Learning [b]Log Net11

Net11 Reflections

2009-02-26T20:26:00.010+11:00

Well I have come to the end of my journey for Net 11, and what a ride it has been.

For me, this study period and Net11, has been an enjoyable, yet challenging, introduction to Internet Studies. Like many others in the group, I thought this unit would be a relative stroll through park, or Internet if you like, boy was I wrong. A lot of the material I have covered previously, whether through work or day to day mucking around on the Internet over the years. Yet when working through the material, I constantly found new things, new ways of looking at old things and was generally forced to really think about the way we, I, communicate on the Internet and what that truly means.

New becomes old and old becomes new
As a result of this I have explored many new technologies and found many new ways to share, and communicate what I have discovered: Twitter, Delicious and Blogs all spring instantly to mind. I have been exposed to fantastic concepts such as the Networked Student and The Machine is Us/ing Us. Seriously, check these out!

I have explored social networks and what impact they have on modern relationships and how they allow people to communicate on an intimate level with friends and family. In fact I think over the course of my studies this will probably be something which pops up again and again. I have explored old technologies such as IRC and Usenet which helped shape the early days on the Internet, and I have come to understand that without these legacy protocols, then many of the tools I have previously mentioned may not exist today.

Now as I rummage around the corners of the net, I feel my eyes and mind are more open and I am further aware of the power the Internet holds. I feel that I can see more of the potential the Internet holds for change to social interactions and the way we do business. This is an exciting time and I relish the fact that I am here, now, discovering all these things.

The human side of learning
Finally for me, and probably most importantly, this unit has been about the interaction with my fellow students. Whether this has been via Twitter or WebCT (oh how I loathe you) or each of our blogs. The communication and interaction has been amazing. The ideas we have shared, the help which has been forthcoming, it all has been amazing. In fact fellow Net11 student Tim Kennington made the comment in his blog "I can’t recall being part of an online unit before where I’ve actually felt like I’ve been studying right next to other students". I think that remark alone says volumes on how far this group has come with communicating on the Internet.

That's it for me, Net11 is done. See you in Net12.

Module 5 - Peer To Peer

2009-02-26T18:15:00.004+11:00

Peer to Peer is such a complex and large issue. In fact it's so large that estimates are that Peer to Peer (predominantly BitTorrent) makes up nearly 55% of all Internet traffic (that is depending where you are located). This is enormous amounts of data that is being shared daily across the globe.

Yet to me it's not the sharing of files, or the enormity of the amount of data shared. For me it's what is happening at this very moment with the attack against civil liberties online, all under the premise of protection of IP.

At this time there are three major occurrences in the online world which should have all netizens worried.

Things to watch

Spectrial - The Pirate Bay vs IFPI. Check this out.
AFACT vs iiNet - This case could decide whether a private company (your ISP) is required to act as the police and monitor your usage of the Internet based on the claims of another private enterprise without any criminal charges.
Section 92A - The New Zealand Government introduces harsh new legislation which essentially says "Guilt upon Accusation" when it comes to file sharing.

The outcomes of these cases and changes to law will impact not on the pirates and the Peer to Peer networks, they will just find another way to share files, but on the everyday user of the Internet.

So I'm not going to get into the legality of sharing files and the supposed death of the music and film industries. I'm not going to get into how Peer to Peer can actually increase CD sales and increase an artists concert takings. What I am going to ask you is: Go out and actually explore both sides of the arguments, look beyond the rhetoric and see for yourself how this can affect, will affect your ability to use the internet, to communicate in new ways and discover new things.

This is your Internet we are talking about here, and while you may think these have things have no bearing on you cause, "I don't share files", think again friend.

Module 5 - Information Ecologies

2009-02-22T15:09:00.007+11:00

I must admit reading about the idea of an Information Ecology was both difficult and frustrating, yet engaging and informative at the same time. In many ways though I see how this module is the peak of the unit truly drawing together all that has come before it. I just wish that I had done this before my concepts assignment.

Multifunctional, cross purpose tool?
So this idea of an information ecology has made me see the Internet in more than just one way. I could say at the start of this Study Period I simply thought of the Internet as a tool, albeit a magical wonderful tool with more functions than a Swiss Army knife, yet to me it was still essentially a tool. In fact early one, I made this blog post stating how I saw the Internet. Now I have come to realise how much more the Internet is (I did have an inkling prior to this), and can see how it evolves, what it does do to help us as we communicate.

I found Felix Stadler's paper Information Ecology particulary enlightening regarding the development of the information ecology and how it relates to Internet communication today. Where Stalder's paper focused on the nodes as being large corporations and government bodies, information has evolved and the nodes have now become the users themselves, interacting with the information, processing it, changing it, sharing it back (Stadler, 1997).

So it is as we add new web apps, new ways of looking at information, or communicating and interacting with one another, we change the Internet ourselves. Possibly the best example of this now is the advent of social media and the opportunity people now have to participate and share information, becoming that LIVE node in the network.

Communicate, communicate, participate
Key to this information ecology is the Internets intrinsic power of communication and subsequent participation. It is these aspects which allows us to advance, helping the information ecology to flourish. I have personally found this power over the course of Net11. As new tools have opened up to me allowing me to participate in communicating ideas and concepts, share experiences and knowledge that I have seen how much more the Internet is, than just a tool.

So now I have a new idea to think over further, and with Net12 around the corner, I'm sure I will get that opportunity. Before then though, I recommend reading fellow Net11 student Duane's blog post on Information Ecologies. He really has hit the nail on the head.

Stadler, Felix (1997). Information Ecology. Retrieved February 22, 2009 from http://felix.openflows.com/html/infoeco.html

So Frustrating I could Cry

2009-02-22T14:11:00.005+11:00

So my concepts assignment is in and locked away (well and truly), yet now as I trawl the net as part of the research for modules 4 and 5 I have come across a number of sites which have further supported my concepts. Doh!

Oh why oh why is this so? Is it that my understanding of the concepts has grown and now I'm more aware of that which is around me? Or did I rush to get the concepts finished prior to a wedding and three weeks away from school?

Really, I suppose it could be a bit of both.

What did I find then...
The four concepts that I focused on were The Invisibility of Difference, Privacy and Security, Hypertext: Links or Structure and Information and Attention. Below are some examples of what I have come across.

In Privacy and Security I mentioned Jim Dempsey's comments about people presenting different aspects of themselves AFK in different social settings, different persona's so to speak, so why not online? Now I have found Chi.mp, a social networking site which allows you to bring all your online contacts and the like into one space and, create multiple persona's for various social groups; work, family, friends and the like. Cool!

In Information and Attention I talked about annotated search and the Google's SearchWiki project. This allows users to annotate search results for future reference and move more relevant search results to the top of the search. I mentioned that this type of social search would be the way of the future and also pointed to sites such as Delicious. Now I have found two such sites which all ready exist where users can rank the relevance of search results for future users and their searches. Xoost.com and Umibozu both provide this feature, and while not yet challenging Google, they are both challenging the concepts of search and relevancy.

Really what a dumbarse!
That's all I really wanted to share, I do feel a bit of a dumbarse for missing these nuggets, yet I know that 12 weeks ago these concepts would have been foreign to me and I would not have given any of these sites a second thought in the terms of implications of the development of the web and communication online.

Really I've come along way. Viva Le Net11!

Module 4 - Evaluating The Web

2009-02-18T20:52:00.003+11:00

As a part of the Concepts assignment I was introduced, in no uncertain terms, to the concept of evaluating and annotating my reference sites. At the time I really thought nothing of it and felt it was more a waste of time rather than to my benefit; really why couldn't those 200 words be better used writing ABOUT the concept.

Now with the assignment behind me and finally completing Module 4, I have come to truly appreciate and understand the need for this type of evaluation and annotation. As a direct result, I have become more and more reliant on tagging my bookmarks and writing a brief annotation about the page, if needed. In this manner I have began to really manage the information presented to me and cross reference it for future use.

What really intrigues me though, more and more online resources are allowing Internet users to do this quickly and easily. From social bookmarking with Delicious, Diigo's text highlighting or Google's SearchWiki feature. Browsers are even getting more in on the deal with Firefox now auto suggesting popular tags for sites and allowing notes (annotations) in bookmarks. It seems that information management is really starting to come to the fore.

So as we move forward on the Internet, these type of features are definitly becoming essential to manage the vast amount of information presented to us, and how we use these tools becomes even more important.

More Power To You

2009-02-17T23:13:00.003+11:00

While completing the last task in Module 4 Searching the Web, I came across this an amazing web app Diigo.

Essentially it's a cross between social bookmarking and a research/reference tool where as you can not only bookmark a site, but highlight words or leave a sticky note with annotations ON THE PAGE for future reference. Diigo bills itself as a research tool and knowledge sharing community. While I haven't had a full play with it yet it's free to set up an account so hopefully tomorrow I shall be able to poke around and see how it works.

The ingenuity of people on the web never ceases to amaze me!

