STONECPS

I was just watching the news and was saddened when they feature the plight of our educational system here in the Philippines. With the advent of computer and Internet, there are still some public schools who don’t even have a computer room where the kids can learn.

If only our government can pool something to have a budget for at least the hardware and then they can just load it with free open source software so the students can have the basics on how to use the computer and the Internet.

Here are just some of the free and downloadable software that can be use by public schools:

1. Open Office. This suite is like the Microsoft and Word Perfect suite which can be use for word, spreadsheet and presentation processing.
2. Free Graphics Software Blender. Blender is a graphic application software that can be use to create 3D graphic animations.
3. File Sharing Software like Ares and Amule. Both of this software are downloadable and can be use to teach the concept of file sharing, networking, and peer-to-peer concept.
4. Audio Software like Audacity. This is free open source software that can be use for editing and recording audio sounds.
5. Media Player like BS Player which can play videos in any format.

These are just some of the few free software that can easily be downloaded for use and I am sure there are more.

Let me share with you a little secret. Are you looking for a term life insurance and is having a hard time getting quotes from different insurance companies? And if ever you were successful in getting quotes, don’t you find it hard and time consuming to compare each f these quotes that you sometimes end up just getting whoever replies to your queries first without even checking if the coverage of that insurance is okay or not.

If you are in the same situation as above, you will be happy like me for discovering the site of WholesaleInsurance.net (check this out.)

What they do is compare term life insurance quotes and rates from even the top insurance companies like John Hancock, ING, RBC Insurance and the like. You can even do a search by coverage amount so you can easily find the best insurance for you base on the budget that you want.

I am really glad I have discovered the site of WholesaleInsurance.net as it makes my job of looking for the best term life insurance very easy.

I was searching the net for ways on how to increase traffic to my blog and I was really happy because I found a site where I can increase traffic to my blog for free and at the same time also offers revenue sharing.

The site, YouSayToo offers all this. All I have to do is just add my blog to YouSayToo and every time I publish a post on my blog, like a post about new hotel Dubai or about monkey defense game, YouSayToo will put a summary of the post and link to my blog which can be clicked by other bloggers who are members of YouSayToo also. This way, I am increasing exposure of my blog, thus increasing traffic.

What is nice about YouSayToo is that it also offers an income opportunity for my blog because it is a Google AdSense and Amazon affiliate revenue sharing site. And every referral that I make will give me 15% more earning opportunity.

Check out their site and see how they can help in increasing traffic to your blog while giving your blog an income opportunity too.

Ever wondered why your favorite websites post links to other websites? Chances are they are part of an affiliate program. Affiliate programs have evolved considerably in the last decade, and enjoy an incredible amount of popularity among Internet users.

Also known as associate programs, their primary aim is to direct traffic from an affiliate website to the merchant site. The affiliate gets a fee in return if a sale takes place as a result. Affiliate programs are usually associated with Amazon, which has been using this Internet marketing strategy successfully since the late 1990's. However, other e-retailers like AutoWeb, PC Flowers & Gifts and EPage hold the earliest patents on affiliate programs.

The revenue generation model can work in more than one way. Affiliates are usually paid on the basis of sales generated, or on the number of visitors they have generated for the merchant site. Pay per lead works by getting affiliates to refer visitors with their details. These visitors then become leads for the merchant who contacts them directly. Pay per click was a popular basis earlier, but is virtually non-existent now owing to numerous click frauds. Another way is to pay the affiliate a fixed commission for simply putting up the merchant's banner ad on his site.

The biggest advantage of affiliate programs is that a website can participate in e-commerce without directly selling a product or service. For example, a blog on book reviews could specifically link to Amazon for featured books. This would allow a book-lover to read the review and also purchase it online. Amazon, in turn, would not have to worry about directly approaching this customer to sell books.

Affiliate programs are still a small proportion of online marketing strategies, since search engines and website syndication continue to dominate the scene. However, this form of marketing looks set to grow in a big way in the coming years.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is so important for online businesses and websites today that there are schools specializing in SEO strategies. These schools are teaching young people to generate the best search engine rating for their clients, or companies that hire them. If you have ever wondered why certain listings appear higher on Google or Amazon than others, SEO is a big factor that can make or break a business.

When a bad listing appears high on a Google results page, you can be sure that the SEO company has done its job, and made that site seem to be exactly what you entered in the search field. For example, many advertising firms and gimmicky sales sites try to get you to click onto their site by misleading search engine bots into categorizing them as informative sites, or educational listings, rather than as sales sites.

SEO companies can serve to help the public by getting businesses correctly listed on Google, Bing, or other search engines. When you want good information from the Internet, you rely on these search engines to weed through millions of websites to find exactly what you want, and hopefully, from a reliable source, too.

