Communication Style

Communication as defined by Wikipedia “is a process of transferring information from one entity to another”. In recent times, the use of contractions, slangs and icons in mails does not necessarily signal the development of a new communication style, rather it’s a matter of choice of form of expression or communication.
Contractions have long been in use before what is simply known as Textese became so rampant in chat rooms, email messages and SMS messages. In SMS messages the main motive of using contractions will be to minimize the number of text per page thereby reducing cost. So many slangs and contractions have been coined recently that helps you reduce the number of characters in an SMS message while trying to express yourself, for example:
• “LOL” for “Laugh Out Loud”;
• “TTYL” for “Talk To You Later”;
• “GTG” for “Got To Go”; and
• “GR8T” for “Great”.
If you are sure the recipient can interpret the message then it’s not a problem, but if the recipient cannot interpret and understand the message, you have failed in communication.
Contractions, slangs and icons if used excessively, chances that one might start having difficulties in remembering the actual spelling of some words are very high.
It is important also to know when and where you are using contractions. If one is writing a formal mail, I think slangs or contraction should be avoided completely. The problem today, is that most people are so use to contractions and slangs that at times they forget where and when not to use them. A friend of mine recently was talking about how he feared failing a written professional exam, because he was using contractions like “u” for “You”; and “n” for “And” in the exam. Another problem we face is that gradually, written language might be lost, with the rate at which technology is changing our lives.
Unfortunately for my language which is Igbo, we are at the verge of losing the spoken form of it, talk less of the written. In Nigeria, the lingua franca is English, with about 317 different tribes, with tribes sharing one or more languages; I can bet that most of the written forms of those languages must have met their death. Everybody is trying as much as possible to perfect in the use of English language both written and oral, and in the process not learning their own mother tongue.
In conclusion, I think that the use of contractions, slangs and icons might as well be the death of appreciation of written language. We might be headed back to the stone ages when mainly symbols where used for communication.


References:
Wikipedia, Communication 3rd July 2010[Online] Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication (Accessed: 3rd July 2010)
Wikipedia, SMS Language 3rd July 2010[Online] Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_language (Accessed: 4th July 2010)
Neville Agius, Communication Style 6th December 2009 [Online]. Available from: http://nagius.blogspot.com/2010/02/does-use-of-contractions-slang-and.html (Accessed: 3rd July 2010)
Christopher Dawson, Text messaging and the death of English language 27th April 2007 [Online]. Available from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/text-messaging-and-the-death-of-the-english-language/1021 (Accessed: 3rd July 2010)

Professional Ethics

Going through the code of ethics of two different bodies of computing professionals i.e. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), it is certain that a Computing Professional has a lot of responsibilities to uphold. With responsibilities like maintaining professional competence, respecting the privacy of others, being honest and trustworthy as well as to avoid causing harm to persons through the use of computing technology.

Computing Professionals have the following responsibilities:

· They are aware that customers rely on their expertise and knowledge;

· They know their duty affect many people;

· They follow good professional standards and practices;

· They maintain an expected level of competence and;

· They are up-to-date on current knowledge and technology, also

· They educate the non-computer professional.

With most organizations having an IT department that does all the data backup, system maintenance, email server configuration, password renewal etc., a Computing professional must maintain in his line of duty, competence, honor confidentiality and also improve on the public understanding of computing and its consequences. For example if a colleague is sharing an important folder on his computer and connecting to the internet, chances that he/she will fall prey to a hacker is very high. So it is the duty of a Computing Professional to educate his immediate colleagues or coworkers not to leave an important folder shared when connecting to the internet.

A computing professional may in some cases be faced with the challenge of implementing a company policy thereby forcing him/her to practice what ethically is not allowed in his profession, it is his duty to advice the company on the best way to implement that policy in other to be neutral.

Since the invention of computers and the world wide web, there have been more ethical issues affecting businesses, from gaining access to classified information, data mining, work place monitoring and privacy invasion. The role of a Computing Professional in maintaining good business ethic is ever growing. Then it is very important for a Computing professional to acquire and maintain professional competence by upgrading his technical knowhow, writing more certification exams, and probably attending more seminars.

To be called a Computing professional, one will need to act in line with all the ethics accorded to this profession.

References:

Sara Baase, A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computers and the Internet (2^nd Ed. 2003) [Online]. Available from: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/giftfire/2e/Chapter10.ppt (Accessed: 1^st of July 2010)

ACM Council, ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct 16^th October 1992 [Online]. Available from: http://www.acm.org/about/code-of-ethics (Accessed: 1^st of July 2010)

AITP, Code of Ethics (2006) [Online]. Available from: http://www.aitp.org/organization/about/ethics/ethics.jsp (Accessed: 1^st of July 2010)

Wikipedia, Business Ethics 18^th June 2010[Online] Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_ethics#Ethics_and_technology (Accessed: 1^st July 2010)