Module 4 - Organising Search Information Task

2009-02-17T21:17:00.006+11:00

After you using the Internet for awhile, you soon realise that you need a good strategy for managing all that information you come across just by browsing, searching or other nefarious means.

My primary method of managing this information is bookmarking. As I always have a browser open, I generally bookmark and save into one of several folders that I have arranged. As I sometimes use 2 or 3 different browsers on 2 or 3 devices (laptop, desktop, iPhone, work machine, etc), keeping bookmarks in sync has been a bit of a problem. To manage this issue I use the Foxmarks plugin to sync all bookmarks across all machines and browsers.

Another bookmarking method I have recently started to embrace is Delicious. An online social bookmarking site, I love how Delicious allows me to find other peoples treasure and for me to share mine. Because of Delicious (and Net11) I have also really started to tag my bookmarks (both in Delicious and my browser) and add short annotations (notes) to help me manage that information in the future.

In relation to the task I bookmarked my top three results via Delicious. These were bookmarks relating to my study hence this method. I tagged each result "ouanet11, module4, search, result" and made a short annotation as to the information on the site (and reason for bookmarking the page).

I really like the idea of social bookmarking, sharing tags and notes on pages, finding other peoples nuggets of useful (or not so useful information). Now through Net11 I have been able to have more of a play with Delicious and now I'm now starting to think about moving all my bookmarks there, really it's just another step towards the cloud.

Net11 Reflections Week Eleven

2009-02-16T23:04:00.006+11:00

Another week down and some interesting things have come and gone through the course of it. I am now finally catching up on course work while reading blogs and forum posts has been a bit slower.

The last couple of tasks in module four have given me a couple of interesting things to think about, particularly the types of tools I use to manage my time and productivity online. The more I have thought about it the more I am looking at stripping back the applications I use, and where possible move more into the cloud.

I have achieved this in a couple of places such as email and RSS feeds. I am starting to use Delicious more and more for bookmarks and have just set up a Pro Flickr account to get our photos online (and backed up). I have also come to appreciate my browser more, including how it can interface with so much more than just a simple web page: I now have plugins for Twitter and Delicious amongst other things.

So now we are drawing quickly to a close for Net11 (just two weeks to go). There still seems so much more to learn and discuss and I still have a couple of tasks and the like to complete. To date this has been a fantastic journey and reading through some fellow students blogs I can see they too have been impacted by what they are learning. I think both Cynthia and Peter can be proud of what this group is taking away.

Don't you think so?

Module 4 - Boolean Searching Task

2009-02-15T21:33:00.005+11:00

As Google automatically assumes the Boolean operator AND my initial search results were actually pretty limited so you could say there was some room to wriggle.

To achieve absolute maximum results I used the Boolean operator OR between each keyword "desktop OR meta OR search OR osx" and closed up "os x" to "osx". This resulted in an increase from 206,000 results to a more respectable figure of 7,090,000,000. Heh!

Obviously this is not a manageable search as Google is looking for pages which contain anyone of the keywords. To narrow down my results I began by removing the OR operator and changed my keywords "meta search" to "metasearch"; I now had 111,000 results to go through. The really funny part about doing this; results 3 and 4 are my own blog entry regarding the Search Task! Have a look if you don't believe me.

At this stage I felt that my initial keywords were affecting the quality of my results. To try and improve results I switched keywords and included the operators + and - with various keywords. As a result my search of "metasearch software +mac -windows" now yielded only 13,400 results. Much more manageable and of better quality overall (it didn't include my blog entry).

Now, other than using a specialist search engine, I'm not fully aware of a foolproof way to only get results back from university sites. It was mentioned on WebCT to use "+.edu" to achieve this, personally I found that this did not filter results enough. In the end I added "-.com" to my search string and again changed my keywords including adding another Boolean operator. As such my search string was now "(metasearch AND software) +.edu -.com" which gave me 519 mostly results from government or educational sites.

Of course I could have just used the keywords "metasearch software mac" on Google Scholar to get something similar results wise.

Module 4 - Search Engine Task

2009-02-15T19:12:00.006+11:00

For the non-mac users in the unit, OS X's Sherlock has been replaced by the much niftier Spotlight. Unfortunately I have not been able to work out how to make Spotlight search multiple online search engines, nor have I been able to find a desktop metasearch engine tool for a Mac. As such I have used the online metasearch engine Search.com to complete step two of this task. Now on with the show.

Search 1
Site: Google.com
Keywords: desktop meta search os x
Results: 206, 000

Check out the search results from Google

Search 2
Site: Search.com
Keywords: desktop meta search os x
Results: 166, 020

Check out the results from Search.com

Google not only yields more results, but the relevancy of the results is also far better with Google than Search. Google's first result is indeed for a desktop metasearch app (albeit something similar to spotlight rather than for the web) unlike Search.com's self referencing list of web search sites.

I am a big fan of Google. 9 times out of 10 it finds what I am looking for and when it doesn't, I use Google to find me a specialist database or directory to try and find more particular information on what I am searching for. Then I go back to Google and refine my search.

Module 4 - Tools For Using The Web

2009-02-10T21:43:00.008+11:00

I have used most of the tools listed in this task at one time or another. Because of this I have gone off in search of some various "other" tools for the internet. As a result of my exploration what I found was an avalanche of tools allowing you to better utilise your time and be more productive on the internet. Without writing a thesis on the various applications I explored I thought highlighting the following three apps would give enough insight into my experiences.

Managing Bookmarks
First off is Webbla; a Mac application for managing bookmarks from all your browsers. Webbla allows you tag and add notes to each bookmark. The usual search and grouping options are present alongside some more advanced features such as site tracking (tracks updates to pages), popularity (your last visit and how many times) plus a very fancy page preview (view your page visually without visiting). All up Webbla was easy to install with lots of preferences and features to manage your bookmarks including hooking into OS X's Quick Look and Finder. In my mind though it was a little too complex and feature rich (bloated) for this simple task.

Managing Passwords
With the explosion of Web 2.0 sites, social media and web apps it seems we are drowning under logins and passwords. 1Password is a little application which helps manage all these logins and passwords plus a slew of other things relating to your online life. To make sure all your details are stored securely the app hooks into OS X's Keychain application to provide maximum security goodness. After using the app for a day I found it extremely useful and something I will probably use in the future. Downside was it doesn't auto fill logins such as Firefox's built password manager.

Managing Online Updates
Alert Thingy is an Adobe Air based application which allows you to manage and view all your updates from various social media sites. It's an interesting app as you can see status updates from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc in the one application without having to go to the actual site. Installation was simple although extended due to having to install Adobe Air before the app itself. Alert Thingy doesn't have a lot of preferences but it is very useful for keeping abreast of the growing status and update feeds associated with social media.

So what did I learn from all this? I think Internet users can sometimes forget (or take for granted) the most essential tool for our online lives: The humble browser. Pretty much all the above tasks can be completed by your browser, be it native or with an additional plugin.

My browser of choice, Firefox, allows management of bookmarks with tags (Keywords), annotations (notes) and much more. It has built in features for managing passwords with strong built in security for such. Various addons can also be installed to manage social media updates and the like, and that's just the begging of what it can really do.

It is this that makes the browser the most powerful tool for accessing and using the internet. Of course not all browsers are created equal and many people will have different preferences as to what they want from a browser. But it's worth remembering that your browser can offer so much more than just a window to your online world.

Net11 Reflections Week Ten

2009-02-10T21:04:00.003+11:00

After completing the concepts assignment and getting through three weeks of wedding, honeymoon and holidays, I now feel somewhat distracted from study.

With 855 plus posts on WebCT and over 170 blog posts to read plus modules 4 and 5 to complete the task seems, sometimes, insurmountable. I suppose now is the time to knuckle down and get crackin'.

Conceptual Research & Reflection Project

2009-02-06T11:53:00.013+11:00

Index
Concept 1
Concept 2
Concept 3
Concept 4
Bibliography

8. The Invisibility of Difference

"The daily practice of electronic communication is shaped by over-familiarity with one's own computer system, and a tendency to assume that – as with much more established forms of communication – everyone is operating within compatible and similar systems. When in doubt, seek to communicate in ways that are readable and effective for all users, regardless of their particular systems." (Allen, n.d)

Today there is less inconsistency between machine capability, software specifications, Internet connection and user experience than 10 years ago. Now though, the Internet offers users unprecedented opportunities for communication with those both near and far, yet the very process of communicating electronically can still be a very isolated experience. Many users tend to be cocooned within their personal and private domain, primarily familiar with only the equipment that surrounds them.

Because of this many users often don't think about technical aspects or capability of the user at the other end of the pipe. They may have outdated equipment or software, use a completely different operating system or not have adequate skills and understanding to complete the task. It is this ignorance or failure to acknowledge that Allen calls the invisibility of difference (Allen, n.d.)

