An english test....ok I have taken quite a few tests in my life. This is class material. I am supposed to "push" my results for all eyes to see! Intrigued? Well first, I found this site that evaluates your english level in 40 questions. http://www.learn4good.com/ The BBC quizz in 6 questions was probably too easy, I think many people got a perfect score given the rate of failure possible on a scale of only 6 questions. But 40 questions, now that is much trickier. These questions involve grammar, vocabulary, idiomatic sentences.. it pretends to give a panoramic view of your english level on a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being the most advanced stage. So here are my results:
Good for me, I guess! According to this test, I will not have to participate in a "increase your level in english programme"!
Wikipedia is an institution. When you think of the Internet nowadays, Wikipedia is one of the first things that springs to mind. I'm quite the Wikipedia user, I find it very simple to use. You just type a word on the Internet and have a full definition of it in just a matter of seconds, no need to browse through the dictionnary pages. But bizzarely I never I thought I would get to be a contributor because I don't feel like I'm an expert on a specific matter. And it seems like every topic has been covered these days. So I thought I could write about something closer to me. One of my best friend's mother is a great painter doing a great deal of exhibitions. I had just seen one of her exhibitions last sunday at Bastille, in Paris. Encountering the challenge: So why not write about her? Well because there is a number of important facts to take into account. I guess I thought once you made your article it would stay there permanently. That was a foolish first thought because wikipedia is the most participative website there is. You can edit every texts and above all flag the users who don't respect the rules. I was surprised at how ethical and responsible Wikipedia is in the sense that reminders are everywhere to elevate the value of this online encyclopedia and appeal to your good judgment to be a good contributor. This is why I was scared my article would be deleted in just seconds, judged irrelevant by the moderators because the person I was talking about was not well known enough. The importance of links is also to be highlighted. It is a technique for not getting your article suppressed: you must link to other verified wikipedia articles. I must say writing in Wikipedia is also harder than writing on Blogger: you must use a little header bar but not all icons are very clear. You must experiment a little before getting your article to fit the graphic terms of other wikipedia article. I took a shot.
Result: Well, it seems my article has passed the night. There is a tool to watch it changing, its trail in the wikipedia world: the watchlist. Apparently two wikipedia contributors (big contributors, judging by their profiles) have edited my text. One placed the article in the category "french artists" and the other edited one of the links I had put. Its quite a pleasant sensation to see that unknown people have already consulted my article and not flagged it. You really feel you've made a difference in the Internet world.
Internetland can be quite as scary as Zombieland. Think you can handle it? These are a few survival rules you might want to have a look at: 1.) Measure your clicks. Don't just click for the fun of it. You might land up in a completely different place you were expecting and scary messages can come up on your screen. For instance, if you use the Internet be sure to use a phishing and adware protection. People who are not informed about the risks of the Internet may get viruses by clicking on popups.. these insidious icons often take the shape of an ad, but sometimes they come up as links or normal downloading signs. So beware!
2.) Don't talk to strangers Internet connecting people. Sure. It's the best way to connect the whole world in a giant web. Reaching people far far away in just a matter of seconds thanks to these electronic channels. But you can also reach whoever you want, people you don't even know. And the other way around. It is important not to be naive on the Internet. Children especially run a risk. Internet is the easiest way for a sexual predator to operate. There have been so many examples of that these past years. Little girls speaking to grown men on their blog until they get persuaded to run away with the same grown man and go missing. Reality always catches up.
3.) Don't give out private information Well of course you can...in a certain way. But you will have to be a careful user. When I'm talking about private information, this means credit card information, physical adress, phone number. Many websites ask for this. Always make sure that the website in question has a https:// like adress. A little lock should appear on the right bottom corner when the transaction is being made on websites such as Ebay or Amazon. And even on the most secure websites you always have to be careful. Ebay has already been hijacked by cybercriminals. And giving out your email on random sites is sure to bring you a lot of spams. I personnally have an email adress specifically designed for the spams in question. Careful!
4.) Control your image This is one of the new rules on the Internet. We have never been this close to one another since social networks appeared. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter. All these platforms enable us to surveil everything our partner is doing at the minute. But as a great tool it also has a major drawback: extreme transparency can damage a reputation. You don't necessarily control the photos published with your face on them. A drunken night can make you lose a job, show your boss or your boyfriend that you were lying about the place you were in last night or whichever.. Hugh Grant had to justify himself after facebook pictures were published of him with teen girls. On facebook and other social networks, stay alert of what image
5.) Adapt yourself to new standards of the web Talking about social networks, new ones such as twitter bring new kinds of social interactivity. I can post a "tweet" every minute if I want, as long as there is an update in my life. Facebook statuses are more a day to day thing. New forms are coming on the Internet, so if you want to be "aware", go with the flow! Original is only original for minutes before being plain "old". Inform youself about the new things on the Internet because this place is sprouting with novelty! And if you don't follow the buzz, you'll just get lost along the way.
