COMM 3353: Information & Communicattion Tehnologies I

Dr. Shawn McCombs

Chapter 1a: Introduction and Brief History of the Internet

COMM 3353:Information & Communication Technologies I

COMM 3353:Information & Communication Technologies I

Chapter 1:Introduction to the Internet and the World Wide Web

Chapter 1:Introduction to the Internet and the World Wide Web

• What is the Internet?

• Who Uses the Internet?

• Models of Communication and the WWW

• World Wide Web and Mass Media

• Practical Applications

The Internet and the World Wide WebThe Internet and the World Wide Web

Network of networks- Brilliantly structured to facilitate

global communication

Mass Communication Potential- Message Sender, Message

Provider

Changes the way people receive and transmit information- E.g. News, TV, Radio, Personal

Websites

…..

What is the Internet?What is the Internet?

Internet responsible for the change of media news patterns

Lifestyle changes of millions of people

- physiology

- Social interaction

- Habitual and attitudinal changes

- Technophobia and Cyberphobia (going, going, gone…)

….

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressorare needed to see this picture.

How does it work?How does it work?

S C

Server Client

1980’s - Y2K:- Humble beginnings- Static page design mainstream

2005 - 2013- Web Renaissance

• Multimedia-based web design

• Dynamic web building replaces Static Web

- Culture trumps technology

Social networking becomes driving force on web

• web sits and other technologies are designed with comfort and convenience of user in mind

• 2013 - CurrentThe Cloud

…

web 1.0 vs Web 2.0web 1.0 vs Web 2.0

Network consisting of over millions of interconnected sub-networks worldwide

- No single owner

- Comprised of various text-only and multimedia-based resources

Major Components of the Internet:- eMail (Electronic Mail)

• Developed in early days of internet

• Currently most popular and widely used application

- World Wide Web

Software Application used on the internet to manage output

• Presents information in text, audio, video, graphic format

…

So, What is the Internet?So, What is the Internet?

• July 1995

• Estimated 4 million documents available on the web

• October 1995

• Number had grown to 8.5 million pages

• July 1996

• Estimated to contain between 16 - 50 million pieces of information

• By 1998, the number of internet pages toped 150 million

• July 2011

• Estimates at 1 Billion

…….

Web Users and ProfilesWeb Users and Profiles

…….

Web Users and ProfilesWeb Users and Profiles

• Recent data shows US consumption at > 200 million users (China at 1.87 Million)*

• 3 in every 4 adults gets online

• 37% of working adults use the internet at home

• 2 Million new long-term users each month

• >600 Million users worldwide

• *Source: InformationWeek

……

• Mass media and Critical Mass of Adopters

• Media to be considered “Mass” requires attainment of Critical Mass Status

• Critical Mass is achieved when 16% (approx. 50 million) of the population has adopted an innovation

…..

• Surfers > 10 hours per week:

• Increased from 29% in ‘95 to 82% by ’11

• Average users spend 13.9 hours per week cruising sites

• Nearly 1/2 of all users visit at least one web site daily

• 8 out of 10 users access Social Media and eMail daily

…

• Male users dominate the web

• Although female user-share has increased dramatically (31% - 40%)

• Women users tend to be slightly younger than male counter parts

• Average User Age Demographics:

• Women: 31.9 y/o

• Men: 33.4 y/o

..

• Retirees and older Americans have surpassed students as the fastest growing group of online users.

• $1.3 Trillion spent 2010 alone, accounting for the largest spending group on the internet.

.

• Average Annual Income:

• $58,000

• Remains high, but has fallen slightly as more students go online

• Traditional mass media

• 1:M communication model

• One source speaks at one time to many people

• Differs from interpersonal 1:1 model of communication that occurs when 1 person talks to another

• Marriage of computer systems and internet has given rise to Hybrid model of communication, M:1 Model

..Communication Models and the World Wide WebCommunication Models and the World Wide Web

• M:1 model of mass communication

• Cross between mass broadcasting and interpersonal communication

• Large amounts of info entered by many different sources and are stored until retrieved by individuals

.

• Internet crosses traditional boundaries of three modes of mass communication (1:1, 1:M, M:1)

• Internet architecture allows for all three types of communication, with a fourth type (M:N) emerging

• On the internet everyone can be a producer, receiver; personal or en-mass

• Information can be provided / accessed by many

• WWW: a revolutionary creation

• Technologically unique

• Traditional-medium properties

• Radio can be heard and is portable

• TV is visual and captivating

• Print is absorbing and can be read anytime

• Now the Web offers many of these same advantages

..

• Content:

• WWW blurs distinction among normal media distribution channels

• WWW takes everything and disseminates it equally

• Traditional methods are visibly different

• Audience

• RTV Reaches Large Audiences simultaneously

• Telephone is intended for one person at a time

• Thousands of web users can look at the same page at the same time

• Email is intended for one or several people at a time

…Characteristics of Mass MediaCharacteristics of Mass Media

• Time

• Asynchronous

• Variable time delay between print / receipt

• Synchronous

• No perceptible delay

..

• Display and Distribution

• Display:

• Technological means used to present information (audio, visual, text)

• Distribution

• Method used to carry information (wire, cable)

• Distance

• Some media better suited for different distances

.

