Working Styles

Working Styles

The ever increasing range of ICT technology has enabled workers to become more productive and change their working styles. The work/life balance has been shifted as ICT has made it possible to still be work productive at home and on the move.

As many jobs nowadays involve the use of a computer, ICT has become ever more important in the work place. Due to more ICT being involved in the work place this has changed the description of many jobs. For example accountants used to use calculators and pencils, they now use spreadsheet packages such as Excel to complete most of their work. Also most office staff must now be competent in basic work processing and email applications on a computer.

Office Working Styles

Before ICT impacted the working people, typing tasks were performed by separate employees. Companies would employ typists who would receive letters or other documents in written form and then would type them up using a typewriter. Nowadays, these letters and documents are typed on a computer using a word processor by the worker who needs to do them. This makes workers life much easier as you are able make any changes quickly and effectively without having to type out the whole document again. This is just one way in which ICT has made the worker have a more efficient use of time.

ICT technological advancements has meant a lot of jobs for example Typists and filing clerks have largely become redundant.This is a problem as many people have lost jobs and have no income due to technology taking their place. Many people have had to retrain to have a ICT based skill they can use in the work place, this is because there is no more demand for their old jobs anymore. Among these jobs that have been created are Data Entry Clerks, Database Administrators and IT Support Staff.

ICT has completely changed the way in which we buy our groceries and visit the supermarket. Shop/Supermarket assistants use compterised till sytems (EPOS), and payment systems (EFTPOS). EPOS is an electronic point of sale. An EPOS is a system that uses computers or specialised terminals that can be combined with other hardware, such as barcode readers, cash draws etc for accurately and instantly capturing the sale / transaction and take the item you have purchased off the supermarket/shops inventory. This is a complete contrast to what supermarket or shop assistants used to have to do when someone bought something from their store. Not so long ago till assistants had to type the price off every item. Workers in the store had to make sure every item had a price lablel. Nowadays Barcode readers that use EPOS technolgy, allow the till assistants to just simply scan the item that the cusotmer has bought and a price will appear on the electronic display infront of them. This saves a lot of time and tedious work that employees in supermarkets and shops had to do.

 

People also use ICT to become more productive and self reliant at and away from work. This has caused people to spend more time working, breeching the gap between life away from the office and life at it. Not so long ago people had would do a normal day at work and not work much away from the office. Nowadays PDA's(personal digital assistants) and Blackberry's allow people to stay in touch with work life away from the office. Blackberry's offer  a feature called 'push email' which allows people to have access to their emails on the go. This is handy as work emails can be accessed on the phone and therefore people can stay work busy even in their spare time. This has made people far more productive for their business. Then downside to this amazing technological adavancement is the invasion of work in their personal life. Blackberries and PDA's have meant poeple are spending more and more time working away from the office. This means the people are spending less time with friendsand family even though these are the people who are more important in their lives.





This is a screenshot of a

blackberry screen showing emails

received by the phone



Video conferencing is another feature that has allowed business colleagues to share and discuss their work. This allows work to still continue away from the office  in real time, in which they can see eachother regardless of how far apart the colleages are from one another. Journalists no longer use shorthand, our dictate the story through a phone to file a report, but instead they use computing software and portable laptops with a modem to connect them to their office regardless of where they are in the world. This allows journalists to publish reports much quicker and get up to date news that is broadcast all over the world. In the past, news stories would take a long time to build as reports were written by hand and had to be sent to their office. This would take a considerable length of time especially if the report was comming from somewhere half way arround the world.

Include video- The use of Bighands in the office environemnt. Video someone dictating a letter.

Life in the Information Age 1.2

Topics i am going to do are:

• Decison Making
• Banking and Shopping
• Entertainment and Leisure
• Communication
• Working Styles

Research on Blogs

Research on Blogs

What is a Blog?
website that allows users to reflect, share opinions, and discuss various topics in the form of an online journal while readers may comment on posts.


How blogs are different to normal sites?
Blogs are usually about a single person and there experiences.


This website gives moreinfomation on what a blog is: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/02/05/what-is-a-blog/


Why people write blogs?
People write blogs as a way to express themselves and their knowledge or expertise. People read blogs as a source of information or because they find the writer interesting or share specific views with the writer.