6.) Everyone is anonymous On the Internet you don't have to be Mr or Mrs X like you are in real life. Internet gives you the possibility to change your identity. Get wild pseudonyms, create an avatar of yourself just like the sims and make it interract with other people. You can be disguised as a female when you're a man, act like a child when you're in fact a cop. Your blog can be a tribune for your thoughts and opinions, no matter how hardcore they are. You're pretty much free to invent yourself a "second life"!
7.) Yet everything you say may be held against you Of course, it may seem like we are free of our speech and that we can be anyone we want. But don't forget that if people want to know who's hiding behind the screen, taking a shot at an underage girl or boy, insulting and harassing people in a cyberacrime kind of way, they can and will track you down. The FBI can easily retrace your position thanks to your IP number. This explains how people end up in tribunals for having downloaded too many songs. In other words, you can express yourself as much as you want, you will have no space restriction for that but you also have the right to remain silent!!!
8.) Internet can do anything You'll find Internet is one of the most useful tools there is. So don't be afraid to seize every precious opportunity offered to you. don't just look to traditionnal ways to find a job, go on the Internet and get that job! Get yourself a mate too, on the Internet you know you're looking for the same thing. Let the Internet magic operate. Write your book if you want. Internet breaks professional and social barriers.
9.) Internet was made by you and for you, don't be afraid to innovate. Remember the Time's cover: You. you are the main actor of this past year. Thanks to the Internet. Because now, we are going towards a down to up trend. The internet user is a media actor. Just look on Youtube, you can create your own channel. The least expensive tv channel ever just got created on the net too. So don't be afraid to innovate because Internet makes it easy. You're the man!
10.) Enjoy the ride! All in all, the ride on the Internet rollercoaster can be really fun, as long as you're a careful user. You're Ulysses navigating among millions of documents to find your way. Create your own little world, with your favorites, mails, facebook or myspace accounts. don't be afraid to master your Internet.
This is a burning new subject (no pun intented) Are e-books going to take over the book world? Our generation has changed its habits, we have adapted ourselves to the many new aspects of the Internet, progressively replacing tv by streaming and radio by..well..streaming. And if I daresay a lot of us read more press on the web than on paper! Is this the future in waiting of the book? Are we going to burn these heavy and obstructing objects now that the new technologies have found a revolutionnary "break your habits" statement on that matter too?
First things first: what is an e-book? (wikipedia definition here) You may lately have come across one of these in the parisian metro (especially on line 3 or 14). Booming in France, they have existed for some time in the US. E-book stands for electronic or digital book. It will give you the equivalent of a traditionnal printed book transposed on a digital media. Nothing like a video to help you understand: Here is the example of the Sony e-book reader:
The Sony E-Book reader is currently investing this new booming market. Amazon's e-book reader: Kindle however leads the race. You can also read e-books on smartphones such as Iphones with the e-reader Stanza. In France SFR will be the first french company to launch an e-book reader.
To look at this video, you think : wow what a neat object. Just like the Ipod, just like the Iphone, this is what we would call a "jewel of technology". Not only does the aesthetic aspect bluff you but you cannot help but notice its main advantage against books: it's small! and the virtual incredible space it contains can house hundreds of books! Think of putting a hundred hardbacks in your purse. Impossible right? The confort conditions for reading are bound to improve too. E-books takes all its advantages from the net. No bounderies, a unique source to find anything you are looking for. Amazon after all ambitions to be the world's biggest library on the web. E-books can be downloaded by the minute which makes it much faster and less costly than running to Barnes and Nobles to get your paperback. And soonbooks will be free. So clearly this evolution is in the order of things: just like music devices -from cassettes to mp3s-
Except we're not talking about cassettes, we're talking about books!! Books with all the imaginary concepts we know: the mythical library of Alexandria, books and the wisdom they inspire.. Books are associated to a hardcore myth of human intelligence. The book industry is trembling to know if this heart value will crush the shadow of the e-book or just subside. Still many points make the good old book irreplacable. Houston we have a technical problem: should you be in the middle of a desert or a badly connected place, the e-book wouldn't stand for long. Another field in which the book wins: A book has a history: maybe it's the book your first lover offered to you or the book your parents gave to you for christmas. It has passed from their hands to yours as a gift. Sentimental value is one thing but should a book from Baudelaire or Poe be just one more file on my e-book? Doesn't it deserve a certain gratification, going through the ages as it has done? No, with e-book readers, we are running the same risk as music. Making the book entirely free of charge on the net, thereby decreasing its core value which is sad given their history. Oh and I often buy books just for their covers.. so much for the "don't judge a book by its cover" motto.
