The more I do in this subject the more hooked I get. It still frightens me how much is out there, but I'm getting a handle on a slightly larger corner than I had before.
This subject of Blogging - I think I may be behind by a week or two....
The origin of blogs (weblogs) was to be a link driven series of sites that revolved around links to other websites that could be commentated on by the blogger. Other bloggers could join the subject with their own links and commentary, thus beginning a communication based on similar interests. Originally to be able to blog involved knowing how to write in HTML and also offered no right of reply - they were read only so had no interaction. This gave weblog editors a degree of power as they could chose which sites they promoted into Cyberspace.
The introduction of WYSIWYG software saw an explosion of blogging, as it was suddenly accessible to many. Surowliecki (2008) describes this as "giving people a voice that have never had one before". He believes that the Tsunami brought intelligent, participatory citizen journalism to new heights with blogs from the front line that traditional journalism could not have achieved.
Rettberg (2008) discribes blogs at some length as being a network of links more discerning than social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, both of which create networks similar to traditional social networks - families, colleagues. Blogs, she argues, create networks based on common interests between bloggers, often through 'weak' links (Granovetter, as cited by Rettberg 2008).
I'm feeling very clever! I have completed all requirements of 2.1 - I have set up Google Reader and I've event started to sort out my Delicious with tags and successful saving. Now to WordPress!
Friday, 13 January 2012
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Module 2 : What is Web 2.0?
Already into module 2 and 2012 is here! Nearly a week old already.
This week we looked at Web2.0 and how it has evolved from Web1.0. Web1.0 was far more static - it was read only, it was looking up things and reading. Couldn't do much else with it.
Web 2.0 is all about interaction, about being involved, about participatory culture. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr - all about personal involvement and interaction. We can now create, however little we know about programming languages, thanks to the multitude of software that creates WYSIWYG screens for us. All about HTML - which writes for us and allows us to separate form and content, so content can be exported and used free of format. Photos, videos are also part of this culture. Sharing, contributing, collaborating. (Wesch, M.).
O'Reilly claims RSS is one technology that has created a difference. RSS allows someone to link to a page and also subscribe to that page, thus receiving a notification each time the page is changed. (O'Reilly). Links and Permalinks are also significant to Web2.0 technology. A link will take you to the updated page, where a permalink will take you back to the original referenced page. In discussing other aspects of Web 2.0 O'Reilly cites BitTorrent as demonstrating 'a key Web 2.0 principle: the service automatically gets better the more people use it. (O'Reilly 1). eBay too is cited as growing by user activity.
"It is a truism that the greatest internet success stories don't advertise
their products. Their adoption is driven by "viral marketing"--that is,
recommendations propagating directly from one user to another. You can almost
make the case that if a site or product relies on advertising to get the word
out, it isn't Web 2.0." (O'Reilly 1).
Slate discusses the impartiality of Wikipedia and Digg, both of which are supposedly regulated by user participation. Slate, however, points out that both sites are actually regulated by a small number of 'watchdog' users - or as he names them - chaperones. Although the power is still in limited hands, these hands are those of the highest users, so still democratic. (Wilson. 2008)
I'm now going back to Delicious. I cannot tag anything, nor is anything coming up with I click on the pencil shaped icon - I AM FRUSTRATED!
Wesch, M. (date uknown). Web2.0... The Machine is Us/ing Us. Sourced at: http://youtu.be/6gmP4nk0EOE
O'Reilly. (date unknown). Blogging and the Wisdom of Crowds. Sourced at http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=3#designpatterns
O'Reilly 1. (date unkown). What is Web 2.0 DoubleClick vs. Overture and AdSense. Sourced at: http://oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=2
Wilson, C. (2008) The Wisdom of the Chaperones. Sourced at: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2008/02/the_wisdom_of_the_chaperones.html
Monday, 19 December 2011
Topic 1.2 ...And the World Wide Web
It has been interesting reading and listening about the differences between what internet actually is compared to the World Wide Web. The Web uses the internet to carry out its function as a method of linking hypertext and thus allowing us to access unlimited information.
It isn't very old in the scheme of things, even newer than Australia! With Vannevar Bush's vision to create a system by which information could be sourced easily by mechanical methods. The use of hypertext, which is the system that allows us to jump from one area to another by mouse click, with no apparent order.
Part 2 took us on a tour of HTML and the Web, explaining URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), as actual 'addresses', where the inform exists within the Web. The Domain Name Server will then convert this to the IP address, and thus successfully finding the sought after information.
It was interesting investigating how HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and having an experiment (Activity One) to test it out. We called them macros in WordPerfect back in the 80s and early 90s, where effectively HTML language was used to produce a memorised sequence of keys. A huge timer saver for those of us who produced a lot of similar documents, and in hindsight was in fact HTML.
I found reading the excerpts almost disturbing, in that I want to quickly finish one page to continue to the next. Consequently I did not read what was there adequately - I kept thinking about where I was going at the end of the page. This happens to me regularly on the Web, so I often miss basic instructions. It's almost like reading the last page first in a novel - I need to know where I am going so I can enjoy the journey. Often the Web is more of a maze than an orderly sequence of events.
