How might the metaphor of an ‘ecology’ impact on the way you think about, understand or use the Internet?
It is a great metaphor. It has helped me to settle. It is accurate because that is the feeling I get when I am involved with the many levels of the internet. It's a bit like a 'big bang' in that it is evolving, complex and very different to what has come before. But it's a bit short on beauty... the likes of flora and fauna... internet can never replace the prior ecology. I'm glad I was a spectator for part of the transition. I hope I can help to make it a positive part of the future.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Week 12
I was almost driven to 'phone a friend'. I could not find the cover sheet files. I have been looking for weeks on and off. I knew I had seen them when I first read the course notes. But I have been looping around these notes so many times now I was lost. The first thing I did this morning was check one more time. And I found them. Onward and upward! j:)
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Week 11
Blogger down for maintenance. Click here for more info. Clicked there and the new info was old info 8.5.09. Came back on and Voila! Back on. .... just another internet time waster!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Module 4_Boolean Search
Peacock and habitat - on Google - 908,000 hits.
Peacock or habitat - on google - 940,000 hits
Peacock not habitat - on Google - 284,00 hits
habitat peacock - on Google - 891,000 hits
peacock habitat - on Google - 888,000 hits
peacock - on Google - 19,800,000 hits
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock
All searches have wikipedia close to the top. There were no university sources on this topic.
All searches gave me a part of what I was looking for. They are native to India and a few other places like Java which I didn't know. But the information is patchy and not that abundant about peacock habitat on the top level internet really. There is nothing leading me to the 'deep web'.
I would save these searches in Explorer's Favourites. If there were too many favourites I would place them in a folder called Peacocks. Really I would search on a 'needs to' basis. The internet itself is the library or resource. Why store everything again? To be honest I would not search for information about peacock habitat in this way. Nothing on the internet seems very reassuring about this topic.
Peacock or habitat - on google - 940,000 hits
Peacock not habitat - on Google - 284,00 hits
habitat peacock - on Google - 891,000 hits
peacock habitat - on Google - 888,000 hits
peacock - on Google - 19,800,000 hits
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock
All searches have wikipedia close to the top. There were no university sources on this topic.
All searches gave me a part of what I was looking for. They are native to India and a few other places like Java which I didn't know. But the information is patchy and not that abundant about peacock habitat on the top level internet really. There is nothing leading me to the 'deep web'.
I would save these searches in Explorer's Favourites. If there were too many favourites I would place them in a folder called Peacocks. Really I would search on a 'needs to' basis. The internet itself is the library or resource. Why store everything again? To be honest I would not search for information about peacock habitat in this way. Nothing on the internet seems very reassuring about this topic.
Module 4_Search Engine Task
Search Engine: Google
Search Term: Peacock habitat
First site: http://www.gotpetsonline.com/peacock/information-peacock/peacock-habitat.html
No. hits: 888,000
p.s. Very ordinary quality site. The page repeats the same sentence 3 times. boo!
Next 4 hits: http://www.bird-breeds.com/Peacock.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock
http://www.tonyhill.net/peacockfeathers.ivnu
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_natural_habitat_of_a_peacock
_________________
Search Engine: Copernic
Search Term: Peacock habitat
First site: http://www.gcamerica.org/scholarship/peacock.html
No. hits: 20
p.s Very obscure choice. Someone who's surname is Peacock offers scolarship on bird habitat. doh!
Next 4 hits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock
http://www.gamebird.com/peacock.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_habitat_of_a_peacock
http://www.peacock-birds.com/
On first glance I was happier with google, but now that I look at the first 5 sites of each search, I believe Copernicus gave results which seemed to stay closer to the topic, despite the first one being an unusual selection for an advanced search engine.
Search Term: Peacock habitat
First site: http://www.gotpetsonline.com/peacock/information-peacock/peacock-habitat.html
No. hits: 888,000
p.s. Very ordinary quality site. The page repeats the same sentence 3 times. boo!
Next 4 hits: http://www.bird-breeds.com/Peacock.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock
http://www.tonyhill.net/peacockfeathers.ivnu
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_natural_habitat_of_a_peacock
_________________
Search Engine: Copernic
Search Term: Peacock habitat
First site: http://www.gcamerica.org/scholarship/peacock.html
No. hits: 20
p.s Very obscure choice. Someone who's surname is Peacock offers scolarship on bird habitat. doh!