Anyway, I think that technology will have its way and I'm far from being reluctant on the technology side. However I feel that books are precious objects and that they cannot be made obsolete just like that. It has been proven yet again that books are the strongest and most persistent memory storage that exists, better than cds or computer files. The baseline is : if you had to make a choice, would you rather chose the media or the object?
I would rather not chose and follow the evolution. Soon e-books will democratise themselves, we will all own them for various purposes, including e-learning and it will be quite a useful tool. But I do not think we will ever truly abandon the paper book. e-books and traditionnal books will be complementary. For now if I had to chose which e-reader I wanted, well I would probably go with the Iphone e-reader Stanza because I think I would probably get an Iphone before buying a (for now) very expensive e-reader. find a description of Stanza here. If I had the money I would however like to try the sony e-reader : because it is probably the one that gives most comfort for the eyes. No backlighting which is probably one of the biggest setbacks of the other e-readers. The ressemblancy to a book is extreme. But seems like I don't have the money yet: 350 dollars, so I'll just have to wait!
Ahh, the multiple wonders of the Internet... Keeps me learning every day about new things. I could never: find a solution to your complex internet problems...
I'm amazed at all the geek helpers you can find on forums such as commentçamarche or geekstogo http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/forums.html etc.. I know I could never be one. And I benefitted from their help a countless number of times. Just a few days ago as a matter of fact. The really frustating thing that happened to me is that my sound suddenly switched off from all my internet applications, be it Youtube, Dailymotion of Surfthechannel but not from my Windows applications! I could listen to Itunes and Windows media for example! I tried everything I could to restore the sound but the problem was clearly out of my league and I found a very complex solution by browsing these different geek forums. The people there who can indicate all these edgy numbers, and know your computer better than you do, they're impressive. It's a gift! So just when I'm starting to think I'm really becoming a geek, this puts me back in place. (sigh)
I could never be: a hacker
I should'nt say it but I'm a big admirer of hackers. Having power over the Internet must be tremendously exciting! Here's wikipedia's definition of a hacker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(computer_security) Of course there are the "mean" hackers who will launch worldwide viruses that will kill your computer as was the case with the "I love you" virus in 2001. Others will use their powers for cybercrime purposes, stealing credit card passwords etc... Here is a list of the most deadly computer viruses known to this day: http://www.viruslist.com/en/viruses/encyclopedia?chapter=153311184 But what I really find fascinating about these people is that they are just normal, anonymous people, sitting behind their computers with the power to literally turn the world upside down. They are part of the people who can inflict real damage to multinational companies by creating a whole new operating system for computers: Linux, ready to take on the Microsoft monopoly. They are also the only ones able to create bugs on Google for a few hours, getting hotmail and g-mail to send crazy emails among users, breaking into the Pentagon or CIA files. No wonder some end up being hired by the FBI. Having a hacker with you is much better than having one against you. And no wonder they steal the spotlight in TV shows such as 24. Hacker characters are fascinating, complete geniuses of the web, for whom the html language has no secrets. (Sigh again) In a way, I wish I could do that too. I just found out about: E-Learning One thing I just got to know about is E-Learning. Here's the definition given to this new practice of the web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Learning Well E-Learning is kind of what my english class and I have been doing since the beginning of the semester. My assignments are all defined on the web (twitter, my video resume on Youtube and of course this blog) and our teacher is far away from us (somewhere in the South of France), giving us our lessons by webcam. I never thought I would get to learn english that way!
E-Learning is a new trend but it's also becoming an essential educational practice. It's just arriving in France but it has been there for quite some time in the US. I went to school in the US for 3 years and I remember being in 6th grade when the first "smartboard" arrived in my school. This incredible tool looked like perfect magic to us kids. Just think of an electronic screen which will obey you in every way. All you need to do is touch the screen, just like a gigantic cell phone. Having personally experienced the smartboard, I think this e-learning tool made everything more interesting for the kids that we were, catching our attention more properly and for the teachers, without a doubt. Despite its price, it will probably be a great part of e-learning future all over the world. To learn more about this tool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_Board_interactive_whiteboard
Another example can show just how e-learning came to be essential. Lately, even the famed video website youtube has created a channel dedicated to e-learning: it is called Youtube Edu. This snapshot shows you what land on when you follow the Youtube Edu link: http://www.youtube.com/education?lg=fr&b=1&t=m
Ok this picture is blurred..but what you can see when you do go on the website is that schools like HEC have already invested this space!! Professionnal advice is also available on the website. As a communication school, the Celsa should react! Youtube Edu needs us too!
If you think the Internet is obscure, then take a good second look around you. Because Internet is all about..... 1.) TRANSPARENCY.
