like a quality endorsement..

Where as SEM on the other hand is concerned with the optimisation of the paid links, these generally appear on the right hand side of search engines like Google. These links are there because someone such as a business has paid to be included on the site if a user searches for certain key words. This method has the benefit in the fact that because they are paying for inclusion they are guaranteed to be viewed when someone types the keywords, however people only click on these links 20% of the time because they do not rate the content as highly for quality.

Erasmus Experience

2009-10-01T05:34:00.000-07:00

Setubal can be beautiful if viewed from the Right Places

To say I enjoyed the Erasmus experience throughout would be a lie... I mean as if being thrown into a foreign country with little or no help wasnt difficult enough to get my head around, try being thrown into an area of Portugal which can only be described as poverty stricten. Myself and three other students went to Setubal in Portugal for our Erasmus, we lived in the students residence which was situated 10mins from the campus and 20mins from the city, the students residence was sandwiched between a shanty town, deserted waste land and an estate full of very very poor people in delapidated tower buildings. In saying this the actual residence we lived in was relatively secure although it was very boring and we were placed with final year portuguese students. I think some of the most depressing times of my life were spent in this year abroad, although we were obviously glad to have other irish students there.
1st semester was particularly bad as we got into a routine of staying in the residence as it seemed like to much effort to get out and organise trips. However we managed to travel a lot to Lisbon and the surrounding areas.

In second semester however lots changes and we put it down to a number of factors...
1. Our determination to avoid a repeat performance of 1st semester
2. The change of Erasmus students (fresh blood with more motivation)
3. The weather getting gradually better and better, vice versa from 1st semester

Things really began to change in the first weeks of 2nd semester. We booked flights home for Easter to break up the time, something which we didnt do in the 1st semester (were we endured a 4month stint non-stop). Also with the help of more motivated Erasmus we started to arrange trips to visit different parts of Portugal. Immediately we started to make the most of our time and see the country.
With Erasmus students we went to the Algarve for the National Erasmus Meeting of Portugal, to Peniche for surfing, to Cascais for fashion shows. Also I had friends over and we travelled to Porto and I became very familiar with Lisbon.

Going to Portugal for Erasmus, on the whole, I would definately not recommend it..
Going to Portugal on holidays, I would however praise it, if your interested in coastal beauty, historic buildings, culture, scenery, sight seeing and if you enjoy trawling cities and discovering unfamiliar places then this is an ideal place. This was definately one of the best holiday locations I have ever been but just dont live in SETUBAL!!

Also I thought once I came back to Ireland I could put the bad times we had on Erasmus in Setubal behind me, but NO... not only did we have problems getting the correct results from 1st semester (which has still not been clarified) but also the college will not send over an accurate transcript of results for the courses we completed while in Portugal, meaning that me and the three others students who went to Portugal cant register for Fourth Year of our course in Dundalk..
This is seriously heartbreaking for us as we thought our troubles were over when we left Portugal.....

Lisbon, Porto, Lagos, Algarve

eBusiness

2009-09-17T04:15:00.000-07:00

Before learning anything about eBusiness my basic understanding of this area was that it was simply people using the Internet to sell or market their product or service... I guess i still think that is what eBusiness is at the minute although my opinion is changing.
Last year while studying in Portugal, I studied an eBusiness module and for it we had to research the different types of eBusiness format and for our final project we had to create our own online business. Using a website called ebusinesslab.pt (I think) we were able to set up an online store front for our business ideas. My group created Hot Chocolate, which was a business aimed at people who were looking for personalised chocolate gifts for Birthday, Christmas etc..

When I started back to college this year I was kind of glad to see we were going to be studying ebusiness again because I enjoyed. Im finding this module alot different which is good because I found last year to be very practical based now there is some theory to support it, so hoping to learn more!

My 21st!!

2009-09-10T04:20:00.000-07:00

Hoping that this weekend is going to be good craic.
Having a party this weekend on Friday, for my 21st and really cant wait, everyone's made a really big effort to get things ready while Ive been away at college. Its going to be a joint party for me and my boyfriends 21st.
Having a burger van, DJ and 2 bouncy castles. Hoping that the weather stays good because its in a SHED!! Sounds weird but its going to work!!
Just gona be friends and family and fun!!