Unit 56 - Social Media

1.a) Research the following: What are they? How do they work? Refer to examples and explain the benefits.

Communication protocols: worldwide web consortium (W3C); wireless access protocol (WAP); global system for mobile (GSM); 3rd generation protocols (3G); multimedia message service (MMS); general packet radio service (GPRS); Bluetooth; broadband (ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), cable); voiceover internet protocol (VoIP)

1.a) Communication Protocols

i) Worldwide Web Consortium -
This is a term which is also known as (W3C), it is the main standards body for the World wide web which is more commonly accepted as 'WWW.' W3C work with the global community with aims of establishing international standards for server protocols as well as clients which then enable communications to take place on the internet. Basic examples are; Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc.

ii) Wireless Access Protocol -
This is an industry specification that allows messaging and information services to be sent and delivered to wireless devices independent of which wireless technology they use. There are many devices that use WAP and these are; Blackberry Smart Phones, Apple iPhones, etc.

iii) Global System for Mobiles - 
This is a digital mobile telephony system that is widely used within European countries and other parts of the world. Another term for it is GSM, it uses a variation of time division multiple accesss which is known as TDMA and is most widely used of the three digital wireless telephony technologies.

iv) 3rd Generation Protocols - 
This is most commonly known as 3G, it is based on a set of standards used for mobile devices and mobile telecoms use services and networks that comply with the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications.

v) Multimedia Messaging Service -
This is well known as MMS, it's a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from mobile phones. It extends the core SMS (Short Message Service) capability that allowed exchange of text messages only up to 150 characters.

vi) General Packet Radio Service -
This service is commonly known as GPRS which is easily explained as packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication system's global system for mobile communications. It is also another way of sharing information, you are able to use GPRS without having WI-FI activated.

vii) Bluetooth -
 This is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances mainly used between personal devices. Bluetooth is mainly useful for headphones, it also for linking your devices to cars. There are loads of bluetooth devices that are used around the world even cars, headphones, microphones, etc.

viii) Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line -
This is a type of DSL broadband communications technology used as a router, which is more advanced as you are able to use the internet and the telephone at once.

ix) Voice Over IP -
This is a way of communicating from device to device by sending data in form of sound through input devices (Microphone). VOIP is used in loads of ways across multimedia and voice commmunications. With an app called WhatsApp you are able to send voicenotes/recordings to contacts.

 1. b) Research/Case Study

Choose one social media app –

Who invented it? When was it created? For what purpose? How does it work? Include examples of adverts promoting the app. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the app – refer to at least two examples, one positive and one negative. What are the legal and ethical considerations of this app?

Brief Introduction

The social media application that I have chosen for this case study and research is the billion dollar company which goes by the name of Twitter. This is a application which has aims of keeping the world in contact, bloggers find Twitter easy to work with as they are able to tweet (share) what's on their mind to the rest of the world with a simple click. 

Twitter
Twitter was established in March 2006, however wasn't actually published/launched till July 2006. The creators were Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass. The service gained worldwide popularity, with more than 70 million users in 2012 which posted around 300 million tweets each day. You are able to access twitter via website interface, SMS (Short Message Service), or mobile device application. The incorporation itself is based in San Francisco and has more than 25 offices around the globe. Twitter works by users sending and reading short messages which go by the name of "tweets" and they are at a maximum of 140-characters long.
 

This advertisement which was found on YouTube, was used to explain how fast Twitter spreads information from user to user. The Application itself has many advantages and disadvantages that come with it, one of the main advantages are that you are able to access and keep up-to-date with what is going on in todays generation with ease, for this specific reason Twitter has a large popularity, business owners want their company to be more open and exposed to the world so they use their Twitter accounts in order to make this possible by promoting their services and products. This is a common way most business' use in order to share their company to other Twitter users in the world. On the other hand, Twitter also has its disadvantages as everything in life has an advantage and disadvantage. On Twitter, the wrong things can spread across the internet both explicit posts and violation posts, people who use Twitter can find these posts upsetting as they could be racist, sexist or ageist. However, Twitter aim to remove as much posts that users may find offensive as possible in order, to reduce and keep the amount of complaints as low as possible. Lastly, i'd like to speak about the legal and ethical considerations of the application "Twitter". Twitter has several numbers of rules and regulations which you must abide by in order to use Twitter with peace and no penalties, the fact that they have done this makes them a better company because it reduces the amount of offensive posts that can be tweeted.