To experienced users who deal with electronic communication on a day to day basis, these aspects of the divide that can exists between users is all to apparent and they will take such things into account when communicating with others. On the other hand novice users are so bewildered by the technology and new experience that they are in the questioning phase of their journey and as such will be directed by those around them. Still though there is also a large proportion of what I shall call intermediate users who get into a space where they are comfortable with what they do online. As such they forget of possible constraints on other users and fall into the mindset described by Allen.

It is these intermediate users who can amplify the poor experience accounted to the failure to understand the difference between users. An example of this type of intermediate user and their impacts can be found on the popular social networking site MySpace. A large section of MySpace users will have graphic heavy, music laden personal pages where those with a slow Internet connection or less powerful machine will have trouble loading the page. This of course is not limited to MySpace alone with many other social networking sites and amateur websites that suffer similar problems.

While the Web has always been developed as resolution independent, much research and discussion has gone into this invisibility of difference (Allen, n.d.) that has led to many changes on the Internet. The more recent of these changes can be seen with advent of what can be described as Web 2.0 design. Particularly the narrow centred column initially optimised to a width of 800px now to 1024px to take into account the average users screen resolution. Changes have not only been to screen resolutions, many website developers are aware of the differences in access speed and have moved to reduce the graphics heavy layouts of sites. By minimising graphics, developers are allowing sites to load faster and have a lesser effect on those with slower connections.

It is all these changes, along with the continuing standardisation of browser technology, which is helping the web move towards a smoother and more consistent user experience in the future.

Site 1: Web Design From Scratch http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/
Written in an easy to follow casual manner, Web Design from Scratch is an excellent resource for web designers of all levels of experience. Ben Hunt utilises his years of experience with web design and takes the user through a range of techniques and concepts in order to help designers build sites that are both eye catching and economical at the same time. His approach to web site construction is one that directly takes the "invisibility of difference" (Allen, n.d.) into account and ensures that designers build their sites to accommodate the varying range of user experience.

Site 2: MySpace http://www.myspace.com/
MySpace is the popular social networking site for youths and adults alike. One of the popular features of MySpace is the ability for the user to customise their personal page as they see it. This feature has allowed even the most basic of Internet users to become web designers ultimately ending up with a large proportion of pages being bloated by video, audio or graphics. This highlights how one user may not take into consideration how their machine capability or connection speed differs to that of another users ultimately ending in a poor experience for others.

Return to Index

26. Privacy and Security

"The Internet is a profoundly ‘open’ system and advanced Internet users are cautious about either accepting or sending material from and to unknown sources and are careful in releasing information about themselves in any form. Conceptually, the Internet challenges us to take greater responsibility for the protection of privacy and security than perhaps we are used to when dealing with the media." (Allen, n.d)

With the advent of social media on the Internet the concept of privacy and security has been completely turned on its head. People now seem to be more and more willing to give up snippets of personal information to online social networking and media sites than ever before.

From network building, to blogging, to tweeting, to sharing video and photos, users can now upload their lives to the Internet in minute detail. Social media now encourages users to share all of who we are; opinions and thoughts, school and work history, relationship status, likes and dislikes.

Sharing all this information online offers us an unprecedented convenience of communication. In this new age users are able to look at friends and families photos instantly and keep track of what they are up to on a near hourly basis no matter where we, or they, are in the world. Yet it this very convenience and openness that also presents many potential issues and threats to the online community.

This plethora of information can allow a person to profile another, building up a detailed dossier of information to the point that they can impersonate another online. A recent example of this is the experiment conducted by Shawn Moyer and Nathan Hamiel where the pair posed as security expert Marcus Ranum on the popular networking site Linkdin.

Through out the experiment Moyer and Hamiel were able to fool a number of known associates of Ranum's into believing the profile was genuine and as such build a more elaborate profile as the experiment progressed. As a result, this experiment highlighted that many users of social media and networking are prepared to take online profiles with very little proof (Moyer & Hamiel, 2008).

Another side to Moyer and Hamiel's experiment also highlighted an interesting concept through a feature of social networking sites allowing offsite content. This ranged from allowing HTML to be inserted into comments and the customisation of profiles with cut-n-paste code from potentially un-trusted sources. For the uninitiated or security unconscious, this type of action can result in malicious code being inserted into their profiles (Moyer & Hamiel, 2008).

These findings back up current thoughts that security and privacy control online, and in particular with social media need an overhaul. Many discussions have already begun with a focus on the further enhancement of profile data manipulation.

Sites such as Facebook all ready allow for limited profiles, this is where a user can control what a friend can see on their profile page or news feed. Many believe that this can go even further though allowing for the creation of multiple personas online to control that material which is presented to different types of networks. As reported by Sonia Arrison: Jim Dempsey at the recent discussion Privacy 2009: The year ahead, made the point people present themselves in different manners in different situations such as work and home, so why should this be any different online? (Arisson, 2009)

While no one organizations seems to have the answer yet to this most complex of problems, the end user can take at least this away now. As Internet users in a growing online world of social media and the sharing of personal information, there is a greater need for awareness of online security and self-management of personal information and privacy.

Site 1: The Office of the Privacy Commissioner http://www.privacy.gov.au/internet/
While there are a plethora of online privacy guides on the World Wide Web, for Australians with little web experience then the Australian governments privacy website is an excellent starting point for those wishing to develop a basic understanding of privacy issues. The site lists a number of known privacy and security concerns for the Internet novice as well as tools users have at their disposal for protection of their online privacy and security. The site is straightforward and gives good clear definitions of problems while offering practical advice for the user to protect themself online.

Site 2: Electronic Frontier Foundation http://www.eff.org/issues/privacy
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is one of the preeminent online organisations relating to amongst other things online privacy and security, and although localised for the United Sates, the site still holds a lot of relevant information for netizens from all parts of the world. In particular the EEF's privacy section is an excellent resource for those wishing to delve deeper into the very complex world of privacy and security online. It offers up to date news and information on current issues including rulings from various court cases and changes to privacy laws while providing opinion pieces and whitepapers on research conducted within the field.

Return to Index

31. Hypertext: links or structure?

"While the WWW depends on hypertext, most of it uses hypertext merely for navigation (as in the first kind). Individual documents and even sites generally look much like linear, paper-printed materials. But, the whole of the web is rather more like the loose, unstructured ‘hypertext’ of the second kind. This suggests that hypertext is about both linking in the traditional way, but more effectively; and about structuring in a completely new way, based on this technology." (Allen, n.d)

Hypertext as defined by the Merriam-Webster unabridged dictionary as a database format where related information to that being displayed can be accessed by the user through clicking on the highlighted text (Merriam-Webster, 2002). Although Ted Nelson coined the term in 1965, the actual concept of Hypertext extends back to 1945 and Vannevar Bush with his Memex concept where with a device comprising of photographic, electrical and mechanical elements would allow the user to make links between documents stored on microfiche (Bush, 1945).

From that initial concept, through to the invention of Hypertext Markup Language by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 and the subsequent World Wide Web, the Hypertext concept has developed to become the Hypertext reality. Now it can be argued that much of the structure of a web page comes from its Hyperlinks and how they are organised.

In fact over time users have come to rely on a very set structure of Hyperlinks to help them navigate around websites and individual pages. Usability expert Jakob Nielsen has highlighted this through his ongoing studies that have shown how users have grown accustomed to this basic structure of a website, and as a result have expectations of where they will find particular elements including navigation flowing across the top of the page to contact us and about us links in the footer of a page.

As it is this navigational use and aspect of Hypertext that users are most familiar and comfortable with, it would seem then that the inherent nature of a Hypertext link or Hyperlink is to provide linear navigation around a web page or website. It could be said though; this conceptual linear structuring utilising Hypertext fails to take advantage of what Hypertext can truly offer.

The real ingenuity of Hypertext comes from the act of linking pages and referencing material on offsite pages, Hypertext allows the author to create an experience that lacks the comfortable linear structure and allows the readers discovery of knowledge and ideas to be more organic. It is this organic referencing aspect that gives Hypertext its real power. In recent years this particular linking practice has flourished, particularly through blogs linking to sites further highlight concepts or sites of interest in context with their own material.

This concept of linking still has its limitations, as pointed out by Ted Nelson in his Google TechTalk presentation, Transclusion; Fixing electronic literature. Nelson puts forward that currently Hypertext is only a one-way path. Links only go outward and as such when browsing a page it is impossible to see pages that link to it (Nelson, 2007).

To some extent this limitation of Hypertext is overcome with a Ping or Trackback where an acknowledgement is made from the linking site to the originating site. This is still mostly limited to blog sites and still does not offer the user any linking reference if browsing the outwards site. It can be argued though that this practise is a further step towards the greater underlying Hypertext structure of the Internet.

Site 1: Use It http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050103.html
This particular article was written by Jakob Nielsen in 2005 and is part of his excellent site Useit.com. The article presents a number of interesting further concepts on the direction of Hypertext that still stand today. Of particular note is the concept of "Explicit Structure" (Nielsen, 2005) and the incorporation of buttons which allow a user to go straight to sections such as about us, contact us or the like. It is also concepts like this and "Fat Links" (Nielsen, 2005) and "Physical Hypertext" (Nielsen, 2005) which have the potential to drive the future of Hypertext and the World Wide Web.