What are the differences between blogs and normal websites?


I visited http://art.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1124239 to discover what are the differences are between blogs and normal websites.


Advantages and Disadvantages of a Blog

Here are some of the advantages of Blogging

• It is a way in which you can open up about what is on your mind.
• It is easy to post new information and share this with other people without having to send it more than once.

Here are some disadvantages of blogging

• Most people who have a large amount of time to write a blog tend not to have alot of interesting and compelling things to say.
• They take up alot of time if you want to make a good and interesting blogg.

There are some more advantages and disadvantages of bloggs on ://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm  



Find three interesting stories about blogs and find out how it has changed peoples lives

Here are some stories that i have researched showing blogs and how they have changed peoples lives :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6386613.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4278241.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4099120.stm

How are comments useful on a Blog?
Comments posted on someones blog can help the blogger in many ways. One way is that these comments are advice or answers to questions that a blogger has posted. These comments will help solve the bloggers problem or suggest ideas to them.

eBay

What is eBay?

Ebay is an online marketplace where buyers and sellers come together and trade almost anything. Ebay is like an auction sytem, where people post their products on it and buyers bid on the goods to win them. Ebay has become one of the worlds largest E-commerce websites where millions and millions of people visit everyday. This popularity allows people to sell items on Ebay quite easily as someone out of the millions of people who use Ebay is bound to want your item.

Here are some of the features on eBay

Feedback

EBay has a unique feedback system, which allows buyers and sellers to post comments and feedback on their recent auction experience. Each transaction allows you to give a single rating to your trading partner either positive, negative, or neutral. You may also make comments no swearing , abuse, racial comments are allowed. Each user has a feedback score that serves as an indicator of their quality as buyers and sellers. This allows buyers to purchase items will full conifdence as they know how efficent the seller is. It is effectively your online reputation. The more positive feedback you get, the higher your score, which also eventually is visually identifiable with a star system so experienced eBayers can tell something about you at a glance. Negative feedback lowers your score, thus providing a way in which users can prevent loss of money, or being ripped off in one way or another. There is also a running percentage of positive feedbacks. Some sellers will not allow buyers below a certain feedback level, as most fraud is committed by new, or fake, buyers who will generally have little or negative feedback ratings. This excellent sytem helps keep the honest and respectable users safe.

Buyer Protection

The vast majority of eBay buyers will have no problems obtaining their product safety and quickly. However, if you don't receive your item or if it arrives significantly not as described, then you can receive the full value of your purchase (including postage) back when you pay with PayPal. This is a good feature as many people get frustrated when they don't receive what they bought and the added annoyance of not getting your money back really does put you in a  bad mood. So will the buyer protection feature on eBay you have the support if something does go wrong. Online payment service users, such as Paypal assure a buyer protection of up to £500 (this may vary) at no additional cost. For users who are not using PayPal as their mode of transaction there is the eBay Standard Purchase Protection Program which provides up to £200 coverage (less £25 processing cost) for either items that are not received or items that are not as described in the listing. The resolution process can be slow and on many transactions that fee makes it not worth doing, however it does provide essential protection for the buyers so it is worth it for expensive items of purchase.


Registration

Registration on eBay is absolutely free, and is a quick and simple process. I registered on eBay myself and found it to take about five minutes setup an account. There are three requirements for registration. You must be 18 years or older. This prevents inexperienced or under age purchases on eBay and prevents false purchases. You must provide credit card and address details, in order to join the eBay community and use it to buy and sell. 


The instructions are clear and easy to follow. Only essential details are shown and needed by eBay. This is useful as people don't have the time to enter irrelevant or unnecessary information and will be put off registering with the service.






