Internet Studies Group List

It was required that we join the group known as Internet Studies at Yahoo Groups.Upon joining up we duly became NetStudyNetizens.A moderator was chosen by a tutor and people drifted in and looked around.Messages were posted,at that stage along the line of "What's next?"

A poll was initiated and most members at that early stage participated.The indications were that everyone was enjoying the course,to different degrees.A database was set up containing the members contact details.

A member added a link to Oasis Log in,and this was very handy when you wanted to go to there.You can set the sort order of the messages so that you don't have to trawl through everything to find the post you want to see.

The Applications List contains Blog Central,a listing of members email addresses and the links to our blogs.This was a particularly practical addition.I like to read the other student blogs and having this in one place makes it easy.Not everyone has added their link yet,but it's early days.

There is a facility to promote the List by placing little links on your web page,and I will attempt to add one of these to my blog.You can "message" the whole group or you can choose to send a private email to a fellow member.

I have my Yahoo email account set up to receive all messages to the group and in this way it is easy to see what is relevant or urgent and as long as you check your mail regularly you don't miss anything.

The List came into it's own when we were setting up contacts with each other to do the Chat tasks of the course.At a glance you could tell who was going to be on what chat program and at what times.Also,chat ID numbers were displayed.It was all very easy to follow.

At the time of this posting we have 29 members.There are links on the Yahoo Groups page to thousands of other lists and you could probably spend years of your life sifting through them and I doubt that you would ever get to the end of it all.For the moment I'll just stick around at our little group.

Another facility of the list is that you can add a photo album.This has an incredibly generous capacity of 100 gigs.I indulged myself here and posted 3 photos.This gave me an added satisfaction of being in the group.

I imagine that these lists have great scope and potential uses.If,for instance you were planning a wedding,(God forbid) this would be a perfect way of keeping everyone informed.A school excursion,a surprise party.The scope is endless.You can even imagine a list being utilised in a bank heist.

So our little List lives on,and I can only imagine it getting stronger as we come back to it as tasks arise.A good group effort

Functioning and Housekeeping

When you receive an email you will decide whether or not you need to ,or wish to reply to the sender.You can forward the message to 1 or many other people.

By using the reply function in your email program you can write a message and send it off to the person who originally contacted you.If you choose to you can add make a carbon copy and either send it to a third person or if you wish you can send it to yourself.In computer speak this is called a CC.

You can also use the function called BCC,blind carbon copy.When you use this the various recipients of your message only see their own address and name.

It may be desirable to include all the names and addresses in some situations,but in others it could be inappropriate to do so.If your are sending out a social club newsletter,or an update on a family function,then it may be helpful for everyone to know who else is involved.

It would be a good idea to use BCC if your are sending out a resume to several different employers.It may suggest that you are taking a scatter gun approach to your job search,if other company names are on the email.

Attachments.

You can send a file as an attachment.I regularly send photos and videos to friends and family.Whenever possible try to find out what system the other people are using because sending the same things to everyone does not work and can be very frustrating.For instance I know that my friend in Germany has a high speed Internet connection and his PC will handle everything you throw at it.On the other hand,my friend just 4Ks down the road is on dial up,so sending him videos is a waste of his time.

Use RTF "rich text file" format when sending emails as this can be read by other computers.Keep in mind that the other persons knowledge may be very basic.Use courtesy and consideration,people tend to forgive technical mistakes but if you are downright obtuse you wont experience this technology at it's full potential.


Always be aware of the potential for viruses and other nasty things being propagated by email.I have an anti-virus program installed and running in real time as well as the programs that the email applications themselves use.I also run an ad ware and spy ware program at least twice a day.This not only keeps your own system clean but reduces the chances of you infecting anyone else.Good house keeping is very important on the net.

Filters.

You can choose to set your email program to accept anything and everything that shows up .The SPAM filters on most applications only do so much,so I choose to round things up before all the rubbish goes into my Inbox.Any email with the words "single,money,dating or romance" go straight to the spam bucket.I may look at the titles later on,but usually anything with these words are invariably scams.

Signatures.

You may choose to use a little text file as a signature to include on some or all of your emails.I use a more formal "moniker" when I am corresponding with my ISP for example than when I am emailing friends.Anyway Internode probably wouldn't know who Ratty is,but my friends know,it's just the old river rat, at it again.

What Is Meta Data?

Email Task

When you receive an email you can learn quite a lot from the "header".This contains the Meta Data which will give you the path it took to get from the sender to you.Since starting this Internet Communications course I have been taking notice of this data.It tells you which country it originated in,sometimes taking detours.Different email programs give you different amounts of this information.

You don't get a lot from looking at the Meta Data on a message in Gmail,but in Yahoo mail you get half a page of it.So far,for me at least this has mainly novelty value but no doubt it will lead to further questions and knowledge.At the very least it's handy to know if the person you are receiving emails from is really in the country they say they are.I believe that this is sometimes an issue with backpackers.

The screen shot here is the Meta Data from an email I received from a friend in Germany.Lots of detail.As to whether or not it is of much practical use is for me to find out.