Site 2: Hypertext: The convergence of contemporary critical theory and technology http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/ht/jhup/decenter.html
While not directly writing about the World Wide Web, I find this section from chapter one of Landow's 1992 publication on Hypertext rings true with today's World Wide Web. Landow's description of Hypertext as an infinitely de-centerable and re-centerable system allowing the user to make their interests the de facto organising system (Landow, 1992), highlights the true non-linear nature and power of Hypertext. This concept fits with idea of the World Wide web and constant linking to external websites for annotated information of explanation of deep thought. In particular where a user can choose the path that they follow from site to site.

Return to Index

33. Information and Attention

"In the era of the ‘attention economy’, readers and users of Internet information must be carefully craft, in their own minds, the kind of metadata which will – almost instinctively – ‘fit’ with the metadata of the information sources they want, so that – in the few brief moments of initial exchange, when a seeker of information encounters information being sought, rapid, effective judgments are made that ‘pay off’ in terms of further reading, accessing and saving." (Allen, n.d)

The Internet is filled with a near infinite amount of information yet we have a finite amount of time or attention to which we can give it. As a result we must learn how to find the information on the Internet that we seek, both quickly and efficiently. As a result as we learn how to use the Internet we tend to learn how to sift through the metadata of websites that is presented to us simply through our browsing or the various tools available to us such as search engines.

Metadata is defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as; "data that provides information about other data" (Merriam-Webster, 2002). This metadata can be obtained in various ways and come in many forms. Probably most obvious on the Internet is the metadata that is presented via a search engine.

Through the use of a search engine a user can find such things as site titles, descriptions and URL's. Even before a user has looked at a page they are deciding if this site holds what it is they are searching for. Users are summing up this metadata, seemingly arbitrarily to determine the worthiness before clicking through to the page.

Of course the process is not arbitrary, an experienced user will have an idea of what they are searching for. This gleaning of data provided by the search engine can allow users to gain a mental picture of the site in question and determine if future investigation is prudent.

On making the decision to further explore the data on the offered web page, the user is then again presented with further metadata to determine continued reading. This time it may not be presented as obviously as the search engine page yet it's still there. The layout and design of the page, the introduction to the page or article, pictures, any text that stands out as the user scans the page.

Even with the tools available to us today, management of this metadata is becoming more and more difficult. With an ever increasing amount of data available to us, Recently Google engineers Jesse Alpert and Nissan Hajaj stated on the official Google blog that Google had indexed one trillion pages (Alpert & Hajaj, 2008) and counting, and the probability that not every site owner or developer puts meaningful data into things such as titles or descriptions.

Web developers need to look to new methods of managing this vast amount of information and making the available information more relevant. Recently Google introduced an annotation and ranking system for registered users of their popular search engine called SearchWiki. Users can make private comments and notes for sites coming up in search results wile rating and ranking the results. All this has no actual effect on the users search results but can provide useful reference material in the future.

I feel Google needs to take this a step further and include a tagging feature to allow users to also tag search results for later use. End users could then choose to search with user tags on or off. This would then allow for a further refinement of searching through the available metadata on the Internet.

Site 1: The Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-search-your-own.html
This blog post written by Google product manager Cedric Dupont and software engineer Corin Anderson further describes the features of Google's new annotated search function SearchWiki. The article also contains an embedded video that provides a great tutorial showing the user how this new tool is utilised within their searches. Personally I find this new social feature for searching metadata an amazing step forward, allowing the user to comment on, rank and also hide search results. As the amount of metadata increases in the online world then users will need more powerful and innovative ways of sifting through this data.

Site 2: Delicious http://delicious.com/
Delicious.com is a site that specialises in folksonomy or social tagging of bookmarks. Many people utilise Delicious for online book marking and the sharing of interesting links with their online networks. I feel though, Delicious can offer a whole lot more than just a repository for the fruits of ones Internet browsing. Based on the very fact that thousands of users daily track sites and pages which they then tag or annotate with further information can make Delicious a very powerful tool for searching vast amounts of data which has been further narrowed down for the user.

Return to Index

Bibliography
Alpert, Jesse & Hajaj, Nissan. (2008). Official Google blog: We knew the web was big. Retrieved January 14, 2009, from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/we-knew-web-was-big.html

Arisson, Sonia. (2009). Will 2009 be the year of multiple digital identities? Tech news world. Encino: ECT News Network. Retrieved January 18, 2009, from http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Will-2009-Be-the-Year-of-Multiple-Digital-Identities-65768.html

Australia. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner. (n.d) Information Technology and Internet Issues. Retrieved January 18, 2009, from http://www.privacy.gov.au/internet/

Bush, Vannevar. (1945.) As we may think. The Atlantic. Retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush

Delicious (n.d) Retrieved January 14, 2009, from http://delicious.com/

Dupont, Cedric., & Anderson, Corin. (2008). The official Google blog: SeachWiki: Make search your own. Mountain View: Google. Retrieved January 14, 2009, from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-search-your-own.html

Electronic Frontier Foundation. Privacy. (n.d) Retrieved January 18, 2009, from http://www.eff.org/issues/privacy

Hunt, Ben. (2003). Web Design from Scratch. Retrieved January 22, 2009, from http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/

Hypertext. (2002). In Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Springfield: Merriam-Webster. Retrieved January 15, 2009 from http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/unabridged?va=hypertext&x=0&y=0

Landow, George P. (1992). Hypertext: The convergence of contemporary critical theory and technology (11-13). Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved January 17, 2009, from http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/ht/jhup/decenter.html

Metadata. (2002). In Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Springfield: Merriam-Webster. Retrieved January 14, 2009 from http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com

Moyer, Shawn (Speaker)., Hamiel, Nathan (Speaker)., & Peters, Sara (Presenter). (2008). TechWebTV: Black Hat 2008; Satan is on my friends list [Vodcast]. Las Vegas: Black Hat. Retrieved January 18, 2009, from http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=2lGKzHYBXtQ

MySpace (2003) Retrieved January 22, 2009, from http://www.myspace.com/

Nelson, Ted (Speaker). (2007). Google TechTalk: Transclusion; Fixing electronic literature [Vodcast]. Mountain View: Google. Retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9kAW8qeays&feature=channel_page

Nielsen, Jakob. (2005). Reviving Advanced Hypertext. Retrieved January 16, 2009, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050103.html

Return to Index

Let's Get Ready To Rumble

2009-02-06T11:44:00.002+11:00

After nearly 3 weeks hiatus, and with a wedding and honeymoon now over, I am ready to face the remainder of Net11. First task, submit my concepts assignment then read a hundred or so blogs and posts before tackling the remainder of my modules. Phew!

Sometimes I wonder if having time off is such a good idea :/

Module 3 - Web 2.0

2009-01-09T00:12:00.001+11:00

I suppose to begin with the question is what is Web 2.0? There are plenty of technical definitions and some will say there is even a stylistic definition. As explained by Tim O'Rielly, Dale Dougherty originally coined the term in 2004 as part of a conference brainstorming session. Now as a concept, Web 2.0 has been with us for somewhere near 4 years, personally I like O'Rielly's compact definition of Web 2.0, it's concise and sums up all the aspects of Web 2.0.

For me the web is like a Swiss army knife, it has so many practical uses from social media to knowledge retrieval, self publishing but above all communication. But the internet has always allowed that I hear you say, what is it then that differentiates the early days of the internet to that of now?

Blogs, micro blogging, social media, web apps, cloud computing, crowd sourcing, mashups, Ajax, wiki's.

For one it's the concept of user contributed content and the ease of contribution. The web has gone from a place where to have website takes special knowledge and content is presented in a single direction manner primarily to hock a product, to a place where we communicate and share ideas. Many websites and web applications now allow us to contribute and add to the content they provide. Not only that they can also allow us to take their output or data, to integrate into our own sites or even create entirely new concepts and applications.

No more is this difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 highlighted than in this task of comparing the social book marking site Delicious and a static HTML page of links. The latter of these two fits well into the concept of Web 1.0: Static information presented on a page with no further interaction or contribution from the user. Delicious on the other hand is a dynamic database driven, user contributed, social bookmarking site. Here users can bookmark sites, adding comments and tags (folksonony) to their bookmarks, then share their lists of sites with other users.

This user contribution and communication. This creation and sharing of knowledge epitomises what is Web 2.0 to me. The more I explore these avenues the more I find how the web is changing the worlds we live in.

So I suppose now the question is not what is Web 2.0, but what will Web 3.0 bring us?

What do you think?

It's All About The Comments Baby

2009-01-08T12:55:00.000+11:00

On a little ramble through the interwebs I came across this great article about the possible future of comments on blogs. For me, a big part of the appeal with blogging, is the interactive nature of comments. Of course then I found this recent attempt to improve the nature of comments very intriguing.

