Friday, December 11, 2009

Essay

China has the largest number of internet users in the world – 340 million, or roughly the population of the United States, so the censorship in china’s internet is much more important than other countries. This essay addresses the question of what the censorship affects china’s internet in terms of politics and democracy. This essay will first provide a review of background research, including definitions. Next, it will provide an analysis of secondary research,
focusing on the question of the
censorship in China’s internet. This paper will argue that should the Chinese government continue to build internet censorship, or bring more democracy into internet.

Internet censorship continues to be a significant issue for Chinese internet. For as long as there’s been an internet, china has sought to monitor and control how its citizens use it. That’s no small task in the world’s most populous country, which now has more web-surfers (James R, 2009). However, the internet censorship can be defined as the action of preventing material that a party considers objectionable from circulating within a system of communication over which that party has no power (Fallows J, 2008). Despite the Chinese internet censorship has been built for many years and people are gradually adapting it, Obama answered questions on internet censorship and Twitter in his (live streamed) talked to Chinese students, he said: ‘I have always been a strong supporter of open internet use. I am a big supporter of non-censorship. I recognise that different countries have different traditions’ (Townend J, 2009). This paper will now explore whether Chinese internet censorship will be much more democracy.

Foreign visitors in China frequently complain to me that they could not access certain websites during their stay in China (Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center). Indeed, certain news websites, websites related to certain religious organizations (most of them are illegal in China), as well as some pornographic websites are inaccessible from China. Internet censorship in china is among the most stringent in the world. Internet users in china sometimes browse Baidu’s Tieba and leaves comments to others’ article, but I have seen one that one person’s comment was cancelled by the supervisor of Tieba, because he talked about the things that relates to one politician. That’s strange in my own opinion, because we have the human right to talk about things that happen in the whole world everyday, if we have no right to talk about government event, how the government can get what the citizens are thinking about.

There is a software called Green Dam-Youth Escort, can filter out pornography and other ‘unhealthy information’ from the internet. It would allow the government to update computers with an ever-changing list of banned web sites (Internet Censorship in China, 2009). But this is a bad thing, assume it is just like downloading spyware onto your computer, but the government is the spy, said Charles Mok, Chairman of the Hong Kong chapter of the Internet Society, an international advisory group on Internet standards (Internet Censorship in China, 2009).

China defended its control of information on the internet that it deems sensitive or harmful, one day after the American President Barack Obama told students in Shanghai that information should be free (Fletcher O, 2009). Indeed, As China's burgeoning economy grows and with its admission in December 2001 to the World Trade Organization (WTO), foreign ownership, investment and involvement of foreign companies in China's information and telecommunications industries has soared. This growth is not without complications (Censorship in China).

As we know, the Beijing Olympic Games has successfully held in china, With the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games a mere 10 days away, members of the media have learned that there is at least one thing they can expect not to be open: the Internet (Musil S, 2008). During the Olympic Games, many foreign journalists complained about that they can not access to a multitude of sites such as Amnesty International or any site with Tibet in the address (Graham N, 2008). This is understandable, because China has 56 nationalities which is very hard to control all of them, so if one nationality wants to be apart from China and because the strength of the internet, china has to censor its internet to protect the whole country. One of a foreign internet users said that some hotels and other buildings in China cater to western visitors, the controls may be somewhat relaxed, but once he want to access his blog, he can not reach it (Marsan DC, 2008).

Should we rethink of the politics, and bring more democracy to China so that people can talk whatever they want to say, and the most important things is that citizens can give their creative thoughts for the government to build the country more beautiful and full of power whatever issues occur. Although I think democracy is important of human beings, the internet security is more important because the internet can bring everything that we can not imagine what will happen to people.

In conclusion, the research shows that the internet censorship in China is very strong and it is a very important issue. However, other findings, as they relate to the Chinese internet censorship are less positive but for the situation of China, that is understandable, because it is a large community that no other countries can compared with. Although the studies show that many foreigners complain about the internet censorship in China, china gives a more ‘clean’ internet space for its citizens.

Reference List

Censorship in China. (n.d.). Amnesty International USA, vol. 21 no. 3, pp. 29-34.

