Tutorial 5:
User-Generated Content
on the Internet
Objectives
• Session 5.1
– Understand push and pull communication
– Learn about Web 2.0
– Examine email-based communication
– Understand Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds
– Explore the technology used in podcasting
– Use a mashup site
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Objectives
• Session 5.2
– Explore different methods of chat communication
– Examine online social and business networks
– Learn about photo- and video-sharing sites
– Learn about blogs and microblogs
– Explore ways to protect your online privacy,
identity, and reputation
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Session 5.1 Overview
Pull Technologies
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Push and Pull Communications
• Some communication methods use push technology
to send content to users who request it
– Chat
– Instant messaging
– Online social networks
– Photo- and video-sharing sites
– Blogs
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Push and Pull Communications
• Pull technology has subscribers “pull” content to
their computers when they want it
– Mailing lists
– Newsgroups
– Feeds
– Podcasts
– Mashups
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Web 2.0
• Web 2.0 is a term coined to describe the changed
Internet in which users interact with content
– Creates users who actively participate in writing the
content that they are viewing—hence the term “usergenerated content”
– Users interact with content and are given new and
easy ways to create it
– Term indicates a change in the way people use the
Web
• A virtual community, called an online social network,
provides a way for people to discuss issues and share
information using the Internet or cellular networks
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Email-Based Communication
• A popular way of sharing information is to join, or
subscribe to a mailing list
• Mailing lists:
– Use a list server to send subscribers messages from
other list members
– Might be moderated, in which case an individual or
group called the list moderator monitors messages
sent to the list and discards inappropriate content;
this type of list is called a moderated list
– If it has a list administrator who oversees the list’s
members, the list is called a closed list
– If anyone can subscribe to a mailing list, it is called an
open list
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Email-Based Communication
• The Usenet News Service, or Usenet, was founded in 1979 at
Duke University as a way of collecting information and storing
it by topic category
– One of the first large, distributed information databases in
the world
– Originally devoted to transmitting computing news and
facilitating discussions among employees of university
computing departments on topics such as operating
systems and programming languages
– Topic categories on Usenet originally were called
newsgroups or forums; now called Internet discussion
group
• A distributed database is stored in multiple physical locations,
with portions of the database replicated in different locations
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Email-Based Communication
• Newsgroups:
– Are similar to mailing lists in that they accept
messages from users and make them generally
available to other users
– Do not use a list server to forward copies of submitted
messages to subscribers
– Stores items on a server as articles or postings
• The server that stores a newsgroup is called a news
server
• The collection of news servers connected to the Internet
make up Usenet
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Email-Based Communication
• When Usenet News Service began, the only way to read
or post articles to newsgroups was to install and run a
software program called a newsreader
• Now, you can easily search and read newsgroup articles
by using a Web site that archives articles
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Getting Information from RSS Feeds
• Usenet is an example of a feed (also commonly called a newsfeed
or a Web feed) that uses pull technology to deliver changing
content to users; content might be from:
– A blog
– A Web site
– A news organization
• The format that is used to syndicate (distribute) published content
from one site to another is called RSS, an acronym for Really Simple
Syndication; another format is Atom
• Feeds are similar to newsgroups in that they let you subscribe to
content that you want to receive on your device
• Feeds differ from newsgroups because of the way that content is
delivered to subscribers:
– Newsgroup postings are delivered via email messages
– Feeds are delivered through a program that includes a summary
and a link to the published or actual content
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Getting Information from RSS Feeds
• Feeds are used by organizations and individuals that create and maintain
blogs, and on social networking sites as a way to publish content and alert
subscribers to changes in the content
• To receive feed content, you can install an aggregator on your device
• Most Web browsers, email programs, and social networking sites have
built-in aggregators that let you subscribe to, view, and remove feeds
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Podcasting
• Podcasting lets a user
subscribe to an audio or
video feed, then listen to
it or watch it at the user’s
convenience on a
compatible device
• The software to
subscribe to a podcast is
called a podcatcher; it
manages the schedule
for downloading files to
your device
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Mashups
• A software program uses an application programming
interface (API) to communicate with an operating system
or some other program
– Written with a specific goal in mind
– Reduce the amount of coding for third-party software
programs
– A company writes an API and makes it available to any
developer who wants to use it—usually for free
• The term Web services describes the process of
organizations communicating through a network to share
data without needing extensive knowledge of each
other’s systems
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Mashups
• In a mashup, a
developer combines
the services from two
(or more) different
sites using the APIs to
create a completely
new site that uses
features from each
site
• Generally, customized
advertising generates
revenue for a mashup
site
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Session 5.2 Overview
Push Technologies
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Internet Chat Communication
• Originally, chat described the act of exchanging typed
messages, or a text chat
• Early networks included many computers that ran a program
called Talk that allowed users to exchange short text
messages
• In 1988, Jarkko Oikarinen wrote a program that extended the
capabilities of Talk; he called his multiuser program Internet
Relay Chat (IRC)
– By 1991, IRC was running on more than 100 servers
throughout the world
– IRC became popular among scientists and academicians for
conducting informal discussions about experiments and
theories with colleagues at other universities and institutes
– IRC is still widely used today around the world
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Internet Chat Communication
• In the 1990s, people used their Web browsers to visit
a virtual chat room, where they could send text-only
messages to other users in the room or just read the
messages without contributing to the discussion
(lurking)
• Today, chats can involve exchanging pictures, videos,
sounds, data, and programs
• In voice chat, participants speak to each other in real
time
• In video chat, participants can see and speak to each
other
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Internet Chat Communication
• Instant messaging (IM) software lets users chat in real time
using an Internet-connected device
• The first instant messaging program, ICQ (pronounced “I seek
