1.
E-commerce
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E-commerce is a transaction of buying or selling online. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of the life cycle although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail. 1979, Michael Aldrich demonstrates the first online shopping system,1981, Thomson Holidays UK is the first business-to-business online shopping system to be installed. 1982, Minitel was introduced nationwide in France by France Télécom,1983, California State Assembly holds first hearing on electronic commerce in Volcano, California. Testifying are CPUC, MCI Mail, Prodigy, CompuServe, Volcano Telephone and it is the first comprehensive electronic commerce service. 1989, In May 1989, Sequoia Data Corp, introduced Compumarket The first internet based system for e-commerce. Sellers and buyers could post items for sale and buyers could search the database,1990, Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, using a NeXT computer. 1992, Book Stacks Unlimited in Cleveland opens a sales website selling books online with credit card processing. 1993, Paget Press releases edition No.3 of the first app store, The Electronic AppWrapper 1994, Netscape 1.0 is introduced in late 1994 with SSL encryption that made transactions secure. 1994, Ipswitch IMail Server becomes the first software available online for sale,1994, Ten Summoners Tales by Sting becomes the first secure online purchase through NetMarket. 1995, The US National Science Foundation lifts its former strict prohibition of commercial enterprise on the Internet, the shopping service at launch featured W H Smith, Tesco, Virgin Megastores/Our Price, Great Universal Stores, Interflora, Dixons Retail, Past Times, PC World and Innovations. 1995, Jeff Bezos launches Amazon. com and the first commercial-free 24-hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK, eBay is founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb. 1996, IndiaMART B2B marketplace established in India,1996, ECPlaza B2B marketplace established in Korea. 1996, The use of Excalibur BBS with replicated Storefronts was an implementation of electronic commerce started by a group of SysOps in Australia. 1998, Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web,1999, Alibaba Group is established in China. Business. com sold for US $7.5 million to eCompanies, the peer-to-peer filesharing software Napster launches. ATG Stores launches to sell items for the home online. 2000, Complete Idiots Guide to E-commerce released on Amazon 2000,2001, Alibaba. com achieved profitability in December 2001
2.
E-book
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An electronic book is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Although sometimes defined as a version of a printed book. Commercially produced and sold e-books are usually intended to be read on dedicated e-reader devices, however, almost any sophisticated computer device that features a controllable viewing screen can also be used to read e-books, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. In the 2000s, there was a trend of print and e-book sales moving to the Internet, where readers buy traditional paper books and e-books on websites using e-commerce systems. With e-books, users can browse through online, and then when they select and order titles. At the start of 2012 in the U. S. more e-books were published online than were distributed in hardcover, the main reasons that people are buying e-books online are due to possibly lower prices, increased comfort and a larger selection of titles. With e-books, lectronic bookmarks make referencing easier, and e-book readers may allow the user to annotate pages, although fiction and non-fiction books come in e-book formats, technical material is especially suited for e-book delivery because it can be searched for keywords. In addition, for programming books, code examples can be copied, E-book reading is increasing in the U. S. by 2014, 28% of adults had read an e-book, compared to 23% in 2013. This is increasing, because by 2014 50% of American adults had an e-reader or a tablet, E-books are also referred to as ebooks, eBooks, e-Books, e-journals, e-editions or as digital books. The devices that are designed specifically for reading e-books are called e-readers, the idea of an e-reader that would enable a reader to view books on a screen came to Bob Brown after watching his first talkie. In 1930, he wrote a book on this idea and titled it The Readies, although Brown came up with the idea intellectually in the 1930s, early commercial e-readers did not follow his model. Schuessler relates it to a DJ spinning bits of old songs to create a beat or a new song as opposed to just a remix of a familiar song. The inventor of the first e-book is not widely agreed upon and her idea behind the device was to decrease the number of books that her pupils carried to school. The first e-book may be the Index Thomisticus, a heavily annotated electronic index to the works of Thomas Aquinas, prepared by Roberto Busa beginning in 1949, although originally stored on a single computer, a distributable CD-ROM version appeared in 1989. In 2005, the Index was published online, augment ran on specialized hardware, while FRESS ran on IBM mainframes. All these systems also provided extensive hyperlinking, graphics, and other capabilities, van Dam is generally thought to have coined the term electronic book, and it was established enough to use in an article title by 1985. FRESS was used for reading extensive primary texts online, as well as for annotation and online discussions in several courses, browns faculty made extensive use of FRESS, for example the philosopher Roderick Chisholm used it to produce several of his books. Thus in the Preface to Person and Object he writes The book would not have been completed without the epoch-making File Retrieval, despite the extensive earlier history, several publications report Michael S. Hart as the inventor of the e-book
3.
Software
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Computer software, or simply software, is that part of a computer system that consists of data or computer instructions, in contrast to the physical hardware from which the system is built. In computer science and software engineering, computer software is all information processed by computer systems, programs, computer software includes computer programs, libraries and related non-executable data, such as online documentation or digital media. Computer hardware and software require each other and neither can be used on its own. At the lowest level, executable code consists of machine language instructions specific to an individual processor—typically a central processing unit, a machine language consists of groups of binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its preceding state. For example, an instruction may change the value stored in a storage location in the computer—an effect that is not directly observable to the user. An instruction may also cause something to appear on a display of the computer system—a state change which should be visible to the user. The processor carries out the instructions in the order they are provided, unless it is instructed to jump to a different instruction, the majority of software is written in high-level programming languages that are easier and more efficient for programmers, meaning closer to a natural language. High-level languages are translated into machine language using a compiler or an interpreter or a combination of the two, an outline for what would have been the first piece of software was written by Ada Lovelace in the 19th century, for the planned Analytical Engine. However, neither the Analytical Engine nor any software for it were ever created, the first theory about software—prior to creation of computers as we know them today—was proposed by Alan Turing in his 1935 essay Computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem. This eventually led to the creation of the academic fields of computer science and software engineering. Computer science is more theoretical, whereas software engineering focuses on practical concerns. However, prior to 1946, software as we now understand it—programs stored in the memory of stored-program digital computers—did not yet exist, the first electronic computing devices were instead rewired in order to reprogram them. On virtually all platforms, software can be grouped into a few broad categories. There are many different types of software, because the range of tasks that can be performed with a modern computer is so large—see list of software. System software includes, Operating systems, which are collections of software that manage resources and provides common services for other software that runs on top of them. Supervisory programs, boot loaders, shells and window systems are parts of operating systems. In practice, an operating system bundled with additional software so that a user can potentially do some work with a computer that only has an operating system. Device drivers, which operate or control a particular type of device that is attached to a computer, utilities, which are computer programs designed to assist users in the maintenance and care of their computers
4.
Streaming media
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Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. A client end-user can use their player to begin to play the data file before the entire file has been transmitted. For example, in the 1930s, elevator music was among the earliest popularly available streaming media, the term streaming media can apply to media other than video and audio such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are all considered streaming text. As of 2017, streaming is generally taken to refer to cases where a user watches digital video content or listens to audio content on a computer screen. With streaming content, the user does not have to download the digital video or digital audio file before they start to watch/listen to it. There are challenges with streaming content on the Internet, as of 2016, two popular streaming services are the video sharing website YouTube, which contains video and audio files on a huge range of topics and Netflix, which streams movies and TV shows. Live streaming refers to Internet content delivered in real-time, as events happen, Live internet streaming requires a form of source media, an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, in the early 1920s, George O. Attempts to display media on computers date back to the earliest days of computing in the mid-20th century, however, little progress was made for several decades, primarily due to the high cost and limited capabilities of computer hardware. From the late 1980s through the 1990s, consumer-grade personal computers became powerful enough to various media. These technological improvement facilitated the streaming of audio and video content to users in their homes and workplaces. The band Severe Tire Damage was the first group to live on the Internet. On June 24,1993, the band was playing a gig at Xerox PARC while elsewhere in the building, as proof of PARCs technology, the bands performance was broadcast and could be seen live in Australia and elsewhere. Microsoft Research developed a Microsoft TV application which was compiled under MS Windows Studio Suite, realNetworks was also a pioneer in the streaming media markets, when it broadcast a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners over the Internet in 1995. The first symphonic concert on the Internet took place at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, the concert was a collaboration between The Seattle Symphony and various guest musicians such as Slash, Matt Cameron, and Barrett Martin. When Word Magazine launched in 1995, they featured the first-ever streaming soundtracks on the Internet.4 in 1999, in June 1999 Apple also introduced a streaming media format in its QuickTime 4 application. It was later widely adopted on websites along with RealPlayer. In 2000 Industryview. com launched its worlds largest streaming video archive website to help promote themselves
5.
