Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Multi-User Voice Chat System
Chapter One
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aims of this study include;
- Designing and implementing a multi-user voice chat system
- Designing a database to store the web application details
- Securing the user details of the voice chat system designed.
The objectives of this study include:
- Examining related texts and research material in similar scope of study
- Examining the Software Life Cycle methodology that works best to implement the software.
- Finding out the best programming tools to best implement it.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter examines in detail, the history and developments made in ICT social communication, previous research work on this subject, the characteristics, models, architectures and limitations as pointed out by various scholars and researchers. This will provide the ground work for figuring out an efficient way to implement a voice based chatting system.
OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social networking is the use of Internet-based social media sites to stay connected with friends, family, colleagues, customers, or clients. Social networking can have a social purpose, a business purpose, or both, through sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Social networking has become a significant base for marketers seeking to engage customers.
Despite some stiff competition, Facebook remains the largest and most popular social network, with 2.8 billion people using the platform on a monthly basis, as of Dec. 31, 2020. It was followed, in order of popularity, by Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Pinterest, according to Statistica.
Social networking involves the development and maintenance of personal and business relationships using technology. This is done through the use of social networking sites, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These sites allow people and corporations to connect with one another so they can develop relationships and so they can share information, ideas, and messages.
Family members who are far apart may remain connected through personal social networking sites like Facebook. They can share photos and updates on things that are going on in their lives. People can also connect with others (notably, strangers) who share the same interests. Individuals can find each other through groups, lists, and the use of hashtags.
Social networking is commonly used by marketers so they can increase brand recognition and encouraging brand loyalty. Since it makes a company more accessible to new customers and more recognizable for existing customers, social media marketing helps promote a brand’s voice and content.
For example, a frequent Twitter user may hear of a company for the first time through a news feed and decide to buy a product or service. The more exposed people are to a company’s brand, the greater the company’s chances of finding and retaining new customers.
Marketers use social networking as a way to improve conversion rates. Building a following provides access to and interaction with new, recent, and old customers. Sharing blog posts, images, videos, or comments on social media allows followers to react, visit the company’s website, and become customers.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking
Social networking has the ability to affect both individuals and corporations—both positively and negatively. That’s why it’s important to weigh out both the advantages and disadvantages of using these social media sites.
Advantages
As mentioned above, social networking allows individuals to keep in contact with family and friends they would otherwise not be able to connect with because of distance or because they simply lost touch. People can also connect with other individuals who share the same interests and develop new relationships.
Social networking also allows companies to connect with new and existing clients. They can also use social media to create, promote, and increase brand awareness. They also rely on reviews and comments made by their clientele. The more customers post about a company, the more valuable the brand authority becomes. This leads to more sales and a higher ranking in search engines. Social networking can, therefore, help establish a brand as legitimate, credible, and trustworthy.
A company may use social networking to demonstrate its customer service level and enrich its relationships with consumers. For example, if a customer complains about a product or service on Twitter, the company may address the issue immediately, apologize, and take action to make it right.
Disadvantages
Social networking can have a big impact on the spread of misinformation. And it can spread like wildfire. This became increasingly prevalent after 2012. This information starts as rumors, which spread faster than facts. One study found that misinformation is 70% more likely to be shared than factual information on Twitter.
Networking on social media can have just as much of a detrimental impact on companies. Criticism of a brand can spread very quickly on social media. This can create a virtual headache for a company’s public relations department.
Although social networking itself is free, building and maintaining a company profile takes hours each week. Costs for those hours add up quickly. In addition, businesses need many followers before a social media marketing campaign starts generating a positive return on investment (ROI). For example, submitting a post to 15 followers does not have the same effect as submitting the post to 15,000 followers.
HISTORY OF SOCIAL NETWORKS
Social networks/media first appeared in some form in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the introduction of online communication services such as CompuServe, America Online and Prodigy. They introduced users to data communication through email, bulletin board messaging, and real-time online chatting.
This gave rise to the earliest social media networks, beginning with the short-lived Six Degrees profile uploading service in 1997.
This service was followed in 2001 by Friendster. These rudimentary platforms attracted many users and enabled email address registration and basic online networking.
Weblogs, or blogs, another early sort of digital social communication, began to realize popularity with the 1999 launch of the LiveJournal publishing site. This coincided with the launch of the Blogger publishing platform by the tech company Pyra Labs, which was purchased by Google in 2003.
