The Chronicles
October 2012
Here’s what I suggest for this month’s article… some definitions. Many of you, during our courses, ask me to explain these following terms so, here goes for alllll of you …
E-Mail (eg. Gmail):
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet. E-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need connect only briefly, typically to an email server, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages.
Chatting:
Instant messaging (IM) is a form of communication over the Internet that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver. It is basically a real-time direct written language-based online chat. More advanced instant messaging allows enhanced modes of communication, such as live voice or video calling, video chat and inclusion of hyperlinks to media.
SMS:
Short Message Service (SMS) is a text messaging service component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices. SMS text messaging is the most widely used data application in the world, with over 3.7 billion active users or 74% of all mobile phone subscribers.
Blogging:
A blog (a combination of the words Web and Log) is a personal journal published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first. Blogs are usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often are themed on a single subject. Although not a must, most good quality blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via GUI widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. In that sense, blogging can be seen as a form of social networking. Indeed, bloggers do not only produce content to post on their blogs but also build social relations with their readers and other bloggers.
Forum:
A Web forum is a website (or section of) that allows visitors to communicate with each other by posting messages. Most forums allow anonymous visitors to view forum postings, but require you to create an account in order to post messages in the forum. When posting in a forum, you can create new topics (or "threads") or post replies within existing threads. Most people use Forum’s to ask questions to, and receive answers from, “Guru’s” of a particular topic eg. Information Technology (IT) topics, health, fitness, gardening, cooking, teaching, parenting etc...
Social Networking (Eg. Facebook and Twitter – see below):
A social networking service is an online site that focuses on facilitating the building of social relations between people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. A social network service consists of a representation of each user (known as a profile), his/her social links and a variety of additional services.
(Facebook)
Users must register before using the site after which they may create a profile, add other users as “Friends” and exchange messages. FBers “Follow” Friends' activities (presented in the form of “Wall” entries) covering all forms of subjects such as what they’re thinking or doing, their photos or videos they’ve “Liked” on Youtube. Users may also join common-interest user groups, organized by eg. Workplace or school. As of May 2012, Facebook had over 900 million active users, more than half of them using mobile devices.
(Twitter)
Twitter enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as “Tweets”. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with over 140 million active users as of 2012, generating over 340 millions tweets daily and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day. Unregistered users can read the tweets, while registered users can post tweets through the website interface, SMS, or a range of apps for mobile devices. The Twitter website is one of the top ten most visited on the Internet.
Skype:
This service allows users to communicate with peers by voice, video, and instant messaging over the Internet. Phone calls may be placed to recipients on the traditional telephone networks. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free of charge, while calls to landline telephones and mobile phones are charged via a debit-based user account system.
Take good care of yourselves,
questions.monamilordi@gmail.com
This article originally appeared in Main Street – The Laurentians' English Language Community Newspaper.
