INTRODUCTION

Today, young people from around the world have realised that money can be made if you have a large enough online following.

Many brands are working with internet personalities and influencers to market their products. YouTubers, streamers and social media celebrities are becoming more professional every day, and what used to be something that anyone with a webcam and microphone could do, has suddenly turned into big business.

In this chapter, you will learn more about modern electronic communications, specifically, mobile communications. This will include classic forms of communication like email and SMS, as well as modern forms like vlogging, podcasting and streaming. You will also learn more about mobile devices and the protocols used to transfer data between these devices.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS IN A NUTSHELL

Electronic communication refers to any data, information, words, photos or symbols that are sent electronically to communicate with one or more people. Thanks to computers and the internet, there are thousands of different ways to communicate today – from uploading videos on YouTube to posting a 140-character tweet on Twitter.

Some of the most popular forms of electronic communication include:

• emails
• websites
• File transfer protocol
• Instant messages
• VOIP
• Video calls
• Vlogs
• Blogs
• Webinars

Whenever you communicate on the internet, whether it is via e-mail, instant messaging or by posting a blog, it is important that you follow proper netiquette. This will not only make the internet a more pleasant place for everyone else, it will also save you from potential embarrassment in the future!

The following are some guidelines you can follow when communicating on the internet:

• Show people on the internet the same respect you would show to them in person.
• Do not say things to people you would not say to them in person.
• Do not post things on the internet that you would not want your mother or future boss to see.
• Things posted on the internet often last forever. This means that things you post as a teenager or young adult can negatively affect the rest of your life.
• Make sure your messages are clearly written and easy to understand.
• When joining an existing conversation, speak about subjects relevant to the topic.
• Try to make useful contributions and help people out on the internet.
• If you need help from the internet, do not expect other people to do all the work for you. Do as much work as you can before asking your question.
• See if there are existing conversations about your topic before starting new conversations.
• Do not spam people! Do not post the same advertisement repeatedly.

While the tips covered in this section are generally good guidelines, it is important to note that netiquette differs from site to site and changes over time. When joining a new website, spend some time figuring out what acceptable behaviour is for that website before sending your own messages.

1. Define the followiDefine the following terms:

a. Electronic communication

b. Blog

c. VOIP

2. A friend of yours visits many download sites and starts receiving lots of unwanted mail.

a. What is this unwanted mail called?

b. Is it right to send out mail to people you do not know? Motivate your answer.

3. Study the following words that Jenny usually uses in an email to her colleagues at work.

a. Consider the context of the words she uses in her email messages and list TWO e-mail etiquette (netiquette) rules that have been violated.

b. Which other e-communication medium are these words best used for?

c. Briefly explain to Jenny how she is supposed to send emails to colleagues at work.

UNIT
6.1 Mobile/wireless e-communication

In this unit, you will learn more about different communication methods and how they can be applied using wireless technology. For each technology, you will look at what it is, how it is used, what its advantages and disadvantages are, and a few popular examples of the tool. Let’s start with the most commonly used technology: E-mail.

E-MAIL

Email is short for “electronic mail,” and is one of the most popular uses of the Internet. It allows you to send and receive messages containing text, images, or other attachments to and from anyone with an email address, anywhere in the world.

Email allows us to:

• Contact people all over the world for free
• Share files with one or more people at a time
• Communicate with more than one person at a time
• Keep documented evidence of our communication with someone
• Send messages any time of day without disturbing people
• Advertise to multiple people

When typing an email message, it is vital that you use good netiquette. You should always include a subject that summarizes the topic of the email. Begin each message with the recipient’s name and end the message with your name or “signature”.

• communication
• sending files
• marketing

As one of the first internet services, there are millions of different email providers today with most large web services offering a free email service. Some examples common include::

• Gmail
• Yahoo Mail
• Outlook.com

BLOGGING

The first form of one-way conversation is blogging, in which a website creator posts short, informal stories or articles on their website. It is a discussion or informational website published on world wide web consisting of discrete, often informal diary style text entries.

