Blog 8: Discuss how one international group (country, city, or group) uses the Internet or Internet technology.

My country of birth is Romania so I decided to do this blog entry on Romania’s Internet usage. And after doing some research I discovered that only 33.4% of the population uses the Internet. (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats4.htm)
And this came as a surprise to me because coming from Bucharest (which is Romania’s capital and where the majority of people use the Internet) I thought a lot more people were online.
In the cities though, the percentage rises to 62%, for people using the Internet over the age of 18. The Internet is mostly used there for email and chatting purposes (52%), followed by search purposes (35%) and downloading music and movies (31%). Financial transactions are in sixth place with only 11% of people actually doing that online. This may be surprising to many but not really to me. I feel Romanians are still very afraid to use the web for banking or any other financial transactions. And this is because the systems used do not operate well. I know this happed to my father. He has a business and does quite of bit of financial transactions. I suggested that he used the Internet because it would be a lot easier for him and he replied that he did and the banking system wasn’t performing right so the money was lost. Situations like these make people resist the new technology and that is definitely not a good thing.

Blog 7: Discuss how one brand or nonprofit uses online blogs and online advertising.

As I read this, the first brand that came to my mind was Nike. My husband is crazy about basketball and his go to site of choice is Nike’s basketball blog at Inside.nikebasketball.com. This blog is updated very often and each post focuses on a specific topic of basketball. He likes how the posts are very engaging, the blog has good images and it is easy to read. The only issue that I had was that it wasn’t as easy to find as I thought on Google’s search engine and I think that is a major issue that Nike needs to deal with. Blogging is an essential part of Nike's marketing strategy, and is an important component of the company’s success. Another essential component is online advertising. Today many Nike ads are shown only on the Internet, as Nike always comes up with very different ways to connect with consumers. Nike+ is a very good example. Nike+ is a small sensor that goes into running shoes that tracks the runner’s progress on an Apple iPod that he carries. After each run, the runner docks the iPod into his computer and posts details of his run on the Nike+ Web site. This Web site is also a good place to make friends with runners from all over the world. For Nike, this is advertising. And it’s working great.

An important policy issue for the Internet

The growth of the Internet has greatly affected the number of policy issues related to the online world. Some of them include: Internet privacy issues, concerns about computer and Internet security, broadband Internet access, spam issues, issues with the domain name system and least but not last identity theft issues.
The growth of Internet and e-commerce has taken ID theft to new levels. Using broadly available Internet tools, thieves trap naive computer users into providing personal data, which they then use for unlawful purposes.
The prospective for fraud is a major obstacle in the development of online commerce. E-payment and e-banking services are affected significantly by public distrust.
Considering the growth of online ID theft, many OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) member countries have taken steps to make certain that consumers and Internet users are sufficiently protected. These steps include various measures like: consumer and user-awareness campaigns, new legislative frameworks, and industry-led initiatives focused on technical responses.
You can find more information on this topic at: see link

Effective and ineffective use of PR online

In my opinion, ineffective PR online are any activities that present misleading information that is inaccurate. This can also include deceitful activities that manipulate the use of the Internet. I believe it’s very important to not engage in these type of activities as they can greatly damage one’s reputation.

I believe effective PR online must definitely include blogging. By creating and updating your blog and also, monitoring other relevant blogs and commenting on them, you get your point of view out there. An example of such blog is “The Martha Blog: Up Close and Personal” (marthastewart.com/blogs).
This blog offers you complete access to Martha’s world, with daily updates on her family, friends, philanthropies, pets, gardens, and parties. The blog is just one tool Stewart uses to promote her products and lifestyle. It allows readers to post comments and questions that Martha Stewart herself will respond to. But most importantly, it allows Martha’s followers to feel much closer to her. In comparison with other blogs, Martha Stewart’s is simple but it does deliver what she promises, access to her personal world.

