Tuesday 18 November 2014

Safety and security while setting up a Wiki

Safety and security while setting up a Wiki

While creating a Wiki page there are various methods of maximizing how safe and secure it can be which people overlook or are too impatient to follow out, personally i find this to be a shame. I mean you cannot really complain after not taking the necessary precautions into securing your page.

It is often the case when business corporations create blogs or wiki pages that they are attacked for the negative side of their work with no regards to the positive side of things.

For example there is many a case where animal rights activists have sabotaged corporations by messing up what is on wiki pages, blogs and the like as most of the time they are unlocked and can be edited by others.

To maximize security and safety of the employees it is a great idea to firstly make sure that the wiki page has an active administrator to filter out the hateful comments or the stupid edits people may make while they're being stupid. Frankly they are taking it out on the people who can, the little people of the organizations who have no real power over what is happening at their company.

Secondly it is sometimes possible for blogs and wiki pages to have Username and Password authentication, i suggest this if at all possible as it will help improve sustainability over your pages.

Sometimes this is not the case though, in certain cases there has been an error with transferring data and then everything is lost. Therefore i highly recommend that you have a copy of the text and information you would like to convey to the readers of your pages on a separate storing device encase of emergency.

Below is a picture in which the creator has access to password authentication on one of his pages.

Applying these great variables is a sure fire way to help secure your wiki and blog pages.

Monday 17 November 2014

Why a Blog is effective

Why a blog is effective

Blogs can be very diverse and in depth when it comes to passing on information and news on a school and business level but are easily over looked when it comes to representing yourself or your company.

To use a blog in an effective manner give the readers a reason to want to read, be sincere and truthful so that people can get a grasp of who you or your company really are.

By giving the readers an insightful look into your business or personal life it will be easier for the community as a whole to identify you as the person you wish to be, blogs can not only be a gateway to many connections but can also help improve the workforce.

Bosses can potentially enhance the moral of the work force and improve work by giving out the recent news and work related information that is hard to get across in meetings in good detail.

Blogs can also be effective in conveying your information to its fullest, and lets face it these days there isn't anybody in the workplace who cannot really access a computer who needs to; the accessibility of blogs is what makes it especially convenient as it is represented in a structured scale which can be sent to someone as easy as giving them the blogs URL.

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Threats of the internet.

Threats
To put it quite bluntly the internet has brought massive problems to do with cyber bullying, hacking and other such things that are in breach of the law.

Cyber Bullying:
I would say from observing for some years that sites like Facebook are nothing but trouble, one opinion someone doesn’t like and you can be hounded by entire groups. It is best to avoid adding people you don’t actually get along with to avoid trouble. The most brutal cyber bullying in my opinion is when you see them verbally abusing someone while everyone films until a fight breaks out. Not only is this illegal but as humans we should be upfront with each other like how it used to be. The internet has brought along a lot of cowardly behaviour; it is even possible to bully someone across another country thanks to the worldwide connectivity.

Denial of service:
Another impact on this subject is denial of service attacks. Denial of service attacks come under the acronym DDoS which means direct denial of service; it means to unlawfully crash somebody’s internet by sending massive amounts of data remotely to their pc without permission. This has been a big problem recently with the online gamer community in which a team of highly skilled hackers have been sent to jail. Before their capture they managed to shut down a few of the world’s largest games for days at a time, not just that though. They managed to hack into airport management and security and rerouted an entire plane. The internet has given rise to a super power of sorts in which the smarter you are with computers, the more dangerous you can be.

Spam & Phishing:
I would say spam and fishing come one in the same. Statistically 75% of the emails I get are spam mail, most of which are connected to phishing sites where the hacker sits and waits for you to read the email, be intrigued and then login with your details to an exact replica of the original webpage.
Spam mail comes from a few different places, the first being hackers of course; spam mail tends to have enticing titles like ‘You have just won £2000!!’ so they can easily take advantage of people who may be desperate or just inexperienced at dealing with treachery online.
The second way you get spam mail is via webpages you sign up to; a lot of companies share your email with other similar parties to give you deals and offers about items and such things. Personally I find this wrong, if I don’t sign up to a website I really don’t want spam coming from them with bogus offers. Managing your junk folder is a big help in getting rid of potentially dangerous spam.

All in all phishing and spam are just sneaky ways of deceiving you into thinking they have something you want or need. 

How to create a Wiki page

How to create a Wiki page
How to create a wiki

1. To initially create your wiki page go to https://www.wikispaces.com and register an account with the suitable details preferable to you

Make sure to make a safely placed note of your username and password to avoid the issue of recovering it later on.






2.   Secondly you will need to start creating your wiki page, make sure to fill in your details as accurate as you can.


Obviously because of the nature of the internet it is also very common for people to create Pseudonyms to avoid hate mail being directed to your real life as a consequence for something on the internet.




