Homework Assignment Open Source

16

October

2013

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After reading the articles, I choose 2 examples of open source web servers: Apache and XINS. Apache is a well-known web server: 45% of all websites use Apache software. The biggest competitor, the paid Microsoft, has only 23%. XINS on the other hand is relatively new and small. The web server serves, with several other web services, only 12% of the market.

The main reasons why Apache has a bigger market share than Microsoft, is because Apache software is superior compared to paid server software. There are two reasons for this. First of all, open source systems are built upon a large amount of knowledge. Everybody is free to contribute and the contributors are diverse. At paid competitors, more contributors means more costs.

The second reason for the superiority is that contributors are motivated by much more than money. In the article Why hackers do what they do: Understanding motivation and effort in free/open source software projects, the writers claim that the overwhelming reason to contribute to open source projects is the users need for the software. They have a strong incentive to create a solution that matches their particular need. Other motivators are enjoyment-related, improving programming skills and a sense of obligation. At open web servers, it’s easier to motivate the contributors than at paid servers, because people aren’t monetary motivated.

Assignment: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53251299/Homework%20Assignment%20Roos%20Jager.docx

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Grooming the groomer

10

October

2013

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It’s not even news anymore: A man who seduces young girls to do sexual acts in front of a webcam. Yet another groomer (a term for a pedophile). I think we’ve all heard it many times before. But still, these messages are alarming. Yesterday (Wednesday 9 October), a 40-year-old man, Frank R., was arrested for the abuse of 300 young girls. The OM (Dutch public Prosecutor) claims that the man has had sexual activity (/intercourse) with more than 11 of those girls.

I think it’s dangerous that these guys still can get access to these ‘fragile’ girls. With the internet, it’s very easy for them to act like they are young and hot guys who want to hang out with the girls. Most of the time, the parents aren’t even aware of the things their little girls (or boys) do. And I think society can’t blame the parents for not knowing. How many of you guys talked about what you were doing on the internet when you were younger or during your puberty?

Since 2010, grooming is punishable. But is that enough? I don’t think so. I think the government should be more involved with this issue. They should set more rules for the websites, whereby the sites are able to conduct more information from the users. An example: people are obliged to fill in their phone number, which enables the site to call the user to verify if they are who they say they are. 

So what do you guys think? Should the government be more involved in the online abuse or is it something the parents of the girls should watch? Or are the websites responsible? Who is here to blame? And what are the solutions?

Source: http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/3596915/man-verdacht-van-misbruik-300-jonge-meisjes-via-internet.html; http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grooming_(pedofilie)

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The LinkedIncident

22

September

2013

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I don’t know how many of you are LinkedIn users, but I’m already building my (online) network. LinkedIn is a professional network, which the site also propagandize, so I automatically -and maybe a bit naive- assume the site is reliable and will not use my information for the wrong purpose. With this in mind, a news post on my NU.nl App drew my eye. I normally don’t look at NUtech (NU technology) but the header said:  ‘LinkedIn hackt e-mailaccounts en steelt contactenlijsten‘. (English: LinkedIn hacks email accounts and steals contact lists)

An abstract: some LinkedIn users are accusing the social network site of using their email addresses and their contact list to send spam emails. The network can download the addresses without the permission of the user. This is, according to the users, an invasion of privacy. The network uses the addresses to send so called endorsement mails: the receiver can give the LinkedIn member specific skills, but he or she has to have an account to do this. The users think that LinkedIn uses their mail addresses to increase the number of members.

According to LinkedIn, the site isn’t doing anything illegal and this action isn’t in contradiction with the privacy statement of the network. But the post sure did raise my concerns. If a professional website like LinkedIn is doing this, what will other -less credible- sites do?

I think the story is another wake-up call to always think about what information you put on the internet and where you put it. I will definitely use LinkedIn in the future, but I do wonder how other people think about the LinkedIn incident. Will you from now on read the whole privacy statement, just to make sure? Is the issue (for the non-members) a reason not to join LinkedIn? Or is the whole incident just another dull story?

For the people who don’t know LinkedIn, here is a short video:

The article (in Dutch): http://nutech.nl/internet/3581896/linkedin-hackt-e-mailaccounts-en-steelt-contactenlijsten.html

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The decline of Facebook

9

September

2013

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We’re all -except from one of your classmates- members of the Facebook family. And probably most of your friends and family-members are contributing to this huge social network. Facebook is an easy way to keep everybody updated  -whether they want it or not- and keep in touch with your friends from all over the world. So you may think the decline of Facebook will never come. But some say the decline has already begun…

Just three years ago, Facebook active users grew immense. Just in one year (2008-2009) the number of Facebook users almost doubled!fbgrowth(Smith, J., http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/02/14/facebook-surpasses-175-million-users-continuing-to-grow-by-600k-usersday/)

But Brett Ryan talks in his article ‘Facebook Losing Users: Is This the End Of the Social Network?‘ about the decline of Facebook. He says:

In early December 2012, Facebook traffic dipped by nearly 1.4 million users. … in an absolute sense, it’s like losing the entire population of San Diego in users in just one month.

According to Brett, there are two aspects that can explain the decline in the popularity of Facebook. First, there is the aspect of market saturation: the market is in the maturity stage. The outflow of people, e.g. the people who want a Facebook ‘sabbatical’, has a greater impact compared to the years before. That’s because the inflow of new users has slowed down.

The second reason Brett mentions is, I think, a sub reason for the previous one. Facebook is a business, and businesses need to earn money. The social network is experimenting with ways to make the users pay fee for certain actions, e.g. $100 for sending a direct message to a person who isn’t in your list of friends. People get irritated, maybe even angry, and want to take a Facebook break.

And Brett isn’t the only one who thinks the decline of Facebook has begun. Douglas Rushkoff, author of ‘How Corporatism Conquered the World, and How We Can Take It Back‘, says the net isn’t the place where you can create loyalty and Facebook isn’t a permanent company (see video below).

And that’s not all. There is even a website! I have to say, it’s a small guess that it is really about the end of Facebook: I can only read English, Dutch, French and German. But I think the name of the site says it all: http://www.theendoffacebook.com/

I use Facebook all the time. But these days, I notice I sometimes get irritated. I’m not interested in where you go to the gym or another picture of your Starbucks coffee with your name on it (applause for the employee who spelled your name correct!). I think Douglas is right and people will not always be loyal to Facebook. I probably won’t. Do you guys agree? Or do you think Facebook will survive, no matter what, like the Spice Girls?

Article B. Ryan: http://www.policymic.com/articles/23835/facebook-losing-users-is-this-the-end-of-the-social-network

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