When I first started on my study journey I did not know very much about the Internet at all, I knew how to surf the web and email but that was about as far as my experience went. I have always been interested in the Internet and how it all works and after studying WEB101 I have learnt that there is so much more to the Internet than just surfing the web. A few of the weekly topics that I have studied stand out for me, I learnt a lot with these topics and enjoyed taking part in the weekly activites. The topics I enjoyed the most were, 1.1 What is the Internet?, Introduction to Module 2: What is Web 2.0?, 2.1 Blogging, 2.2 Wikis, and 3.1 Your Digital Shadow, I enjoyed studying the whole unit but they are the topics that I got the most out of.
With topic 1.1-What is the Internet?, I learnt that the Internet is actually a "collection of computers which are connected over cables, phone lines, powerlines, radio or satellite links and each individual computer is linked to a server". (Leaver, 2011). I also learnt about Packet Switching, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and IP (Internet Protocol), "the networking technology behind the Internet is made possible by the TCP/IP protocols they enable the movement of information between nodes on the network. When data is sent through the Internet, it is broken into several pieces which are sent via different routes to the destination computer, this process is called packet switching".(Leaver, 2011). All those times I surfed the Internet and I had no idea all of this was happening behind the scenes.
I really enjoyed the activites this week, activity one "Routing in Action", where I had to do a proxy trace on various websites like the headquarters of Wikipedia.org, Amazon.com and Flickr.com, to see a visual representation of my request leaving my computer and ending up at Google's headquarters near San Francisco. Activity two "Who owns what?", where I had to search for the owner of domain names (alphabetical names mapped on to IP addresses) like, Flickr.com, Youtube.com, Mickey.com, Google.com and Yahoo.com. Flickr and Youtube were owned by Markmonitor, Mickey was owned by Melbourne IT Ltd, Google and Yahoo own their sites. I learnt so much more about what the internet can do this week and it really amazed me.
I found the topic What is Web 2.0?, very interesting and I learnt that web 2.0 is all about communication, collaboration and information sharing. Web 2.0 has the tools that make it easier for people to generate content like blogs and wikis, and with social networking sites like Youtube and Flickr, they allow people to communicate and collaborate like never before. I watched the video called "Here Comes Everybody" by Clay Shirky Web 2.0 Lecture and I found it fascinating, he is a really good speaker and I enjoyed listening to him. I answered the question that Ainslie posted on the discussion board, "Do you think Tim Berners-Lees intentions for the net are being realised through the concept of Web 2.0?", I said yes as Web 2.0 is what Tim Berners-Lees tried to create in the first place, Web 2.0 is people to people and that is what Web 1.0 was supposed to be all along.
I also learnt about RSS (Really Simple Syndication), "RSS takes the content of a website and makes it available independently from the site. Using a dedicated RSS reader, a user can subscribe to the RSS feed of a particular site and have the content delivered straight to their home computer in much the same way as email". (Leaver, 2011). Before I studied this unit I had no idea what RSS was or what it did, I found this technology amazing, being able to keep myself updated on the changing content of a particular website of interest through a feed.
One of the activities that I had to do this week was to create a Delicious account. I had not heard of Delicious before and I had no idea what it was all about, but I soon learnt that it is a site that allows you to bookmark websites of interest to you . I bookmarked a few websites that were relevant to WEB101, I also bookmarked a lot of chocolate websites as this is the subject I chose to do for my web presence assignment, and I also bookmarked sites that I would use for reasearch with my future assignments. I found it very interesting and I really enjoyed it.
With topic 2.1-Blogging, I learnt that blogs have grown from simple online diaries to what they are today. Anyone can author a blog on any topic that they choose, people can share all their thoughts, interests and ideas by writing whatever is on their mind, and they are providing an intimate view of their lives for the world to read. I Created a blog for my web presence and I had fun doing so, I never knew much about blogs and I did not realise how much fun you could have creating one, at the same time I was being mindful of what I was putting on my blog as far as personal information went.
I also discovered that blogs are the new tools for communication and collaboration in the workplace, people are able to work in an interconnected virtual environment in any place and time in the world, synchronous communication that transcends time and space, bringing people together in collaborative ways. Blogs are also a form of social media, people are able to gather information on news stories, sending photos and videos from their mobile phones straight to their blogs, this was evident with the Tsunami of 2004, and the London bombings in 2005.
On the discussion board this week, Deepti asked the question, "Now that blogging is over a decade old, to what extent have these early predicitions come true?". I answered this question on the discussion board (under: Official Thread: Readings: Talking about Blogs on 30/6/11) after reading 'Bloggs, Communities and Networks in Blogging' by J. Rettberg, I said that I believed the early predictions had come true, because anybody can blog about anything that they want to for the world to read. My one concern was, and Rettberg put it vey well, "You might delete your blog, but it will remain for days or weeks in Google's cache, and unless you've expressly requested it be deleted, it will probably be archived in several versions at archive.org and possibly at other sites as well. Those words you wrote when you were eighteen and furious at your boyfriend or when you were twenty-six and hated your job, might come back to haunt you later". (Rettberg, 2008, p78-79). This is another thought that crossed my mind as I created my blog, the fact that it will stay archived in Google for years.
