BuddyAbroad: an application for international students to meet other students!

Each year more and more international students arrive in the Netherlands to follow a master program at one of the universities. These students want to have a nice and fun students’ life and want to meet a lot of new people, but the truth is less fun. The international students feel isolated and they find it hard to meet other students with the same interests. Another difficulty for them is that they find it hard to make friends because when they arrive in the Netherlands, most students have already formed peer groups. To solve the problems of the international students we have developed an application called BuddyAbroad for an iPhone. With BuddyAbroad it is possible to meet other students and to share experiences.  BuddyAbroad is divided into two sections, namely: ‘Before studying abroad’ and ‘During studying abroad’. This division is necessary because international students who are in their country of origin have other needs than international students who are already in the Netherlands. A student who is in his or her country of origin can use BuddyAbroad to find other students to travel together, or ask questions to share experiences so the student is prepared well. The international student who is already in the Netherlands can use BuddyAbroad to meet other students in his or her student city. Another feature of BuddyAbroad is adding spots. With spots it is possible to add your current spot in you student city, another student who has logged in on BuddyAbroad can see that you are at that spot and he or she can meet you at that spot.

With BuddyAbroad the problems of the international students have to be solved and their students’ life is fun!

Computer mediated communication and eye catcher

Currently, computer mediated communication is a fast growing type of communication which is also a popular research topic. Thanks to computer mediated communication, people can get to know each other and communicate with another person without knowing the other person in real life. In addition to this, two perspectives are formulated: the lost perspective and the liberated perspective. The liberated perspective suggests that due to the lack of physical communication through the new media, real and interpersonal relationships can be formed. The opposite of the liberated perspective is the lost perspective; this perspective suggests that it is impossible to form a close friendship over the Internet because relationships via the Internet are seen as superficial and impersonal precisely by the absence of physical communication.

To solve the problem of absence of physical communication, Dr. M.L. Antheunis, who is a researcher of the Tilburg University, investigates the possibilities of using an eye catcher during computer mediated communication. With an eye catcher it is possible to have eye contact with the person with who one is talking to via the computer. Eye catcher is an extensive version of Skype and it will give the user the opportunity to have more physical communication with the other person. When eye catcher is available for the normal user and this study about the eye catcher is finished a new research can be done in which researchers investigate the effects of eye catcher on relationships. With these researches it is possible to make clear decisions about the lost and liberated perspectives. Which perspective will be remaining, the lost or the liberated?

 

Interview Dr. M.L. Antheunis

The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton

One week before the the royal wedding, I am curious about what this wedding will do with the (social) media on the 29^th of April. This is what I think: the trending topics on that day on Twitter will be: wedding, Prince William, Kate Middleton and off course, the wedding dress of Kate. For months, the media are speculating about the wedding dress of Kate Middleton, and finally she will show her dress to Prince William and the rest of the world. Furthermore, the newspapers around the world will be completely under the spell of this wedding. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo will be overwhelmed by interested people from all over the world who are searching for pictures of the wedding, the wedding dress of Kate and off course Prince William. And let’s be honest, I can’t blame them because I will do the same thing on April the 29^th.

Children and their privacy on social network sites

According to the popularity of Facebook among students in the Netherlands, Facebook is also becoming very popular by children. 70 percent of the Dutch children between 9 and 12 year have an account on Facebook or Hyves. Due to the fact that more children use social network sites, these sites have to be private for the safety of the children. It is important that the profiles of children are only visible for the ‘friends’ of the child and not all other members of social network sites. Nowadays, children say that they know that they can change their settings, so that their profile is only visible for ‘friends’, but they do not want this. Therefore, the settings of the social network site of a child should be private automatically.

It is necessary that the profiles are automatically private and parents do also have to keep an eye on the social network sites of their children.

Who is the Mole?

The Netherlands the popular television program” Who is the Mole?” (Wie is de Mol?) is almost over. After weeks of exciting assignments, the winner will be announced and also the mole will reveal her/himself. For weeks, the mole has been trying to deceive the other participants and to ensure that assignments fail making sure as little money as possible is won. It is incredible that the mole is now also Twittering. Each week the mole Tweets something so that conspiracy theories are made by many Dutch people. In addition, conspiracy theories about who the mole could be can be shared on the forum of “Who is the Mole”? with other forum users. Everyone thinks they know who the mole is, one is 100% sure it's Art, another one had doubts between Soundos and Karin and another is convinced that Patrick is the mole. One thing is clear, the mole keeps us entirely under a spell, on television, Twitter, and the forum.

You are being watched while you are shopping!

Nice system it is, the bonus card of Albert Heijn, but this system is not only valuable for you to collect points as a customer but it is also a spy-system! Albert Heijn gets more information about you with this system than you might think because Albert Heijn uses so-called data mining. This means that they want to discover patterns in the data provided by your bonus card. They can keep an eye on what you are buying and when you are buying it, because in this way Albert Heijn can establish a purchasing behaviour of each customer. In addition, the cameras in the store are indeed for safety but not only for that! Albert Heijn keeps an eye on which route you take when you are in the store, and with this data Albert Heijn can detect a buyers-pattern of each customer. In this way, products which are often purchased together are also put together in the store on the shelves. It sounds so weird that you are going to do shopping and somebody keeps an eye on you and sees everything you are doing. So watch out for Albert Heijn because they know more about you than you might think!

Be careful with what you tweet! It’s not smart to share everything!

Apparently, it is still difficult for many people to not use Twitter for writing about stupid things. That’s hard if you want to be as fun and interesting as possible on Twitter. Jose Enrique of Newcastle United could not keep his mouth and let people on Twitter know that he would not play against rival opponent Tottenham Hotspur. Not a smart move by Mr. Jose because the coach wanted to keep the news from the public for as long as possible. Thanks to this smart action, each Newcastle player got a free Twitter course: “what can I do and say on Twitter”.

In the Netherlands there were also a few things with Twitter which did not make people happy. Following the Tweet of a senior police officer from the southwest of Drenthe (in the Netherlands) which stated some negative things about the PVV (political party), this time the head of another police force in the Netherlands crossed the line. He could not restrain himself to be out negative about the PVV on Twitter. That was the drop that spilled the bucket and all police officers now get a free course: “what I can and cannot say on Twitter”. Maybe they can ask for the signatures of the Newcastle squad.

But if that wasn’t even bad enough, there is a Dutch teenager who was apparently looking for some attention on the Internet. She thought it was fun to Twitter about committing a bombing at her high school. She thought she would be so funny. But afterwards, she was arrested and interrogated by the police. It’s a lesson to learn for her because she is also temporary suspended from school. Now she has plenty of time to think about what is funny and what is not…. 

One positive thing though, is that a new industry is born thanks to these people: courses in Twittering!


Telegraaf - Newcastle

Telegraaf - Police 

Telegraaf - Student