Does it stop there though? Oh no! In true form I ended up clicking through further and discovered some further interesting ways of managing my blogs comments. InstenseDebate and Discus are third party providers of commenting systems that offer a comprehensive means of managing your blogs comments.

So in the spirit of independent learning, I have gone and added Discus to my blog, and now I eagerly await new comments to see how my shiny new system works.

Care to help me with my learning? :)

Module 3 - Blogs

2009-01-07T21:05:00.010+11:00

What can I say about blogs? Before Net11 I had tried my hand at writing a blog but failed miserably. Now though through "forced blogging" and my learning log for Nett11 I am having a ball!

Blogging is something which I am finding is allowing me to express concepts and ideas to more than just myself or partner or lecturer. By blogging through this unit I am sharing my thoughts with an audience of billions (ok, ok, potentially. Maybe). This instant act of self publication is gratifying and I can now see why blogging has taken the internet like a wildfire.

Now blogging it seems is part of the mainstream. The humble blog is now one of the preferred methods to disseminate information on the internet. From personal opinion to news to political commentary, celebrity gossip, ground breaking technology or reviews of all types; the blogosphere has it all. And it's still growing.

To see how much the blogosphere is growing, check out Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2008 report; the report presents some really interesting stats regarding blogs and their growth worldwide. Compiled and published since 2004 Technorati has tracked the massive growth and interest in blogging and is considered one of the key authorities in the blogosphere. In fact through Technorati you can find the top 100 blogs in the world. Of course if you want to find out the top 100 Aussie blogs (and no I'm not in it) I would suggest Blogpond as a good starting point.

Not only is blogging a great opportunity to self publish, the idea of starting conversations through comments and the further development of your ideas through this interaction is one of the most powerful aspects of blogging. I love the thrill of the comment and the possible further avenues a readers opinions or thoughts can take my own. It is this social interaction, act of communication I find so powerful. A recent Australian study has also found that this blogging and commenting process can help lead to a more fulfilling social life both online and face to face.

Have I developed a greater understanding of blogs since post number one? I know I have definitely gained a greater understanding of the compulsion to blog. I also now truly realise the power that a blog holds. In fact the mere fact that we are using blogs as part of our course work and for relective processes within our learning is simply amazing.

So it's probably obvious then that my thoughts have changed, how have yours changed over the last five weeks?

Net11 Reflections Week Five

2009-01-07T07:26:00.009+11:00

Well week five as come and gone just like 2008, and like 2008, week five offered me lots of exciting new opportunities and a few challenges on how I look at things.

Last week saw me finishing up module two and starting to tackle module three, Contributing to the Infosphere, and in particular how we write on the internet. Jamming all this in around work commitments (yes I still worked over the Christmas new year period) and social commitments, has proved a challenge albeit a rewarding challenge.

In fact it has been this time hungry schedule which has caused me to stop and reflect on a few discussions I have had with fellow students over the previous weeks, plus a comment Peter Fletcher made refering to Barry Wellman's paper "Connecting Community: On- and Off-line". Simply put Wellmen posits that technology, online communities, communication on the internet allows us more face to face time of greater quality with our friends and family.

As a result I have begun to take notice of the quantity and quality of the face to face social interaction I have with my friends. Through this self appraisal I have found myself in agreement with Peter's comments and Wellman's paper. I am beginning to see how keeping up to date with my friends via social networks and technology is allowing me to have deeper personal conversations with them. My partner also pointed out how she is able to keep up to date with those friends she is not so close and doesn't see as frequently and as a result those friendships are far stronger.

This it seems is not a random phenomena linked only to myself. Recent studies have also shown that social networking and technology can indeed benefit real life skills, even the business world is starting to realise the benefits of customer interaction through online social networks and media. I think that we are now only starting to see the beginning of how technology, internet communication and particularly social networks can change our world.

Time Is On My Side, Yes It Is

2009-01-07T00:20:00.004+11:00

Ha! Yeah, no.

It's 12:24am Wednesday morning and I have just spent the evening catching up on some really great blogs from fellow students and reading a few posts on WebCT. Oh, and I got to finish off a post which I started a couple of days ago.

It's nearly mid week of Week Six! It may have been on Mick's side, but time definitely does not seem to be on mine :/

Module 3 - Copyright

2009-01-06T22:57:00.001+11:00

First of all let me get this out of the way. I used the OUA and Curtin logos on my HTML page. In hindsight, and after a fair bit of research and reading of both the Curtin Copyright Policy and Proceedure and the Curtin Logo Use Proceedure, I have come to the conclusion that I have indeed breached Copyright.

Bugger.

Copyright and Intellectual Property is such a complex and touchy subject. There are so many differing points of view held by so many different people with so many different things at stake, it's hard to find a middle ground, or so it seems with the debate that is constantly going on.

I found it interesting to read the Copyright Website and Curtin's own excellent Copyright at Curtin page. Both gave a good balanced view of what Copyright is and how it is applied with some good guidelines and practical scenarios. A little further reading on the sites also gave me some interesting information about Fair Use, particularly around study which will be very useful indeed. Though all this reading material was good, I was a disappointed the course material didn't contain any reference to Creative Commons as a Copyright instrument.

Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation which publish the Creative Commons License. Originally inspired by the GNU GPL, this license works in tandem with traditional Copyright, the difference is with Creative Commons you have much greater flexibility. In that you can change your Copyright from All Rights Reserved to Some Rights Reserved and the like.

In my mind Creative Commons is the way of the future when it comes to online Copyright, or Copyright of any nature for that matter. I feel that initiatives such as this, and the Open Source software culture, will eventually change the way people look at Copyright and IP in general.

Module 3 - WWW Standards

2009-01-06T22:00:00.000+11:00

This current module regarding WWW Standards and usability has thrown up some very interesting reading courtesy of Jakob Nielsen and ultimately raised a few more questions for me.

As tasked, I read through through a large chunk of the related material on Nielsen's website Useit.com and also went trawling through the other recommended readings at Dennis Jerz's site and a good piece at Web Style Guide. While there were a few discrepancies between sites, all concurred on what could be described as the principals for writing on the web. I found that these principles could be broken down into the following points.

* Write scanable text - Use highlighted keywords, bulleted text and meaningful sub-headings.
* Reduce the word count - Reduce the overall words used in your writing.
* One idea per paragraph - Keep your paragraphs simple.
* Use simple langauge - Avoid marketese, write for a broad audience.
* Utilise an inverted pyramid writing style - Conclusion first and then expand from there.

I found Nielsen to come for the internet marketers angle. While I believe his theories and studies still hold some weight, his approach is to that of the conversion of readers and visitors to your site into sales of your product. The question which I feel this raises is: Are these approaches applicable to Web 2.0 social internet, blogs or opinion pieces? Does all web content need to be broken down and made scanable to be successful? If so, I think the web would be a much duller place to visit. Fellow Net11 student Kieth makes some interesting further observations about this point in his own blog.

So yes there are times where having the information scanable is pertinent, and I have taken away some very good tips on making my own writing more readable for the net. Yet still I find that if I have found an interesting and well written piece, it will engage me regardless of if it's chunked down with bullet lists and concise headings. The net is a constant and changing place. Making it more usable is not a bad thing, but at the sake of content, opinion, thought, interaction. That's not the internet I want to experience.

What about you, what kind of internet do you want to experience?

Module 2 - ICQ Group Chat

2009-01-04T21:16:00.003+11:00

Tonight I completed a group chat with a number of fellow Net11 students using ICQ. It was a great chat and I found it interesting catching up with a number of students at once in a real-time environment. We were able to further learn about one another and how we are traveling with our study while discussing a few concepts which have recently come up.

A Small Downside
The one thing with large chat groups is the madness trying to keep up with the different conversations, one student described it as being in a room full of people all trying to talk at once. If one is not a proficient touch typist, keeping up with various side conversations can be trying. If you are like me you loose track while taking your eyes away from the screen to tap out your reply.

All up this was a great task which I feel yielded great results for all involved. I believe this may well become a regular session each week as the the unit continues (Tess has set up a Net11 ICQ group to help facilitate this). If so this will offer us a further avenue to share thoughts and ideas as we progress.

Module 3 - HTML Task

2009-01-04T20:15:00.006+11:00

For me this was a fun task. I love HTML! :)

I have been dealing with HTML for many years now and I just really love building things with HTML. I wouldn't say I am completely proficient with HTML and I'm definitely no coding pro but the sense of achievement I get from building a page is very real. In fact one of the reasons I decided to return to study was to get a qualification and better organise my knowledge in a more formal manner.

When I first started dabbling with the internet and HTML, tables and images was the way to build a page and all the presentation was done in HTML. Over the years though this has changed, and HTML has become the simple building block for information on the web, the framework of the page if you will.