Fallows, J 2008, The Connection Has Been Reset, viewed 1 Dec 2009, http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/chinese-firewall.

Fletcher, O 2009, ‘Censorship After Obama Lauds Openness’, China Daily, vol. 321 no. 17, pp. 34-37.

Graham, N 2008, Olympic Committee Admits Internet Censorship Deal With China, vol. 49 no. 2, pp87-90.

Internet Censorship in China, 2009, viewed 3 Dec 2009, http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/internet_censorship/index.html.

James, R 2009, A Brief History Of: Chinese Internet Censorship, viewed 1 Dec 2009, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885961,00.html.

Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center, (n.d.). Internet Censorship in China, viewed 1 Dec 2009, http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/Internet-censorship.html.

Marsan, DC 2008, Chinese Internet Censorship: An inside look, China Daily, vol. 67 no. 7, pp. 99-102.

Musil, S 2008, Internet Censorship Plagues Journalists at Olympics, vol. 58 no, 9, pp. 154-159.

Townend, J 2009, Barack Obama On Twitter and Chinese Internet Censorship, viewed 3 Dec 2009, http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/11/16/barack-obama-on-twitter-and-chinese-internet-censorship/.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Tutorial Task 10 - Media Tetrads

The old media television enhances the communication among people rather than radio, but it reverses the face-to-face communication, it retrieves the images and the speed of spread news, when there is no electricity, and it will be obsolesces.The new media mobile phone enhances the communication of telephone, but it reverses the lineate technology, it retrieves the convenience of our communication and it will be obsolesce when it lost signal in some place like mountain and subway.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Lecture 10 - invisible environment

This is our last lecture of new communication technology, teacher talked about the invisible environment and the ecology of media.
Everyone on the earth is around by environment, also does the media. In this modern age, more people begin to add their photos onto the internet, and post their own music video onto their blog or the website like Youtube. After a few days, they may receive many comments about their photos and music, and some talents start to pay attention to them, they find their address through their blog and promote their abilities to be a superstar, I have to say the internet actually gives us the most opportunities to communicate with each other and even other things in our solid world.
Finally, I want to thank my teacher and classmates to come along with me through this summer semester! :-D

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Tutorial Task 9 - Catch Up Day ^_^

I am on the way of the essay, my topic is about politics and democracy.
Today is an interesting and exciting day cuz I like video games so this lecture fit my interests. Through this short semester, I begin to like media things, when I was a child, I began to touch TV, computer, newspaper and other kind of media things, this things make me happy and let me acknowledge many affairs that happen in the world everyday, today I am going to have a birthday party of my friend, so I am rush of time. Luckily, today is a catch up day, so see u tomorrow! @@@ :-D

Tutorial Task 8 - Examining some net.art

The loading page and homepage of his website is interesting and has his style.
The first game is “I made this. you play this. we are enemies”. This game is very impressive because its sound and images, actually, I don’t this kind of things haha, but sometime when I am boring I like this one. It’s messy/abstract art game, digital poem based on popular website screen shots.
The second game is “ending eventually end” It is a series of short ficto-doomsday stories using with realtime countdowns to the end times with David Heckman. This game is better than the first in my favourite.The third game I played was the “stunningly harmful songs”, it is the brief curious video based songs/sound poems with flash animated backgrounds. There is 6 videos which are “heaven”, “Sebastopol”, “apples!”, “hunting”, “colonize”, “Dead!”. I don’t know what he’s doing, but impressive!

Tutorial Task 7 - Politics and the Internet

What opportunities can you find for political participation via the internet:How many of the following can you achieve while sticking to your political beliefs?
1. Sign an e-petition.
Signed an e-petition of protect the environment.

2. Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.
See http://www.bloggernews.net/1340#comment-1460154

3. What is Barak Obama up to today?
Last evening, Barack Obama took part in a decades-old presidential tradition: lighting the National Christmas Tree. “In times of war and peace, hardship and joy,” Obama said, “Americans from every corner of this nation have gathered here to share in the holiday spirit.”
Almost 10,000 people of all ages (including yours truly) gathered on the Ellipse just south of the White House to watch the celebration live last night.
http://blogs.america.gov/obama/

4. Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are.
Gold Coast city Council: http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/t_standard.aspx?pid=4351standard.aspx?pid=4351Local Representatives:" Gold Coast City Council is a Local Government Council - part of the third or lowest level of government in Australia, often seen as being the most accessible to the people.
State or Federal government representative."http://www.qld.gov.au/government/levels-of-government.html#section-local-government-informationhttp://www.localgovernment.qld.gov.au/http://www.localgovernment.qld.gov.au/LocalGovernment/StructuralReform/Localgovernmentstaffinfo.aspxrnment.qld.gov.au/LocalGovernment/StructuralReform/Localgovernmentstaffinfo.aspx

5. Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/10/2487274.htm

Tutorial Task 6 - Essay Research

The question that interests me is “What are the uses/limits of the internet in terms of politics and/or democracy? Should we rethink the nature of the political? What happens to the nation/state in the age of networks that have the potential to span thewhole planet? What has happened to the idea of "community" in the age of networked digital media? Discuss with an example.”
I found some references that relate to this question:
1. The Internet and Political Transformation: Populism, Community, and Accelerated Pluralism
http://files.posterous.com/jonadon/e6YK3PBEHchgB5aABNJ7DqymCRKOsXDUli0Sius6WNiJllbJRsCnQZSYJ6A8/1998_The_Internet_and_Poli.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=1C9REJR1EMRZ83Q7QRG2&Expires=1260176195&Signature=19VNXnKJAUeRq664hdTVPQu1E6c%3D
this artical is about the Internet has already acquired political significance, as increasing numbersof citizens use it to learn about government policies and actions, discussissues with one another, contact elected officials, and obtain voter registrationmaterials and other information that can facilitate more active participation inpolitics.
2. Cyberpolitics: Citizen Activism in the Age of the Internet
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=551242
this artical is about "Cyberpolitics" goes beyond the hype to analyze the content of political discussion on the Internet and to see how the Internet is being used politically.
3. Technological Empowerment: The Internet, State, and Society in China
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1564953
this artical argues that the Internet has brought about new dynamics of socio-political changes in China, and that state power and social forces are transforming in Internet-mediated public space.
4. The Internet, Public Spheres, and PoliticalCommunication: Dispersion and Deliberation
http://www.cblt.soton.ac.uk/multimedia/PDFs/Internet,%20public%20spheres,%20political%20communication.pdf
this artical is about the theme of the Internet and the public sphere now has a permanent place onresearch agendas and in intellectual inquiry; it is entering the mainstream of politicalcommunication studies.
5. Assessing the Potential of Internet Political Participation in the United States
http://apr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/5/476
this artical focus on access has important theoretical limitations.

Lecture 9 - Networked Creativity

Today, our guest speaker Jason Nelson talked about the creativity of internet.
Firstly, I have to say his lecture was very active but we were very quiet T-T (cry). He introduces the creativity of the internet and we began to know that the internet creativity are crazy :-D. Google map can lead us to the destination which we want to go and always have much information about that place, such as cate, transportation, weather and so on, they are all provided by people online. Google earth is the upgraded edition of the google map I think, because it can give us the 3D image and even the dynamic images to know more about the destination that we want to go. There is also one thing that interests me is put one person’s name on the internet, it comes up some basic information about that person.
The most thing that surprised me is he create many small flash games, although I can not understand most of his creativity, I know his creative ability is good, I also wanted to create a flash game by myself but no time, but I will try next time.

Lecture 8 - Being a Digital Citizen

To be a digital citizen is not a big issue in this modern age.
Today’s lecture talked about censorship and filesharing. Government are going to censor the internet, after that, we will not see the words that against the government. When there is one thing appears on the internet, the government will censor it can decide whether it is going to remain or cancel. I think it is good because there will have no anti-government thing affect the government and us so that we can have a peaceful world.
The lecture also mentioned the filesharing, the filesharing relates to the copyright in some way, for example, a book which has published have the copyright, it means that no one other than the author him/herself can copy the content from the book without the author’s permission, the internet is also like this. There is one part I want to mention is the Hacker, the hacker uses other people’s work without their permission.Therefore, the copyright and hacker become big issue in contemporary.