Online banking
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The credentials for online banking is normally not the same as for telephone or mobile banking. Financial institutions now routinely allocate customers numbers, whether or not customers have indicated an intention to access their online banking facility, customer numbers are normally not the same as account numbers, because a number of customer accounts can be linked to the one customer number. The customer visits the financial institutions website, and enters the online banking facility using the customer number. Most banks also enable a customer to download copies of bank statements, some banks also enable customers to download transactions directly into the customers accounting software. The facility may also enable the customer to order a book, statements, report loss of credit cards, stop payment on a cheque, advise change of address. Today, many banks are internet-only institutions and these virtual banks have lower overhead costs than their brick-and-mortar counterparts. In the United States, many banks are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The precursor for the modern home lun banking services were the banking services over electronic media from the early 1980s. The term online became popular in the late 1980s and referred to the use of a terminal, keyboard, home banking can also refer to the use of a numeric keypad to send tones down a phone line with instructions to the bank. Online services started in New York in 1981 when four of the major banks offered home banking services. When the clicks-and-bricks euphoria hit in the late 1990s, many began to view web-based banking as a strategic imperative. Additionally, online banking services allow institutions to bundle more services into single packages, thereby luring customers, a mergers-and-acquisitions wave swept the financial industries in the mid- and late 1990s, greatly expanding banks customer bases. Following this, banks looked to the Web as a way of maintaining their customers, a number of different factors are causing bankers to shift more of their business to the virtual realm. While financial institutions took steps to implement e-banking services in the mid-1990s and it took widespread adoption of electronic commerce, based on trailblazing companies such as America Online, Amazon. com and eBay, to make the idea of paying for items online widespread. By 2000, 80% of U. S. banks offered e-banking, at Bank of America, for example, it took 10 years to acquire 2 million e-banking customers. However, a significant cultural change took place after the Y2K scare ended, in 2001, Bank of America became the first bank to top 3 million online banking customers, more than 20% of its customer base. In comparison, larger institutions, such as Citigroup claimed 2.2 million online relationships globally. Wells Fargo had 2.5 million online banking customers, including small businesses, Online customers proved more loyal and profitable than regular customers
6.
DVD-by-mail
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DVD-by-mail is a business model in which customers rent DVDs and Blu-rays of films and television shows, video games and VCDs, among other film media online, for delivery to the customer by mail. Generally, all interaction between the renter and the company takes place through the companys website, using an e-commerce model. Typically, a customer chooses from a list of film, show or game titles online, as a customers requested titles become available, the company sends them out to the customer through the mail. Once the customer has consumed the content, she or he sends the media back to the company via the mail, once the customer has registered, she or he creates a list of titles they wish to watch, which are ranked by the customer by priority. Titles from the list are mailed to the customer as they become available, the customer watches the films or uses the media and then sends the discs back to the rental company using the mail. Most companies let customers keep the films for as long as they want, customers are, however, commonly, once a disc is returned, another is sent out. Some companies or plans may have a limit on the number of movies rented in a month. Memberships are usually billed monthly, and includes postage both ways, variations exist, for example, some companies also offer video game rentals while others offer music. Redbox allows a user to reserve DVDs or Blu-ray discs online to retrieve, Netflix began an online streaming program allowing for the online viewing of select movies and TV shows. Even below this point, higher volume customers are by definition less profitable than customers who receive fewer discs per month, if these customers become too numerous, there are various measures which the rental company can take. One is the so-called throttling approach, which received significant publicity with regard to Netflix, in this case, high-volume customers may experience a greater likelihood of shipments from alternative warehouses, when the nearest shipment center does not have the requested disc. They are also likely to receive replacement shipments on the same day a disc is received. Similar fair use caveats can be found in the Terms and Conditions of leading UK companies such as LOVEFiLM, in Canada, Zip. ca switched to Capped plans in part to avoid implementing throttling. LOVEFiLM came under scrutiny from users over its claim to offer unlimited movie rentals, some users reportedly found the company used long delays at the shipping stage to reduce the number of films a month a customer can rent. The company was subject to a dispute by the Advertising Standards Authority over the use of the word unlimited in their advertising and it was revealed that they practiced throttling. The company itself claimed that this fair usage policy means all customers get a similar service, on March 2,2006, Blockbuster announced that their service does not implement throttling. The following is a summary of the main English-speaking markets, Netflix ended 2008 with 9.39 million customers. Blockbuster Video claimed 1 million online customers in August 2005,2 million by March 2006, there are no recent published numbers for Blockbuster Online since 2007
7.
Online grocer
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Online Grocer refers to a grocery store that allows private individuals and businesses to purchase groceries and grocery products online. There is usually a delivery charge for this service, Online grocery delivery services are available throughout Europe, Asia and North America, mostly in urban centres. The online ordering is done through e-commerce websites or mobile apps, Online grocer is a variation of E-commerce which is based on a brick-and-mortar supermarket, warehouse, or a distribution center. The basic method of online grocery ordering involves customers placing orders online, in-Store pickup is typically offered for same-day shopping as it does not require a shipping or delivery. It usually has lower service fee and this option is popular in rural areas. It is also useful for customers living outside of the local delivery area. Most local online grocers have their own drivers and are able to deliver goods faster than the first method, the most common type of personal delivery involves storing grocery inventory in a warehouse to deliver to customers once orders are placed. Another type of personal delivery which is common is based on just-in-time business in which there is no warehouse or inventory. In this type of delivery, customers place orders for next-day delivery, the online grocer shops for the groceries on the morning of the delivery day. Some grocery fulfillment centers are set up as dark stores and this method involves shipping groceries using courier services. If the order contains cold or frozen items, the grocer will use the method of Flash freezing the goods and these online grocers usually offer a large or national delivery area. The online grocer technology platform could be developed in-house and managed by the internal team. Alternatively, a third partys platform could be re-used and customized to reflect the company brand, in some cases, all management and support tasks are being outsourced to the platform provider. List of online grocers Online food ordering
8.
Online pharmacy
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An online pharmacy, Internet pharmacy, or mail-order pharmacy is a pharmacy that operate over the Internet and sends the orders to customers through the mail or shipping companies. Online pharmacies might include, Pharmacy benefit manager – A large administrator of corporate prescription drug plans Legitimate Internet pharmacy in the country as the person ordering. Legitimate Internet pharmacy in a different country than the person ordering and this pharmacy usually is licensed by its home country and follows those regulations, not those of the international orders. The web page for a pharmacy may contain lies about its home country, procedures. The pharmacy may send outdated or counterfeit medications and may not follow normal procedural safeguards, conventional stationary pharmacies usually have controlled distribution systems from the manufacturer. Validation and good practices are followed. Home delivery of pharmaceuticals can be a desirable convenience but sometimes there can be problems with uncontrolled distribution, the shipment of drugs through the mail and parcel post is sometimes a concern for temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals. Uncontrolled shipping conditions can include high and low temperatures outside of the storage conditions for a drug. The use of insulated shipping containers also helps control drug temperatures, reducing risks to drug safety, illegal or unethical pharmacies sometimes send outdated, substituted, or counterfeit medications Sometimes an online pharmacy may not be located in the country that is claimed. Other concerns include potential lack of confidentiality, improper packaging, inability to check for drug interactions, Legitimate mail-order pharmacies are somewhat similar to community pharmacies, one primary difference is the method by which the medications are requested and received. Some customers consider this to be more convenient than traveling to a community drugstore, while many internet pharmacies sell prescription drugs only with a prescription, some do not require a pre-written prescription. In some countries, this is because prescriptions are not required, some customers order drugs from such pharmacies to avoid the cost and inconvenience of visiting a doctor or to obtain medications their doctors were unwilling to prescribe. People living in the United States and other countries where prescription medications are very expensive may turn to online pharmacies to save money, many of the reputable websites employ their own in-house physicians to review the medication request and write a prescription accordingly. Some websites offer medications without a prescription or a doctor review, pharmacies offering medication without requiring a prescription and doctor review or supervision are sometimes fraudulent and may supply counterfeit—and ineffective and possibly dangerous—medicines. International consumers sometimes purchase drugs online from online pharmacies in their own countries, some of these pharmacies require prescriptions, while others do not. Of those that do not require prescriptions, some ask the customer to fill in a questionnaire with their order. However, it remains difficult for a patient to ascertain whether an online pharmacy is legitimate, Medicines obtained from rogue online pharmacies come with no guarantees with regard to their identity, history and source. A study in three cities in the Netherlands found that over 60% of the consumed sildenafil was obtained from illegal sources, an attraction of online pharmacies is drug prices
9.