Now we have separation of structure and presentation through the use of HTML for structure and CSS for presentation. Hopefully as more and more developers embrace this and other web standards, hopefully we will have less browser cross compatibility issues as outlined in fellow Net11 student Brown Boy's blog entry: Module 3 - HTML and Standards.

Of course knowing these underlying frameworks is not needed for successful communication if you plan to use a cookie cutter blog sewrvice such as Blogger. Though if you plan to run your own software or customise your blog by sprucing up your current template, then it is essential that you build an understanding of these coding langauges.

Net11 Reflections Week Four

2008-12-31T16:51:00.010+11:00

Before this week (and year) gets away from me I thought maybe a word or two about last week was in order.

After my comments last week about managing my time online more efficiently, I got smacked by the on coming train that is Christmas. So while I had every intention of getting more uni work done and being productive in general, this wasn't the actual case. In fact, I had less time on the net in general. May I point out though this was not necessarily a bad thing! :)

So while I didn't get a chance to set in place life changing program, I did have plenty of time to think about how exactly I will approach this seemingly mammoth task. And after much thought, I have come up with cunningly simple plan: Before I sit down in front of my Mac, I will state out aloud to myself what it is I want to achieve. I will then also write this down on paper for later reference. In this manner I put accountability on my session and upon myself*. By placing accountability upon my time on the net hope that I will focus on the task at hand and procrastinate less.

Of course I will do this regardless of if the session is for study, work or just surfin' the interwebs!

With the little time that I did have to spend on course work, module two revisited some interesting areas of my past. I enjoyed the technical aspect of relearning some old tools and protocols such as IRC and Usenet, and discovered some great insight into their impacts on the net and contributions to the world. Also to date the discussions and insights from my fellow students has been inspirational, and I really am looking forward now to where the next couple of months are going to take me. Let the learning continue.

*No really this took much thought on my part.

Peerless Is The Oracle

2008-12-29T23:31:00.006+11:00

While completing my Usenet/Newsgroup task I came across some geek humor which I thought deserved it's own post :)

The Internet (Usenet) Oracle is ongoing geek humor which originated on Usenet. Essentially one submits a question (serious or not) to the Oracle in order to receive an answer (more than often not serious) from the Oracle. Over time a structure and format developed and metamorphosed into the now common Oracle format.

If you have even just a little bit of geek in you, then I highly recommend exploring this and if possible, seek the wisdom of the Oracle.

And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
} You owe the Oracle one comment.

Module 2 - Chat Task IRC Option

2008-12-29T20:15:00.015+11:00

I use some form of realtime, synchronis chat on most days. Whether it is Messenger at work for communication with interstate team members. ICQ, Google Talk to catch up with friends and family or Skype, iChat to keep in-touch with business colleagues and partners. I can pretty much safely say that at some stage or another I have used most forms of chat.

Because of this reason, I chose to go with the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) option to complete part one of this task. Fortunately for me I all ready have an excellent Mac IRC client, Linkinus, installed on my machine so all I needed to do was brush of the cobwebs and away I went.

IRC is a different beast to the more common Instant Message (IM) clients such as MSN and ICQ. For one it's been around since the late 80's and in general IRC takes a bit more to set up than an IM client. Once online though IRC offers a world of opportunity for obtaining and sharing information or just plain socialising.

The main difference between IRC and that of other chat tools is the channel or group aspect of the system. IRC was created not as a one to one chat such as MSN or ICQ and as such it is primarily a mass communication tool where a large groups of people can communicate. As the chat is conducted primarily in a channel, IRC can be useful for sharing knowledge amongst a large range of users working on a project or with a shared interest. In times of emergency or world events, IRC has also been a major contributor to news gathering and reporting.

Most channels which I visited had regular users who you could approach for help or to find out information. An immediate draw back if unfamiliar with this group chat concept is the speed of conversation and background chatter that can occur. If you are new to IRC or online chatting this can be very disconcerting. That said, if needed you can also have private chats within IRC which allow for a more restrained and manageable chat environment.

I find that once you are over the technical obstacles of IRC, it can be a very rewarding method of communicating. For one you don't have to wait until friends are online, you can just log onto a channel and find someone like minded (or not) to chat with. Personally I feel this makes the whole IRC experience more sociable than IM.

Module 2 - Newsgroups Task

2008-12-29T18:08:00.010+11:00

Usenet and Newsgroups are not a new idea to me. Created nearly 30 years ago Usenet and Newsgroups could be considered the original Social Networking medium of the internet. For those geeks out there or those just interested (admit it, you have to be a geek to be interested) then check out how it actually works.

Like most people who have explored the internet over the years, I innocently stumbled across Usenet and Newsgroups and found some of it's more nefarious uses. Besides this murky all to common side of what now is Usenet, a lot of people seem not to realise how much has evolved from the Usenet over the last 29 years. Giganews posted this list "Worst. Top 10 List. Ever." ;-) 10 Things Started on Usenet which highlights some interesting contributions to the net from Usenet.

In completing this task I had a play around with a few options including Google Groups and a stand alone reader for my trusty MacBook.

To begin with I shot over to Google and their implementation of Newsgroups; Google Groups where as a Gmail and Google Reader user, I all ready had an active account. Google Groups is home to vast range of topics and interests some of which correspond to Usenet while some which are exclusive to Google Groups. Content is made up of some 3011712 groups available through the service. Very similar in actual content using Google Groups itself was also relatively easy as the interface shares similar layouts and features with other Google services.

Next I decided to download a stand alone reader with my first stop to find some software. After a little searching I re-downloaded a demo version of my previous reader Unison. Installing Unison was a snap, the hardest part was actually finding a server which a) was free and b) was still active. Thanks to Newzbot.com I successfully got online and trawled through some Newsgroups across a couple of servers. Again accessing the content was easy thanks to the beautiful interface of Unison.

Through the course of these two tasks I began to remember why I moved on from this corner of the online world last time. While there is a lot of useful information and discussion on Usenet, it is far outweighed by spam, or links to porn. Newsgroups for binaries dominate the landscape while even the heavily filtered Google service wasn't immune to these activites.

Usenet was probably once a very useful means of communication, yet today I find it is full of spam and host to the underbelly of the net. Yes there are still valid conversations and sharing of knowledge going on within this world, but I find they are far outweighed by the rest. Although I hope it doesn't come to this.

Module 2 - Lists Task

2008-12-23T00:35:00.003+11:00

While I am a regular user of announcement type email lists (common subscribe to a newsletter type deal), discussion mail lists are something of which I have never been big fan or user of.

Mail lists have been around for ever and have played a large role in providing a simple means and opportunity for discussion and knowledge dissemination. While this is true, I can't really say they are my cup of tea. I think in all the years that I have been using the internet, I have been compelled to only subscribe to one or so discussion lists.

Putting my personal biases aside I went out and completed a little research, seeking out the hidden world of mailing lists. The results, to put it simply, have amazed me with what is available on the net. With my first stopping point Yahoo Groups, I found a massive range of topics covering all walks of life. If you want to find out some random and obscure information say about the world of Bollywood, then this is a great starting point.

So why is it so many people find mail lists relevant still? Not everyone has broadband, if your access to the internet is limited then being on an email list as digest may have great benefit to you. The ability to read the email offline would allow you to catch up with news and information at your convenience, rather than trawling through posts in a forum to find what you need would be very appealing.

On the flip forums or discussion boards such as VBulletin, SMF or PHPBB, offer a richer and fuller user experience which can require more resources and time online. From my personal experience, I find the communities created through these types of forums an attraction. Now coupled with RSS feeds available on most popular forum software, you can keep track of conversations or find support (now my general reason for using forums) quickly and easily.

Interestingly enough after this task I now have a better understanding of where discussion mailing lists sit in the wide web world. And while I'm not going to be rushing out to sign up to find out about Mermaids; I now understand how both forms of communication fit in the general scheme of all things net. And although I don't think either is particularly any better than the other for communicating information in general, each offers the user a different experience in communication depending on their end need or available resources.

As a final piece I found this great little piece by a blogger Alexander Gomes on just this subject. While Alexander's bent is pro forum, some interesting alternative points are raised through the comments. Enjoy.

Net11 Reflections Week Three

2008-12-22T21:02:00.008+11:00

Forgive for father for it has been a week since I last blogged. Actually I can't believe it was a week but here's the proof.

Week three really got away from me, it must be this thing called Christmas taking up all my time, definitely not my poor time management. I do feel a bit deflated after so many grand plans for the last week went astray: get ahead, plan out my assignment and contribute comments to fellow students blogs. Unfortunately the realities of life and a smallish helping of procrastination brought me tumbling down.

Not to worry though, some time away from the internet machine gave me some space to think, and asses how I utilise my time online. The results I must say are far from pleasing and they have brought me to an interesting conclusion: I waste time on the interwebs. Oh surprise!

Over the last few days particularly, I have found that I am getting online and just procrastinating, surfing from site to site with no specific task in mind. Of course this is not always a bad thing and some mindless surfing is always fun and occasionally useful, but I need to focus and utilise my time online effectively.