Lecture 7 - Political Possibilities

Today’s lecture was about internet politics.
Most of the contemporary political issues have relations to the internet more or less. The most obvious alternative to representative democracy is participatory or direct democracy, based on the ancient Greek model where all citizens have a right and a duty to be involved in all decisions made.
Internet gives people the chance to choose which one they like, it is pretty democracy, and it is called e-democracy as well, it means the internet's intervention in and contribution to real world politics that exists predominantly off the internet. Voting who is the next president in a country, the internet is a very powerful tool to decide it, because the citizens of the country have the right to vote and the internet media give them the opportunity.
Well, the internet and politics nowadays can not be apart from each other, we need them to let our world more fair and beautiful.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Lecture 6 - The Academic Study of Video Games

Today’s lecture is about the Academic Study of Video Games, it’s pretty interesting. I remember that the first video game that I played was Mario, the very classical and interesting game that I still like to play when I have time.
The majority of video games’ producers are about 20 years old, and they are just graduated from universities. Video Games are designed for most of young players to have fun in their leisure time, so I think the young video games’ producers can add more fashion elements in video games because they know what the young like. Video Games are a new form of media, it gives people the new feeling of media and it also provide images and sounds and even a story.
The video games are different from the traditional games, I think one of their differences is that the video games are virtual worlds and the traditional games are not. Virtual means not real, it’s like our imagination, for example, the SecondLife is the virtual world of video games which we can use the virtual money for shopping, have meal, buy house and do almost everything just like we do in our real life, but all the things are not real and we can not use the virtual money to buy things in real life.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Lecture 5 - Virtual Philosophy

Alongwith the development the world, the virtual reality is also improving, more and more people like to live in the virtual world. Although we live in the solid world, we can not leave telephone, television and other technologies nowadays.

When I open eyes everyday, the first thing I will do is open my computer. I check emails, listen to music and do other this sort of things. I have tried to watch one movie which without any sound, unfortunately, I gave up to watch it after about 20 minutes, because I think the music or voice can improve the quality and feeling of the movie, so I think this is why the growth of the communications industry over the last century has produced a new grammar of sound and image. Furthermore, the imagination is a powerful force in the development of technologies, people interest in something and desire their dream can come true, so there will be a lot of inventions and creations.

The 3D films are interesting and I often go to see it, wear polarised eyeglasses, and the films become more interesting, now we even have 4D film that add the real object such as water, wind and other touch feelings to make the film to be true.

Tutorial Task 5 - Internet Field Trip

A few months ago, my friend invited me to join the second life activeworlds, so I took a field trip of the second life through the internet, and I found it is interesting and like a true life on the internet, we can shopping, do business, have party and almost all the things that we are doing in the solid world, but I didn't join in it for the reason that I don't want to spend my life in virtual world, I think my life now is good, good, good!

The qualitative differences between the regular IM program and a 3D environment have many aspects, I think the 3D environment such as the secondlife, IMVU and other different kinds of 3D worlds are virtual, not real, but the advantage is that we can make a lot of friends in the 3D world like the Second Life even we are at home. I use MSN to chat with friends and my families overseas, I think use video call is a very good way to chat, just like face-to-face.

Tutorial Task 2 Part 1 (b) - Open Internet

This video is about the open internet in our lives.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Lecture 4 - Free Culture, Free Society

Nowadays, we have a free culture and free society included in the internet. We can share pictures and videos with each other around the world, but when we use others' pictures and videos, we need to have the creative commons. About the creative commons (cc), it means when sharing, remixing, reusing pictures, videos and other sources online, it should be legally used by users, it is a nonprofit organization that increases sharing and improves collaboration. The CC also provides free, easy-to-use legal tools and some rights reserved.