Online advertising
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Consumers view online advertising as an unwanted distraction with few benefits and have increasingly turned to ad blocking for a variety of reasons. It includes email marketing, search marketing, social media marketing, many types of display advertising. In 2011, Internet advertising revenues in the United States surpassed those of cable television, in 2013, Internet advertising revenues in the United States totaled $42.8 billion, a 17% increase over the $36.57 billion in revenues in 2012. U. S. internet ad revenue hit a high of $20.1 billion for the first half of 2013. Online advertising is used across virtually all industry sectors. Many common online advertising practices are controversial and increasingly subject to regulation, Online ad revenues may not adequately replace other publishers revenue streams. Declining ad revenue has led publishers to hide their content behind paywalls. In early days of the Internet, online advertising was mostly prohibited, for example, two of the predecessor networks to the Internet, ARPANET and NSFNet, had acceptable use policies that banned network use for commercial activities by for-profit institutions. The NSFNet began phasing out its commercial use ban in 1991, the first widely publicized example of online advertising was conducted via electronic mail. On 3 May 1978, a marketer from DEC, Gary Thuerk, sent an email to most of the ARPANETs American west coast users, despite the prevailing acceptable use policies, electronic mail marketing rapidly expanded and eventually became known as spam. The first known large-scale non-commercial spam message was sent on 18 January 1994 by an Andrews University system administrator, by cross-posting a religious message to all USENET newsgroups. Four months later, Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel, partners in a law firm, Canter and Siegels Green Card USENET spam raised the profile of online advertising, stimulating widespread interest in advertising via both Usenet and traditional email. More recently, spam has evolved into an industrial operation. Online banner advertising began in the early 1990s as page owners sought additional revenue streams to support their content, commercial online service Prodigy displayed banners at the bottom of the screen to promote Sears products. The first clickable web ad was sold by Global Network Navigator in 1993 to a Silicon Valley law firm, in 1994, web banner advertising became mainstream when HotWired, the online component of Wired Magazine, sold banner ads to AT&T and other companies. The first AT&T ad on HotWired had a 44% click-through rate, and instead of directing clickers to AT&Ts website, goTo. com created the first search advertising keyword auction in 1998. More recently, companies have sought to merge their advertising messages into editorial content or valuable services, examples include Red Bulls Red Bull Media House streaming Felix Baumgartners jump from space online, Coca-Colas online magazines, and Nikes free applications for performance tracking. Advertisers are also embracing social media and mobile advertising, mobile ad spending has grown 90% each year from 2010 to 2013, display advertising conveys its advertising message visually using text, logos, animations, videos, photographs, or other graphics
10.
Mobile payment
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Mobile payment generally refer to payment services operated under financial regulation and performed from or via a mobile device. Instead of paying cash, cheque, or credit cards. Although the concept of using non-coin-based currency systems has a long history, Mobile payment is being adopted all over the world in different ways. In 2008, the market for all types of mobile payments was projected to reach more than $600B globally by 2013. The mobile payment market for goods and services, excluding contactless payments using near field communication, investment on mobile money services is expected to grow by 22. 2% during the next two years across the globe. It will result in revenue share of mobile money reaching up to 9% by 2018, asia and Africa will observe significant growth for mobile money with technological innovation and focus on interoperability emerging as prominent trends by 2018. These payment networks are used for micropayments. Mobile payments are becoming a key instrument for PSPs and other participants, in order to achieve new growth opportunities. The EPC states that “new technology solutions provide an improvement to the operations efficiency, ultimately resulting in cost savings. Online companies like PayPal, Amazon Payments, and Google Wallet also have mobile options and these systems can be integrated with directly or can be combined with operator and credit card payments through a unified mobile web payment platform. A simple mobile web payment system can include a credit card payment flow allowing a consumer to enter their card details to make purchases. This process is familiar but any entry of details on a phone is known to reduce the success rate of payments. The consumer uses the mobile billing option during checkout at an e-commerce site—such as an online gaming site—to make a payment, after two-factor authentication involving a PIN and One-Time-Password, the consumers mobile account is charged for the purchase. Convenience – No pre-registration and no new software is required. Easy – Its just another option during the checkout process, fast – Most transactions are completed in less than 10 seconds. The merchant involved is informed of the payment success and can release the paid for goods. A Multimedia Messaging Service can also deliver barcodes which can then be scanned for confirmation of payment by a merchant and this is used as an electronic ticket for access to cinemas and events or to collect hard goods. Inhibiting factors of Premium SMS include, Poor reliability – transactional premium SMS payments can easily fail as messages get lost, slow speed – sending messages can be slow and it can take hours for a merchant to get receipt of payment
11.
Customer service
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Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. The perception of success of such interactions is dependent on employees who can adjust themselves to the personality of the guest, customer service concerns the priority an organization assigns to customer service relative to components such as product innovation and pricing. In this sense, an organization that values good customer service may spend money in training employees than the average organization or may proactively interview customers for feedback. From the point of view of a sales process engineering effort, customer service plays an important role in an organizations ability to generate income. From that perspective, customer service should be included as part of an approach to systematic improvement. One good customer service experience can change the entire perception a customer holds towards the organization, a customer support is a range of customer services to assist customers in making cost effective and correct use of a product. It includes assistance in planning, installation, training, trouble shooting, maintenance, upgrading and these services even may be done at customers side where he/she uses the product or service. In this case it is called at home customer services or at home customer support, regarding technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other electronic or mechanical goods, it is termed technical support. Customer service may be provided by a person, or by automated means, examples of automated means are Internet sites. An advantage with automated means is an ability to provide service 24-hours a day. Online customers are literally invisible to you, so its easy to shortchange them emotionally, but this lack of visual and tactile presence makes it even more crucial to create a sense of personal, human-to-human connection in the online arena. Examples of customer service by artificial means are automated online assistants that can be seen as avatars on websites and it can avail for enterprises to reduce their operating and training cost. These are driven by chatterbots, and a major underlying technology to such systems is natural language processing, the two main ways of gathering feedback are, customer surveys and Net Promoter Score measurement, used for calculating the loyalty that exists between a provider and a consumer. Customer service metrics that are followed by companies depend on the used for customer service. Most popular metrics include, first response time, average time, total handle time. Recently, many organizations have implemented feedback loops that allow them to capture feedback at the point of experience, for example, National Express has invited passengers to send text messages whilst riding the bus. This has been shown to be useful, as it allows companies to improve their service before the customer defects. Technology has made it easier for companies to obtain feedback from their customers
12.