• Storage

• Limited to those media that have electronic means of housing large amounts of information

• CD, HD, Tape

• Virtually unlimited storage space

• Newspaper houses, Print shops

• Limited space for back-issue storage

• Short Break• Short Break

The Internet and theWorld Wide Web

The Internet and theWorld Wide Web

• History of the Internet

• History of the World Wide Web

• How do they work?

• Connecting to the Internet

• Navigation

• Selecting a Browser

• Online Services

• II nternet vs. ii nternet

• An internet (small “i”) refers to any network of computers

• The Internet (large “I”) is a specific name

• Given to the communication network

comprised of hundreds of thousands

of inter-connected networks

….

• The Internet is not a new development

• Conceptualized in the early 1960’s

• Rand Corp. (Paul Baran) envisioned email

• Outlined proposal to US Govt. regarding the need for a communications network in case of a nuclear attack against the US.

• ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency) was created to facilitate network research

…

• 1970’s brought about Stanford University’s testing and development of early internet protocols

• Vinton Cerf -- Father of the Internet

• 1980’s & National Science Foundation

• NSF obtained control of network for government and educational use

..

• Also in the 1980’s:

• Tim Berners-Lee of CERN (European Laboratory of Particle Physics) began working on WWW

• Software for world-wide interconnectivity

• Berners-Lee -- Father of WWW

• Developed the Web as a means of sharing scientific information

• Written as an “…Internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing.”

.

• Internet surfing -- pre-browser era

• Before the Web, information retrieval was accomplished through a number of complicated steps and commands

• Difficult

• Time consuming

• Required greater-than-normal understanding of computing in order to operate

• “Private” until 1993 with the birth of Mosaic

• The internet as a Packet-Switched network

• Bundles of data are broken up, transmitted, and reassembled at the other end

• Transmitted data are mixed together with all the other data on the internet until it reaches it final destination

…

• Data flows through the internet via many interconnected computers

• Clients, Servers, and Routers

• Clients: Originating User’s Computer

• Server: Powerful, Continuous Internet Access

• Router: Computers that link networks together

..

• TCP/IP

• Sets definitions for how data transmission takes place.

• TCP (Transmission Control Protocols)

• Defines how computers communicate with each other

• IP (Internet Protocols)

• Tells routers how to reassemble data packets

.

• Several types of Internet Protocols:

• HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)

• WWW Documents

• WAIS (Wide Area Info System Protocol)

• Rules for accessing text-only file indices

• FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

• Data transfer from one computer to another

• Telnet (Terminal Emulation Protocol)

• Used when logging into another system

• Internet Service Providers (ISP’s)

• Flashnet, EV1, PDQ.net

• A company that provides the connection between remote locations and the internet

• The two most important ISP Services:

• Fast, reliable service with no busy signals

• Reliable email delivery in less than 5 minutes

• Individuals pay a monthly subscription rate for permission to dial-in to their server

…..

• Online Services

• AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy

• ISP’s on steroids

• Provide extra services in addition to the plain “net connection”

• On-line databases

• Govt. and Commercial information

• Search engines

• Many Online Services provide their own browsers

….

• Internet Addresses

• InterNIC

• Domain Name registration

• Sets rules

• Assigns IP Addresses

• Organizes participant categories

• Universities, Businesses

• Networks, Organizations

• Military, Government

…

• First-Level Domain Extender

• a.k.a. Top-Level Domain

• Thee letter code added to each address (e.g.: .COM)

• Com = commercial

• Edu = education (university)

• Gov = Government

• Mil = Military

• Net = Network support company

• Org = nonprofit, nongov. organization

..

• Every person given access to the internet is assigned an IP Address

• Unique to each user

• Serves as a locator

• When a request is sent from a client to a location on the internet, the reply is made by recognizing the IP Address

.

• Internet Addresses (aka Canonical Addresses) are associated with the IP Address

• Registered at the same time

• Also called DNS (Domain Name System)

• Username@host.subdomain

• (e.g.: smccombs@uh.edu)

• Net Browsers

• Mosaic

• Netscape

• Internet Explorer

• Present online information in a readable format to the user.

• Done by interpretation of a web programming language called HTML

…

• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

• World Wide Web Programming Language

• Consists of a series of commands that tell browsers how to read and present data to the user.

• Uses tags to accomplish page formatting

• Not actually a programming language

• Lacks compiling ability

..

• Making Web Pages Dynamic

• Scripting

• Web Programming using JAVA or VBScript

• Used in conjunction with HTML

• HTML = Static

• SCRIPTING = Dynamic

• JavaScript, VBScript

• programming code written within HTML Document that causes interactivity

.

• Moving around the web: Two Methods

• Hot Links and Buttons

• Links are hidden HTML commands that, when activated, can take a user to another web site

• URL

• The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the HTML’s specific web address

• URL by Bookmarking or Favorites

• Personal Preference

• Although some determining factors:

• Security

• Size of browser

• Cost

• Not really an issue any more

• Compatibility

• End Chapter 1 Presentation

• End Chapter 1 Presentation

The Internet and theWorld Wide Web

The Internet and theWorld Wide Web