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Internet Applications and Emerging Technologies6

� to define and explain e-commerce services

� to identify online modes of payment

� to express views/opinions through blogs

� to create a podcast

� to describe the features of social networking

� to list the pros and cons of social networking

� to describe some of the new features of emerging technologies

Let’s Learn

Connect

Do you buy products online?

Where do you buy them from?

How do you make the payment for the same?

Today, it has become very convenient for us to buy products from online stores. We even book a flight or transfer money using online services.

There are thousands of websites devoted to online shopping. Some websites specifically focus on one product or service, whereas other sites offer a wide range of products or services.

E-commerce E-commerce or electronic commerce can be described as the process of buying and selling of goods and services on the internet and the transfer of money for these transactions.

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Today, organisations all over the world use the internet as a medium to conduct business. Websites such as Amazon, Myntra, Snapdeal and so on, are examples of e-commerce websites. There are three parties in this exchange of goods and transfer of money.

Buyer or Consumer: Buyers are customers who purchase goods or services by paying the specified amount.

Seller or Merchant: Sellers are people who offer goods or services to the buyer. Sellers have two different ways of selling the goods: retailers who directly sell to the customers and wholesalers or distributors who sell to the retailers.

Producers: These people are often called manufacturers, who create products and services that sellers offer to buyers. Producers are also sellers, as they may sell their products to retailers, wholesalers or directly to the customer.

Categories of e-commerceE-commerce can be divided into four main categories based on the type of buyer and seller involved.

Business to Business (B2B): Here both the buyer and seller are two organisations. For example, IndiaMart.

Business to Customer (B2C): In this category, the products or services are sold by an organisation to a customer. Example, Amazon and Flipkart.

Customer to Customer (C2C): In this model, customers sell the products or services to other customers. Example, OLX and Quikr.

Customer to Business (C2B): In this category, customers post a project online and companies bid for this project. The customer reviews the bids and selects the company. www.freelancer.com and www.elance.com are two examples of C2B.

Did you knowAmazon.com was one of the first American e-commerce company to sell products over the Internet. It was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos.

Advantages of e-commerce There are various advantages of e-commerce; some of them have been listed below:

� You can buy or sell products 24/7 days of the week.

� It is accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

� It provides the user with more options to choose from as compared to physical stores. It also provides quicker delivery of products.

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� Customers can compare and select the cheaper and better option.

� Comparison engines help compare and recommend products.

� Companies can gain higher profits since overhead costs of maintenance and transactions are reduced.

Disadvantages of e-commerce � Customers may not be able to trust an online store. This makes it difficult for the user

to switch from a physical store to an online store.

� It may not be possible to completely ensure the security or privacy of online transactions.

� Customers cannot touch or feel products before buying them.

� Areas with poor or no internet connectivity cannot make use of this medium effectively.

Find out more examples of different ecommerce websites for each of the categories described above.

Learning by doing

Online Modes of PaymentThere are many different ways of making online or electronic payments, such as credit cards, debit cards, net banking, electronic wallets and so on.

Online stores rely on a service provider called Payment Gateway Provider that processes credit card payments for e-businesses and online retailers. They are like the middlemen between the purchaser and the company providing the products. They provide a safe platform for the transactions by encrypting the information of the purchase. Some well-known payment gateways used in India include CCAvenue and Tech process.

Techie tipEncryption is a process of converting digital data into secret code to prevent it from unauthorised access.

Some modes of electronic paymentsCredit cards and Debit cards are the most widely used modes of online payments.

� When a customer purchases any goods using a credit card, the credit card bank issuer will pay the seller on behalf of the customer. The customer is given a certain time period within which he/she has to pay the credit card bill.

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� With a debit card, one can pay for goods with the money that already exists in the customer’s bank account. The account must have a sufficient balance for the transaction to get completed.

� Net banking is another convenient way to make payments online. It uses a method similar to the debit card but does not require the buyer to have a physical card. The buyer needs to use his/her net banking id and pin provided by his bank to make the payment.

� E-money or electronic money is an electronic alternative to hard cash. E-money can be held on either cards, devices or even a web server. It also does not require the user to have a debit or credit card. Example: M-Pesa, PAYtm, PayPal.

Advantages of ePayment � ePayment is very convenient. Individuals can pay bills or make purchases anytime from

any corner of the world.

� It saves time. Once the initial set of the payment is completed, an individual can pay the bills in seconds.