The activity that I had to do this week was to sign up to Google Reader and subscribe to different websites. I came across some very interesting sites but one in particular was "Old Picture of the Day", this was a very intersting site with very old historical pictures. I came across a picture of the first Laptop computer which came out in 1981, cost $1,800 and weighed 25 pounds. I posted this on to the discussion board on 26/6/11 (under Official Thread: Activity: The RSS Show and Tell ) for everybody to see, the link for the photo is: http://old-photos.blogspot.com
With topic 2.2-Wikis, I really learnt a lot, I was not sure what a wiki did at first but I discovered that wikis (What I know is), "provide a platform where multiple people can create and make changes to hypertext documents through a simple WYSIWYG editor. A Wiki is a series of database driven pages that can be added to and edited by anyone with the appropriate permission". (Leaver, 2011). I found learning about wikis very interesting and I watched the video of 'how wikis work in plain English', it showed how all the creating and editing of a wiki page is done from within the browser whereas with HTML pages this is done externally.
For this weeks activity I had to go to the Wikipedia website and edit a page on a topic of interest that I knew a bit about. I was very apprehensive about doing this at first, I had to add a piece of information that was relevant to the topic I chose. I really love rollerskating so I decided to edit a page on rollerblades, I came across some historical information about rollerblades that was not on the Wikipedia page, the information that I provided actually got put on to Wikipedia but was deleted again several hours later. I posted all the information on to the discussion boards about what I did with Wikipedia and Ainslie suggested that I give it another try with more editing. I took Ainslie's advice and I ended up submitting a photo of a flower to Wikipedia which they decided to keep, much to my surprise and I put all the details on the discussion board (under: Official Wiki activities thread on 7/7/11 and 8/7/11). I did not realise that anyone could go on to Wikipedia and edit it like that, I really enjoyed it had a lot of fun with it all.
Another topic that I found very interesting was 3.1-Your Digital Shadow, it made me realise that I cannot control how other people see me on the web, the information that I put on the web determines the way people perceive me. "Our digital shadow is a reflection of how visible we are to other users on the Internet". (Leaver, 2011). After learning about this I really started to think about what should go on my blog for the web presence assignment and I tried not to put too much personal information on there.
For the weekly activity I had to go 'Ego-Surfing', I had to type my name into the Google search box to see what Google knew about me. Only a couple of entries came up with my name on them from my Twitter account, and from my Frenz of the Enz membership so I was happy with that, I did not expect it to find much as I had not set up many social media accounts.
One of the readings for this week by Solove, called "The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor and Privacy on the Internet", I found very interesting and I enjoyed reading it. I liked this particular part from the book as this is the way I feel about privacy on the Internet, "We're heading toward a world where an extensive trail of information fragments about us will be forever preserved on the Internet, displayed instantly in a Google search. We will be forced to live with a detailed record beginning with childhood that will stay with us for life wherever we go, searchable and accessible from anywhere in the world. This data can often be dubious reliability; it can be false and defamatory; or it can be true but deeply humiliating or descrediting. We may find it increasingly difficult to have a fresh start, a second chance, or a clean slate". (Solove, 2007). It is a bit frightning when I think about it, it makes me wonder what people will think about me with the information I have put on the Internet, especially as it can stay on there for years for anyone to read.
As you can see from my reflections I did not know that much about the Internet and it made me feel a bit behind the times really, but over the last couple of months I have learnt so much with the topics I studied in this unit. With 1.1 What is the Internet? I learnt that the Internet is a collection of computers, connected over cables, phone lines, and powerlines, and I also learnt about TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol, which makes the networking technology behind the Internet possible.
With Web 2.0. I learnt that this is all about communication, collaboration and information sharing. I learnt about RSS and found out that a user can subscribe to a RSS feed of a particular site and have the content delivered to their computer, much in the same way as email. With 2.1 Blogging, I learnt that blogs have evolved from simple online diaries to what they are today, anybody can author a blog for the world to read. With 2.2 Wikis, I learnt that a Wiki provides a platform for multiple people to create and make changes to hypertext documents through a simple WYSIWYG editor.
With 3.1 Your Digital Shadow, I learnt that I cannot control how other people see me on the web, and the information that I put on the web determines how people see me. I also learnt a lot while I was creating my own blog for my web presence assignment, a month ago I would not have known where to start with creating my own blog. I have a lot more confidence now when using the Internet, especially now I know how it all works. I am no longer as apprehensive as I was at first and after studying WEB101, I feel I am now able to go on and study further for my degree.
References
Leaver, T. (2011) Topic 1.1 - What is the Internet? (Course notes)
Retrieved from:
http://lms.curtin.edu.au
Leaver, T. (2011) Topic 2.0 - What is Web 2.0? (Course notes)
Retrieved from:
http://lms.curtin.edu.au
Leaver, T. (2011) Topic 2.2 - Blogging (Course notes)
Retrieved from:
http://lms.curtin.edu.au
Leaver, T. (2011) Topic 2.2 - Wikis (Course notes)
Retrieved from:
http://lms.curtin.edu.au
Leaver, T. (2011) Topic 3.1 - Your Digital Shadow (Course notes)
Retrieved from:
http://lms.curtin.edu.au
Rettberg, J. (2008) Bloggs, Communities and Networks in Blogging. Polity Press; ch3 57-83 via Curtin Library's eReserve
Retrieved from:
http://library.curtin.edu.au
Solove, D.J. (2007) The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet
Retrieved from:
http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dsolove/Future-of-Reputation/text/futureofreputation-ch2.pdf