Next 4 hits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock
http://www.gamebird.com/peacock.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_habitat_of_a_peacock
http://www.peacock-birds.com/
On first glance I was happier with google, but now that I look at the first 5 sites of each search, I believe Copernicus gave results which seemed to stay closer to the topic, despite the first one being an unusual selection for an advanced search engine.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Concept 13
13. Communication is not complete upon receipt
A major disadvantage of email and similar asynchronous communications systems is that, often or sometimes, human users assume that when a message has been received, then it is automatically going to be acted upon or read or similar processed by the human(s) to which it was sent. While computers are very good at automatically processing information, humans are not.
The key to effective email management is to consistently and conscientiously respond to and act upon the email you receive, while recognising that others may not be as efficient as yourself.
Equally, a website is not complete when it is created and presented: it has to be used. Websites are, basically, a very indirect form of communication and so, if we wish to use the web effectively, we can apply the same lesson: simply visiting a website is not sufficient…doing something with it is what closes the circuit of communication.
Communication is not complete upon receipt. Email, fax, snail mail, messenger, yelling across a room, whispering in an ear... who gets a receipt? Communication has never been an exact science. What is frustrating with the myriad of asynchronous communication systems is that there are so many of them now. So many options of how to make a piece of communication. So many individual preferences all made based on nothing in particular. There are no rules here.
Forget communication on a personal basis, that is a work in progress for our society doing great things with Facebook, mobile phones, SMS, twitter, You Tube and email. These forums have made communication fun and different for those who 'get into it'. But there are a lot of people who don't. I personally don't because it takes just too much time, especially if you actually want a response!
Advertisers try to break into these markets, it's a lot of work to get a message in and responded to.The web and email has fragmented the communication channels from both sides.
The concern when writing formulas for e-direct mail is that a mass email can be sent very economically and quickly. It is not a favoured form of communication, because many people don't open their emails unless they are personal. A personal email does not look personal unless it is personal. That means you need to trust and desire to communicate with the person or business attached to that particular address.
Then there is the cold heartedness of the web for individuals exploring businesses and the community. You can feel unresponded to. The web does not have a politeness factor. This is very difficult to resolve. The best websites make an effort to acknowledge visits. In my experience complaints are not acknowledged often. It is very easy to sign up for things but not easy to get a question answered or service afterwards.Communication should be complete upon receipt. The fact that it is not is what makes the web ineffective. It is a bit hit and miss, so unless you can close the loop by other means ie phone or letter then professionally it is not a stand alone communication, but then again, what is? Any task would need to be followed up and checked throughout its journey to completion. Why does the internet imply completeness. I think it's because there is no visible recipient. It asks you to trust it, because once you have pressed send you have no other means of knowing whether it is truly with the recipient. So there is a built-in assumption there that it must work otherewise it's useless. Which many times it is. And no-one wants to accept this fact.
The internet has a long way to go. It has come a long way too. This course is basically my second look at internet. When I first took an interest it was so raw and basic that I lost interest. This was in 1997 before the dot.coms crashed. 498 words.
Tschabitscher, H (2009) About.com Guide to Email since 1997
http://email.about.com/
This About.com site covers it on 'emails'. The site is part of The New York Times group of companies and has been running since 1997. It has a faithful following on many useful topics, not just email. This 'email' topic within the site talks about good email housekeeping and how to create successful marketing emails. It is relevant to this concept because it illustrates just how much there is to know about a simple topic like email. Email has a lot of applications. Improving our understanding of its uses will improve our chances of enjoying closed circuit communication when we use email.
HavenWorks.com (2009) HavenWorks.com is an Independent American News Website Blog.
http://www.havenworks.com/
This website, gets the prize for the worst website. it looks bad and it is not even current. The last piece of news it has on Australia dates back to February 2008 and is about the Australian Wheat Board price rise. I have included it here to illustrate how badly designed a website can be. It is not that useful, all my searches turned up nothing, so I am not sure who is actually benefitting from this website. News by date (fyi todays date is 17.05.09) has the top entry dated 31 March 2009. How useless. It is also an illustration of what a website looks like when you have no hope of finding out who is behind it. Take my word for it, this site has made me feel bilious.
A major disadvantage of email and similar asynchronous communications systems is that, often or sometimes, human users assume that when a message has been received, then it is automatically going to be acted upon or read or similar processed by the human(s) to which it was sent. While computers are very good at automatically processing information, humans are not.
The key to effective email management is to consistently and conscientiously respond to and act upon the email you receive, while recognising that others may not be as efficient as yourself.
Equally, a website is not complete when it is created and presented: it has to be used. Websites are, basically, a very indirect form of communication and so, if we wish to use the web effectively, we can apply the same lesson: simply visiting a website is not sufficient…doing something with it is what closes the circuit of communication.