So, after a little Googling and reading some of the millions of self help 10-ways-to-be-more-productive-and-manage-your-time websites, I have come up with my challenge for this week; to be more purposeful when online. So now when I sit down in front of the internet I will have a plan of attack, a goal to achieve for the session.

For large chunks of time I will plan out what I wish to do and how long I have to do it before I even take to the computer. If I have a 30 minute window online, I will do some quick research or blog a thought rather than poke a friend or check my email every 15 minutes. Of course I won't stop my social shenanigans online, I will now also plan out my time socialising rather than flitting over to Facebook on a random whim every five minutes to see my friends status updates. And if I go of on a tangent, clicking through to site after site, I plan to share some of the gold (or not so gold) sites I may come across (it's not really time wasting then is it?). Consider yourselves warned :)

So now my dirty little secret is out, how do you manage your time online and protect yourself from the procrastination traps of the web?

Net11 Week Two Reflections

2008-12-15T07:36:00.003+11:00

It seems that I have successfully navigated week two of Net11 without having any adverse reactions or blowouts. It feels fantastic to be getting stuck into topics which I find both interesting and worthwhile. It's interesting to note that while I am familiar with the material we are studying, I am still taking a lot away and feel I am gaining a greater understanding of the core aspects of the internet and its underlying structure.

To me this is the reason why I have restarted university study; to build on the knowledge that I all ready have, and to a lesser degree, validate what I have previously been doing in life, the experiences and knowledge it has given me.

I am also finding the discussions in the forums are invigorating with so many informed points of view. Coupled with the simple fact that people are not afraid to share their thoughts and ideas, this is making the time I spend on there so worthwhile. It really is a refreshing change to my last unit where people were not interested in any type of online discussion or debate :/

OK so now I can turn my attention to week three, and to get me through I have set myself a few little goals including:

1. getting ahead on my module 2 tasks,
2. determining which concepts I will begin writing on

and the big one for me

3. comment on more fellow students blogs.

I know they seem a little big once they are verbalised, but I think they are achievable for week three. So do you have any of your own learning goals for week three?

Module 2 - Email Tasks

2008-12-14T21:20:00.012+11:00

Over the years I have used many different email clients and services. Recently though, I made a step towards going all digital and moved my my primary personal email to Google's Gmail service. Gmail offers lots of nice little touches and I love it. Just wanted to share that before I launched into the tasks :)

1. What information about a user's email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?
You can get a lot of information from a seemingly simple email. To begin with there is the email address itself, is it a company or educational address or is it a free Hotmail account or similar. Next you can choose to display the email headers (it's where the technical stuff sits), from here you can get all sorts of information including delivery paths, formats etc. The only time I really do all this is if I am unsure of an email. As a rule of thumb, checking the from address and if there is a reply to address generally tells me all I need to know on a day to day basis.

2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?
The dreaded 'cc', oh how I hate to be the recipient of an email where I am 'cc' into the chain of communication. It's interesting to note that in the previous concept regarding "The mobility of electronic digital data" that the comment is made where as people begin to understand the mobility of data, they include more people than is necessary in their communication. Too many times I receive emails which have little or no relevance to me or someone has hit reply all when they should have just hit reply as there was no need for everyone to be included in their private conversation. For me those three functions should be used as such (and this is how I endeavour to use them):

a) cc - As a courtesy where that person has been involved in previous discussions or there is a requirement for the recipient to be across the information.
b) bcc - Used when email yourself a copy of a sent email or forwarding details to a third party to make second party aware. e.g. recieved an expression of interest to tour a DJ, as I was not the correct person for this I replied and advised the inital party I would forward their details on to the correct person who I had bcc'd into my response (I rarely use bcc).
c) reply all - Only needed to be used if ALL recipients need to be across the rely to the original email. Use this sparingly.

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
In a previous life as a publisher and designer for a Hobart based street press, I was continually on the receiving end of files and documents which required propriety software to open them (even if our spec sheets dictated exactly the required formats, grrrrrr). Often to meet deadlines, time was spent racing around searching out applications which could read these documents or at the very least extract the relevant data. At times it felt all we were going to be able to do was try and feel the data in side the document, hmmm, yes, drive me mad did it young Jedi.

Of course now things area lot better, there are still some compatibility issues, but mostly they are due to people just saving in the wrong format or using some obscure format which died out years ago (or should have). Nowadays I find the best way to ensure an attachment can be opened is to ask if the receiver has the required software to open the file you intend to send. Failing that I will send the file as a PDF document. For me PDF has become the default "accessible document format" and due to inbuilt functionality, free reader downloads and it's ability to retain formatting of a document it's much more appealing than sending a RTF document. And now with the advent of editable PDF files, this format is even more powerful than ever.

4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?
I love email filters, if an email application doesn't have filters then I don't want to know about it :) As I previously mentioned I use Gmail as my primary email and Gmail provides me with a pretty darn good filter/labeling system. I try to work on a bastardised version of David Allen's GTD theory of an empty inbox, as such I try to pretty much filter everything that comes in and label it in the process. This pretty much leaves my Gmail inbox empty or very close to empty.

Work wise I use Outlook and have a number of rules set up (I am the Outlook rule king at work). My primary rules are based around distribution lists, which once run, leave only emails directly addressed to me in my inbox. This of course allows me to focus on the things which most likely need my direct attention. I found this method while trawling the interwebs after I first learned about GTD. Trust me, coming from a company where sending emails is near a sport, this approach has saved my inbox and my sanity.

5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
My folder organisation is based on my filters. As Gmail's filters label email as they come in. I have everything pretty much catagorised and sorted as it hits my inbox. I can then either check all mail chronologically or each seperate category as I wish. This then leaves a failrly empty inbox where I can address those random occasional emails quickly and efficently.

On a work level. Again my folders are determined based on my rules, where each rule has it's own folder where mail is automatically filtered to. The difference is here that my inbox will retain all email directly addressed to me as this theoretically is mail which needs my immediate attention.

As you can see points 4 and 5 work hand in hand for me. Generally both these approaches allow me to keep on top of my inbox and manage my email effectively rather than email managing me. Geeky I know.

Edit: I have been searching for a week since I made this post, looking for the original site which introduced me to Dave Allen and GTD and in particular, the method that I manage my email. Now finally success: Jeff Sandquist is a Microsoft evangelist and it was his two excellent posts on managing email which put me on this path.

Thought for the day
It really is interesting revisiting things that you use on a day to day basis and looking at them in a different light. Looking at things reflectively always opens up new avenues of information or understanding so this process or re-looking at email is actually quite interesting and has allowed me to rethink one or two ways that I deal with email. Ultimately I think this will help me further refine my approach to handling and communicating via email.

Data about data about data

2008-12-14T20:20:00.003+11:00

I'm still getting the hang of this "blog everything" approach so please bear with me.

I am sure you have come across the concept of Metadata prior to Net11 just as I have, still it's something which I felt I needed to throw into my blog for future reference. Besides the concept of data about data about data is kind of trés geek :)

Module 1 - Internet Tools Task

2008-12-14T09:01:00.011+11:00

As this tasks concept points out the keystone foundation to the internet is the system of identifying a location and routing data between two fixed end points. With out the ability to do this the internet as we now know it would simply not exist.

Previously I have used Traceroute and other internet tools when building websites and determining which hosting company to go with. I suppose this makes me relatively familiar with the tool and the information that it provides. Never less, I thought a little background research to broaden my understanding of the underlying concept would not hurt.

To complete this particular task I had to complete a Traceroute inquiry via either network-tools.com or centralops.net: I choose to do both to see what, if any, differences would present between the two tools. And besides, it's not like it takes hours to complete a Traceroute inquiry.

The Results
Results from Network-Tools took around 260ms with the last three hops timing out once the packets hit the Curtin network.

Results from Centralops came it at 253ms with the last three hops again timing out once they hit the Curtin network.

Neither of the actual results surprised me as both tools are located offshore. What did surprise me was that both times the last three hops timed out. I hav read that this could be due to packet loss or the network protecting itself as a Traceroute is similar to port sniffing.

Incidentally, the IP address for curtin.edu.au is 134.7.179.53

Ping
For those mildly interested, like nearly every other word within the world of IT, Ping is actually an acronym for Packet Internet Groper (sounds dodgy eh). Ping is used to see if an address on the internet is active an accepting data and it's latency, when pinging curtin.edu.au from the online tools the following was yielded.

The Results
Results from both online sources were approximately the same as the Traceroute results coming in at 260.2ms and 253ms respectivly. This was to be expected as data is still being sent via the same route as in the Traceroute. The major difference here is that a Ping is not recording all hops or resolving domain names. This would explain why Ping results will appear on the page quicker.

From My Local Machine
In further exploration for this task I have done as suggested and utilised the software WhatRoute, directly downloaded to my local machine. I also have used OS X's bundled application, Network Utility, to complete this final piece.