Activity Two - Going Way Back.
This was fun! It is interesting to see the progression of web pages over the last couple of decades. How similar they all were in the 80s and 90s, with basic white backgrounds and lots of boxes. The graphics were sharp, square, basic and not very exciting. Today's web pages are far more fluid, with much more exciting use of colour, often with light text against a dark background - something not feasible in hard copy, the ink is too expensive. Also easier to navigate - with side panels, pretty indices, almost like a family tree arrangement. This is most probably a perception rather than a reality, I am now far more familiar with how to use websites than I was 20 years ago.
I have forgotten how to reference the course notes, so I will need to go check and come back to correctly finish this entry.
It isn't very old in the scheme of things, even newer than Australia! With Vannevar Bush's vision to create a system by which information could be sourced easily by mechanical methods. The use of hypertext, which is the system that allows us to jump from one area to another by mouse click, with no apparent order.
Part 2 took us on a tour of HTML and the Web, explaining URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), as actual 'addresses', where the inform exists within the Web. The Domain Name Server will then convert this to the IP address, and thus successfully finding the sought after information.
It was interesting investigating how HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and having an experiment (Activity One) to test it out. We called them macros in WordPerfect back in the 80s and early 90s, where effectively HTML language was used to produce a memorised sequence of keys. A huge timer saver for those of us who produced a lot of similar documents, and in hindsight was in fact HTML.
I found reading the excerpts almost disturbing, in that I want to quickly finish one page to continue to the next. Consequently I did not read what was there adequately - I kept thinking about where I was going at the end of the page. This happens to me regularly on the Web, so I often miss basic instructions. It's almost like reading the last page first in a novel - I need to know where I am going so I can enjoy the journey. Often the Web is more of a maze than an orderly sequence of events.
Activity Two - Going Way Back.
This was fun! It is interesting to see the progression of web pages over the last couple of decades. How similar they all were in the 80s and 90s, with basic white backgrounds and lots of boxes. The graphics were sharp, square, basic and not very exciting. Today's web pages are far more fluid, with much more exciting use of colour, often with light text against a dark background - something not feasible in hard copy, the ink is too expensive. Also easier to navigate - with side panels, pretty indices, almost like a family tree arrangement. This is most probably a perception rather than a reality, I am now far more familiar with how to use websites than I was 20 years ago.
I have forgotten how to reference the course notes, so I will need to go check and come back to correctly finish this entry.
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Week 2 - 1.1 What is the Internet
Week 2 already. This week we leant about the history of the Internet, how it all started in 1957 and has been developing ever since. The internet is a series of computer networks linked together by servers. Internet Protocol (IP) is the process by which these networks are able to talk to each other. This creates a client/server model, where a number of clients are connected to a server and in turn each server becomes a client to a larger server and so it goes. Peer to peer networks also exist where all computers can run an application simultanously. An IP address allows the physical location of the computer to be identified.
We've learnt that messages sent within the Internet are 'packaged' - each message is broken into a number of small parcels that are sent individually throughout the network and re-assembled on arrival at their intended destination. If any pieces go missing, they are re-sent from the original computer.
Bandwidth is the actual measure by which the amount of data can move at any given time. The faster the connection the quicker data can be moved. My computer has a download speed of 16055kbps (2006.9KB / sec transfer rate) and an upload speed of 671kbps (83.9Kb/sec transfer rate). (http://broadbandguide.com.au/broadband-speed-test). What this means was harder to establish as the website did not analyse by speed. My understanding is that I have a fast wireless connection.
We where sent to find our own IP addresses - I googled this and found a video explaining how to do this. It involved connecting to ipconfig which then gave three different addresses. It did identify that I was connected through Bigpond and gave ma an iPv6 address and as well as an IPv4 address, a subnet mask and a default gateway. This last address I recognised from sessions with Bigpond when I have accessed technical support for issues with my connection. Domain Names are alpha interpretations of IP addresses.
Part 2 : Activities
The exercise was to firstly, establish the geographical location of web page hosts. It was interesting to see the connections between the better known website such as Twitter, Facebook and Google. One popular website not hosted in either the US or Australia, is Facebook, which is hosted in Canada.
The second activity was to establish ownership of certain domain names. Google, YouTube and Gooogle are all owned by Google. Yahoo has claim to Yahoo, flickr and Yaho.
The ownership of both Gooogle and Yaho to Google and Yahoo respectively would indicate a protection of their primary sites in the event of deliberate or accidental use of misspelling.
References:
http://hexillion.com/asp/samples/AutoWhois.vbs.asp
http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/visual-tracert/
http://broadbandguide.com.au/broadband-speed-test
We've learnt that messages sent within the Internet are 'packaged' - each message is broken into a number of small parcels that are sent individually throughout the network and re-assembled on arrival at their intended destination. If any pieces go missing, they are re-sent from the original computer.