Call centre
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A call centre or call center is a centralised office used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. An inbound call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information enquiries from consumers, outbound call centres are operated for telemarketing, solicitation of charitable or political donations, debt collection and market research. A contact centre is a location for centralised handling of individual communications, including letters, faxes, live support software, social media, instant message, and e-mail. It can be operated or networked with additional centres, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways into the centre are linked through a set of new technologies called computer telephony integration, the contact centre is a central point from which all customer contacts are managed. Through contact centres, valuable information about company are routed to people, contacts to be tracked. It is generally a part of customer relationship management. The majority of companies use contact centres as a means of managing their customer interaction. These centres can be operated by either an in house department responsible or outsourcing customer interaction to a third party agency, during the late 1970s, call centre technology expanded to include telephone sales, airline reservations and banking systems. The term call centre was first published and recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary in 1983, the 1980s experienced the development of toll-free telephone numbers to increase the efficiency of agents and overall call volume. Call centres increased with the deregulation of long distance calling and growth in information dependent industries, as call centres expanded, unionisation occurred in North America to gain members including the Communications Workers of America and the United Steelworkers. In Australia, the National Union of Workers represents unionised workers, in Europe, Uni Global Union of Switzerland is involved in assisting unionisation in this realm and in Germany Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft represents call centre workers. During the 1990s, call centres expanded internationally and developed two additional subsets of communication, contact centres and outsourced bureau centres. In contrast to in-house management, outsourced bureau contact centres are a model of contact centre that provide services on a pay per use model. The overheads of the centre are shared by many clients, thereby supporting a very cost effective model. Automatic lead selection or lead steering is also intended to improve efficiencies and this allows inbound calls to be directly routed to the appropriate agent for the task, whilst minimising wait times and long lists of irrelevant options for people calling in. The universal queue standardises the processing of communications across multiple technologies such as fax, phone, the virtual queue provides callers with an alternative to waiting on hold when no agents are available to handle inbound call demand. Historically, call centres have been built on Private branch exchange equipment that is owned, hosted, the PBX can provide functions such as automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, and skills-based routing
13.
Help desk
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A help desk is a resource intended to provide the customer or end user with information and support related to a companys or institutions products and services. The purpose of a desk is usually to troubleshoot problems or provide guidance about products such as computers, electronic equipment, food, apparel. Corporations usually provide help desk support to their customers through various channels such as numbers, websites, instant messaging. There are also in-house help desks designed to provide assistance to employees and it adopted the name HDI in 2004 to reflect the maturing of the support industry. Technical support was expanded to cover desktop systems as well as other types of assistance for customers of organizations. In major academic institutions, help desk can also refer to help provided in an academic library. The 2012 HDI Practices and Salary Report reported that for the first time in the 20 years since its inception, a typical help desk can effectively perform several functions. It provides a point of contact for users to gain assistance in troubleshooting, get answers to questions. A help desk generally manages its requests through the use of such as issue tracking systems. These systems often involve the use of a bug tracker. This system allows the help desk to track and sort user requests with the help of a unique number, many software applications are available to support the help desk function. Some target the enterprise level help desk and some target departmental needs, help Desk able to handling and prioritize all escalate tickets and requests. In the mid-1990s, research by Iain Middleton of Robert Gordon University studied the value of an organizations help desks. It found that value was derived not only from a response to user issues. Information gained in such as technical problems, user preferences. Large help desks are often structured into different levels to handle different types of questions, for example, a first-level help desk may be prepared to answer the questions or provide the information commonly found among the FAQ or in a knowledge base. If the issue is not resolved at the first level, it can be forwarded to a level with resources to handle more complex issues. Organizations may also have a line of support to deal with software-specific needs, such as updates
14.
Communication
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Communication is the act of conveying intended meanings from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood signs and semiotic rules. The main steps inherent to all communication are, The forming of communicative motivation or reason, transmission of the encoded message as a sequence of signals using a specific channel or medium. Noise sources such as forces and in some cases human activity begin influencing the quality of signals propagating from the sender to one or more receivers. Reception of signals and reassemblying of the message from a sequence of received signals. Decoding of the encoded message. Interpretation and making sense of the original message. The channel of communication can be visual, auditory, tactile and haptic, olfactory, electromagnetic, human communication is unique for its extensive use of abstract language. Development of civilization has been linked with progress in telecommunication. Nonverbal communication describes the process of conveying information in the form of non-linguistic representations, examples of nonverbal communication include haptic communication, chronemic communication, gestures, body language, facial expressions, eye contact, and how one dresses. Nonverbal communication also relates to intent of a message, examples of intent are voluntary, intentional movements like shaking a hand or winking, as well as involuntary, such as sweating. Speech also contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, e. g. rhythm, intonation, tempo and it affects communication most at the subconscious level and establishes trust. Likewise, written texts include nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, Nonverbal communication demonstrates one of Wazlawicks laws, you cannot not communicate. Once proximity has formed awareness, living creatures begin interpreting any signals received, Nonverbal cues are heavily relied on to express communication and to interpret others’ communication and can replace or substitute verbal messages. There are several reasons as to why non-verbal communication plays a role in communication. Written communication can also have non-verbal attributes, e-mails and web chats allow individual’s the option to change text font colours, stationary, emoticons, and capitalization in order to capture non-verbal cues into a verbal medium. Many different non-verbal channels are engaged at the time in communication acts. “Non-verbal behaviours may form a language system. ”Smiling, crying, pointing, caressing. Such non-verbal signals allow the most basic form of communication when verbal communication is not effective due to language barriers, Verbal communication is the spoken or written conveyance of a message
15.
Internet
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The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite to link devices worldwide. The origins of the Internet date back to research commissioned by the United States federal government in the 1960s to build robust, the primary precursor network, the ARPANET, initially served as a backbone for interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the 1980s. Although the Internet was widely used by academia since the 1980s, Internet use grew rapidly in the West from the mid-1990s and from the late 1990s in the developing world. In the two decades since then, Internet use has grown 100-times, measured for the period of one year, newspaper, book, and other print publishing are adapting to website technology, or are reshaped into blogging, web feeds and online news aggregators. The entertainment industry was initially the fastest growing segment on the Internet, the Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of personal interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking. Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries, the Internet has no centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage, each constituent network sets its own policies. The term Internet, when used to refer to the global system of interconnected Internet Protocol networks, is a proper noun. In common use and the media, it is not capitalized. Some guides specify that the word should be capitalized when used as a noun, the Internet is also often referred to as the Net, as a short form of network. Historically, as early as 1849, the word internetted was used uncapitalized as an adjective, the designers of early computer networks used internet both as a noun and as a verb in shorthand form of internetwork or internetworking, meaning interconnecting computer networks. The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used interchangeably in everyday speech, however, the World Wide Web or the Web is only one of a large number of Internet services. The Web is a collection of interconnected documents and other web resources, linked by hyperlinks, the term Interweb is a portmanteau of Internet and World Wide Web typically used sarcastically to parody a technically unsavvy user. The ARPANET project led to the development of protocols for internetworking, the third site was the Culler-Fried Interactive Mathematics Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, followed by the University of Utah Graphics Department. In an early sign of growth, fifteen sites were connected to the young ARPANET by the end of 1971. These early years were documented in the 1972 film Computer Networks, early international collaborations on the ARPANET were rare. European developers were concerned with developing the X.25 networks, in December 1974, RFC675, by Vinton Cerf, Yogen Dalal, and Carl Sunshine, used the term internet as a shorthand for internetworking and later RFCs repeated this use. Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981 when the National Science Foundation funded the Computer Science Network, in 1982, the Internet Protocol Suite was standardized, which permitted worldwide proliferation of interconnected networks.5 Mbit/s and 45 Mbit/s. Commercial Internet service providers emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990
16.
