Prior to reading the information available for this week I was aware of hypertext and how it is used to link non-linear information to the content of pages that provide what is being read with greater context.
Reading the week's information has certainly provided me with a greater understanding of how the WWW and its hyper linking concept has proliferated information throughout the world.
With the advent of being able to use hypertext I feel that society has taken a very large step from understanding information as just linear and separate within it's own boundaries to now having the ability to interact with the information in a way we were never able to do.
Hypertext and the WWW has allowed us to be able to write linear information in many different forms, thus being able to portray and give greater context to our ideas in order to get our meaning across.
As Bush mentions in 'As we may think', the human mind operates by association and it is through the WWW and hypertext that we can associate more to our texts than just its linear nature.
Since Bush wrote his article in 1945 and Tim Berners-Lee's proposal of the WWW and Hypertext in 1989, the World Wide Web and Hypertext has evolved exponentially.
Is it now possible that we can have too much hypertext?
This blog entitled Standing at the hyperlink crossroads by 'Kimota' presents an interesting view, that there is a school of thought and research that suggests hyper linking within documents reduces reading comprehension.
The age of HTML5 is now upon us and with this latest incarnation of the language that drives the WWW comes an even more refined set of protocols by which we can further move away from information in a linear form.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Week 2 - What is the Internet
The Internet is quite simply one large system of connected computers and associated controlling devices. For example, a set of computers are linked to servers, the servers are then connected to other servers which are linked to other computers, when all machines are linked and connected we have the internet.
There are different types of networks within the internet. The vast majority are client/server, such as this blog site, my computer (the client) requests information from www.blogger.com (the server) which passes the information back to my computer, this takes place via the web browser.
Peer to Peer networks are also within the internet, a peer to peer network operates by allowing each computer on the network to be the client and the server, thus creating a peer relationship and ultimately one giant super network, the more computers that are connected to the peer to peer network the greater the capacity will be of that network. Torrent sites are good examples of peer to peer networks as is Skype.
The transmission and reception of information on the internet is performed by a set of various protocols that have been developed to provide the movement of information from one part of the internet to another whilst maintaining the integrity of that information.
The most common protocol and the most important is the TCP/IP protocol, which is actually two protocols.
TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol and this protocol is responsible for breaking information down into packets that get sent across the internet to the receiving computer at which point the TCP reassembles the information into its original form.
IP stands for Internet Protocol and this protocol controls the movement of information on the internet. Every computer on the internet has an IP address which is a series of unique numbers, much like a postal address.
As humans it is easier for us to remember and relate to the alphabet rather than a series of numbers, therefore some IP addresses on the internet have Domain Names applied to them for ease of reference. There are different levels of Domain Names, Top level domains denote things such as the Country name for example ".com .au .de". Second Level domains denote what the address is, for example Google or a company name. Domain names are controlled by Domain Name Servers, these servers are spread throughout the world and each time you type in a URL (Universal Resource Locator) a Domain Name Server is used to provide the right IP address to get you to where you want to go.
As the internet has expanded so to has the need for increased bandwidth. Bandwidth refers to the amount of available resources to communicate data. The higher the bandwidth, the larger amount of information that can pass through, thus the faster the communication can occur. Internet Bandwidth is measured in bits per second. A bit is the smallest measurable binary unit for a computer. One bit is equal to the 1 or the 0 by which computers talk. 8 bits equal 1 byte.
There are different types of networks within the internet. The vast majority are client/server, such as this blog site, my computer (the client) requests information from www.blogger.com (the server) which passes the information back to my computer, this takes place via the web browser.
Peer to Peer networks are also within the internet, a peer to peer network operates by allowing each computer on the network to be the client and the server, thus creating a peer relationship and ultimately one giant super network, the more computers that are connected to the peer to peer network the greater the capacity will be of that network. Torrent sites are good examples of peer to peer networks as is Skype.
The transmission and reception of information on the internet is performed by a set of various protocols that have been developed to provide the movement of information from one part of the internet to another whilst maintaining the integrity of that information.
The most common protocol and the most important is the TCP/IP protocol, which is actually two protocols.
TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol and this protocol is responsible for breaking information down into packets that get sent across the internet to the receiving computer at which point the TCP reassembles the information into its original form.
IP stands for Internet Protocol and this protocol controls the movement of information on the internet. Every computer on the internet has an IP address which is a series of unique numbers, much like a postal address.
As humans it is easier for us to remember and relate to the alphabet rather than a series of numbers, therefore some IP addresses on the internet have Domain Names applied to them for ease of reference. There are different levels of Domain Names, Top level domains denote things such as the Country name for example ".com .au .de". Second Level domains denote what the address is, for example Google or a company name. Domain names are controlled by Domain Name Servers, these servers are spread throughout the world and each time you type in a URL (Universal Resource Locator) a Domain Name Server is used to provide the right IP address to get you to where you want to go.
As the internet has expanded so to has the need for increased bandwidth. Bandwidth refers to the amount of available resources to communicate data. The higher the bandwidth, the larger amount of information that can pass through, thus the faster the communication can occur. Internet Bandwidth is measured in bits per second. A bit is the smallest measurable binary unit for a computer. One bit is equal to the 1 or the 0 by which computers talk. 8 bits equal 1 byte.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Week 1 - What is in a name?
I was not aware that there was a website by which you could check your user-name, so this week I am very happy because I have learnt something!.....although having learnt that there was a website to check a user-name against I am now not surprised, as the internet has everything....doesn't it?
I have created myself this blog on blogger.com to help me capture my thoughts for my learning platform.
I have decided to use my own name for a user-name on these sites, primarily because I feel using your own name brings more credibility that perhaps creating and posting information under a pseudonym.
Bring on week 2!!
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