Bandwidth is the actual measure by which the amount of data can move at any given time. The faster the connection the quicker data can be moved. My computer has a download speed of 16055kbps (2006.9KB / sec transfer rate) and an upload speed of 671kbps (83.9Kb/sec transfer rate). (http://broadbandguide.com.au/broadband-speed-test). What this means was harder to establish as the website did not analyse by speed. My understanding is that I have a fast wireless connection.
We where sent to find our own IP addresses - I googled this and found a video explaining how to do this. It involved connecting to ipconfig which then gave three different addresses. It did identify that I was connected through Bigpond and gave ma an iPv6 address and as well as an IPv4 address, a subnet mask and a default gateway. This last address I recognised from sessions with Bigpond when I have accessed technical support for issues with my connection. Domain Names are alpha interpretations of IP addresses.
Part 2 : Activities
The exercise was to firstly, establish the geographical location of web page hosts. It was interesting to see the connections between the better known website such as Twitter, Facebook and Google. One popular website not hosted in either the US or Australia, is Facebook, which is hosted in Canada.
The second activity was to establish ownership of certain domain names. Google, YouTube and Gooogle are all owned by Google. Yahoo has claim to Yahoo, flickr and Yaho.
The ownership of both Gooogle and Yaho to Google and Yahoo respectively would indicate a protection of their primary sites in the event of deliberate or accidental use of misspelling.
References:
http://hexillion.com/asp/samples/AutoWhois.vbs.asp
http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/visual-tracert/
http://broadbandguide.com.au/broadband-speed-test
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Week 1
I'm a little late in posting my first learning entry. It's taken me several goes at several sites to get this far.
First stop was to check namechk.com to try to establish the same name across all sites. In the past I have dabbled with several of these, which meant I had a presence on them. My new name of kirstyatcurtin was available in all sites except those that everyone seems to have a problem with. When I tried to establish a new Twitter account with my new name, but my original email address it caused problems that I have yet to overcome - it kept going back to my kirstyfest name. I will continue to work on this.
So far I have Twitter and this blog vaguely under control - I think. Here's the Twitter link: https://twitter.com/#!/kirstyfest. My YouTube videos are already linked to this blog (Boy, that was exhausting!)
Flicka will be my next challenge as I am an avid hobby photographer and would like to share the several good photos (of the many hundreds taken) of the surrounds I live in, Far North Queensland, which is a magnificent part of the country. One photo is already on this site.
I, like others, was not going to study over the Christmas period, but this subject of particular interest. The Feast of the Senses Festival that I manage runs in March (so I will take the next study period off). It is a ten day celebration of the local produce of FNQ, lots of fun and lots and lots of hard work! But I love it (there's a YouTube link here for the Festival). I also need to engage seriously with social media and this year I am determined that Twitter and Facebook and a blog will all run together to work for the Festival.
So yes, I do have a YouTube channel (Kirstyfest) which I started last SP in NET102, so my remediation assignment is there as is the Festival video and shortly there will be a rock and roll one too!
Once I have mastered these five: Twitter, Blog, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook I will check out some of the over 154 sites!! WordPress is next.
First stop was to check namechk.com to try to establish the same name across all sites. In the past I have dabbled with several of these, which meant I had a presence on them. My new name of kirstyatcurtin was available in all sites except those that everyone seems to have a problem with. When I tried to establish a new Twitter account with my new name, but my original email address it caused problems that I have yet to overcome - it kept going back to my kirstyfest name. I will continue to work on this.
So far I have Twitter and this blog vaguely under control - I think. Here's the Twitter link: https://twitter.com/#!/kirstyfest. My YouTube videos are already linked to this blog (Boy, that was exhausting!)
Flicka will be my next challenge as I am an avid hobby photographer and would like to share the several good photos (of the many hundreds taken) of the surrounds I live in, Far North Queensland, which is a magnificent part of the country. One photo is already on this site.
I, like others, was not going to study over the Christmas period, but this subject of particular interest. The Feast of the Senses Festival that I manage runs in March (so I will take the next study period off). It is a ten day celebration of the local produce of FNQ, lots of fun and lots and lots of hard work! But I love it (there's a YouTube link here for the Festival). I also need to engage seriously with social media and this year I am determined that Twitter and Facebook and a blog will all run together to work for the Festival.
So yes, I do have a YouTube channel (Kirstyfest) which I started last SP in NET102, so my remediation assignment is there as is the Festival video and shortly there will be a rock and roll one too!
Once I have mastered these five: Twitter, Blog, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook I will check out some of the over 154 sites!! WordPress is next.
Thursday, 1 December 2011
My First Blog
Well, we all have to start somewhere.
This is my very first blog and my first foray into a new world. Hopefully there will be many more.
I have established this for my uni studies, BA (Internet Communications). I will be using this for my learning portfolio and will literally learn as I go......
This is my very first blog and my first foray into a new world. Hopefully there will be many more.
I have established this for my uni studies, BA (Internet Communications). I will be using this for my learning portfolio and will literally learn as I go......
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