ICT Today The World Wide Web serves as an avenue for

personal growth and development by allowing us to

The fusion of hardware equipment, precise
express ourselves and increase our knowledge
software, GUI, and effective communications
about the world we live in.
network is the present composition of the ICT
network. Perhaps one of the widely used
information systems today, the World Wide Web, is
The Social Media
the product of this fusion. Almost every day, people
go to the World Wide Web for directions, ICT produced another high impact user application
instructions, information, and even entertainment. the social media. These applications started together
Furthermore, Internet applications and even Internet with the Web 2.0 and are used in communicating
browsers work as tools for communication and and socializing with other application users in
transmission of information from one point to virtual communities and networks. These
another. applications allow users to create and exchange
user-generated information. A handful of social
media applications have been developed over the
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on their effect on the users.
The World Wide Web was initially intended to
disseminate information, but through the years it The social media platform contains different
evolved because of man's rising needs and formats. Some of these forms of social media are
continuous usage. blogs, enterprise social networks, forums, photo-
sharing sites, product selling and review sites,
research sharing sites, special interests groups,
The World Wide Web social games, social networks, and video sharing.
The World Wide Web (www) is the system that The effectiveness of a social media application can
enables you to access hypertext documents and be measured by its virality, which is efined as the
other files over the internet. The technology was rate of reposting or sharing of photos, pieces of
proposed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, in which a information, or ideas published one's social media
database and interface will be implemented to profile or page. The main benefactors of virality are
associate links in readable documents. In the businesses, nonprofit ganizations, and special
previous system, documents are numbered with interests groups that use online marketing and
addresses that should be inputted to retrieve the file. campaigns through ese social media sites. The more
This is called the Web 1.0 or the read-only Web, viral their ads become, the better or more effective
wherein the information or hypertext file is accessed their blication campaign will be.
by the user. There were no facilities to interact with
it other than to read or view the content. Web 1.0
underwent multiple innovations because of some Big Idea
inherent disadvantages. The Web 2.0 or the read-
We have the power to make the information we
and-write Web started with the need to interact with
gather using different forms of media that are
Web pages. Users wanted to e-mail Web sites and
beneficial to us.
interact on social networking sites. The Web 2.0
enabled users or viewers to edit the content of the
files they were accessing. In this period, blogging
Research and Information Seeking
sites started to gain popularity. Nontechnical users
of the Web are empowered to easily published and One of the ideal applications laid down for ICT and
edit Web sites through user-friendly interface in the the World Wide Web is for research and education.
Web browser. Today, the Web 3.0 or semantic Since Web 1.0, the main objectives of Internet sites
executing Web is being developed. The Web 3.0 is are to share and disseminate information. Today,
envisioned to be a smarter access of hypertext files there are a number of information sources over the
and version that would enable a wider range of Internet, some of which are presented below.
search in a fast manner.
 Web search engines – These are programs
designed to search or mine the World Wide
Web based on keywords provided by the
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 user. They return search results such as Web names to avoid responsibility. This will also
sites, files, photos, or other media files. enable the users to further research and
Examples of these are Bing, Duckduckgo, verify the author.
Google, and Yahoo.  Credible Web sites – Error-free articles are
 Research indexing sites - These are Web more likely published by credible Web sites.
sites dedicated to compile and index These are Web sites of big international or
researches done by academic researchers, local companies involved in the field you are
engineers, social scientists, and so on. searching for. Another couple of example of
Examples are IEEE Xplore, Google Scholar, credible Web sites are government-
and ResearchGate. connected and government-maintained Web
 Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) sites. News agencies are another good
sites or tutorial sites – These are Web sites source of credible information.
dedicated to teach and inform users focused  Rating, number of viewers, and number
on different areas. The delivery of of shares – A credible article is more likely
information is similar to a classroom lecture to receive a high rating or a normally high
setup, wherein lectures and assignments are number of stars from reviewers. This is the
delivered and submitted, respectively, collective rating of past viewers of the site.
online. Various universities around the If the article is not credible or contains false
world offer this service. Examples are information, it has a high probability of
Coursera, edX, and Udemy. getting a low rating. If the information in an
 Employment Web sites – These are Web article is false, a fewer number of persons
sites that enable companies to post job would share the article. Another way is to
vacancies and also accommodate job seekers visit the comment section of the article. If
by providing a resume-submission facility. the information presented is not true, most
One important feature of these Web sites is of the comments are negative.
the ability to match the qualification of the  Reference and related articles – Most of
applicant and the required qualification in a the credible articles include a list of
certain job vacancy. Examples are JobStreet, references or articles related to the published
JobsDB, and Bestjobs. one. To verify the authenticity of an article,
 Electronic commerce (e-commerce) – This visit the articles listed as references and
is a technology that uses electronic means to confirm if the information written on the
trade products and currencies. It also Web site conforms to the information in the
includes any technology that introduces ease references.
in business management and customer
convenience.
Online Ethics and Etiquette
The term "netiquette" is a coined or portmanteau
Authenticity Verification of Information from
term of network and etiquette. The term "netizen"
the Web
refers to the person who is a member or a part of the
The inherited property of Web 2.0 and its later online community. Hence, a netiquette is a set of
versions give viewers the privilege to influence ideal rules and conduct that a netizen should
content or give anyone the freedom to publish his or observe in communicating and/or publishing
her own Web site regardless of content. There are information and materials over the World Wide
no standards governing content publishing on the Web and in ICT in general. The rules of conduct in
World Wide Web to ensure the correctness of the Web vary from one community to another.
information, but there are ways on how to verify if However, there are some key points to keep in mind
the information is trustworthy or legitimate. to maintain good conduct over the Internet.

 Published author’s name – Publishing the • Recognize that your cyber avatar, or your
name of the one who wrote the article or online representation, is not another world
information is one sign that the information but an extension of your personality and an
is valid, credible, and legitimate. Most of the extension of the existing society that you are
authors who are intentionally writing hoaxes part of. Anything that you publish, post, or
or false articles will likely omit writing their share affects you and another individual who
 exists somewhere in the globe, and this Think before you click.
individual may be someone whom you
might bump into.
• You should apply the values and conduct
learned since childhood in the online
extension of our society. The values and
conduct imparted to us, such as respect,
kindness, and courtesy to others, should be
observed as we expect to receive them from
others. Theft, hate speech, gossip,
pornography, and bullying are unacceptable
in the online community as they are in our
interaction with other people.
• Keep in mind that there are laws existing in
our society and on the Web. Remember that
there are punishments laid by the
government, not for the sake of punishing,
but for peace and order among the citizens.
• The World Wide Web enables participation
of people from different countries with
different cultures and religions. Keep in
mind that there are differences among the
individuals you will interact with and the
individuals who will read your published
contents. Be sensitive with their beliefs,
cultures, and religions. Furthermore, the
differences will result in different behaviors
and social norms.
• Everything published on the World Wide
Web should be considered as copyrighted or
owned by another individual. However, this
does not mean that you cannot use these
materials for your personal use. If the
materials are going to be used for
educational purposes, certain rules should be
followed in academic writing, referencing,
and making citation acknowledgement. If
these materials are going to be used on
another Web site and will be published, you
should seek permission from the author. It is
also unethical to disseminate the personal
information of others without their
permission. Using the Web to distribute
photos, videos, and other pieces of
information (e.g., names, addresses, and
bank accounts) is also not acceptable.
• In sending correspondence in either e-mail
or chat, be careful in selecting words to
communicate. As much as possible, use the
appropriate manner of communication and
avoid threatening and disrespectful words.

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