EBay's Layout 

Good aspects of EBay

• It is very simple to set up an account and using eBay to buy and sell products is extremely interesting and pleasant.
• EBay offers you a large variety of products to choose from, it has millions of shops and Ebayers offering a huge range of items. 
• eBay is fun and very entertaining. You have the most unusual items to choose from. The graphics are neat and extremely colorful. The the quirky and personal listings, you will find are quite enjoyable to explore as well. If you are interested in any sort of unusual product you can normally find it here, as it offers more than what a shop in the high street does. 
• EBay educates on the prices of various products in the market at the current time. You can learn the price of any product at any given time online. Ebay lets you know what people are willing to pay for a given product in real time.
• Surprisingly enough, eBay most often than not refunds their customers, should anything go wrong with the product. Most of the sellers have return policy's that they follow. Be sure to check out the seller's feedback to determine if they do what they say they are going to do in their listing.

Negative Aspects of EBay

• You cannot be totally sure of the quality of the product you are buying. Almost all sellers will claim that their product is in excellent condition to get as much money as possible from their goods. However on delivery you will find that your product is not exactly in good condition; scratches cannot often be seen in pictures.
• When you buy a product online, it is usually mailed to you. You cannot be guaranteed that the product will not get damaged when being sent. Especially if you are in a different country from the buyer the postage costs can be expensive, you will need to pay international charges that also cost a lot of money. Be sure to get the item insured by the seller when ever possible, to prevent loss of money and damage of the goods.
• Buying online takes up a lot of your time even if you don't think so. Though buying on eBay is not time consuming, it isn't as much fun as spending time with friends and family in shopping towns and centres. You are also able to touch the products you want and you are able to make a more personal decision about the item as it is in front of you.
• On the net, you can never be too careful of frauds. It calls for you to trust a perfect stranger, even if they could be reasonable you just don't know. Always check the sellers feedback and ask questions to ensure that your sales transaction is fair for both parties.

Chat Rooms

Chat Rooms - 


At this moment in time Chat rooms are less developed compared with Instant Messaging, Social Networking and Microblogs such as Twitter. 


Here are some of the positive aspects of Chat rooms. 

• In well-monitored chat rooms you can meet people from around the world who share your interests in a safe and non-harassing environment.
• You can communicate directly with people you might not otherwise be in touch with: teachers, community leaders, or experts.
• You can participate in an online community where you're not judged based on how you look.

However there are dangers that can occur on chat rooms.


Dangers

• The anonymous aspect of chat rooms can allow pedophiles to interact with people and cause harm.
• The short and abbreviated nature of responses and messages on chat rooms provides little time for reflection or can create misunderstanding between users. This added with the inability to display  body language, could mean you could hurt peoples feelings on the chat room without you even knowing you have done so.   
• Due to the anonymous aspect of chat rooms some people believe they can act any way they want. Girls in particular may receive crude or sexual comments.

Here are some News stories relating to Chat and Instant Messaging:

 

Chat and instant messgaing

Chat and Instant messaging


Instant Messaging or IM allows you to interact with other users in real time. Usually it occurs between 2 people rather than chat rooms which allow groups of people to talk to eachother. Thus making it more private. Instant Messaging has advanced quickly in the past couple of years, it used to just involve text exchange people two people. However now it allows users to share images, files and other forms of media. A popular example of this is MSN Messenger.  




Windows live Messenger 


Windows Live Messenger is a great way to chat, play games, or share photos and much more quickly and easily. It not only includes a completely new look and feel, but it’s also designed to let you customize it and make it suit you. There are other many great features in Windows Live Messenger and I am going to explore some of the best ones.


Features

With the new, intuitive user interface in Windows Live Messenger, users can share their music, documents, photos and other files with family, friends and colleagues on their Messenger contact list. Any changes made to the files are synchronized with the other user’s folder using peer-to-peer sharing, this allows both you and the receiver to get a up to date copy of the file you have sent them. If this sharing process takes place when the receiver is offline then they will see the file displayed and updated the next time they log in.

This helps people connect and communicate differently with contacts other than just talking to each other. Sharing photo's, videos and documents helps users interact and share experiences with their contacts without the need to leave their homes. The sharing folders feature is simple and easy to use with just a click of a button you can explore your contacts experiences and have a closer and more memorable chat experience. 

