• A definition of e-publishing
• The different links of the publishing value chain
• Different forms of e-publishing that includes
- e-books
- e-journals
- blogs/blogosphere
- interactive fiction games
- visual novels
- podcasts
• Disruptive technologies
• Copyright
• Different technologies used to create the different forms of e-publishing
• How to subscribe to RSS feeds
I must say, I enjoyed this week’s topic of discussion in the lecture, as we were discussing something that is of interest to me, and to many of you. As it says on the following website- http://ebooks.epicauthors.com/?tag=social-networking
'Social Networking'- if you’re not doing it, you’re behind the times. If you don’t Twitter, what’s wrong with you? If you don’t blog, where have you been? You can’t possibly succeed nowadays without Social Networking. Just how true is that?’
Very true in my opinion! It’s become a world wide phenomenon that’s taking over the internet. Social networking is like water, it flows. There are a band of social networks constantly being created to cater for the public. Do you remember the times of myspace and bebo being the dominant players in the social networking world? Long gone are those days! Move over and make way for Facebook and Twitter! But give it a year or so, and it will be Twitter who???
It states on the http://www.epuplishing.com/publishers-use-twitter-facebook.html that “success for the online publisher is typically defined by three metrics: attracting new visitors, getting them to spend more time on your site and encouraging them to return frequently’. Isn’t this exactly what social networking sites are succeeding in doing?
Although some might argue that it’s not a direct form of e-publishing, it can be used for e –publishing purposes, for example a way of promoting your business, and books as it says on the following website-
http://www.epuplishing.com/publishers-use-twitter-facebook.html
‘Social Networking is certainly a great thing- and publishers should take advantage of it to improve the dialog with their existing readers as well as to find new ones’.
Another purpose of e-publishing on social network sites is blogging, especially political blogging as seen most recently with Barack Obama “tweeting” on Twitter (http://twitter.com/)
On his page he highlights certain issues or causes that he’s trying to alter, for example-
• 5.15 p.m Dec15th- The stakes are enormous-if we don’t get this done, your premiums are guaranteed to go up.
• 5.27 p.m Dec 15th- Reform will save families money, will save businesses money and will save government money. It has to pass on our watch.
Obviously social networks can influence the public, as witnessed ‘during the recent presidential campaign where team Obama leveraged the instantaneous spread of information to millions- and revolutionized voter turnaround efforts’ http://www.epuplishing.com/publishers-use-twitter-facebook.html. Another example of twitter being an influential form of e-publishing is the backlash a fan of Stephen Fry faced after calling his “tweets” boring. Fry then sent a message to the user, saying: "You've convinced me. I'm obviously not good enough. I retire from Twitter henceforward. Bye everyone." After this, the user who called him boring started receiving angry messages off “other tweeters”. The whole incident escalated, until in the end Stephen Fry apologised. To read the whole story, click here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8336425.stm.
This just goes to show how influential social networks can be, especially with such things as cyber bullying happening more frequently. It doesn’t seem such a problem at first as there’s distancing between the act and the result, but more often than anything, it escalates out of hand. There’s a worryingly amount of teenagers committing suicide because of cyber bullying in the recent years. I found this story in ‘The Sun’ reading the headline- A DEVOUT Christian who was a 'bright and promising' student killed herself after becoming a victim of cyber bullying. Read more:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1086136.ece
One thing to always be wary of these days when opening an account with social networking sites is this notion of privacy. Think about it, how easy is it for someone to download hacking software off the internet and use it for hacking purposes? Not that hard! When typing in the words “hacking software” on google, a staggering 11,100,000 options was available for me. Shocking! Not long ago I was a victim of someone hacking my facebook account and was posting a daily status! Luckily I managed to sort the problem out through changing my password. This isn’t always the only security problem with social networks, take for example The U.S. Marine Corps banning Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites from its networks, effective immediately.
‘These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries,” reads a Marine Corps order, issued Monday. “The very nature of SNS [social network sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC [operational security], COMSEC [communications security], [and] personnel… at an elevated risk of compromise.’
To read more about this story, click here- http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/08/marines-ban-twitter-myspace-facebook/
So next time you’re on the internet checking your facebook or twitter page, just think who could be watching your every move on a database ready to hack into your account! Because it’s not impossible, not even for the Government! Take Gary McKinnon, a Britain who hacked into the US government computer systems, the full article is available here- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7831481.stm. Not only this, but the government are keeping an eye out on every social network page, so it’s important to watch what you put out there! Because they will know where it came from as every computer that has a network has an IP address. This enables people like the government to track down which computer has been used for something.
Well, I’m afraid that that’s it from me for now. I hope you had as much enjoyment out of reading my blogs as I did writing them. Who knows, maybe one day I might be back! I might not be able to resist expressing my views through blogging. Hope you all have an enjoyable Christmas, and remember if you’re stuck for a Christmas gift for anyone this year, Lulu is on hand to help!
Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
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