4.1.) Programs downloaded

For the chapter 4 . tasks I downloaded the following programs:

Adobe Reader 7.0 (I had one before on my other computer, so the software is well known to me already)

Copernic Agent Basic, german version ( I found the idea interesting to see it in comparison to Google)

The download of both programs did not pose any problems. I was able to download the Adobe Reader without specific registration of my e-mail address or name, but had to accept the license agreement.
With the Copernic Agent Basic I had to register by name and e-mail address and also had to accept the licence agreement.

As I already know the Adobe Reader there was not to much room left for experiments. With the Copernic Agent Basic I started to search by varying the categories and search areas. I used search terms well known to me. Thereafter I went through search limitations and took a look at the pull down menue.

I found the different selection criteria with the Copernic Agent Basic a very useful feature. Admittedly if one uses Google advanced search there is some optionality given for the search, but in Copernic it is much better differentiated.

Downloading software from the internet is a very convenient way to get access to new programs both in economic terms and time required. The disadvantage of this convenience is that often copy rights are getting violated. Furthermore there is the imminent danger to download viruses or other hazardous material.
Especially for younger users the easiness with which software can be downloaded is high. So the might incur without knowing or because of unawareness high debts or might accidentally access material not intended to be seen by under age persons.

3.6.) Web 2.0: Blinklist vs Html

After taking a look at the blinklist and the html version I would clearly prefer the blinklist to get a quick overview what kind of information is available in respect of a topic. This could be described as kind of initial search stadium. When I already have got a good idea what information I am looking for and what is available I would probably prefer the html format. Comparing both they both offer the same information. Nevertheless the blinklist is much more in line with the recommendations for writing on the net. It offers a good structure and offers the main information in bold letters, leaving it up to the reader to search deeper. The html page gives a somehow unstructured impression and the reader seems himself confronted with a lot to read as there is no highlighting of key words.
When the reader decides to enter deeper into one topic actually the blinklist is less comfortable than the html page as it takes longer arrive at the web page offering the information in question.

3.5.) Blog reflection

Before the unit my experience with blogging were hardly existing at all. O.k. I read a few blogs before but did not had a clue how to set one up or an idea what kind of medium a blog can be.
In general I think a blog offers a good a affordable platform to communicate one’s thoughts to a wide community. It is not a very directed medium as the community thereby is anonymous so one does not really no, who he or she will reach with his or her blog.
Thereby blogging has got some advantage were somebody for example wants to speak some exotic topic were people interested are widely spread geographically.
Apart from citizen journalism and personal blogs there is a bewildering wide area and purposes blogs are dealing with. Coming from the German blog watch side you can find blogs to the following main groups:


-Society
-Business
-Live
-Country
-Travel
-Sport

For some of these topics I find a blog a very useful instrument. So for example travel blogs offer a cheap and authentic source of information where to go and to stay, when going abroad. O.k. everything has to be read with some common sense. On the other and I find blogs about sports relatively stupid. If I would like to have some information about my local team I watch it in the TV, if I want to have a good analysis of the game I go to my local pub and discuss it with my mates -> hence no room for blogs at all.

So overall the usage of blogs to me is very much dependent on the topic or theme the blog is related to. For myself I doubt that I become a devoted blogger, not because I dislike blogging but because I am to busy normally.

3.4.) Upload of web page using FTP

I uploaded my web page first to the presentation area using the wizard as were provided by Curtin. It took me a while to upload, admittedly I am not an natural born IT freak at all. Finally I managed and got all the little bugs with the pictures etc. sorted out and felt enormously relieved. I repeated then the procedure using my ftp client. Thereby I had to change the client and used now the one recommended by Curtin “Core FTP Lite”, which worked fine. The only thing was that I ad to overwrite the files as they were already existing due to the previous upload. The url in the presentation area is:

http://webct.curtin.edu.au/305033_b/student_pres/Group17/index.html