Voice Calling and Video Calling


This feature will let users who sign up for Windows Live phone call (provided by a Microsoft partner) to easily call landline and mobile phones. You will be able to set up a Windows Live Call account through the Messenger interface and start making calls to your contacts. You will be able to purchase minutes upfront, and then add minutes when your balance runs low. A benefit of this feature is that you will be able to make very cheap home, mobile and international calls. This enables parents who are on business trips abroad to contact family and friends cheaply without added costing from mobile phone providers who charge high prices. You will be able to make calls to users who also have Windows Live Messenger for free; this is similar to what Skype offer their customers. This quick and easy setup means there is no need to sign up for a Windows Live phone call account, so long as you and your Messenger contacts have compatible speakers, microphones or headsets.

Integration with Social Networking

Windows Live messenger has incorporated social networking into you messenger experience. Due to social networking sites becoming so popular, windows has decided to reduce window clutter and integrate social networking into its messenger. Today we use a variety of social networks and content sharing sites with numerous sets of friends and family throughout a number of different networks. This can be challenging and exhausting to visit different websites and create different accounts just to keep abreast of your friends’ updates. Windows live offers users a way of using windows live messenger with all your favorite social networking sites at the same time. Facebook for example is easily setup on Windows live messenger, and you can synchronies your information on Facebook with that of Messenger. 

Other Features

Contact Search

Contact search allows users to search by typing in the name of the person they are trying to find in the contact list. Search options are displayed after every letter so more often than not you can find your contact without typing in their full name. This saves a lot of time and the search feature then takes them directly to that contact.

Yahoo Messenger

Yahoo messenger is another popular Chat and IM service that is very similar to MSN. Yahoo Messenger is an all-in-one communication tool, and anyone, anywhere in the world, with a computer and Internet connection can use it. It allows its users to communicate in many different ways to other users.

Features of Yahoo Messenger- 

SMS on Yahoo Messenger 

The SMS feature lets you send text messages to your contacts mobile phones right from Yahoo Messenger. Just type in a friend's mobile phone number, write your message like you would a regular instant message, then hit Send on the Yahoo messenger window. Your friend will receive your text message on their phone, and their replies come back to you in Yahoo! Messenger. This is handy if your friend is away from home and you need to have an important discussion about something. It also means that you can stay in touch with them anytime, and prevents the annoying scenario of not being able to get in touch with someone. It's free to send SMS messages from Yahoo Messenger to your friends and to receive their replies. However, your friends may have to pay for data charges from their mobile carrier for receiving and replying to your messages.

Stealth and Privacy Settings

Stealth settings are a new feature on Yahoo Messenger and provide you with more control over your time on the Messenger. This is done by allowing you to choose which friends see you as online or offline.

If you want to sign in but not let your friends know you're online, select the "Sign in as Invisible" option at log in. Once you're signed in, you can see which of your friends are online but they can't see you. You can still send and receive messages, even if you appear offline. This is useful if you don’t want someone to know you are online but you still want to talk to your close friends and family.

To appear online to some friends but offline to others, use individual stealth settings to designate which friends should see you online. You can access individual stealth settings by right clicking on a friend in your contact list. You can also appear invisible to an entire group. These setting allow you to escape from people who you are not in the mood to talk to.

Instant Messaging is a fun and timely way to connect with the people you know and trust. But sometimes, those outside your trusted friends and family may try to contact you and start a conversation. If you receive an unwanted message from someone, you can click the "Ignore/Add to Ignore List" button in your IM window to permanently block his or her messages. This prevents arguments and helps stop cyber bulling. This is a unique feature to Yahoo Mail and I believe it is a very good way to stop verbal abuse through chat and instant messaging. At that time you will also have the option of reporting the message as spam. The user you're blocking will not know that you have chosen to ignore their messages, to prevent them holding grudges or sparking further animosity towards you or vice versa.

New ways to sort your contacts

Yahoo Messenger has now added a couple new ways to organize your contact list.  The First is by recent activity which will list your friends with the most recent updates at the top of your list. This is useful if you have already read older updates and want to see new updates that you havent already read first. It also saves users time scrolling down to find the latest updates.  Yahoo Messenger has also added the ability to sort by availability, so if you usually show all contacts in your list whether they’re online or not, this will help bring the online friends to the top of that list. Sort options are located in the drop down menu on the right side of the “Contacts” tab.

