important policy issue on the internet

The internet is an amazing phenomenon, but one of the most important issues that have risen from it is the issue of privacy. Who has it? How is it secured? Is it secured? Can the government of anyone else intrude on it? No where in the constitution does it say 'privacy' however, the Supreme Court has found a number of Amendments that protects our privacy. It is the essence of the bill of Rights and thus a guaranteed right.

Many users don't know the whole Internet Privacy Law so when accessing the online web they are in the belief that they are fully covered, but that is not the case. Users that write postings, and contribute to bulletin boards may remain archived forever. Public records are available free or for a sometimes small fee. The internet has made it available more easily and quickly to retrieve such information.

The safest thing to do is to either have ownership of what you do online or to not post anything. It is also very wise to review the internet laws of privacy so you are aware of how and when you are protected.

Obama use of Online Advertising and Blogs

During the 2008 Presidential election, Barack Obama used a lot of online advertisements. He used several different types such as articles, music, and videos. YouTube was a big influence on the election. Obama had numerous videos created about him that advertised himself, and was completely free because other made them about him. He used advertisements by placing adds in different sites where he was trying to locate a particular group of people.

On his site he had a blog where you can express issues and different topics. This is extremely god because it got viewers to be interactive and good because he got to see visually what viewers thought and what some of the issues against him were in their own perspective. This was also a good way to stop rumors or at least spin them in a way that was most beneficial to him.

Overall, online advertising helped Obama secure himself as the most popular candidate in the election. He reached a crowd that not many politicians are able to do. He used new media that attracted the younger generation and started an Obama viral online, which is something very new, not seen much within elections.

Effective/Ineffective online PR

An effective use of online PR is the use of advertisements. Advertisements are such a great cost efficient way to get a client's name across to a mass audience. Internet advertisements are on the climb and will continue to increase as technology becomes even more pertinent to consumers. An example of marketing a client through PR advertisements on the internet is on the gossip website perezhilton.com. Although it is seen as "gossip" which can sometimes have a negative connotation, the audience that will be watching ThE Hills for example, will be the same group of people that go onto perezhilton. So advertising on perezhilton.com is very effective.

While giving away free merchandise is important to luring consumers in, it is also not necessarily helping the client at all times. For example if your client is a music artist then by giving away constant free music will send the message of don't buy the album but come on the website and you can get it for free. While there should be some enticements, giving away a product that's controversial is sending mix messages. I think free music downloads are controversial because the music industry is trying to fight hard to stop illegal downloading so promoting free music downloading isn't necessarily the best promotion for the client.

Ineffective websites

Ineffective websites are often have too many things clustered together and make it visually impossible for viewers to navigate through. One prime example is Havenworks.com. This website is a reference site, but the homepage is so jumbled and there is so much there that it makes it completely impossible to focus on one thing. It honestly hurts your eyes to look it.

Another example is ringtonegalore.co.uk. This site uses pastel colors such as pink and green, along with a dark blue writing. However, although the colors are quite obnoxious, it is the layout and the way that the wording is jumbled together which makes it hard to look it. Not only hard to look at, but everything is pushed together, words wise, that creates a confusing layout.

Lastly is a website called talibanunited.com. I don't even know the purpose of this site. However on the left hand side is a navigation toolbar that lists: taliban, about immigration, all church, cnn world news, and at the bottom is about muslim marriage and political polls. However the site colors are green and pink, and very plain. There is an image of a blonde hair, green eyed, twenty-something year old caucasian student, wearing a backpack. The photo does not match with the content and makes this website very confusing.

Photo add to website?

Photos are so powerful and can create the emotional aspect and overall zibe of a website, therefore when choosing photos, it is extremely important to add ones that will benefit your site. I have been on savedarfur.org many times and every time I don't think that this site necessarily does a good job of depicting the severity of the issue.

I think posting pictures of kids in need and showing the hardships are an effective way to illustrate the need of donating and volunteering. It's more effective to visually be able to see who and what you are helping as opposed to just writing about it.

Thew other side of it thought is that viewers don't want to think that the website is exploiting anyone or situation. So it's a vague line that in unclear on where the boundaries are, but not close enough to the line and the effects are meager, but too close and it's deemed as exploitation and a violation of rights.

Photos can evoke emotion, and I think that the savdarfur.org website could be helped with a few photos on their home page to evoke viewers and get them to look further into the site.

Important person in past 10 years on the internet

Facebook is one of the most influential programs that has hit the internet. This program was intended for Harvard students only, but soon grabbed a hold of millions of people from all over the country and world-wide from thousands of schools. Facebook allows for people to create an account. Once you create an account, you can search and view others' page and connect with those at your school. Today, many people use it to reconnect with people from high school, jobs, childhood, or to even connect with strangers romantically, professionally or socially. Social networking has been forever changed due to the ambitious twenty-year old billionaire who launched Facebook form his dorm room.

Mark Zuckerberg has been interested in creating computer programs starting at an early age. While in middle school, he created programs, especially communication tools and games. When he was in high school, he created a program for the worker's in his father's office to communicate more effectively. Zuckerberg created a program that tracked people's listening behaviors using artificial intelligence. AOL and Microsoft tried to enlist Zuckerman to work for them, but he turned them down to pursue his education at Harvard University instead.

On February 4, 2004, Zuckerman launched Facebook from his dorm room. Zuckerberg's roommate Dustin Moskovitz joined the Facebook team and by the beginning of summer Facebook was released to almost forty-five schools and hundreds of thousands of people were using it.

Zuckerman has made billions of of this evolving social networking site in just a short period of time. Within five years, Facebook has become one of the most used and known programs on the internet. It has brought to light a social trend of re-conencting and networking via the internet. Many programs today are based around how to make social networking easier, faster, and how to incorporate it within personal, and professional realms.

How do you use the Internet? How does your Internet use compare to some other person in your family?

For me, I am constantly on the Internet for two primary reasons, entertainment and research. For entertainment purposes I am focused on the newest trends on the Internet from twitter, toSkype to YouTube. Socializing on these sites allow me to continue contact with family and friends from home on the other side of the country and other parts of the world. By using these trends I am keeping up with the current media outlets therefore making my research easier.

The Internet has many different avenues to explore in terms of building information. By accessing these databases, I am able to gather information in a more expeditious manner. My research is done for my class assignments in addition to personal benefits such as gathering information about current news in local, national and world populations.

When comparing my usage of Internet with my younger brother, there are many differences. While I can be on for hours at a time without a known purpose exploring, my brother knows exactly what he wants and is signed off right after. He is mostly concerned with information regarding sports, and social networks that will connect him to friends within a 20-mile distance therefore networks such as Facebook and MySpace. Webcams and voice-overs are not important to his usage as they are mine.

The Internet is used for a plethora of reasons depending upon each individual person. Time, matter, and effects all come into play when figuring why people use the internet.