Criteria D

Social networking faces major problems when it comes to the invasion of privacy. The first step to solving the problem of invasion of privacy is gathering and creating a committee of social network creators to investigate the problem and try to create a solution. The committee should implement rules upon the public and the people who are able to use these social networks. In order for these rules to be followed, the committee will have to inform the public through advertising and public relations. The committee must educate social network users as well as internet users about these new rules.
To ensure that this solution will work, there will need to be a commission set up that will check up on the networks to see if the rules are being followed.
This solution is feasible and should be effective since this commission would regularly monitor social networks, thus the people will be more likely to follow the rules because most people want to abide by rules for Facebook to continue using it.

Criteria C

Social networking has become a very common and free way to communicate and connect with friends, family and co-workers. It also a way to meet new people from different all around the world. Social networking has become a key technique in modern sociology. Facebook is a very well recognized and highly used social network amongst teenagers and adults in our society, especially university students. Facebook has more than 70 million visitors; it is one of the most popular social utilities that connects you with the people around you. Teenagers who use Facebook upload pictures such as pictures taken from recent parties and gatherings. They also have detailed profiles on their personal interests and about their personalities.
Although Facebook is currently very popular, it may drop at anytime if it does not keep up with technology. Friendster is also a social network that had 20 million visitors in the year 2003, however, towards the end of last year; it dropped down to less than a million users. This was because of the lack of new technological developments that other social networks provided. Some people believe that Facebook causes them to feel as if their privacy has been invaded because of all the in depth detail they are able to show to their friends and others. Facebook allows you to search for a person just by typing in their name, you are able to view their profile picture and all of their Facebook friends even if you do not have them added as a contact. There are very limited privacy settings where you can choose how much you want to show to people who search you; people who don’t even know you. You don’t even need a Facebook account to be able to search for a Facebook user.
Social networks should make a balance between heterogeneity, which provides large numbers of members, and selectivity, which keeps the users focused and engaged in the site. Social networking sites also must keep pace with technology and provide new features for their users.
There are ways Facebook can avoid this from happening and maintain it’s impression to the public is by limiting membership. Although Facebook attempts to limit itself to college students, there is no rule or restriction for younger users to join. Overall, the concerns over security and the invasion of privacy have been the biggest issue for social networking. Facebook sponsors are looking into the ways to overcome these inherent problems however they should also continue developing by adding new applications that will keep the users attracted and interested.

Criteria B

Facebook databases transmit Facebook to our computer screens from the US. It goes the through the Internet service provider and through your personal computer. for that reason, the components that are involved with this IT system are Facebook’s databases, server, and the internet browser.
Because of the demand for constant improvements in the IT and technological field, the increase in internet and computer speeds as well as advancements with the ability to exchange audio/video instead of text only. Also, since the availability of the internet is now worldwide, social networks such as Facebook are now facing an increase of users from all around the world.
Comscore reported some interesting statistics on Facebook, shedding light on the site’s growth after opening up last September and their demographics. Over the past year (May ‘06 - May ‘07), Facebook saw an 89% increase in unique visitors to the site at 26,649,000 uniques, with a 143% increase in page views at 15.8 billion.
The future technological trends for the future are that because of the increase of use of the Internet, social networks will continue to grow and become more popular. Advancements in digital/audio/video will improve, allowing more people to be able to exchange and share things over these social networks and other IT systems. It also gives them access to personal information, or personal details such as images and videos.

Criteria A

This portfolio addresses the issue of Internet identity fraud. An example of this issue in society is people claiming that they are someone they’re not.
The IT system involved with this issue is social networking. This IT system is important to society because it is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. However, at Facebook people have control over how they share their information and who can see it. People can only see the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks, nevertheless identity fraud and identity theft can still happen within people’s networks.
Society is affected by this IT in positive and negative ways. A positive social or ethical effect related to the IT system because it connects people all around the world. A negative social or ethical effect related to the IT system is identity fraud within this social network and similar social utilities.
The future direction of people in society will be determined by the choices made about this issue for example if people remain unaware of what is happening with identity theft around them on such social networks it can cause more severe problems.

Portfolio 1