Find three examples of ineffective Web sites

It was hard for me to narrow down to only 3 ineffective Web sites considering that there are so many out there. But, nevertheless, here are my top 3:

- MySpace.com. This may seem like a weird pick considering the popularity of MySpace, but in my view the Web site is very counterproductive and poorly designed. From the point of view of the graphics, MySpace pages are awful; there are a lot of huge photos and incompatible backgrounds. Spyware is also a problem for MySpace.com, as is its lack of safeguards to protect minors.

- Evite.com. This is a perfect example of a Web site where the ads are very intrusive. Also, navigation should be a primary concern when developing a Web site and Evite.com definitely should focus more on it considering that navigation on their Web site right now is a drag.

- Southwest.com This Web site is actually not that bad until you may want to buy a plane ticket. That’s when it gets tricky. Because if you miss filling in any field the transaction will not go through. And you may think that’s normal, but the problem is that you can’t go back and enter the missing data. So, every time you make a little mistake, you have to start over. Also, for frequent fliers it would make sense to for the Web site to give the option of establishing a profile. This way the data would be stored and the process of buying a plane ticket would be a lot simpler and would take less time.

Comment on a photo online that adds to a website

There are a lot of photos online that add to the website they are posted on, but the one that caught my eye is a picture from Michael Jackson's public funeral at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, that accompanies an article in The Epoch Times. The picture presents Michael's sister Janet Jackson, daughter Paris Katherine, sister LaToya Jackson, brother Jermaine Jackson and oldest son Prince Michael and in my opinion it is the most emotional picture from the funeral at Staples Center that I have seen so far. It definitely adds to the article by making it more personal and it transposes Paris's pain upon her father's death.

Besides giving factual detail about the proceedings of the funeral, the article also covers Paris's tearful speech where she tells the world that in her view her father was the best father imaginable and that she loved him dearly. This is where the picture comes in to actually show the moment and make us feel sorry for the little girl that just lost her father. Because Michael Jackson may have been one of the greatest artists of all time, but ultimately he was just that, a great father. (Picture can be viewed here: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/19275/;Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images)

Discuss one important event or person in the past 10 years of the Internet

In my opinion, one of the most important things to happen to the Internet in the past 10 years is social media and social networking. They allowed the election of Senator Barack Obama as the President of the United States and they changed the face of politics forever.

During his campaign, Obama hired Facebook founder Chris Hughes to be a part of his team and developed My.BarackObama.com, a very user-friendly network. The Web site was an instrument of organization for Obama and contributed to his amazing $600 million in fund-raising. My.BarackObama.com is a great example of the power of social media to rouse participation online and well as offline. In-game ads and iPhone applications were also part of Obama's interactive media range. YouTube had been a key platform for unforgettable campaign moments. The "Yes We Can" and the "Obama Girl" music videos each drew in 10 million views.

It is safe to say that social networking changed American politics forever and it did so by being cost-effective, by allowing candidates to skip the media and mobilize supporters and by making grassroots fundraising very effective.

Social networking brought CHANGE to the American people.

How do I use the Internet?

The Internet is without exaggeration one of the most important things in my life right now. I moved from Romania to the United States a little over a year ago because I found love. My life changed completely and I was willing to embrace this change because i knew that I would still be able to communicate online every day, at little to no cost, with all my family and friends from back home. I honestly don't think that I would make it through the day without my e-mail account, Yahoo Messenger, Skype or Hi5. The first thing I do in the morning is to check the news in Romania and then the US. Then I check my Hi5 profile, which is the European version of Facebook. And the most important thing, I talk to my family and friends. After going through my daily ritual, I use the Internet for school related research and for sometimes for online shopping.

My husband uses the Internet mostly to get informed on the news and the weather (he is a golf pro) and to do online banking. Actually, he hates when I shop online. He says that I always had to return 90% of the items I bought online because they didn't fit or they weren't what I expected, so it's not worth the hassle. But what he doesn't understand is that browsing the Web for the best deals and having so many options is so exciting. I love to compare and contrast prices, accumulate knowledge on products and share it with people. Two semesters ago, in school, I was reading the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and I realized I might be a "junior Maven". In Galdwell's view, Mavens are people that like to be informed about the marketplace and help others be informed also. That sounds pretty good to me!