Real-time text
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Real-time text is text transmitted instantly as it is typed or created. Recipients can immediately read the message while it is being written, real-time text is used for conversational text, in collaboration, and in live captioning. Obsolete TDD/TTY devices are being replaced by more modern real-time text technologies, including Text over IP, ip-relay, and instant messaging. During 2012, the Real-Time Text Taskforce designed an international symbol to represent real-time text. While standard instant messaging is not real-time text, a real-time text option is found in instant messaging software. When present in IM programs, the text feature can be turned on/off. Real-time text programs date at least to the 1970s, with the program on the DEC PDP-11. Certain real-time text applications have a feature allows the real-time text to be turned off. This allows the sender to pre-compose the message as a standard IM or text message before transmitting, real-time text is frequently used by the deaf, including IP-Relay services, TDD/TTY devices, and Text over IP. Real-time text allows the person to read immediately, without waiting for the sender to finish composing his or her sentence/message. This allows conversational use of text, much like a person can listen to someone speaking in real-time. Captioned telephony is the streaming of real-time text captions in parallel with speech on a phone call, in the United States, captioned telephony is one of the free relay services that is available to anyone who is hard-of-hearing. Originally developed for use on the phone systems it is now available over IP using standard devices. Collaborative real-time editing is the utilization of real-time text for shared editing, split screen chat, where conversational text appears continuously, is also considered real-time text. Some examples that provide this as a service are Apache Wave, Etherpad, real-time text is used in closed captioning and when captions are being streamed live continuously during live events. Transcription services including Communication Access Real-Time Translation and TypeWell frequently use real-time text and this is used in court reporting, and is also used by deaf attendees at a conference. Also, real-time text provides an enhancement to text messaging on mobile phones, real-time text protocols include Text over IP designed around ITU-T T.140, IETF RFC4103, RFC5194, and XMPP Extension Protocol XEP-0301. According to ITU-T Multimedia Recommendation F.703, Total Conversation defines the use of audio, video
17.
Internet forum
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An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, also, depending on the access level of a user or the forum set-up, a posted message might need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes visible. Forums have a set of jargon associated with them, example. A discussion forum is hierarchical or tree-like in structure, a forum can contain a number of subforums, within a forums topic, each new discussion started is called a thread, and can be replied to by as many people as so wish. Depending on the settings, users can be anonymous or have to register with the forum. On most forums, users do not have to log in to read existing messages, the modern forum originated from bulletin boards, and so-called computer conferencing systems, and are a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system. From a technological standpoint, forums or boards are web applications managing user-generated content, early Internet forums could be described as a web version of an electronic mailing list or newsgroup, allowing people to post messages and comment on other messages. Later developments emulated the different newsgroups or individual lists, providing more than one forum, Internet forums are prevalent in several developed countries. Japan posts the most with two million per day on their largest forum, 2channel. China also has millions of posts on forums such as Tianya Club. Some of the very first forum systems were the Planet-Forum system, developed in the beginning of the 1970-s, the EIES system, first operational in 1976, one of the first forum sites, and still active today, is Delphi Forums, once called Delphi. The service, with four members, dates to 1983. Forums perform a similar to that of dial-up bulletin board systems. Early web-based forums date back as far as 1994, with the WIT project from W3 Consortium and starting from this time, a sense of virtual community often develops around forums that have regular users. Technology, video games, sports, music, fashion, religion, and politics are popular areas for forum themes, Internet slang and image macros popular across the Internet are abundant and widely used in Internet forums. Forum software packages are available on the Internet and are written in a variety of programming languages, such as PHP, Perl, Java. The configuration and records of posts can be stored in files or in a database. Each package offers different features, from the most basic, providing text-only postings, to more advanced packages, offering multimedia support, many packages can be integrated easily into an existing website to allow visitors to post comments on articles
18.
Email
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Electronic mail, or email, is a method of exchanging digital messages between people using digital devices such as computers and mobile phones. Email first entered use in the 1960s and by the mid-1970s had taken the form now recognized as email. Email operates across computer networks, which today is primarily the Internet, some early email systems required the author and the recipient to both be online at the same time, in common with instant messaging. Todays email systems are based on a store-and-forward model, Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Originally an ASCII text-only communications medium, Internet email was extended by Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions to carry text in character sets. International email, with internationalized email addresses using UTF-8, has been standardized, the history of modern Internet email services reaches back to the early ARPANET, with standards for encoding email messages published as early as 1973. An email message sent in the early 1970s looks very similar to an email sent today. Email played an important part in creating the Internet, and the conversion from ARPANET to the Internet in the early 1980s produced the core of the current services, historically, the term electronic mail was used generically for any electronic document transmission. For example, several writers in the early 1970s used the term to describe fax document transmission, as a result, it is difficult to find the first citation for the use of the term with the more specific meaning it has today. This spelling also appears in most dictionaries, Mail was the form used in the original protocol standard, RFC524. The service is referred to as mail, and a piece of electronic mail is called a message. EMail is a form that has been used in RFCs for the Authors Address and is expressly required for historical reasons. E-mail is sometimes used, capitalizing the initial E as in similar abbreviations like E-piano, E-guitar, A-bomb, by 1968, AUTODIN linked more than 300 sites in several countries. With the introduction of MITs Compatible Time-Sharing System in 1961, multiple users could log in to a system from remote dial-up terminals. Informal methods of using this to pass messages were developed and expanded,1965 – MITs CTSS MAIL and it used the Unix mail client to send messages between system users. The concept was extended to communicate remotely over the Berkeley Network,1979 – EMAIL, an application written by Shiva Ayyadurai for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. 1979 – MH Message Handling System developed at RAND provided several tools for managing electronic mail on Unix, most of them only allowed communication between users logged into the same host or mainframe, although there might be hundreds or thousands of users within an organization. In the early 1980s, networked personal computers on LANs became increasingly important, server-based systems similar to the earlier mainframe systems were developed
19.
Point-to-point (telecommunications)
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In telecommunications, a point-to-point connection refers to a communications connection between two nodes or endpoints. An example is a call, in which one telephone is connected with one other. This is contrasted with a point-to-multipoint or broadcast connection, in which many nodes can receive information transmitted by one node, other examples of point-to-point communications links are leased lines, microwave relay links, and two way radio. Point-to-point is sometimes abbreviated as P2P and this usage of P2P is distinct from P2P referring to peer-to-peer for file sharing networks. A traditional point-to-point data link is a medium with exactly two endpoints and no data or packet formatting. The host computers at either end had to take responsibility for formatting the data transmitted between them. The connection between the computer and the medium was generally implemented through an RS-232 or similar interface. Computers in close proximity may be connected by wires directly between their interface cards, when connected at a distance, each endpoint would be fitted with a modem to convert analog telecommunications signals into a digital data stream. When the connection used a telecommunications provider, the connections were called a dedicated, leased, the ARPANET used leased lines to provide point-to-point data links between its packet-switching nodes, which were called Interface Message Processors. In, the term point-to-point telecommunications relates to fixed wireless communications for Internet or voice over IP via radio frequencies in the multi-gigahertz range. The Telecommunications Industry Associations engineering committees develop U. S. standards for point-to-point communications, online tools help users find if they have such line of sight. The telecommunications signal is typically bi-directional, either time division multiple access or channelized, in hubs and switches, a hub provides a point-to-multipoint circuit which divides the total bandwidth supplied by the hub among each connected client node. Within many switched telecommunications systems, it is possible to establish a permanent circuit, one example might be a telephone in the lobby of a public building, which is programmed to ring only the number of a telephone dispatcher. Nailing down a switched connection saves the cost of running a circuit between the two points. The resources in such a connection can be released when no longer needed, for example, a television circuit from a parade route back to the studio
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Multicast
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In computer networking, multicast is group communication where information is addressed to a group of destination computers simultaneously. Copies are automatically created in other elements, such as routers, switches and cellular network base stations. Network assisted multicast may also be implemented at the Internet layer using IP multicast, in IP multicast the implementation of the multicast concept occurs at the IP routing level, where routers create optimal distribution paths for datagrams sent to a multicast destination address. Multicast should not be confused with physical layer point-to-multipoint communication, IP multicast is a technique for one-to-many communication over an IP infrastructure in a network. The destination nodes send join and leave messages, for example in the case of Internet television when the changes from one TV channel to another. IP multicast scales to a larger population by not requiring prior knowledge of who or how many receivers there are. Multicast uses network infrastructure efficiently by requiring the source to send a packet only once, the nodes in the network take care of replicating the packet to reach multiple receivers only when necessary. The most common transport layer protocol to use multicast addressing is User Datagram Protocol, by its nature, UDP is not reliable—messages may be lost or delivered out of order. A common enterprise use of IP multicast is for IPTV applications such as distance learning, as of 2006, most effort at scaling multicast up to large networks has concentrated on the simpler case of single-source multicast, which seems to be more computationally tractable. Still, the state requirements in routers make applications using a large number of trees unable to work while using IP multicast. Take presence information as an example where each person needs to keep at least one tree of its subscribers, for these reasons, and also reasons of economics, IP multicast is not, in general, used in commercial Internet backbones. Application layer multicast-over-unicast overlay services are not based on IP multicast or datalink layer multicast and these services are designed for application-level group communication. Internet Relay Chat implements a single spanning tree across its network for all conference groups. The lesser known PSYC technology uses custom multicast strategies per conference, some peer-to-peer technologies employ the multicast concept when distributing content to multiple recipients, known as peercasting. Explicit multi-unicast is an alternate multicast strategy that includes addresses of all intended destinations within each packet, as such, given maximum transmission unit limitations, Xcast cannot be used for multicast groups with many destinations. Wireless communications as well as cable TV bus networks are inherently broadcasting media especially if the antennas are omnidirectional, in this case, data is broadcast to all receivers, but only addressed to a specific group. The concept of interactive multicast, for example using IP multicast, may be used over TV broadcast networks to improve efficiency, offer more TV programs, or reduce the required spectrum. Interactive multicast implies that TV programs are sent only over transmitters where there are viewers, and it relies on an additional interaction channel, where user equipment may send join and leave messages when the user changes TV channel. e
21.