Communication is not complete upon receipt. Email, fax, snail mail, messenger, yelling across a room, whispering in an ear... who gets a receipt? Communication has never been an exact science. What is frustrating with the myriad of asynchronous communication systems is that there are so many of them now. So many options of how to make a piece of communication. So many individual preferences all made based on nothing in particular. There are no rules here.
Forget communication on a personal basis, that is a work in progress for our society doing great things with Facebook, mobile phones, SMS, twitter, You Tube and email. These forums have made communication fun and different for those who 'get into it'. But there are a lot of people who don't. I personally don't because it takes just too much time, especially if you actually want a response!
Advertisers try to break into these markets, it's a lot of work to get a message in and responded to.The web and email has fragmented the communication channels from both sides.
The concern when writing formulas for e-direct mail is that a mass email can be sent very economically and quickly. It is not a favoured form of communication, because many people don't open their emails unless they are personal. A personal email does not look personal unless it is personal. That means you need to trust and desire to communicate with the person or business attached to that particular address.
Then there is the cold heartedness of the web for individuals exploring businesses and the community. You can feel unresponded to. The web does not have a politeness factor. This is very difficult to resolve. The best websites make an effort to acknowledge visits. In my experience complaints are not acknowledged often. It is very easy to sign up for things but not easy to get a question answered or service afterwards.Communication should be complete upon receipt. The fact that it is not is what makes the web ineffective. It is a bit hit and miss, so unless you can close the loop by other means ie phone or letter then professionally it is not a stand alone communication, but then again, what is? Any task would need to be followed up and checked throughout its journey to completion. Why does the internet imply completeness. I think it's because there is no visible recipient. It asks you to trust it, because once you have pressed send you have no other means of knowing whether it is truly with the recipient. So there is a built-in assumption there that it must work otherewise it's useless. Which many times it is. And no-one wants to accept this fact.
The internet has a long way to go. It has come a long way too. This course is basically my second look at internet. When I first took an interest it was so raw and basic that I lost interest. This was in 1997 before the dot.coms crashed. 498 words.
Tschabitscher, H (2009) About.com Guide to Email since 1997
http://email.about.com/
This About.com site covers it on 'emails'. The site is part of The New York Times group of companies and has been running since 1997. It has a faithful following on many useful topics, not just email. This 'email' topic within the site talks about good email housekeeping and how to create successful marketing emails. It is relevant to this concept because it illustrates just how much there is to know about a simple topic like email. Email has a lot of applications. Improving our understanding of its uses will improve our chances of enjoying closed circuit communication when we use email.
HavenWorks.com (2009) HavenWorks.com is an Independent American News Website Blog.
http://www.havenworks.com/
This website, gets the prize for the worst website. it looks bad and it is not even current. The last piece of news it has on Australia dates back to February 2008 and is about the Australian Wheat Board price rise. I have included it here to illustrate how badly designed a website can be. It is not that useful, all my searches turned up nothing, so I am not sure who is actually benefitting from this website. News by date (fyi todays date is 17.05.09) has the top entry dated 31 March 2009. How useless. It is also an illustration of what a website looks like when you have no hope of finding out who is behind it. Take my word for it, this site has made me feel bilious.
Concept 6
6. Reading the difference between 'surface' metadata and 'implied' metadata
Metadata, in the context of email, is the generic term for the descriptive data contained in the header of the message that tells us who the email is address to; who the email comes from; what is the email's subject; who else is receiving copies of the email; the urgency which the sender has ascribed to the message; the time the email was sent; and (as supplied by your own interaction with the message once arrived) has it been read and has it been replied to. Metadata is, technically 'data about data'. It is the information which tells us the import and content of other information (you will learn more about metadata throughout your studies).
Effective electronic communication depends on metadata; but, from a user's point of view, the 'surface' metadata (what is actually 'there' in the header) needs to be read in light of the content of the message to see if it is reallyas it should be. For example, a message send to my email address may not actually be to 'me'. Perhaps the person believes I am, for example, the technical support officer in my department (whereas I am the academic coordinator of Internet Studies). The content of the message will make that clear and I will need to respond accordingly.
While the header contains the 'surface' metadata, understanding email messages may require you to interpret the implied, hidden metadata cued into the body of email messages.
