Ryan SchultenLauren McGlinchey

Aman GillJared Bonamico

What is it?

Who are the social networks?

Why have a presence?

Your online presence should be taken very seriously in today’s world.

Social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide

an opportunity to self market and network to millions of people. They

should be used responsibly. As much as 50% of college admissions

officers and company employment recruiters use these same social

networks to find out our personal information. They’re searching

concerns about alcohol and drug-use, violence, and other character

problems.

Facebook.com - is a free-access social networking website that is

operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. The website's name

refers to the paper face books depicting members of a campus

community that some US colleges and preparatory schools give to

incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other

people on campus. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook while he was a

student at Harvard University. Facebook is one of the Internet’s most

popular websites, for consumers and businesses alike. The website

currently has more than 200 million active users worldwide. Using

Facebook to position yourself or your brand and establish your web

presence is relatively painless, and can do a lot for your marketing.

MySpace.com -is a social networking website with an interactive, user-

submitted network of friends, personal

profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos for teenagers and

adults internationally. MySpace was founded by Chris Dewolfe and Tom

Anderson in 2003. MySpace was purchased in 2005 for $580 million by

Rupert Murdoch creator of a media empire that includes 20th Century

Fox and the Fox television stations. MySpace has more than 40 billion

page views a month. Google paid $900 million to be MySpace's search

provider.

Twitter.com - is a free social networking and micro-blogging service

that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as

tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length

which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other

users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Since its

creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained extensive notability

and popularity worldwide. Estimates of the number of daily users vary as

the company does not release the number of active accounts.

LinkedIn.com - is a business-oriented social networking site founded in

December 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professional

networking. As of February 2009, it had more than 35 million registered

users, spanning 170 industries. LinkedIn's was founded by its CEO, Reid

Hoffman. The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain

a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The

people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone

(whether a site user or not) to become a connection.

Because employers and college admissions officers are increasingly

using the Internet to research potential employees and students, it is

important to create a professionally acceptable online presence. Social

networking sites usually have privacy settings. The user should ensure

that profiles, photographs and wall postings are set to be seen only by

accepted friends. It is important to keep in mind, however, that the

user’s profile, including the profile picture, is still public and many

networking sites actually own the material posted on them, so the

material can be sold or shared elsewhere. In addition to using privacy

setting, users should:

Choose an appropriate profile picture that presents them in a positive, professional manner

Monitor comments and pictures posted by friends

Spell check and proofread material

Avoid any inappropriate remarks on blogs, social networking sites, and even emails, especially regarding past or present employers

Avoid references to drinking, drugs, and anything else that may be damaging to their reputation

In addition to maintaining a professionally acceptable online presence, it

is also important for users to protect their online presence and to avoid

putting themselves at risk for identity theft, stalking, harassment, and

other problems. Guidelines for protecting one’s online presence include:

Don’t post addresses or phone numbers in your profile. Home or work

addresses and phone numbers can be looked up in reverse search

engines.

Use strong security settings for your profiles. Make sure you adjust your

settings so only people who you know and authorize are allowed to view

your full profile.

Only accept friend requests from people you know. If someone you

know sends you a friend request on a social networking site, send them

an email to verify that it really was them that sent the request. If you

receive a request from someone you do not really know, send them a

message through the website asking them to remind you where you

know them from before accepting the friend request.

Be careful what you reveal about your daily schedule. Some social

networking sites allow you to update your “status” so that everyone who

views your profile knows where you are or what you are doing.

Advertising that you are on vacation or out of the house presents an

ideal opportunity for a thief to come and scope out your house or go

through your mail.

Use one-shot credit cards. Some credit card companies offer an option

to create one-shot credit card numbers. When you make a purchase

online using these cards, the number will be valid for just that

transaction.

Create strong passwords. Strong passwords contain both letters and

numbers, making them more difficult for identity thieves to guess. The

strongest passwords include a combination of upper and lowercase

letters. Passwords should also be at least eight characters long.

Admissions officers and employers say that they do like to see creative

layouts and photos, information about what activities applicants

enjoy, skills they possess, and stories about their experiences, such as

travelling or competitions.

What is it?What are it’s uses?

What does the future hold?

Is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, whether that environment is a simulation of the real world or an imaginary world.

There are two types of virtual reality: Desktopand Immersive. Desktop virtual reality simply requires a computer monitor to display the 3D world. Immersive virtual reality requires the use of special display devices to make the user feel more involved in the virtual environment. These special display devices can either be projection screen systems or head-mounted displays.

This gentlemen is viewing a 3D virtual reality world though a head-mounted display

Immersive Virtual Reality

The Sims is an example of desktop virtual reality. First released in March of 2000, the Sims is the best selling PC game in the history with more then 7

million copies sold.

Desktop Virtual Reality

Immersive and Desktop Virtual Reality

Virtual reality arguably provides the most natural means of communicating with a computer because it allows us to use our inherent 3D spatial skills that have evolved over thousands of years such as walking, gesturing, looking, grabbing etc. There is a vast range of potential applications for virtual reality, such as:

Architectural Design: Architects can now use virtual reality technology to help with the designing and walking through a building or room.

Education: Systems have been designed to help disabled children allow the visualization of mathematical concepts, perform virtual lectures & conferences.

Medicine: There is a lot of interest in the possibility of virtual surgery and the provision of other aids for the surgeon like in the fields of ultrasonic imaging, MRI, and drug design.

It is difficult to predict the future of virtual reality. Within existing technological limits, sight and sound are the two senses which best lend themselves to high quality simulation. There is however attempts being currently made to simulate smell. Although it is often seen in the context of entertainment by popular culture, the future of virtual reality is very much tied into therapeutic, training, and engineering demands.