Web conferencing
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Web conferencing may be used as an umbrella term for various types of online collaborative services including web seminars, webcasts, and peer-level web meetings. It may also be used in a narrow sense to refer only to the peer-level web meeting context. Terminology related to these technologies is inexact, and no agreed upon source or standards organization exists to provide an established usage reference. In general, web conferencing is made possible by Internet technologies, services may allow real-time point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers. It offers data streams of text-based messages, voice and video chat to be shared simultaneously, applications for web conferencing include meetings, training events, lectures, or presentations from a web-connected computer to other web-connected computers. Web conferencing software is invoked by all participants in a web meeting, some technologies include software and functionality that differs for presenters and attendees. Software may run as a web browser application, other web conferencing technologies require download and installation of software on each participants computer, which is invoked as a local application. Another installation option from certain vendors allows for use of a computer appliance that is installed at the hosting companys physical location. Depending on the technology being used, participants may speak and listen to audio over telephone lines or via computer microphones. Presentation of visual materials most often is accomplished one of two primary methodologies. The web conferencing software may show participants an image of the computer screen. Again, depending upon the product, the software may show the entire visible desktop area or may allow selection of an area or application running on the presenters computer. The second method relies on an upload and conversion process, the term webinar is a portmanteau of web and seminar, meaning a presentation, lecture, or workshop that is transmitted over the web. The coined term has been attacked for improper construction, since inar is not a valid root, webinar was included on the Lake Superior University 2008 List of Banished Words, but was included in the Merriam-Webster dictionary that same year. The term webcast derives from its similarity to a radio or television broadcast. Early usage referred purely to transmission and consumption of streaming audio, over time, webcast software vendors have added many of the same functional capabilities found in webinar software, blurring the distinction between the two terms. Live or streaming video - where full motion webcam, digital camera or multi-media files are pushed to the audience. VoIP - Real time audio communication through the computer via use of headphones, Web tours - where URLs, data from forms, cookies, scripts and session data can be pushed to other participants enabling them to be pushed though web-based logons, clicks, etc
22.
Webcam
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A webcam is a video camera that feeds or streams its image in real time to or through a computer to a computer network. When captured by the computer, the stream may be saved, viewed or sent on to other networks via systems such as the internet. When sent to a location, the video stream may be saved, viewed or on sent there. Unlike an IP camera, a webcam is generally connected by a USB cable, or similar cable, or built into computer hardware, some of them, for example, those used as online traffic cameras, are expensive, rugged professional video cameras. Webcams are known for their low manufacturing cost and their high flexibility and they have also become a source of security and privacy issues, as some built-in webcams can be remotely activated by spyware. The most popular use of webcams is the establishment of video links, other popular uses include security surveillance, computer vision, video broadcasting, and for recording social videos. Researchers claim that this method is accurate to ±5 bpm, Webcams may be installed at places such as childcare centres, offices, shops and private areas to monitor security and general activity. Webcams have been used for augmented reality experiences online, one such function has the webcam act as a magic mirror to allow an online shopper to view a virtual item on themselves. The Webcam Social Shopper is one example of software that utilizes the webcam in this manner, improved video quality has helped webcams encroach on traditional video conferencing systems. Webcam features and performance can vary by program, computer operating system, video calling support has also been added to several popular instant messaging programs. Webcams can be used as security cameras, software is available to allow PC-connected cameras to watch for movement and sound, recording both when they are detected. These recordings can then be saved to the computer, e-mailed, unauthorized access of webcams can present significant privacy issues. In December 2011, Russia announced that 290,000 Webcams would be installed in 90,000 polling stations to monitor the Russian presidential election,2012, Webcams can be used to take video clips and still pictures. Various software tools in use can be employed for this, such as PicMaster, Photo Booth. For a more complete list see Comparison of webcam software, special software can use the video stream from a webcam to assist or enhance a users control of applications and games. Video features, including faces, shapes, models and colors can be observed and tracked to produce a form of control. This can be applied to games, providing additional control, improved interactivity, by removing the IR filter of the webcam, IR LEDs can be used, which has the advantage of being invisible to the naked eye, removing a distraction from the user. TrackIR is a version of this technology
23.
Instant messaging
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Instant messaging is a type of online chat that offers real-time text transmission over the Internet. A LAN messenger operates in a way over a local area network. Short messages are typically transmitted bi-directionally between two parties, when each user chooses to complete a thought and select send, some IM applications can use push technology to provide real-time text, which transmits messages character by character, as they are composed. More advanced instant messaging can add file transfer, clickable hyperlinks, Voice over IP, non-IM types of chat include multicast transmission, usually referred to as chat rooms, where participants might be anonymous or might be previously known to each other. Instant messaging systems tend to facilitate connections between specified known users, depending on the IM protocol, the technical architecture can be peer-to-peer or client-server. Instant messaging is a set of technologies used for text-based communication between two or more participants over the Internet or other types of networks. Of importance is that online chat and instant messaging differ from other such as email due to the perceived quasi-synchrony of the communications by the users. Some systems permit messages to be sent to users not then logged on, IM allows effective and efficient communication, allowing immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply. However IM is basically not necessarily supported by transaction control, in many cases, instant messaging includes added features which can make it even more popular. For example, users may see each other via webcams, or talk directly for free over the Internet using a microphone, many applications allow file transfers, although they are usually limited in the permissible file-size. It is usually possible to save a text conversation for later reference, Instant messages are often logged in a local message history, making it similar to the persistent nature of emails. Initially, some of these systems were used as notification systems for services like printing, as networks developed, the protocols spread with the networks. Some of these used a peer-to-peer protocol, while others required peers to connect to a server, the Zephyr Notification Service was invented at MITs Project Athena in the 1980s to allow service providers to locate and send messages to users. Parallel to instant messaging were early online chat facilities, the earliest of which was Talkomatic on the PLATO system, during the bulletin board system phenomenon that peaked during the 1980s, some systems incorporated chat features which were similar to instant messaging, Freelancin Roundtable was one prime example. The first such general-availability commercial online service was the CompuServe CB Simulator in 1980, created by CompuServe executive Alexander Sandy Trevor in Columbus. Early instant messaging programs were primarily real-time text, where appeared as they were typed. This includes the Unix talk command line program, which was popular in the 1980s, some BBS chat programs also used a similar interface. Modern implementations of real-time text also exist in instant messengers, such as AOLs Real-Time IM as an optional feature, (Quantum Link later became America Online and made AOL Instant Messenger
24.