The Results
Results were as expected with response times nearly half that of the online tools, 104ms with traceroute (although both my attempts seem to have completely died when reaching the Curtin network) and 110ms when pinging.

The key takeout to me from this is that location is everything when it comes to speed on the internet. Obviously the closer you are to your destination the quicker it will be to get there. Though the one caveat that I throw in is; you have no actual control on just how your data will be routed. Take my last image for example. My ISP Exetel routes all data through Sydney before shooting me off to Perth and Curtin's network. Is this something that has an effect?

I'm not entirely sure but logic says that going to Perth via Sydney isn't the shortest route and it allows more opportunity for error.

Module 1 - File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Task

2008-12-12T19:38:00.008+11:00

So to get the obvious out of the way first, CAPITALIZATION MATTERS! Right, now we have done that, let us continue.

To complete this task I was required to login to the Curtin FTP server using the anonymous login. After successfully doing this I was to then check the directory structure and find the readme.txt. From this file I would find the statement in my posts first sentence, this would fill in the blank from the sentence:

"according to the readme file, '_______ MATTERS'".

I thought the word was going to be SIZE, who would of thunk it eh? ;)

FTP or File Transfer Protocol is my main method of transferring data to and from my websites. I use FTP at least once a week with my personal websites uploading files or downloading backups to my local drive. I also use FTP for renaming files and directories and changing permissions if needed. To do this on a Mac I use the absolutely fantastic Yummy FTP from Yummy Software, it's so simple!

I also currently utilise FTP as a distribution method to obtain files from various different websites and business. As a working DJ I have been in the lucky situation to receive promo records from music labels, over the years I have seen this change to the point now where most labels no longer send records or even CD's; they simply point you to their FTP server and you download all the digital files. Much quicker and cost effective. Who said the record labels weren't utilising new distribution methods.

Of course now their are even more advanced methods of transferring electronic media, but that is a subject for another time.

Module 1 - Telnet Task B

2008-12-11T21:33:00.009+11:00

So as the Star Wars fan that I am, I was quite excited to telnet into towel.blinkenlighs.nl. Of course after after reading my fellow students blogs I was ready for what was in store, and let me say, once in I wasn't disappointed.

For the uninitiated; telnetting into towel.blinkenlights.nl gives you an ASCII art animation of Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope. Thats right baby, welcome to geekville!

ASCII art is is made from ASCII and is one of those terribly geek things to do. Originally created in the
late 60's it took off in the 70's and 80's allowing people to create images and share them when bandwidth was limited and printers couldn't create the photo realistic prints we can today.

While bandwidth today is cheap and expansive and printers can run of high quality photos, I don't think something such as ASCII art will ever completely leave us, apparently it's been around in one form or another since the birth of the typewriter. For me ASCII art is an important part of computing and the internets history, and while no longer part of the mainstream (was it ever) we still use common forms of ASCII art day in, day out.

In fact one form which you may well be familiar with is the simple emoticon :-) This simple form of ASCII art was first created in 1982 and is still helping us communicate feelings and moods.

I suggest having a further look at ASCII art and if you get inspired then have a go at creating some of your own either by hand or if you wish, you can auto generate it.

Module 1 - Telnet Task A

2008-12-09T23:00:00.006+11:00

This task required me to utilise Telnet to access the Deakin University library and complete a search.

Before jumping in head first, the first thing I did was to Google a little more information on Telnet and Telnet applications on the Mac. I came across a couple of good sites in particular I found this excellent and simple guide on wikiHow.com. The site also contained some further How To's on checking email with Telnet and the like, but I digress.

After my research, I decided in the end to go down the route of using Mac OS X's built in Telnet client; the Terminal application. Terminal is an application which I am familiar and comfortable with so using it for this task was rather simple.

Logging in to the Deakin library and completing the search was very straight forward. I found that the information presented through Telnet was sparse yet effective, giving me all the details to find the books in the actual library. On further exploration I found that there were a number of features which further helped enhance the search.

While this particular search method was effective and extremely quick, it was frustrating to not have a visual reference or even advanced search options that we take for granted with graphical interfaces. Telnet also lacked any feature for me to check out or borrow a book as many modern web based library interfaces now do. It is from this perspective I found the experience seriously lacking, as I was unable to self serve as I have grown used to on the internet.

This task has given me further understanding of some of the underlying technologies of the internet and their evolution. It was interesting to find that the Telnet protocol was developed in 1969 and while in limited use today, it still has some practical uses as a troubleshooting tool for remote servers and as another resource to search for information.

What The Hell Is Wetware?

2008-12-09T21:57:00.003+11:00

Finally completed reading the Module One intro and I cam across the the term 'wetware'. This isn't a term that I have come across before so I thought it would be good to record, and of course share.

I feel the use of the word presents an interesting point in this context as it acknowledges that the internet is not just made up of hardware and software: it also requires squishy, irrational humans to exist. Seems kinf of obvious I know, but at times I think people forget that the internet in all it's glory, still requires me and you to function.

Really, What Is The Internet To You?

2008-12-09T07:53:00.004+11:00

So I just had a thought, yes an actual thought, about the internet and what it means to me.

Over on Webct I became involved in a discussion about Virtual Personalities, through the discussion one fellow students made the comment "The Internet, for me, is just a tool for making my social circle bigger and nearer."

Now that got me thinking, how do I really see the internet, what is it that attracts me and what do I use it for? For me the internet is not about the social aspect, it's nice but I don't really use it that much. For me the internet is about the information it provides me at the stroke of a key. Everyday I use it to find new ways of doing something, enhance the skills I all ready have or just discover random information.

Yet I know the internet is even more than that again and I am still only scraping the surface. So what is the internet to you? Community, learning mechanism, a place for shopping, a marketing tool or a tool for change?

Net11 Week One Reflections

2008-12-08T22:14:00.009+11:00

So after a week of finishing off my previous OUA unit and some procrastination over the weekend, I have finally made a second post on my new Net11 Learning Log.

So far I am finding Net11 both stimulating and daunting at the same time. Tonight I spent a couple of hours catching up on all the posts on the units Webct page, and I must say there are so many interesting and varied people completing this unit with me. Truly I can not wait to learn more about my fellow students and myself as we all learn more about the internet and discuss it's implications on society and communication.

All ready there have been some amazing and insightful comments made, discussions begun and concepts thrown out there, so much so I have had some new ideas thrust at me which have simply blown me away. One such idea came from fellow student Rhys Moult who posted this link to the Connected Student. If you haven't watched this video yet then do yourself a favour, as this is just the most amazing learning concept I have come across.

Tutor Peter Fletcher also made a comment early on which I am also striving to take to heart. As I can't link to the post I am quoting Peter below:

"Blog everything. All your research notes. All your reflections. Links to interesting resources. The lot. I did that here during my honours year. I used tags as a way of finding stuff months later. It's mint and way better than rummaging through piles of paper. I too hadn't blogged before Net11. Now it's central to my information management. Love it. Someone call Bloggers Anonymous."

Some pretty amazing concepts here, or maybe they're not that amazing and I am just behind the times. What do think?

5 Tips For Beginner Bloggers

2008-12-05T18:51:00.011+11:00

As a relatively savvy internet user I actually have very little experience with whole blogging thing. That is to say, I am completely comfortable with the concept of blogging and am aware of the various platforms, terminology and such, I just have never really got into the whole blogging thing.

So to help me along and as the start of my Net11 Learning Log, I have listed my 5 tips for a beginner blogger. Actually it's a requirement of the Learning Log, but we won't tell anyone that now will we!

Do your homework. A quick search on Google for Blog will return 2,580,000,000 results, that's Billions folks, so there is more than enough information on blogs out there. Of course with so much information in the blogosphere, it can be really daunting when you are just starting out. To help save some time, and your sanity, here are two resources I have found handy, Problogger.net: Blogging Tips For Beginners and Technorati.com: Blogging Basics.
Set a regular time to write your blog. While it's all good to write your blog when the moment hits you, it pays to also set aside a dedicated time to write your blog. Whether this is once a week or once a day it doesn't matter, just make a regular time to capture your thoughts and ideas and commit them to 010101's.
Learn to link. If you have been on the internet longer than five minutes then you will know that the clicky things which take you places are called hypertext or links. By learning how to link from your blog you not only get to share your fantastic finds and further educate your readers, you are also showing respect to the people who have inspired you or have written something which resonates with you.
Blog about what is meaningful to you. It's much more interesting to read a blog from a person who is passionate about what they are writing, than someone who is "finding a niche" to stand out from the crowd. Remember you are a niche, there is only one of you in the world and your unique way of expressing yourself is fantastic
Follow other blogs and comment regularly. This is an idea which I have only just picked up from my Net11 tutor Peter Fletcher, yet it is such a simple and powerful thing to do and will make your blogging that more meaningful again. As Peter has pointed out, blogging is about communication and finding new ideas and ways of thinking. So go forth, follow and comment.

So there you have it, my five tips for starting down the path to your own blog. Feel free to share yours in the comments.