you”), started in 1996 and still has millions of worldwide users
• There are many instant messaging software products available:
– America Online (AOL) created its own instant messaging
software called AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
– Microsoft created MSN Messenger (called Windows Live
Messenger in Windows Vista and Windows 7)
– Yahoo! Created Yahoo! Messenger
– Other portals and software vendors released their own
products
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Internet Chat Communication
• IM is now widely available, with built-in support on many
social networking sites and other types of Web sites, and
for many types of devices including computers and cell
phones
• A text message is another type of instant message which
occurs over a cellular network between users who are
connected to the network using cell phones or other
mobile devices
– Uses different technology than instant messaging, but
its communication is very similar
– Lets users send and receive very short messages
(usually 140 characters or less) in real time
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Internet Chat Communication
• Voice Over Internet Protocol
– Some instant messaging programs include support for
voice communications
– Another option for voice calls is VoIP, which is an acronym
for Voice over Internet Protocol
– A cost-effective alternative to the traditional “landline”
telephone service
– VoIP providers rely on the Internet as their network
– VoIP eliminates monthly service fees and taxes and usually
includes long-distance and international calling for free or
for a nominal charge
– Most VoIP providers include calling features that you
expect from landlines, such as caller ID, call forwarding,
call waiting, and voice mail services
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Internet Chat Communications
• Voice Over Internet Protocol
(continued)
– VoIP is a way to reduce
costs by routing
conversations over
existing Internet networks
while at the same time
providing other business
services
– The primary disadvantage
of VoIP is its limitations in
identifying a caller’s
physical location for 911
operators
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Online Social Networks
• Social networks connect people with specific common
interests
• Craigslist was an early online social network
• Connecting with Friends
– An early pioneer of Web 2.0 was Friendster, launched
in 2003
– Facebook began in 2004 as a closed network for
college students; now open to anyone 13 and older
with an email address
– Many social networks operate in niche markets
– By building up a set of connections, members can
develop contacts within a community
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Online Social Networks
• Advertising Revenues from Social Networks
– Most social networking sites rely heavily on
advertising to generate the revenue they need to
operate
– Many corporations now use social networks as a way
of connecting with consumers by:
• Harvesting data in user profiles and displaying
relevant advertising
• Garnering product feedback
• Offering coupons and other incentives for
purchasing their products and services
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Online Social Networks
• Advertising Revenues
from Social Networks
(cont.)
– Facebook is a
particularly attractive
site because of its
large number of
active users
– The largest social
network in the world,
Facebook has
become an essential
communication tool
for individuals and a
valuable marketing
tool for corporations
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Online Business Networks
• Users of online business networks are looking for
specific business solutions
– A company recruiting employees with specific
skills
– A vendor hoping to place its product in a
particular retail outlet
– An organization searching for a consultant who
can provide assistance on a specific topic
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Online Business Networks
• Examples:
– LinkedIn – social network started in 2003 for business
professionals; has more than 135 million individual members
– Sermo – a site restricted to credentialed U.S. physicians that has
more than 120,000 members
– Ryze – a business network site; stands for “rise up” (has 500,000
members)
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Sharing Pictures on the Web
• Existing photo-processing services began allowing
consumers to upload their digital images to a Web site,
print photographs, and purchase items sold by the site
imprinted with those images
• New sites (called photo-sharing sites) started offering
these same services plus enhanced tools that made it
easy for users to upload pictures and create more
complex items
– Shutterfly and Snapfish let users upload pictures and
print them in different ways, and share them with
other users
– Flickr lets users tag images by category or person and
share these photos as part of the Flickr social network
or with other social networks
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Sharing Videos on the Web
• Similar to photo-sharing sites, a video-sharing site lets
users post video content
– Might be short clips shot with a cell phone
– Professionally produced movie trailers, news
segments, or interviews
• YouTube was an early (2005) and hugely successful video
sharing site; now the primary place where people post
and watch video content on the Web
• YouTube now has strategic partnerships with many major
television and cable networks and music labels to
broadcast their content
• YouTube relies heavily on display ad placement, brand
channels, and contests to generate revenue
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Blogs
• A blog is a Web site that is published to express the
blogger’s opinions about a particular topic
• Some blogs function much like news organizations by
disseminating information about a specific story or
from a specific organization
• A blog might contain only text and comments, but it
usually includes photographs, links, videos, and other
content, and lets readers integrate the blog content
they are viewing into their own social network
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Blogs
• Many blogs are published using free blogging tools
available from sites such as Blogger, WordPress, and
Windows Live Writer
• Blogging tools often include:
– Templates that format the blog’s content and provide
the blog’s overall design
– Create a form to post comments
– Create a widget of tools to post the content on other
sites
– Provide code snippets to create hyperlinks and embed
photos in the postings
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Microblogs
• A microblog is a form of blogging that sends short
messages – usually 140 characters or less – on a very
frequent schedule
• Microblog postings are sometimes called tweets
• The act of microblogging is sometimes called tweeting
• A follower is a person who is receiving microblog
updates
• Many microbloggers use the same text message
acronyms that you find in instant messages
• Users include user-defined keywords called hashtags to
create topical categories that link to other messages with
the same hashtags
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Protecting Your Privacy and Identity on
Social Networks
• Considerations include:
– Many people have the same name
– Falsified ages
– Cyberbullying, or using Internet communication
to harass, threaten, or intimidate someone
– By making your information public, you put
yourself at risk
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Protecting Your Reputation
• Although postings can be
deleted, information is
archived
• Schools monitor online sites
• Your online profile can be
accessed by people in
positions of authority
• False information can be
posted about people
• There are companies that
specializes in online reputation
management
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