We have a lot of free sources that we can use in this modern time. Like software, the free software (open source) model, such as Linnx, OpenOffice, Firefox and VLC, etc.. The source code is freely and openly available, I like to make my own MV by using my favourite singers' songs and their pictures, so anyone can see source, edit it, use it under Limited-rights licence (GPL), I think this makes our lives so interesting. The software developed by teams of volunteers in the community and they set development goals to the software.

Well, I am going to make my own video for today's tutorial task by using the Windows Movie Maker for free! :-D

Tutorial Task 3

Part 1 - Scavenger Hunt questions

1. What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park?
A: Alan wore a gas mask while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park to prevent hay fever symptoms. - found by using yahoo.com

2. On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they?
A: The first two computers that communicate with each other was in 1969 in California and Utah. - found by using yahoo.com

3. What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software?
A: Ha ha, this one is easy, I typed "Bill Gates' birthday" on Yahoo, and there are 7,110,000 results appeared, he was born on Oct. 28, 1955, and he sold his first software when he was 20 years old. - found by using yahoo.com

4. Where was the World Wide Web invented?
A: The world's largest particle physics research center, CERN. Simply, I typed the whole question and find this answer in the first link. - found by using altavista.com

5. How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago?
A: The processor that used in computer 30 years ago had a 8088 8-bit processor, however, the computer today uses a 2.60GHz, 800FSB, 2MB processor. - found by using yahoo.com

6. What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown?
A: Norman Craven grow the largest parsnip, it weighing in at 8 lb 6 oz. - found by using altavista.com

7. When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales?
A: I typed "history of queensland" in yahoo, and I go straight into the page of Queensland's History underneath the Queensland Government website. Just over four decades of autonomy elapsed before Federation, on 1 January 1901, created the union of the Commonwealth of Australia. The majority of Queenslanders voted 'yes' to a referendum asking whether Queensland should join the Federation. Once this referendum was passed, Queensland lost its colonial status and became a State. I typed "Tweed River in New South Wales" in yahoo, then 1,940,000 results comes up, I click on the first link and I am in the Tweed Shire Council, at the top right I found a link that says "About the Tweed", then I click on the second link "History" on the left, but no certain reason. - found by using yahoo

8. What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954?
A: I found this information in the Bureau of Meteorology underneath the Australia Government website. Heavy 25 to 75mm rains on the southern Downs during the 3rd and 4th renewed the flooding in the Macintyre River which was still carrying considerable run-off from the October rains. - found by using yahoo.com

9. Why is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice?
A: The reason why Lord Byron still remembered in Venice is because he wrote some of his most famous works including ‘Don Juan’ in Venice. - found by using altavista.com

10. What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name?
A: The band name is The Black Assassins. - found by using yahoo.com

Finally, I did it! Well, I still love google!! :-P


Part 2 - Questions

(1.) How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
A: Internet search engines are special sites on the Web that are designed to help people find information stored on other sites. There are differences in the ways various search engines work, but they all perform three basic tasks:
  • They search the Internet -- or select pieces of the Internet -- based on important words.
  • They keep an index of the words they find, and where they find them.
  • They allow users to look for words or combinations of words found in that index.

Before a search engine can tell you where a file or document is, it must be found. To find information on the hundreds of millions of Web pages that exist, a search engine employs special software robots, called spiders, to build lists of the words found on Web sites. When a spider is building its lists, the process is called Web crawling. (There are some disadvantages to calling part of the Internet the World Wide Web -- a large set of arachnid-centric names for tools is one of them.) In order to build and maintain a useful list of words, a search engine's spiders have to look at a lot of pages.

"Spiders" take a Web page's content and create key search words that enable online users to find pages they're looking for:

Meta tags allow the owner of a page to specify key words and concepts under which the page will be indexed.

Building the Index: Once the spiders have completed the task of finding information on Web pages (and we should note that this is a task that is never actually completed -- the constantly changing nature of the Web means that the spiders are always crawling), the search engine must store the information in a way that makes it useful. There are two key components involved in making the gathered data accessible to users:

1. The information stored with the data
2. The method by which the information is indexed

Building a Search: Searching through an index involves a user building a query and submitting it through the search engine.

(2.) Who, or what, makes one page (that you might get in your search results) more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?

