Unit 3. Communications systems

Before you read

I. Test yourself

1) What mobile phone is best for a business person and what is best for a student?

2) What phrases usually start a message (e-mail)?

3) What are advantages and disadvantages of videoconferencing?

II. Match the word to its explanation

1) duplicate

2) recipient

3) chat

4) networking

5) multimedia

6) transmit

7) deliver

8) endure

9) Communication

10) concern

a) a person that receives or is awarded something

b) the interconnection of two or more networks in different places

c) the combined use of media such as video, slides and audio

d) exactly like something else

e) to pass from one place or person to another; transfer

f) suffer something painful or difficult patiently

g) the exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium

h) to relate to

i) to carry to a destination

j) informal conversation conducted in an easy familiar manner

III. Match the English and Ukrainian equivalents

1) user environment а) забезпечення, підтримка

2) on-line data b)група розрядів, область

3) core c)параметри користувача, профіль програми

4) resource sharing d)організація користувачів

5) support e) елемент, вхідне повідомлення

6) field f)особливість, властивість

7) profile g)операційне середовище

8) feature h) дані, доступні в інтерактивному режимі

9) entry i) спільне використання ресурсів

10) user group j) пристрій запам’ятовування на магнітних дисках

IV. Read and translate the following text Communications systems

Communication is the most popular use of the Internet, with e-mail topping the list of technologies that are used. Some types of used communication technologies also include e-mail discussion groups, Usenet news, chat groups and IRC. Other technologies, including video and audio conferencing and Internet telephony are also available on the Internet. They require more multimedia capabilities of computer systems and are more taxing of network resources than others.

E-mail is a method of exchanging digital messages over the Internet or other computer networks. Originally, e-mail was transmitted directly from one user to another. This required both computers to be on-line at the same time. Modern e-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model, i.e., e-mail servers accept, forward, deliver and store messages and users no longer need to be on-line simultaneously. An e-mail message consists of two components: the message header (one or more recipient addresses and a subject header field), and the message body. The history of modern, global Internet e-mail services reaches back to the early ARPANET. Standards for encoding e-mail messages were proposed in 1973. The conversion from ARPANET to the Internet in the early 1980s produced the core of the current services. The extensions to the file transfer protocol were initially changed for network-based e-mail, but now it is carried by the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), first published as the Internet standard in 1982.

A social network service focuses on building on-line communities that share interests and activities or are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web-based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services. Social networking has created new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people and now social networking seems to be an enduring part of everyday life. The most popular social networks are:

- in North America – MySpace, Facebook

- in Canada - Nexopia, Bebo, Facebook

- in Europe - Facebook, Hi5, MySpace, Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki

- in South America and Central America - Orkut, Facebook, Friendster

- in Asia and the Pacific Islands - Orkut, Xiaonei, Cyworld.

There have been some attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests, but this has led to some concerns about privacy. The notion that individual computers linked electronically could form the basis of computer mediated social interaction and networking was suggested earlier. There were many efforts to support social networks via computer-mediated communication, including Usenet and bulletin board services (BBS). Early social networking websites started in the form of generalized on-line communities such as Theglobe (1994), Geocities (1994) and Tripod (1995). These early communities focused on bringing people together to interact with each other through chat rooms, and share personal information and ideas on different topics. In 2006, Facebook became the largest and fastest growing site in the world.

In general, social networking services allow users to create a profile for themselves, and can be broken down into two broad categories:

- internal social networking (ISN) - a closed/private community that consists of a group of people within a company, association, educational establishment and organization or even a group created by a user in an ESN

- external social networking (ESN) - open/public available to all web users and designed to attract advertisers.

Almost all social networks have a set of standard features and some of them have additional features, such as the ability to create groups that share common interests, upload videos and participate discussions.

Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) enables the voice signals to transmit over the Internet for making cheap long distance phone calls. Now on-line phone calls have become the cheaper alternative to the traditional telephone systems and mobile phones. The first and the most important requirement of making on-line calls is the broadband Internet connection. The example of software used on VoIP basis can be Skype - a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system. Skype has also become popular for its additional features which include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing. The network is operated by a company called Skype Limited, headquartered in Luxembourg. Skype also allows users to make video calls, through which users can see each other as they talk. Skype allows members to make low, per-minute Skype calls to analog and cell phones.

Blogging is a writer's way of expressing his/her thoughts, ideas, social and political views on-line. Bloggers communicate to readers, who in turn make comments and send their links to other readers.

On-line forums or message boards are an interesting way for participants to express their knowledge or opinion on a particular subject. Participants may speak, for example, on issues like new political agendas, their favourite sports teams or discuss their concerns about new technology.

ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company Mirabilis, then bought by America On-line, and since April 2010 owned by Digital Sky Technologies.