3.     From there locate the pages selection to bring up the list of pages and files you have created. (no need to worry, it will be blank the first time you sign in)


   
4.  After selecting pages you will be given the list, from here you can create new pages, upload files and more. I have marked below in the screen shot where pages is located.





    
5. Once you have found your way to your page list, create a new one and enter your text. 
If you have it at hand it is possible to copy it over; Pictures on the other hand must be uploaded individually.




6. Below i have marked the upload file option, this will allow you to upload images and files in order to customize your wiki to the best of your ability.



7. For further customization after creating your wiki page you can then continue to adding hyper links and so forth to some of your other related pages for convenience reasons. (like in my case, hyperlinks to further information on the selected IT job)


































Impacts of the Internet on modern day society

Impacts of the Internet on modern day society

Social impact

Individual:
The impact the internet has had on us socially is pretty terrible if we do a pros and cons list.
Every day there is millions of people doing what a big majority call “time wasting” computer gaming or browsing certain web pages, I believe everyone has their own right to decide what they do with their free time but in some ways I do really agree that our lives have been completely consumed by the internet.
It does seem that these days the government, employers, friends, everyone seems to need you to go on the internet for some reason. Whether it is to check the news, weather or even what time the cinema viewings are on, everything eventually links back to requiring the internet. Obviously you can still do things in real life, such as applying for a job but it almost seems as if they prefer internet applications these days to show that you have some moderate understanding of computer technology.
Sometimes I recognize awkward behavior in real life conversations and it makes me think about how online messaging sites such as Facebook are making it harder and harder for people to connect and communicate in the real world efficiently.
Society:
In recent years society has certainly slipped with your everyday in person appliances. Traditional shops in villages, even high streets have been affected with the cutbacks.
The internet provides reliable fast information and messaging services, it is no surprise that the online shopping is taking over with everything getting easier as it is right now. We no longer even need to travel to the bank in person since the release of online banking.
Many people have lost their jobs in a result of the internet being so applicable and easy to use. Businesses have started to use programs and online web servers to do many of the jobs that we as humans used to partake in are no longer a necessity to keep your business running.
Since the internet’s release there has been a vast decrease in how the community comes together to help one another. Social media and messaging websites are dominating the way we communicate with each other, I won’t necessarily say it’s a bad thing; new communities have sprung up online but this also brings a risk of abuse from individuals with more ulterior motives.

Economic Impact
Employment:
There has been a substantial decrease in jobs since computer technology has started to increase into the modern era; jobs that have been done by hand for many years have been relinquished from the employees in favor of new more accurate machines run by computer networks.
On the other hand there has been a new market for jobs that require top of the line IT technicians such as a network administrator or a graphic designer.
Environment & sustainability:
Since the internet went live there has been a vast increase in how many people use computers, in the millions to be precise.
Things such as going to the shops to buy your produce instead of ordering it online or going out to a park for the day instead of playing computer games could not only save yourself some time and electric but it would also help your carbon footprint not to mention help you be more healthy in your everyday life.
I don’t believe at the rate we’re going that we will be able to sustain everything we have achieved as humans for much longer. Some alternate energy source must be found to continue on with how we’re doing right now.
Legal impact
The internet has had massive drawbacks on society as the majority of people now just plagiarize work and illegally download songs for free. As a society we have grown lazy and turn to the internet for our answers.
This is especially hard on the people who take time to create music, films and so forth as people committing copyright acts by downloading them via the internet for free; such as led to music artists not releasing new albums and film directors cancelling sequels to films that had the potential to be great. A good example of this is the film series called ‘Ninja’ by Scott Adkins where he stated that due to online pirating there will be no sequel because there won’t be enough funds to invest into making one.
This affects the true fans that have support the official releases. We are robbed from sequels due to copyright offenses.

Ethic impact
Since the release of the internet there has been a strain on the Data protection act or DPA for short. Various crimes get committed which puts other people’s privacy at risk.
Social messaging sites such as Facebook put people at risk, by listing various types of information that has no real relevance predators are able to find common interests and approach people who are unexpectedly walking straight into a trap.
Obviously there is ways to change your privacy settings to make it so strangers cannot see your details but for the younger more inexperienced internet users they may overlook this fact and be putting themselves at risk.

Access
In England we have access to roam the internet free as a bird to some degree, obviously abusive and other selected sites may be banned; on the other hand in countries such as China or North Korea the internet is limited and the media is controlled.
As far as North Korea is concerned there are reportedly only a handful of people with authorised access to the internet.
Such acts of inequality are well within the rights of each government but I think that everyone should be allowed the right to surf the internet with freedom at their own digression.

Conclusion

To conclude, including threats, I would say that the internet has opened up our world to many wondrous things. We have fast high quality video streaming and sales websites but was it worth all the added baggage that comes along with it? In my opinion yes, all we have to do is manage how we use the internet to make it safe and efficient but that’s for you to decide on your own.