Friday 15 March 2013

English PEEL (Sandy Khoo)

Point:
The increasing access to the information on the internet has created more problems than solutions, especially that of a social nature, because there is an increase of accessibility to personal information. 

Explanation:
Ever since the advent of internet, people have been trying to communicate through the net effectively. This thus resulted in many social platforms being founded, such as Facebook and Twitter, which aids in social communication. These platforms had indeed bridge many communication gaps even if both persons are at two different ends of the world. It allows people to remain in close contact even if they might not be physically beside each other.This however has posed a social problem, which is cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is verbal or emotional abuse inflicted through the cyber space. Attackers can be anonymous, making victims feel even more vulnerable since they are being attacked by strangers. 

Example:
One example of cyber bullying would be Amanda Todd, a teenager from the United States. As an emotional person, she often voice out her sad thoughts through the net. However, she not only did not receive comfort from strangers, but also insults and verbal abuse from those anonymous users. Furthermore, she was duped into showing racy photos of herself, where the man actually shared the pictures to the internet. Those anonymous users therefore seized the chance and sent her more insults. It reached to the point of her cutting herself and at last ended her life. Even after her death, she was still ridiculed with her last photo of her wrist, filled with cuts and the caption,"Are your jokes still funny?"

Link:
Thus, internet has indeed caused more problems than solutions. It has caused a huge social problem and the problem has gotten worse and worse with more people like Amanda Todd, ending their lives because of the careless words of anonymous users. Because of anonymity, people are often careless about their words and  hurt others without knowing, which is a current problem the world is facing.




Sandy Khoo

Thursday 14 March 2013

PEEL (Ryan Lai)

Point:
The increasing access to information on the internet has solved more problems than it has caused, especially for designers.

Explanation:
As information becomes more and more readily available as people start uploading their research and findings onto the internet, people from different locations are able to use this information to help them with their work.

Example:
Many researchers and designers use information readily available on the internet to aid them in their work. Many design companies make their products to cater to the majority of the potential buyers by using information about the target audience, such as the body sizes to make their products more ergonomic.

Link:
Hence, the increasing access to information on the internet has solved more problems than it has caused, as designers can solve more problems as they can better understand the problems of the population and make products that can make life better and improve the quality of life by catering to the population’s requirements.

PEEL Paragraph (Internet) - Darren & Danish


QUESTION: ‘The increasing access to information on the internet has caused as many problems as it has solved.’

POINT: The increasing access to information on the internet has caused more problems as it has solved. This is especially so as work from companies and artists are distributed illegally online.

EXPLANATION: As more and more websites sharing illegal files from companies and artists are being set up, more and more productions are distributed and downloaded illegally. This results in musician artists, companies such as Adobe and even film companies, to lose a large chunk of their profit, as most of it comes from purchases of music or movies from CDs, or through online payment. However, these files are being taken and shared among the rest of the people free of charge, without the need of people having to pay money to the artists or companies.

EXAMPLE: Good examples of illegal websites are Mp3Skull, www.4shared.com and MegaUpload. These websites distributes free music, games and movies illegally. Some shocking statistics from a survey done in 2012 in the USA by InfographicsArchive shows that almost 70% of Online Users interviewed finds nothing wrong with online piracy. 91.5% of files are available for download on Cyberlockers sites (Rapidshare/ MegaUpload) and only 1 out of 10,000 pieces of the most popular content on OpenBitTorrent tracker is non-copyrighted.

LINK BACK/WEIGHING: Though they are some movements by the government and organisations to stop internet online piracy like the shutting down of MegaUpload and Snowleopard.ning, some were shut down permanently, while some were persistent and reappeared again. In fact there are still uncountably many other sites out there continuing the same illegal distribution currently, and are most likely expected to continue for a while as it is currently not easy to stop them. Hence, the increasing access to information on the internet has caused more problems as it has solved.

PEEL Paragraph - Keming


POINT: Increasing access to information on the internet has created more problems than solutions especially in the field of easily accessible information and media where many users exploit to sharing of copyrighted media content that poses as a threat to the record industry's earnings and profits.

EXPLANATION: As the web grows larger and larger due to the increasing number of users, free and widespread access to copyrighted media such as software, movies, music and games reaches out to more users on the internet each day. This easy access to media such as music has influenced and exposed many internet users to more genres of music, therefore serving an educational cause. However, many individuals download such materials for illegal means such as profit-making, which violates the law regarding the reserved rights that the producers who created the copyrighted material have put in place to protect their works. This act of downloading copyrighted media has increasingly caused deep impact on the economy of the record industry, causing damage to artists' and producers' profits and reputations. As a result of this act of sharing copyrighted media, the record industry is only earning an extremely small percentage of the potential amount they could be earning.

EVIDENCE: A good example to illustrate this point is the act of downloading music from the internet. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) released a report which estimates that more than 40 billion songs were illegally downloaded in 2008. This huge figure equates to 95% of all music downloads and is the same percentage of illegal downloads which were made in 2007. the record industry is only making 5% of the money it could potentially be making. This five percent of legitimate/legal sales equates to approximately USD$3.7 billion, which is a pathetic amount compared to the potential USD$74 billion that the industry could be earning if it were not for this widespread sharing of copyright media on the internet. As a result, many musicians and producers earn only a fraction of what they truly deserve for the hard work they put into producing an album. Most users who have the choice between purchasing, for example, a legal and licensed music album on iTunes and a illegally downloaded, "pirated" version of the exact same album, would choose the latter as it is free and there is no need to use their own money.

LINK-BACK/WEIGHING: As such, the easy access to media on the internet is more of a bane than a boon as it allows a majority of internet users to exploit this accessibility to the illegal act of internet piracy, which causes artists and producers to not receive the full amount of their due credit and earnings for their hard work, therefore damaging the economy of the record industry.

PEEL - Nina


Question: 'The increasing access to information on the internet has caused as many problems as it has solved.' Comment

Stand: The increasing access to information on the Internet has created more problems than it has solved.


- Point
Even though an increasing access to information on the Internet is supposedly meant to solve more problems than create problems, it actually creates more problems than solutions.This trend can be especially seen in copyright laws as more people infringe them and use information without obeying the rules of copyright.

- Explanation
As more information is posted and shared online, more people download, use, distribute and copy information. Most of the time, these are done without keeping to the laws of copyright. People do not ask the owners for permission to use these information and some do not even notice if there it is protected by a copyright law. This has led to many copyright law infringements and illegal uses of information. However, given the massiveness and the fact that it is hard to catch all the criminals of copyright infringement, people generally just use the information accessed in any way they want.

- Evidence
A good example to illutstrate this point is MySpace's illegal uploading and distributing of music by artists who signed under the Universal Music Group. MySpace helped it's users to upload their music videos and reediting them so that they can be shared with other users.


- Linkback / Weighing

Therefore, the increasing access to information on the internet is actually more of a scourge than a blessing. Having access to more information on the internet is only plausible when the rules of copyright are fulfilled. When copyright laws are infringed, people actually earn less money. Thus the copyright laws are to be obeyed or one day the information on the internet would be every where and we would not know who is the creator of a masterpiece.