� The cost of ePayment is nominal compared to other type of payments, such as a cheque or a demand draft.

� ePayment is becoming more and more secure than the old traditional ways . Every payment gateway has its own fraud protection system to protect customers. An individual’s personal financial data is encrypted before sending it electronically. It can be made more secure by creating strong passwords and installing suitable anti-malware software.

BloggingA blog is a short form of weblog. A weblog is a discussion or informative site of an individual’s ideas, activities, opinions and advice. Each article in a blog is called a post. In simple words, a blog is a publicly shared forum of a diary or journal where the topics can range from personal to politics. Usually, the entries of these posts are displayed in reverse chronological order, such that, the most recent post is displayed first, followed by earlier posts. A blog can include text, images, audio/video and, hyperlinks. It also allows comments from visitors or readers. A blogging platform is a service that allows you used to publish your content on the internet in the form of a blog.

Example, Childtasticbooks: Great Books for Great Readers is one of the more popular blogs for children.

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Blogging Platforms � Google Blogger

� Wordpress

� Tumblr

� Medium

� Ghost

Creating a blogWe will select Blogger as a blogging platform to create a blog.

Step1: Open Blogger.com.

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Step 2: Click the Sign In option present at the upper right-hand corner of the window. Type the user name and password of your Google account if you have one. If not, then click the Create Your Blog option.

Step 3: Type a Display Name that you wish to use and click Continue to Blogger

Step 4: A welcome screen appears. Click Create New Blog.

Step 5: Type a title for your blog.

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Step 6: Type the URL/address for your blog.

Step 7: Choose any template for the design and layout for your blog, and then click the Create blog button.

Step 8: Click the New Post button at the top of the screen.

The New Post window appears where you can type, save and publish your post.

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Write the content of your post here

Option to publish, save and preview the

written post

Name of the post

Uses of Blogging

� Blogging is a great way to write and share ideas.

� Teachers can use blogs to publish resources, assignments, due dates for submissions, class events and keep students and parents up to date.

� Blogging can help students improve their writing skills.

� You can publish your writing and educate others on a particular topic.

PodcastsPodcasts are a series of digital audio files that are broadcast on the internet and are available for downloading to a computer or mobile devices, such as iPods.

New installments of this series can be received by subscribers automatically. The word podcast is obtained from Apple’s iPod and the word broadcast. The most popular format of a podcast is MP3.

You generally need to subscribe to podcasts and blogs, though many of them are free. The podcast attracts people who are interested in choosing their own content, instead of the TV and radio model of broadcast, where you tune in and select from one of the programs that are playing. Podcasts can be downloaded for listening at the user’s convenience. It can be

used for educational training, tutorials, music demos and talk shows.

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ExploreExplore the following podcasts and list the features that you found interesting.https://www.sciencefriday.com/https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510321/wow-in-the-world

Social NetworkingSocial Networking Sites (SNS) popularly called as social media are websites or apps that enable users to create and share content online and also communicate with other users of that site.

Some examples of social networking websites are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp.

Pros and cons of using social mediaSocial media creates online communities of people and allows them to share information about their day-to-day life, hobbies and, interests with each other. It also makes it easier for people to make friends and keep in touch irrespective of how far they are from each other.

The user is an active contributor to social media sites. For example, in an online newspaper, users can comment on an article, or Wikipedia, where the users themselves create and correct the content.

With easy access to information, most people are spending a greater part of their time on their smartphones interacting with people on social networking websites. This leaves very little time for them to develop actual social skills that involve meeting people face to face and interact with them.

The people that you interact with on social media could be your friends, your next-door neighbours, or complete strangers who live in another part of the world. Since you do not know the people you interact with, it is difficult to understand their intentions. Therefore, it is best to remain cautious while sharing your thoughts, opinions and, feelings on social media.

Whatever activity you perform online, that is, liking a post, commenting on a post or posting on wall such as Facebook wall, all of these form a trail called digital footprints. They can be seen by all and cannot be removed permanently. These footprints can be tracked and used to form an opinion about you. Therefore, it is important to be careful about what you post on social media.

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Emerging Technologies

Virtual reality

Virtual reality refers to the use of computer technology to create an artificial or simulated environment, where users are fully immersed.

Users make use of eye goggles, special gloves, headphones and powerful computers to get a feeling of reality. This technology is used in various fields such as training, education, gaming and so on.