Internet Relay Chat
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Internet Relay Chat is an application layer protocol that facilitates communication in the form of text. The chat process works on a client/server networking model, IRC clients are computer programs that a user can install on their system. These clients communicate with chat servers to transfer messages to other clients, client software is available for every major operating system that supports Internet access. IRC usage has been declining steadily since 2003, losing 60% of its users, Jarkko intended to extend the BBS software he administered, to allow news in the Usenet style, real time discussions and similar BBS features. The first part he implemented was the part, which he did with borrowed parts written by his friends Jyrki Kuoppala. The first IRC network was running on a server named tolsun. oulu. fi. Oikarinen found inspiration in a system known as Bitnet Relay. This was the first irc network, Jarkko got some friends at the Helsinki University and Tampere University to start running IRC servers when his number of users increased and other universities soon followed. At this time Jarkko realized that the rest of the BBS features probably wouldnt fit in his program, Jarkko got in touch with people at the University of Denver and Oregon State University. They had their own IRC network running and wanted to connect to the Finnish network and they had gotten the program from one of Jarkkos friends, Vijay Subramaniam—the first non-Finnish person to use IRC. IRC then grew larger and got used on the entire Finnish national network—Funet—and then connected to Nordunet, in November 1988, IRC had spread across the Internet and in the middle of 1989, there were some 40 servers worldwide. In August 1990 the first major disagreement took place in the IRC world, the A-net included a server named eris. berkeley. edu. It was all open, required no passwords and had no limit on the number of connects, as Greg wumpus Lindahl explains, it had a wildcard server line, so people were hooking up servers and nick-colliding everyone. The Eris Free Network, EFnet, made the machine the first to be Q-lined from IRC. In wumpus words again, Eris refused to remove that line and it wasnt much of a fight, I got all the hubs to join, and almost everyone else got carried along. A-net was formed with the servers, EFnet was formed with the non-eris servers. History showed most servers and users went with EFnet, once ANet disbanded, the name EFnet became meaningless, and once again it was the one and only IRC network. It is around that time that IRC was used to report on the 1991 Soviet coup détat attempt throughout a media blackout and it was previously used in a similar fashion during the Gulf War
25.
MUD
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A MUD, is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, usually text-based. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, players can read or view descriptions of rooms, objects, other players, non-player characters, and actions performed in the virtual world. Players typically interact with other and the world by typing commands that resemble a natural language. Traditional MUDs implement a video game set in a fantasy world populated by fictional races and monsters. The objective of this sort of game is to slay monsters, explore a world, complete quests, go on adventures, create a story by roleplaying. Many MUDs were fashioned around the rules of the Dungeons & Dragons series of games. MUDs have attracted the interest of scholars from many fields, including communications, sociology, law. At one time, there was interest from the United States military in using them for teleconferencing, most MUDs are run as hobbies and are free to players, some may accept donations or allow players to purchase virtual items, while others charge a monthly subscription fee. MUDs can be accessed via standard telnet clients, or specialized MUD clients which are designed to improve the user experience, numerous games are listed at various web portals, such as The Mud Connector. Indeed, before the invention of the term MMORPG, games of this style were simply called graphical MUDs, a number of influential MMORPG designers began as MUD developers and/or players or were involved with early MUDs. Colossal Cave Adventure, created in 1975 by Will Crowther on a DEC PDP-10 computer, was the first widely used adventure game, the game was significantly expanded in 1976 by Don Woods. Also called Adventure, it contained many D&D features and references, numerous graphical MUDs were created on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois and other American universities that used PLATO, beginning in 1975. Among them were pedit5, oubliette, moria, avathar, krozair, dungeon, dnd, crypt, PLATO MUDs are often ignored by historians and by the creators of other MUDs whose work came later. Inspired by Adventure, a group of students at MIT in the summer of 1977 wrote a game for the PDP-10 minicomputer, called Zork, Zork was ported, under the filename DUNGEN, to FORTRAN by a programmer working at DEC in 1978. In 1978 Roy Trubshaw, a student at Essex University in the UK and he named the game MUD, in tribute to the Dungeon variant of Zork, which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed playing. Trubshaw converted MUD to BCPL, before handing over development to Richard Bartle, the game revolved around gaining points till one achieved the Wizard rank, giving the character immortality and special powers over mortals. It became the first Internet multiplayer online role-playing game in 1980, the original MUD game was closed down in late 1987, reportedly under pressure from CompuServe, to whom Richard Bartle had licensed the game. This left MIST, a derivative of MUD1 with similar gameplay, as the only remaining MUD running on the Essex University network, MIST ran until the machine that hosted it, a PDP-10, was superseded in early 1991
26.
Web application
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In computing, a web application or web app is a client–server software application in which the client runs in a web browser. Common web applications include webmail, online sales, online auctions, wikis, instant messaging services. The general distinction between a dynamic web page of any kind and a web application is unclear, Web sites most likely to be referred to as web applications are those which have similar functionality to a desktop software application, or to a mobile app. HTML5 introduced explicit language support for making applications that are loaded as web pages, single-page applications are more application-like because they reject the more typical web paradigm of moving between distinct pages with different URLs. Single-page frameworks like Sencha Touch and AngularJS might be used to speed development of such a web app for a mobile platform, recently, frameworks like React Native, Flutter and Xamarin allow the development of native apps for all platforms using languages other than each standard native language. Hybrid apps embed a mobile web site inside a native app, possibly using a hybrid framework like Apache Cordova and this allows development using web technologies while also retaining certain advantages of native apps. In earlier computing models like client–server, the load for the application was shared between code on the server and code installed on each client locally. In other words, an application had its own pre-compiled client program which served as its interface and had to be separately installed on each users personal computer. In contrast, web applications use web documents written in a format such as HTML and JavaScript. Client web software updates may happen each time the web page is visited, during the session, the web browser interprets and displays the pages, and acts as the universal client for any web application. However, every significant change to the web page required a trip back to the server to refresh the entire page. In 1995 Netscape introduced a client-side scripting language called JavaScript allowing programmers to add some elements to the user interface that ran on the client side. In 1996, Macromedia introduced Flash, a vector animation player that could be added to browsers as a plug-in to embed animations on the web pages and it allowed the use of a scripting language to program interactions on the client side with no need to communicate with the server. In 1999, the web application concept was introduced in the Java language in the Servlet Specification version 2.2, in 2005, the term Ajax was coined, and applications like Gmail started to make their client sides more and more interactive. A web page script is able to contact the server for storing/retrieving data without downloading a web page. In 2011, HTML5 was finalized, which provides graphic and multimedia capabilities without the need of client side plug-ins, HTML5 also enriched the semantic content of documents. The APIs and document object model are no longer afterthoughts, but are fundamental parts of the HTML5 specification, webGL API paved the way for advanced 3D graphics based on HTML5 canvas and JavaScript language. These have significant importance in creating truly platform and browser independent rich web applications, many services have worked to combine all of these into a more familiar interface that adopts the appearance of an operating system
27.