The Audience is generally people who are interested in the content of that specific blog.

Whenever a new story is posted, it is automatically moved to the top of the website where it will be seen first while all the older stories move down one position. For example, in the screenshot from the blog Kotaku, the newest story is about a professional Magic player, and this is followed by three older stories related to gaming. Clicking on any of these stories will open an informally written article about the topic.

MICROBLOG

Microblogging is a combination of blogging and instant messaging that allows users of social platforms such as Twitter to conveniently create short messages to be posted and shared with an audience online. Microblogs are usually limited to 280 characters, so messages must be short and to the point.

Microblogs come in a variety of content formats including text, images, video, audio, and hyperlinks. They can be seen as short conversations where people can share ideas with their followers.

SMS

The second oldest form of electronic communication is SMS (or short message service). The first SMS was sent in 1992. Since the early 90s, any mobile phone could send a short message (or SMS) to another mobile phone. These messages had a maximum length of 140 characters (including spaces), cost a small amount per message and were asynchronous. This made them an excellent tool for sending small amounts of information to someone or for having short conversations.

Today, SMSs are rarely used for personal communication since instant messaging and social media applications can send the same short messages for free. Instead, the only situations in which SMSs are commonly used are:

• the sender does not know the message receiver
• the sender does not have internet access needed for instant messaging applications
• the sender does not have a phone capable of using instant messaging applications.
• Some banks also use SMSs to notify customers of transactions on their bank accounts.

The table below summarises the advantages and disadvantages of SMS.

Table 6.1: Advantages and disadvantages of SMS

The picture in the margin shows a typical example of a spam SMS.

Animation from Grade 10 showing how a message is converted to data and sent to another person’s phone.

INSTANT MESSAGING

Instant messaging is a service, like SMS, that allows people to send short messages using their mobiles phones (or computers). However, unlike SMSs, instant messages are sent for free over the internet and can contain multimedia items like emojis, pictures, videos and voice recordings. In 2018, the most popular instant messaging applications are WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat, although newer instant messaging applications like Snapchat and Telegram have gained many users very quickly.

Together with voice calls, instant messaging is the most popular method for people to have electronic conversations in 2018. It is used to communicate with friends and acquaintances, have group conversations, organise events and share multimedia with people. In fact, it has become so popular that many businesses are using instant messaging applications to communicate directly with customers such as Absa’s ChatBanking and Afrihost’s WhatsApp Assistant.

The table below summarises the advantages and disadvantages of instant messaging.

Table 6.2: Advantages and disadvantages of instant messaging (IM)

The picture in the margin shows a typical example of a WhatsApp conversation.

VIDEOCASTING

Videocasting refers to a form of communication where videos are broadcast over the internet. Videos can first be created and then uploaded to a website (like YouTube), or they can be streamed live, allowing people to watch the video as it is created. One very popular form of videocasting is vlogging. The word vlogging is a combination of two words: Video and blogging. Vlogging (or a vlog) is like blogging but with videos. As with blogs, vlogs show several informal, conversational videos with the most popular video appearing first. These videos can be on any topic and are generally not professionally made. Most channels you will find on YouTube are examples of vlogs.

The advantages and disadvantages of video casting are shown in the table below.

Table 6.3: Advantages and disadvantages of video casting

PODCASTING

The final type of electronic communication discussed in this chapter is podcasting. Podcasting (or a podcast) refers to an audio only broadcast released on the internet. It is a free service that allows Internet users to download audio files from a podcasting Web site to listen to on their computers or personal digital audio players. As with blogging and vlogging, there are thousands of different types of podcasts, from novels and dramas, to news and talk show podcasts to popular culture and documentary podcasts, which means that there is a podcast for every type of audience.

The advantages and disadvantages of podcasting are listed in the table below.

