The Information Age

Stage 1 Online services



Communication -

When communicating thought the internet there is several different ways that you can communicate to different people.

Email

One example is the email, when emailing other people it is basically like sending a letter to someone but it is done on the internet and can be sent to other people to them to view. The drawbacks with communication with email is that viruses, worms and trojans can be easily sent through to other computers, however when received a ‘spam’ email these emails can be automatically sent in a ‘bulk’ folder so this is an advantage. Other advantages include that it is very easy to use and you can easily keep important emails so you can go back to them, with a telephone you can not provide this service so this is a big advantage.

Instant Messaging

Another way of communicating is instant messaging, the most globally used instant messaging chat room is MSN, msn is a instant messaging software that allows people to communicate to contacts online and messages are sent straight away for other people to see when in a conversation window, this is targeted to everyone. The purpose for this is basically for people to communicate to other people using and online service for free. The benefits that people can get form using this online service are that people can communicate to people all over the world and not have to worry about paying out money when they can just download a service were they can communicate for free. The drawbacks with communication with instant messaging is there could be lurking around open chat rooms, these people are most likely to be paedophiles and they are going to target individuals, this can be very dangerous because the person does not see the actual person’s body or see the face so this can be very dangerous.

Commerce –

When using an online service for sopping, banking and auctions, people can go onto the internet and use different online services to shop, there are many shopping websites for groceries and clothes.






Online Stores

The majority of the shopping websites have a shopping basket where people can use this shopping basket to order groceries or clothes or any sort of products and pay for them using credit card services on the website were they can pay for there products. When all the items that the customer has chosen, the customer will then go to a separate web page which will then manage the payment and delivery costs. The purpose of this online service is for people to use online services to buy products online and it will save time and effort. The drawbacks are that people can be deceived when using this online service because products that are brought online can either be lost in the post or on a late delivery, so this is one disadvantage. Without a doubt the obviously reason why online stores are provided is because there might not be any retail stores for a particular branch therefore the customer can easily go online and purchase a particular product or in fact a business might not even have a branch at all and just have there business open on the internet.


Online Banking

Using banking services online which allows people to view there bank balances online and also transfer money over to there bank account using the online bank service, every bank provides this service online. The benefits of this online service is that people can view there accounts and see there bank balances without making the effort to go to the nearest bank and access there bank balances and accounts
They let customers of a bank manage and access there accounts, this will be provided using an internet connection. Also banks will offer other different sorts of services to the customers that they have, like letting their customers transfer money over to another account, also they let there customers make a payment during anytime of the day. Clearly the reason why online banking has been produced is that it is more accessible and easy, people do not have to go out to the bank and use all the services that a branch provides when they can just go onto the internet and use all the services, some services don’t require any staff at all, this is why using internet banking has a big advantage. Obviously when you want to open a ban account that will require staff and your personal details, but other services which include checking your bank balances and making transfer to don’t require any staff at all.


Education –

When using an online service for education, students can use the internet to do online learning, which is basically students going onto the internet and finding relevant information and resources to help them with there work and coursework, or revise for exams. This is targeted for younger people and students so they can learn when they are at school. The biggest online scheme is the VLE, virtual learning environment is a software system designed to help teachers by facilitating the management of educational courses for their students, especially by helping teachers and learners with course administration. The purpose of this online service is for young people and students to go onto the internet or use an online service to revise or do interactive learning so that they can revise or learn different things and achieve targets.



Entertainment –

There are many ways in which people can get the best out of entertainment using online services and the internet, this target audience is targeted for everyone, mostly younger people choose to use the music players and radio players on the internet.

Radio

An example is using a radio player on the internet, using a radio internet player is basically like using the software that they use to downloading videos. The benefits to using internet radio players is very extraordinary, the choice of how many radio stations provide there radio live feed onto the internet is enormous, then users can log onto a certain radio station website and then they can click the live radio web link and listen to the radio live from there computer. The drawbacks are simple that there is so much choice to choose which radio station, however it depends on what sort of music the user likes, so it is not that bad of a drawback. Having the streaming technology makes the radio station possible to run continuously while running other programs.

Windows Media Player

Windows media player which is a music playing software which people can play there music on. The benefits to using this software is that users can play audio files and video files This target audience is basically for everyone because it is all suitable for everyone who enjoys having entertainment using online services. The purpose of this online service is that for people to get the most out of there computers and get the best possible software uploaded onto there computer so that they can play music and films and do whatever they want to so that they can enjoy the entertainment.


Download services –

There are many download services that can be used online. For instance people can download music using different types of software. For example software called ‘Limewire’ is a P2P software which is used for downloading music using the software using it as a online service. Also people can upload different sorts of software to enhance there computer quality and performance. Using an online website or service people can download graphics card and sound cards using an online service. For this targeted audience it depends what people want to download, the age range would normally be 13-30 year olds because in this age range more people would be likely to be interested in downloading depending on what it was. The only drawbacks using this sort of online service is that it can be illegal to download music or films using a specific software, using services were you pay a slight fee is legal bust when taking music or films for free is stealing and illegal.
As far as this software goes is that it is one on the most successful stories of the internet, there was a big problem when it came to users using the peer to peer services, the music industry complained that people were stealing music and sharing files that were inappropriate. Now the P2P software’s have now been reduced due to this action.
Video has basically been followed by the same path as audio. There are many sites where people can literally just download films and any sort of videos where available in breach of copyright, the drawbacks of the quality like viruses, bugs, spam and so on. A difficulty in using and downloading videos is that the files are quite large to download in contrast with the audio files. The effectiveness on how fast the download is the speed of the broadband to your computer.
Nowadays there are many ways that people can download music and download movies but to do this legally the user will have to charge a small fee.