In a VR environment, a user experiences things in a similar way to the real world as he or she walks around in it. For example:

� objects will get bigger as you move closer and smaller as you walk away from them.

� as you move around the direction of sound also changes.

� objects in the VR environment appear to be in the same size as they would look in the real world.

Applications of virtual reality

� It allows architects to walk around a virtual version of their design to get a better idea of what the finished building will look like.

� It is used in training soldiers for combat.

� It is used to train surgeons to practice a surgery process over and over, until they have perfected it so that there is minimal risk to a real patient.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the ability of a computer-based machine to carry out activities involving reasoning and learning that only humans can perform using their intelligence. AI makes it possible for machines to learn from their experiences, adjust themselves to new inputs and perform activities in the same way as humans do. Artificial Intelligence covers a broad range of domains and applications. It has seen a lot of applications in the field of robotics.

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Fun factsThe robot-themed restaurant in Chennai, Bengaluru and Coimbatore is India’s first restaurant where real robots serve food and interact with customers.

Some of the impact of Artificial Intelligence on everyday life:

� Computers are capable of playing games against humans. � Expert systems have been developed that are programmed to make decisions based

on the information given to them. � Intelligent systems are being used that can hear and understand the natural language

of humans. � Robotic vacuum cleaners that can detect and clean around walls and other objects

effectively are becoming more and more popular. � Self-parking and self-driving cars are already being tested. These could drastically

reduce the number of road accidents. � Smart homes will have features to distinguish between homeowners and intruders and

alert the police in case of an intrusion. � Robotic assistants are being used to assist doctors by quickly and accurately pass

surgical tools to doctors.

Visit https://www.afiniti.com/corporate/rock-paper-scissors and play the AI session of the game. Observe how the machine tries to win ahead by learning from your previous moves and predicting the next move.

Learning by doing

Augmented realityThe origin of the word augmented is augment, which means to add or enhance something. In the case of Augmented Reality (also called AR) interactive digital elements, such as graphics, sounds and touch feedback are added into our real-world environment to create an enhanced user experience.

Virtual reality creates a completely artificial environment that provides an immersive

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experience, while augmented reality overlays new information on top of an existing environment by using a camera, smartphone or other devices.

Since virtual and real worlds coexist, users of augmented reality experience a modified new world where virtual information is used to assist them in their daily activities.

Augmented reality can be used in simple applications such as a text-notification or in complicated applications such as instructions to perform life-threatening surgical procedures.

IKEA, a furniture and home accessories design company, is one of the first to use augmented reality. Using its app, customers can view how particular furniture would look at different places in their house.

Find out more on the following examples of augmented reality: � Google Pixel’s Star Wars Stickers

� Disney Coloring Book

� Tinkle comics

Learning by doing

Word Galaxy

augmented reality virtual e-commerce merchant

Mind Map

Internet Applicationsand Emergingtechnologies

e-commerce

blogging

podcasting

Online paymentmodes

categories

advantages

disadvantages

B2B

B2C

C2C

C2B

credit anddebit card

net banking

e-moneycreating a blog

uses of a blog

audio files broadcast

social networking

emergingtechnologies

virtualreality

artificialintelligence

augmentedreality

Pros and cons

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Let’s Exercise

1. Fill in the blanks.

a. _________________is a category of e-commerce, where customers sell products or services to other customers.

b. Online stores rely on a service provider called ________________ that processes credit card payment for e-business and online retailers.

c. The ___________ are a series of digital audio files that are broadcast on the internet and are available for downloading to a computer or mobile devices.

d. The _________________ uses your existing natural environment and simply overlays virtual information on top of it.

2. Answer the following.

a. Explain the advantage of e-money over a Debit or Credit card.

b. Describe three areas where artificial intelligence is being developed.

c. Explain what is virtual reality?

d. What is the difference between virtual reality and augmented reality?

e. Your school plans to start a blog. Explain the different ways in which blogging can be used in school.

Lab Activity

1. With the help of your teacher, create a blog for your class using Blogger.

2. Find out five popular SNS and note the following information for each of them.

� The main focus area of the SNS

� Features of the SNS

� Name of the founder

� Required age to join the SNS

HOTS � Find out about other new emerging technologies that are not covered

in this chapter.

� Find out which SNS allows the user to sell products online.

Web Linkshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emerging_technologies

As on 00/00/2019