There is a really common misconception that starndard audio files available on the internet are postcasts. Anyone can just take a recording of themselves or someone on a dictaphone or on their mobile phone and then that audio file can then be uploaded on a website and then most people think that it’s a podcast. One thing that separetes a podcast from simple audio file is the act of allowing subscriptions as soon as you upload an audio file to a podcast hosting site then that podcast hosting website produces a RSS feed and its the fact that the RSS feed allows peolple to subscribe to the podcast. That is what turns into from an audio file to a podcast.

As soon as people start subscribing to that audio file or your CDs of Audio files through RSS feeds, that is what turns it into a Podcast or episodes of a podcast. When you have podcasts that talk about a certain topic then you would have a podcast series.

Table 6.4: Advantages and disadvantages of podcasting

VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL (VOIP)

VOIP is a service to make telephone calls over the internet rather than through the traditional telephone or cell phone networks. It allows voice and mutimedia data to be transferred across a data network.To use VOIP, the signal from an old, analogue phone system can either be converted to a digital signal or a digital phone system must be installed.

Although VOIP is much cheaper than analogue phones, VOIP systems initially suffered from many technical problems. These days VOIP is widely used and, together with cell phones, has caused the analogue phone system to shrink to a fraction of its original size. As you will see in the next section, VOIP is often combined with video conferencing tools and included in smartphone applications. This gives users the convenience of making a call from their phone, without the cost normally associated with a call.

VIDEO CONFERENCING

Video conferencing refers to a set of technologies that allow a person to make a video call to one or more people at the same time. These calls are like phone calls but can also include a video broadcast of the people in the call. Popular examples of video call applications include Skype, FaceTime and Discord.

Video calls are mostly used by people who want to have a comfortable conversation. Since more than half of what people say is nonverbal (that is, body language), being able to see the person you are speaking to helps to avoid confusion and misunderstandings.

However, video calls and video conferences also have different uses. For example, video calls are sometimes used to broadcast a live event to people (such as a sporting event, childbirth or home viewing). Video conferences are also often used in business environments, where they allow people from across the world to attend a meeting or view a presentation.

The table below summarises the advantages and disadvantages of video conferences.

Table 6.5: Advantages and disadvantages of video conferencing

6.2.1 Match the COLUMN A (1.1 – 1.12) with the correct answer in COLUMN B. Write down only the question number and the matching letter in COLUMN B (A – L).

6.2.2 Briefly describe how e-mail is a form of e-communication.

a. List TWO uses e-mails have.

b. List THREE advantages to sending mail over the internet compared to sending it via the postal service.

6.2.3 The second oldest form of electronic communication is SMS (or short message service). The first SMS was sent in 1992. Today, SMSs are rarely used for personal communication.

a. List TWO situations where SMSs are still used.

b. List TWO advantages of SMSs.

c. List TWO disadvantages of SMSs.

6.2.4 Instant messaging is a service, like SMS, that allows people to send short messages using their mobiles phones (or computers).

a. Give THREE advantages of instant messaging.

b. Give TWO disadvantages of instant messaging.

6.2.5 a.What is podcasting?

b. Give ONE difference between podcasting and blogging.

UNIT
6.2 Use of mobile technology

In this unit, you will learn more about the use of mobile technology. The section will look specifically at mobile phones, feature phones and smartphones.

MOBILE PHONES

Mobile phones were designed specifically to make calls and send SMSs. Occasionally, the phones had a few additional features like a calculator or timer, but these features were not as important as the phone’s ability to make calls and send SMSs.

FEATURE PHONES

Feature phones could send multimedia messages, play music, take photos, read emails and browse the internet. While these features are like smartphone features, they differ in two important ways:

• feature phones had a very weak processor, low quality screen and poor camera
• applications had to be designed specifically for each feature phone and there was no App store.

Because of these limitations, feature phones were more like “dumb phones” with a few extra features, while smartphones are more like computers that can run any program designed for the operating system.