Just one of the fundamentals of Internet. This winning communication concept literally boomed during the last few years. The basic idea is to break barriers between people by revealing everything, thereby making communication easier. This concept is applicable to professionals, big companies, especially to the "big sharks" such as Monsanto or Macdonald's. Commitment charts, social responsibility...everything is made available to a simple internet user like me. Making it easier for these good reputation seekers to justify themselves and scrape off a toxic image. But the conjunction of internet and transparency is even more spectacular on the individual. The internet is indeed the ideal space to communicate about oneself, as I am doing here with this blog. Platforms and especially social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace make it possible to know every single detail about people from their favorite artists to the brand of toothbrush they're using. There is maximum coverage. With Twitter and Facebook we can even enter celebrities' lives such as Demi Moores' or even the president of the United States', which seemed unconceivable just a few years ago. This link with the internaut was especially effective during Obama's campaign with the results we all know. Of course, this overexposure has some down effects. Extreme transparency means public figures have to be perfect role models for instance. If they slip and say something bad or just downright stupid then you can be sure that same sentence will have the effect of a bomb on the internet and be broadcasted all over Youtube ("I can see Russia from my house", ring a bell?)...
And what about private property? Everything you do on the internet may be stored away, data can be given to other sites. No wonder some people receive viagra publicity in their mails. Moreover, when you type your name in google, you may find that internet knows quite a lot of things about you. All in all transparency is an excellent and effective communication tool, but careful what you wish for...
Nothing lasts forever... 2.) IMPERMANENCE
Another fundamental! What's impermanent is something that will go away just as it came and be replaced by another thing. Think of kleenex or fashion. The internet created its own ever cycling trend. For instance, not writing daily in this blog may just kill it. I will have to write new posts almost every day to keep my hypothetical audience on the watch. Youtube will receive as many as thousands of videos a day. If I don't update my Facebook status then people will lose my track! It is all about fresh content. A never ending race embraced by the new technologies available on the net. How many PCs are still on the XP operating system? Vista with its widgets and brand new applications is now a must-have. Just like in economics, the world wide web is keen on innovations. Seems like today, I'm more likely to have a flourishing social life on the web than in real life. As a matter a fact, I feel I am becoming more virtual by the minute. A little avatar icon on MSN, basically a SIMS. And this second life is quite exciting. Aside from these almost philosophical considerations leading to the schizophrenia of the self, what's happening to those who can't catch the train in march? All this may be going too fast for old people. I know this impermanence completely puzzles the elder persons in my life. Far too abstract.. they say. Towards a greater gap of generations? Stress? Yes, Impermanence is all about adapting yourself, new rules, new games. Welcome to the jungle of the Internet!
What can I do for you today? 3.) PRECIOUS OPPORTUNITIES This slogan-like sentence can pretty much sum up one of Internet's main characteristics: Internet can do everything!! And there are so many examples of that: - you can find a job. Monster, Profil Culture are websites which are updated everyday with new job offers. Internet can make you rich! - you can find a new partner. Meetic, Love Intelligence.. the net is blooming with love. - you can find a place to live. Pap, seloger.com will put in contact potential buyers and owners. Tested and approved! - you can find help on the most random things. Forums are made for you if you need guidance on your cv, if you want to share some psychological issues, or just seek advice on pursuing studies abroad. - you can find information. Internet has its own encyclopedia with wikipedia. The google search engine covers everything: What is the capital of Papoua New Guinea? Your jocker on "Who wants to be a millionaire" could find that for you in a heartbeat if he has the Internet. Such a great and useful tool. It is so easy to find what you're looking for on the internet that it's almost too simple. I could just stay in my chair with my laptop the whole day, since it can give me everything I need. Meaning: these precious opportunities can reinforce any virtual addiction!
Talkin' bout a revolution BREAKING THE HABITS
The Internet has no mercy for routine. It constantly outdoes itself with the help of all the individuals present on the web. Here's a list of grammatical pasts I don't do anymore thanks to the Internet.
I used to watch TV, now I watch Youtube or Surfthechannel. I used to listen to the radio, now I listen to last fm, Deezer etc.. I used to look at my mails first, now I directly go on Facebook or Twitter. I used to go to supermarkets, now I shop online. I used to call trip agencies to get a booking, now I go on Vueling, Voyages sncf etc.. I used to buy music in stores, now I buy music on Itunes. I used to buy newspapers, now I go on LeMonde.fr I used to look for definitions in the dictionnary, now I go on Wikipedia And so on...
What more can I say? Interesting to see how the Internet is contributing to the decrease of other fellow media. Could this be the beginning of a unimedia, reuniting every media on a computer screen? Seems so. Because Internet is the people's media, giving us a way to express ourselves like nowhere else. Revolutionnary, yes indeed.
Greetings virtual visitor!
Thanks for landing on this tiny particle of the gigantic world wide web. This is my first official blog (thanks Bob). And it will definitely be media oriented!
As your host, here are my basic characteristics: girl in her 22nd year, in a masters degree in media at the Celsa, communication school.
And now visitor may your stay be a pleasant one!