In 2002, LinkedIn was founded as a networking site for career-minded professionals. By 2020, it had grown to quite 675 million users worldwide. It remains the social media site of choice for job seekers also as human resources managers checking out qualified candidates.
Two other major forays into social media collapsed after a burst of initial success. In 2003, Myspace launched. By 2006, it had been the foremost visited website on the earth , spurred by users’ ability to share new music directly on their profile pages.
By 2008, it was eclipsed by Facebook. In 2011, Myspace was purchased by musician Justin Timberlake for $35 million, but it has since become a social media afterthought.
Google’s plan to elbow its way into the social media landscape, Google+, launched in 2012. A rocky existence came to an end in 2018, after the private information of nearly 500,000 Google+ users was compromised by a data security breach. Today’s social media landscape is populated by a set of services that jockey for the eye of more than 5 billion mobile device users worldwide.
RELATED WORKS OF RESEARCH
According to Junco al et (2010), social media are a set of internet websites, services, and practices that support collaboration, community building, participation, and sharing”. The growing dimension of the utilization of social media among the youth of today can’t be over emphasized. Over the years, social networking among second cycle students has become more and more popular. It is how to form connection not only on campus, but with friends outside of faculty . Social networking may be a way that helps many of us feels as if they belong to a community. Due to the increased popularity of it, economists and professors are questioning whether grades of scholars aren’t being suffering from what proportion time is spend on these sites (Choney, 2010). According to Lenhart et al., (2010), about 57% of social network users are 18-29 years old and have a personal profile on multiple social media websites. In a study by Pempek, Yermolayeva, and Calvert (2009), the quantity of your time spent daily on social network sites varied greatly. However, an analysis of the info indicated most participants spent approximately thirty minutes each day socializing, mostly during the evening hours between 9p.m to 12a.m students spent a mean of forty seven minutes a day on Facebook. More than 50% of college students go on a social networking sites several times a day (Sheldon, 2008).
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
This chapter reviews how the existing system works as well as how to produce a better alternative for its improvement. The relationship among actors, entities, platform and information flows within the organization is very important. In a nutshell, system investigation and analysis studies an existing system with the view of improving on it or developing an entirely new system to replace the existing one. The major task here is to design a new system using tested and trusted development methods that is as efficient and probably more efficient than the existing one. The software development model is the Waterfall model.
FACTS FINDING
Fact finding is an approach taken to acquire data about a specific or subject with the aim of analyzing and synthesizing the analyzed data to come up with a better system. Fact finding for this study was done by examining related publications, research work, journals and books.
ANALYSIS OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM(S)
In this section, thorough studying and analysis of the gathered data and fact were done on the existing system.
The typical process of a voice chatting .system generally follows the processes of:
- Registration/Sign Up
- Login
- Access the forum page
- Record Audio
- Send Audio
- Log Out
CHAPTER FOUR
IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the deployment and testing of the voice chatting system after the design and development. The Hardware and Software Requirements as well as Development tools are identified in this chapter.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION
SUMMARY
An online voice chatting system was developed in this project with with the view to improve user experience of social networking. The system was able to register users and store their information and enabling login to access the chat page.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the online voice chatting system is a good way to additionally improve the user experience and interaction of the usual and regular chat system.
It has basically used the traditional web development technologies to implement with improvements that have also been pointed out to make the system better than ever.
RECOMMENDATION
For future works, improvements can be made in terms of user identification and verification. Data security, data retrieval and threat detection and reporting should be a vital consideration in development of any further social networking systems.
REFERENCES
- Junco, R., Heibergert, G. & Loken, E. (2010). The Effect of Twitter on college students Engagement and Grades, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, pp 1-14
- Pempek, T. A., Yermolayeva, Y. A., & Calvert, S. L. (2009). College students’ social networking experiences on Facebook. Journal of Applied Development psychology, 30(3),227-238.
- Sheldon, P. (2008). Students favourite: Facebook and motives for its use. Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, 23(2), pp. 39-53.
- San Miguel, R. (2010) Study on Facebook and Grades Becomes Learning Experience for Researcher.
- Jacobsen, W. C., & Forste, R. (2011). The Wired Generation: Academic and Social Outcomes of Electronic Media Use Among University Students. Cyber Psychology Behaviour & Social Networking 18,(5) pp.6, 275-285.