PLATO (computer system)
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PLATO was the first generalized computer-assisted instruction system. Starting in 1960, it ran on the University of Illinois ILLIAC I computer, by the late 1970s, it supported several thousand graphics terminals distributed worldwide, running on nearly a dozen different networked mainframe computers. PLATO was designed and built by the University of Illinois and functioned for four decades, offering coursework to UIUC students, local schools, courses were taught in a range of subjects, including Latin, chemistry, education and primary mathematics. Rights to market PLATO as a product were licensed by Control Data Corporation. CDC President William Norris planned to make PLATO a force in the computer world, PLATO nevertheless built a strong following in certain markets, and the last production PLATO system did not shut down until 2006, coincidentally just a month after Norris died. Bill that provided free education to World War II veterans, higher education was limited to a minority of the US population. The trend towards greater enrollment was notable by the early 1950s, to wit, if computerized automation increased factory production, it could do the same for academic instruction. The USSRs 1957 launching of the Sputnik I artificial satellite energized the United States government into spending more on science, after weeks of meetings they were unable to agree on a single design. Before conceding failure, Alpert mentioned the matter to laboratory assistant Donald Bitzer, Bitzer, regarded as the Father of PLATO, recognized that in order to provide quality computer-based education, good graphics were critical. This at a time when 10-character-per-second teleprinters were the norm, in 1960, the first system, PLATO I, operated on the local ILLIAC I computer. It included a set for display and a special keyboard for navigating the systems function menus, PLATO II, in 1961. The only remote PLATO III terminal was located near the capitol in Springfield. It was connected to the PLATO III system by a video connection, accordingly, in 1967 the National Science Foundation granted the team steady funding, allowing Alpert to set up the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory at the university. In 1972 a new system named PLATO IV was ready for operation, the PLATO IV terminal was a major innovation. It included Bitzers orange plasma display invention which incorporated both memory and bitmapped graphics into one display and this plasma display included fast vector line drawing capability and ran at 1260 baud, rendering 60 lines or 180 characters per second. The display was a 512×512 bitmap, with character and vector plotting done by hardwired logic. Users could provide their own characters to support rudimentary bitmap graphics, compressed air powered a piston-driven microfiche image selector that permitted colored images to be projected on the back of the screen under program control. The PLATO IV display also included a 16×16 grid infrared touch panel allowing students to answer questions by touching anywhere on the screen and it was also possible to connect the terminal to peripheral devices
28.
Oulu, Finland
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Oulu is a city and municipality of 198,804 inhabitants in the region of Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in Northern Finland and the fifth most populous city in the country, there are no larger cities that are more northerly than Oulu. It is also considered one of Europes living labs, where residents experiment with new technology at a community-wide scale, the city is named after the river Oulujoki, which originates in the lake Oulujärvi. There have been a number of theories for the origin of the name Oulu. One possible source for the name Oulu is a word in the Sami language meaning flood water, at minimum, the structure of the word requires that, if originally given by speakers of a Uralic language, the name must be a derivative. In all likelihood, it also predates Finnish settlement and is thus a loanword from one of the now-extinct Saami languages once spoken in the area. The most probable theory is that the name derives from the Finnish dialectal word oulu, meaning floodwater, two other word families have also been speculated to be related. The first is seen in the Northern Savo dialectal word uula and its Sami counterpart oalli, the second is the Uralic root reconstructed as *uwa, meaning river bed. To either of these roots, some Sami variety would have to be assumed having added further derivational suffixes, Oulu was founded on April 8,1605, by King Charles IX of Sweden, opposite the fort built on the island of Linnansaari. This took place after favourable peace settlements with Russia, which removed the threat of attack via the main east-west waterway, the surrounding areas were populated much earlier. Oulu is situated by the Gulf of Bothnia, at the mouth of river Oulujoki, Oulu was the capital of the Province of Oulu from 1776 to 2009. In 1822, a fire destroyed much of the city. The architect Carl Ludvig Engel, chiefly known for the buildings around Helsinki Senate Square, was enlisted to provide the plan for the rebuilding of the city. With minor changes, this remains the basis for the layout of Oulus town center. The Oulu Cathedral was built in 1832 to his designs, with the spire being finished in 1844, during the Crimean War, Oulus harbour was raided by the British fleet, destroying ships and burning tar houses, leading to international criticism. Once known for wood tar and salmon, Oulu has evolved into a major centre, particularly in IT. Other prominent industries include wood refining, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, paper, the municipality of Ylikiiminki was merged with the city of Oulu on January 1,2009. Oulu and the municipalities of Haukipudas, Kiiminki, Oulunsalo, Oulu is divided into 106 city districts
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Corvallis, Oregon
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Corvallis /kɔːrˈvælᵻs/ is a city in central western Oregon, United States. It is the county seat of Benton County and the city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 54,462 and its population was estimated by the Portland Research Center to be 55,298 in 2013. Corvallis is the location of Oregon State University, a large Hewlett-Packard research campus, at a longitude of 123°17 west, the city is the westernmost city in the contiguous 48 states with a population larger than 50,000. Avery arrived in Oregon from the east, averys primitive 1846 dwelling was the first home within the boundaries of todays Corvallis and his land claim included the southern section of the contemporary city. Avery was quickly joined by other settlers along the banks of the Willamette River, the discovery of gold in California in 1848 temporarily stalled development of a township, with Avery leaving his Oregon claim to try his hand at mining in the fall of that year. His stay would prove to be brief and in January 1849 Avery returned to Oregon with a stock of provisions with a view to opening a store. During the year 1849, Avery opened his store at the site, platted the land, and surveyed a town site on his land claim, naming the community Marysville. It is possible that the city was named after early settler Mary Lloyd, in the summer of 1851 Joseph Avery and William Dixon each granted back-to-back 40 acre land parcels from their land holdings for the establishment of a county seat. Averys holding lay to the south and Dixons to the north, with the Benton Country Courthouse marking the line of demarcation between these two land parcels. In December 1853 the 5th Oregon Territorial Legislature met in Salem, a heated debate followed, with the name ultimately awarded to Marysville in an act passed on December 20,1853. Corvallis was incorporated as a city on January 29,1857, nineteenth-century Corvallis saw a three-year boom beginning in 1889, which began with the establishment of a privately owned electrical plant by L. L. Hurd. In addition a carriage factory was launched in the city and the streets were improved. Bonds were issued for a water works, a sewer system. A publicity campaign was launched to attempt to expand the tax base through new construction for new arrivals and this effort proved mostly unsuccessful, however, and in 1892 normalcy returned, with the city saddled with about $150,000 in bonded debt. Corvallis is at an elevation of 235 feet above sea level, Oregon Route 99W, a secondary north–south route, also runs through Corvallis. U. S. Route 20 and Oregon Route 34 both secondary East-West routes run through Corvallis from the Oregon Coast, Corvallis is at river mile 131–32 of the Willamette River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 14.30 square miles
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CompuServe
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CompuServe was the first major commercial online service provider in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained an influence through the mid-1990s. They are also known for their introduction of the GIF format for pictures, AOLs entry into the PC market in 1991 marked the beginning of the end for CIS. AOL used a monthly subscription instead of hourly rates, so for active users it was less expensive. AOL also used a GUI-based client, and while such systems existed for CIS, in response, CIS lowered their hourly rates on several occasions. The number of users grew, peaking at 3 million in April 1995, by this point AOL had over 20 million users in the United States alone, but this was off their peak of 27 million, due to customers leaving for lower-cost offerings. CIS finally introduced monthly pricing in late 1997, but by time the number of users leaving all online services for dialup Internet service providers was reaching a crescendo. In 1997, CISs parent company, H&R Block, announced its desire to sell the company, a complex deal was worked out with WorldCom acting as a broker, resulting in CIS being sold to AOL. CompuServe Classic shut down in 2009, CompuServe 2000 followed suit in 2011, CompuServe Dialer continues to operate as a Web portal. CompuServe was founded in 1969 as Compu-Serv Network, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, as a subsidiary of Golden United Life Insurance. While Jeffrey Wilkins, the son-in-law of Golden United founder Harry Gard, Sr. is widely credited as the first president of CompuServe, Goltz and Wilkins were both graduate students in electrical engineering at the University of Arizona. Early employees also recruited from the University of Arizona included Sandy Trevor, Doug Chinnock, Wilkins replaced Goltz as CEO within the first year of operation. It was spun off as a company in 1975, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol CMPU. The first of new executives was Robert Tillson, who left Service Bureau Corporation to become CompuServes Executive Vice President of Marketing. He then recruited Charles McCall, Maury Cox, and Robert Massey, barry Berkov was recruited from Xerox to head product development and marketing. In 1977, CompuServes board changed the name to CompuServe Incorporated. In 1980, H&R Block acquired CompuServe, in the earliest buildups, each line terminated on a single machine at CompuServes host, so different numbers had to be used to reach different computers. Finally, CompuServe developed its own switching network, implemented on DEC PDP-11 minicomputers acting as network nodes that were installed throughout the US