Chat Room Feature

Chat rooms are a great place to meet and communicate with friends who share your interests. You'll find chat rooms for a world of topics from entertainment to sports, to politics and pop culture. You can customise the chat rooms and your individual chats with emoticons, custom fonts and even voice.

Buzz Feature 

The Buzz feature is the exclamation point, located right next to the text icon on the mini-toolbar. This feature basically allows you to inform or alert the other person by shaking the message box and making a buzzing noise. This is a helpful feature to use if the other person forgets to respond for some reason or another and you want to get their attention right away.

E-commerce

What it is?

Electronic commerce or e-commerce is a term for any type of business, or commercial transaction, that involves the transfer of information across the Internet. It covers a range of different types of businesses, from consumer based retail sites like ASOS, through to auction or music sites like Ebay, to business exchanges trading goods and services between corporations. It is currently one of the most important aspects of the Internet as so many people rely on it throughout their day.

E-commerce allows consumers to electronically exchange goods and services with no barriers of time or distance from the comfort of your own home environment. Electronic commerce has expanded rapidly over the past five years and is predicted to continue at this rate, or even accelerate when new ideas are formed. In the near future the boundaries between "conventional" and "electronic" commerce will become increasingly blurred as more and more businesses move sections of their operations onto the Internet to make it convienet for their market.

Online Services

There many different online services for business on the Internet. The main tool for e-commerce is the use of the world wide web. Sellers set up stores which are specialised websites with payment processing interfaces allowing users to pay for goods and products online. The store is a series of webpages with photos, pricing and description of the goods.These goods are all linked to a database and a search facility so users can simply type in the product they want and get to it straight away. The shopper can then transfer the item to a virtual shopping basket and can then proceed to check out.

Amazon

Amazon is a large online shopping website providing the earth's biggest selection of books, magazines, music, DVDs, videos, electronics, computers, software, apparel & accessories, shoes and more!

The Amazon shopping experience begins with a very simple homepage that is clear and easy to navigate through.

When you look at the Amazon home page, its layout is in the form of a clear table like structure.Along the top navigation bar there is a search facility, and the search/shopping cart controls in the top right.
This simple and careful structure allows the user to:
Quickly find and purchase products straight from the homepage.The seller is able to quickly process online purchases through the basket feature.

Related Items Displayed

One example of customized content is seen on the home page. The homepage which modifies the main content based on how the user (whether logged in or not) has interacted with the product search feature and what the users want on the Amazon website.

Amazon has the ability to track client-site behavior to ensure that subsequent visits of each user are increasingly tailored to their tastes, habits and their desires.

This increases the likelihood that the user will make a purchase, and in some cases it will speed up the purchasing process becuase they dont need to search for the product. More significantly, it exposes the user to a wider range of products and services that tie in to their areas of interest. This means that Amazon can create more purchases as users see more things they want.

Why shop with Amazon Feature

The Amazon shopping experience is constantly reminding users of why the user should purchase a product from Amazon rather than from some other E-commerce site. A few examples are shown and discussed below.



This screenshot highlights amazons price difference compared with the nearest competitor.



 Each product displayed above has not only the discounted price offered by Amazon, but also the MRSP.

This simple feature, which is instantly understood by the user because of the strike-through text, is seen with virtually every product on Amazon. This gives the user confidence in Amazon being the cheapest on the internet and make them feel they are getting a bargain. This is a simple but strong sales incentive that has increased amazons revenue over the years.

The 'Look Inside' Feature

Books are one of the most frequently purchased items on Amazon, so it’s no wonder that the Amazon development team has built the feature that allows you to 'Look Inside' the book you want to purchase.

The “Look Inside” feature lets shoppers view certain sections of books: usually the front cover, table of contents, first pages, index and back cover. This feature is usefull for users who want to find out more about the product and whether or not the book is what the title says it is. This can be extremely helpful because shoppers will usually be able to tell from a glance at the table of contents or introduction whether a book suits them. There is nothing more annoying than purchasing a book that isnt what you thought it was going to be. Amazons 'Look Inside' feature prevents this from happening.

Customer review Feature