With skilled experts working creatively and industriously to place you on top of the results page, right where your consumers will see you first, you can count on an SEO company to generate more business for your company. In today's world, SEO strategies are of vital importance for companies that want to succeed and thrive. Finding the right SEO company to help you rank high on the results page, and find the right audience, doesn't have to be difficult.

Do you think it is possible to surf the net even if you have no computer at home? I would have laughed if I hear this question but laugh no more as Smart brings SmartBro Surf TV.

According to the survey conducted by SMART, Filipinos love the Internet. We love to watch videos on the net, upload pictures and we are really totally addicted to social networking sites like Freindster and Facebook. But not all Filipinos have computer at home but at least almost 90% of Filipino homes have television. So that is why they come up with their latest technology, the SmartBro Surf TV.

The Smart Bro SurfTV kit comes with a top box, keyboard, mouse, Smart Bro Prepaid Plug-It and P100 of free internet use for only P4500. It is very easy to install as you just have to connect the SmartBro SurfTV set up box to your TV using RCA cables and then plug the power adaptor, keyboard and mouse and you’re online. You can check your email, update your status in Facebook and even upload pictures and videos. Coolness!

I often tell my nieces and nephews that their generation is lucky because almost all the information that they need for school can be easily found on the Internet. They can easily search in Google or Wikipedia and with just one click of the button, all the information that they need is presented before them. But because of this easy access of all information on the Internet, Plagiarism has become one of the problems being encountered in Universities.

So how can universities encourage their students to create their own work and avoid Plagiarism:

1. I believe that the first effective method to combat plagiarism is Education. Most of the time, students plagiarize unintentionally. The school should include in their Students’ Orientation, a discussion about Plagiarism so that students will be aware of it and thus, there is a big chance that they will put the best effort to avoid committing Plagiarism.

Aside from incorporating it in the Student’s Orientation, the school can distribute leaflets and have a campaign project in the university by posting posters about Plagiarism, its bad effects and how they can avoid committing Plagiarism.

If the university has a website, they can put a special section on their website about Plagiarism where students can easily get information about it.

2. The faculty should give students enough time to do their work so the students will not cram and therefore will just opt to copy works on the Internet or to get services of companies offering thesis and essay writing.

The faculty should also schedule a periodic review of the students’ report and paper work so the faculty can check the progress of the student. This will also be a time for the faculty to discuss his observation on the style the student is using for his paper and the faculty can also give suggestions on how to improve the work and pointers on how to avoid plagiarism.

3. The faculty should also require a specific format for the paper that he is requiring his students. For example, students should use different sources for their work like book sources, journal sources, Internet, etc.

4. The school should also put an effort to discuss important principle on intellectual property right to their students so that the students will be aware too that there are some principles present that will allow them to use copyrighted materials so as not to impede the students to search for further knowledge when doing their research work.

One principle is the Principle of Fair Use. As defined in wikipedia.org,:

“Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review.

The fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.”

If the students are aware of their rights, they will not be impeded to do further research for their studies, at the same time, they will be able to avoid committing Plagiarism.

5. The Principle of Creative Commons can also be introduce to the students. As defined in Wikipedia:

“Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators.”

This way, the students will have information on the options that they have in conducting their research work and paper and thus, students can explore using previous and existing knowledge in doing their research work without the fear that they might commit plagiarism and copyright infringement.

6. The university should also impose a strict disciplinary measure if students have been proven to be committing Plagiarism. Disciplinary measures like suspension or giving a penalty on the grades for submitted work that has been found to be plagiarize.

7. If the university can afford it, they can also employ plagiarism detection system where they can check the students’ submitted work against an electronic database of original and copyrighted contents.

Sources:

http://www.wikipedia.org

http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss4/currentpractice/article2.htm

Ethics in Information Technology by George Reynolds

Have you seen this website of Mark Reed where it lists different types of online personalities which he called flame warriors? Check out the site and see which type of flame warriors are you.

Flame Warriors by Mark Reed

If you were to ask me to choose which type of flame warrior I can relate to, this will be my choices:

1. Lurker does not participate in normal forum discourse, but he's out there...watching, reading every message. He is usually quite harmless, and more often than not his silence reflects a natural reticence rather than sinister motives. If a fight breaks out he will quietly observe to avoid revealing his position. Occasionally, however, some mysterious impulse drives him to de-lurk and attack. This totally unexpected assault is universally regarded as an ambush, and other Warriors will turn on him savagely. Lurker seldom sticks around to fight it out, however, and after a brief exchange, he once again slips out of sight.