A: I think keywords can improve search engine's placement and ranking so that it is put at the top of the search results.

(3.) What are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?

A: My most favourite one is Google, and I also use Baidu (Chinese), Altavista and Yahoo. I like Google most is because it can help get the most satisfied result that I search for.

Lecture 3 - Media, New Media, Social Media

The theme from Internet Studies have two parts: Virtual Community and Individual Identity. The internet at few years ago was not like today's, Turkle, the author of , talked about the media in her book, but when she wrote this book at 1995, the internet was appeared as texts, only words. We all know that the internet nowadays is more about pictures, vedios and other appearances, no longer only words, it becomes more attractable and interesting. People become used to share interests with their friends both they know in person and only know on the internet nowadays. For me, I would like to share music and pictures with my friends, I think the majority of people like to share these things through the internet.

The Web 2.0 includes the open API, Folksonomy and the idea of user-generated content. The open API means different websites can talk together, they can share data openly. There is another one called Folksonomy which organise knowledge, in other words using "tags" on posts or items.

The social media has many parts, such as weblogs/blogs, social network services (SNSs) and content sharing communities. However, our lives become more interesting and meaningful with the internet in this morden time.



Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Tutorial Task 2 Part 2 - My own experiences with communication technologies

The first time that I used computer was in my mum's office, playing computer games, I was about 8 years old at that time. Along with my growth, I began to know more communication technologies, such as mobile phones, emails, online forums, etc.

In junior high school, I began to use mobile phones to chat with friends or SMS after school. I used the chatting tool QQ and MSN to keep touch with my friends because a lot of my friends started to ask me what my QQ number is or MSN account name wherever I was at, so I began to think about that I need to have a chatting tool so that I can contact with my friends. We chat during our free time share information around the world.

When registration, we always asked to provide our personal information. I think it is not safe to provide personal information due to the internet virus, so if the information that asked us to provided without a asterisk[(*)it means must be provided], I will not give these informaiton due to the security reason. Sometimes, companies like google and facebook collect information for maketing use and let us easily get back our password if we forget it, it is understandable.

I only know a few friends that I know only from the internet and have never met in person, I think it is much different from the friends that I know in person, because information on the internet are not always true.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Lecture 2 - The history of computer and internet

Today's lecture was about the history of computer and internet. The computer was firstly invented by Charles Babbage in 1791, it was designed to calculate and print mathematical tables, not like today's. As our convenor Adam mentioned in the lecture, the first home computer was invented in 1975, it was the first one that actually developed, because actually the first PC came out in 1940s. In 1960s-1970s, people have to build computer by themselves after they bought it.

The internet is about 40 years old till now. In 1966, three people (the father of internet) get three computers connected together and made it work.

Bill Gates wanted to create a language that could be used for simple application, such as word processing, basic accounting and some games, so he started writing a language called BASIC for the Altair. After he created the lamguage, he marketed his program by running a little company called Microsoft - which is now known to almost everyone around the world.

There are some early internet applications that were instrumental in defining the nature and use of the internet. The email was invented in 1971, the begining of TCPIP was began from 1974, in 1979, the usenet (online forum comes from usenet) was come out and the most commonly used emotion [:-)] nowadays in chatting online was invented in 1982.

Lastly, it is important to understand that the internet is not the same thing as the web, web is just one part of the internet, there are many other things included in internet, like MSN, online forum and so on.

Lecture 1 - New Communication Technology


In recent years, people always use computers and mobile phones to contact with others under many situations, such as sending emails, making phone calls, having online video conferences and so on. They are new communication technologies that commonly used by people which have many advantages in our daily lives, for example, parents can contact with their children if they are in other places of the country or overseas by using mobile phones or chat with them on the internet, such as skype, MSN, facebook and other chat tools. It is more convenient and quicker than writing letters.

In my experience, checking emails and chating on the internet by using MSN is the most common things that I do every day. Because emails may have some important information from my parents, friends or the university course information, and I think that keep touch with friends is very important. I will check the announcement that posted on the learning @ griffith website of the griffith university every single day as well.

In general, the new communication technology makes our lives more convenient and colorful.