I am a member of various yahoo groups but I can say that most of the times, I am just a lurker. I love reading other people’s points of views about different topics but sometimes, I don’t feel comfortable talking and sharing about how I think right away. I want to get to know the person (or in this case the group or the members of the discussion forum) really well first before I will be comfortable in sharing my views. So I will just follow all the flows of conversations and would really hesitate to speak out my mind right away.

I observe there are some members in our Yahoo groups that will reply and submit a post to almost all the topics being discussed in the forum. I am not like that. I will reply if only I find the topic really interesting and if only I am confident that what I will post will make sense and will not just waste the time of the other members of the forum. I guess, I am conscious with what I say and post in the discussion boards and I always think things through before I make a post. That is why, most of the time, I end up not posting anything at all and I will just stay as a silent observer.

2. Big Cat would rather not fight...he enjoys peacefully observing forum conversations and laconically participates when the moods strikes. He playfully chases interesting threads, and from time to time uses a Newbie or Propellerhead as a convenient scratching post. He enjoys being stroked or petted, and tends to purr loudly. CAUTION: Don't be fooled by his fuzzy, playful exterior. When provoked, Big Cat reacts with lightning speed and almost always lands on his feet after an attack. Big Cat often indulges himself by toying with his victim before delivering his lethal blows.

In a discussion forum, we can’t prevent that there will be misunderstandings and sometimes heated discussions. I experienced that a lot of times in the discussion forum where I am a member of. But like the Big Cat, I will prefer to just observe the conversation and will just be on the sidelines. I will read and follow the thread regarding the argument, but I will still prefer not to be on any side of the fence to avoid conflict. Thankfully, I haven’t experienced loosing my temper yet when provoked by other members of the forums.

One flame warrior that I encounter most of the time is the Nanny: tirelessly monitors forum discussions to make sure that everyone behaves. Though he is quick to admonish for off-topic messages and petty squabbling, he is generally slow to anger. Rather than wading into pitched battles, Nanny simply pulling the plug on combatants and bans repeat offenders.Weaker Warriors such as Innocence Abused, Weenie and Crybaby will run to Nanny for protection in the midst of battle.

In the yahoo groups where I belong to, we have a moderator who acts like our nanny. The moderator checks all the messages that are being posted in the forum and check to see if all the policies have been followed before the message will be approve for posting. The moderator also reminds us every now and then on the rules and policies when posting in the forum and the moderator also have the power to approve members and suspend members who constantly violates forum rules.

Anonymity existed a long time already even without the presence of the Internet. If we will remember, during the Spanish period, Filipino writers who are protesting against the Spanish government like Jose Rizal and Marcelo H. Del Pilar have used pseudo names to hide their identity.

The Internet is a very powerful information channel since it offers a wider audience compared to other channels like print media. Some people, who use the Internet to disseminate information, even if their actions are ethically correct, prefer to remain anonymous. Here are some of the scenarios that I can think of where a person is acting ethically but still prefer to use anonymity:

1. Activist and leftist who are against the government may choose to remain anonymous while they express their political views and opinions against the government because disclosure of their identity might endanger their life.

If we go back in history, during the Marcos regime, Human rights groups placed the number of victims of extrajudicial killings under martial law at 1500 and over 800 abductions

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrajudicial_killings_and_forced_disappearances_in_the_Philippines#Marcos_regime). Even up to now that we are no longer under a dictatorship, political killings is still a big issue under Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo’s regime.

2. Another situation that I can think of is an employee who wishes to give the public information of the wrong doings of his employer. For example, an employee of an industrial company who uses chemicals to produce their products which is harmful to the environment would want to reveal this malpractice to inform the public and to stop the wrong doings of the company to save the environment. Since the revelation of the company’s malpractice will do more good than harm, then the employee’s act can still be considered as ethically correct but he might still prefer to remain anonymous for the fear of revenge from the company of he might even loose his job.

3. Another situation is when a person with a medical condition might choose to remain anonymous when that person posts his concern or question to an online discussion board because of embarrassment to admit to his medical condition.

Although I think, anonymity in the Internet is not really 100% as there are ways to trace an anonymous identity.

1. IP Address. Each computer connected on the Internet uses an IP address. ISPs have a log of all the activities in the Internet. So even though the PC uses dynamic IP addresses, the log can be check to determine the IP address and the Computer name used at a particular time at a particular day. Although a subpoena is still necessary to get these information from an ISP.

2. If the information is posted anonymously in a website, we can also trace the owner of the domain name for that website by using Internet tools like whois.

“WHOIS (who is) is the aptly named Internet function that allows one to query remote WHOIS databases for domain registration information. By performing a simple WHOIS search you can discover when and by whom a domain was registered, contact information, and more. A WHOIS search can also reveal the name or network mapped to a numerical IP address.”

(Source: http://www.wisegeek.com).

3. If the information was sent via email, the sender can be traced by the route information contained in the email header.