While email messages need certain key elements of metadata to make them sendable, and also routinely contain other key elements to make them useable, many websites do no really have good metadata and, with the URL, no-one needs that data. Furthermore, URLs are, rarely, much help as metadata in themselves, unless the site is carefully constructed in such a way as to make the URL communicate to you as well as to the computer. However, as you can see by looking at the metadata in websites, it is important for the proper functioning of search engines and other finding tools.
Conceptually, we are seeing the use of metadata in information services change from being a tightly controlled, ‘professional’ activity (ie a classifying system used by librarians, such as Dewey Decimal, MARC etc) to being an activity completely entwined with the many, diverse processes of everyday, social life. Hence, marketeers carefully think about the metadata they can place in a site so as to attract an audience; pornographers try to make their sites ‘available’ to as many different kinds of search engine requests as they can get away with; even non-commercial sites use metadata to attact people. Thus, rather than being data that describes the data, metadata is slowly becoming (at least in part), data that tries to predict and attract certain types of users.
There is a finite amount of meaningful marketing metadata available. It is getting harder and harder to get original and relevant urls. Even personalised numberplates have re-emerged using 3 for 'e' and colour variations to try to get some more life out the finite scope of 6 letter words.
There is also a cultural aspect to metadata being used world-wide. When I ftp'ed a person in the miidle east, the URL was 'enduringlife'. And this was an advertising agency. So url styles vary around the world. This name would put me in doubt-mode and I would probably not open an email like that unless I knew who it was from.
It is interesting that the URLs are ultimately a number when they are hatched. I was often intigued about how language was actually filed. No problem for meaning but duplications and variations is a problem. And the more names which are created the less their meaning is accurate. So many times I have to settle on a password or user name which is a couple of steps removed what I actually intended. This also adds to the hit and miss perception of the internet.
A great web-site which I have kept an eye on for the last 10 years is http://www.thebranflakes.com/. If you key in http://www.branflake.com/ it defaults to some other url. I actually found it 10 years ago and I haven't thought about it again until now.
The Branflakes are a band. They make amazing music out of found music. They piece all this old stuff together and make something truly original.
I emailed them to find out what they have done with their nifty web 'danger button'....
Hi Joanne,
I do recall you asking about the song. That was years ago and our site has most certainly gone through many transformations. Our Danger area is still active, but hidden. It's accessible from our about page in our bio, http://www.thebranflakes.com/about.html and located here, http://www.thebranflakes.com/danger/index.html
A lot of the content has changed in that from 1997-2000 the website had side projects that Mildred and I were doing, but since 2000 we sort of turned the site into just a place for the band and other projects went over to http://www.happityme.com/ and http://www.otisfodder.com/ and http://www.libsci.com/
Very nice to hear from you and thanks for wanting to use our site as an example.
Cheers,
Otis and Mildred
From: Joanne Murray [mailto:justjoanne@iprimus.com.au] Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 7:01 AMTo: info@thebranflakes.comSubject: Hello
I just want to say hi to you guys from Australia.
I have not thought about you in over a decade and I see your web site is still going!! Your videos are a breath of fresh air.
I stumbled on your site while looking for music - 'She's the ginchiest' by Lee Gordon. Do you remember me? I vaguely remember emailing you then. And I think you answered.
Anyway... I am using your site as an example of meta-data for my Internet Communications course (it is your url http://www.branflake.com/ isn't it?). I was disappointed to see your site doesn't have that 'don't push button'. Why'd you let it go?
This web site has been the bench-mark for me for the mysteries of the internet. How did you all know so much so early? You are real pioneers.
love joanne x
_______________
How's that for some meta-data which does not even try to make sense? 544 words
http://lii.org/pub/subtopic/3247
This website covers in depth about a lot of types of meta-data.
Metadata, in the context of email, is the generic term for the descriptive data contained in the header of the message that tells us who the email is address to; who the email comes from; what is the email's subject; who else is receiving copies of the email; the urgency which the sender has ascribed to the message; the time the email was sent; and (as supplied by your own interaction with the message once arrived) has it been read and has it been replied to. Metadata is, technically 'data about data'. It is the information which tells us the import and content of other information (you will learn more about metadata throughout your studies).
Effective electronic communication depends on metadata; but, from a user's point of view, the 'surface' metadata (what is actually 'there' in the header) needs to be read in light of the content of the message to see if it is reallyas it should be. For example, a message send to my email address may not actually be to 'me'. Perhaps the person believes I am, for example, the technical support officer in my department (whereas I am the academic coordinator of Internet Studies). The content of the message will make that clear and I will need to respond accordingly.
While the header contains the 'surface' metadata, understanding email messages may require you to interpret the implied, hidden metadata cued into the body of email messages.
While email messages need certain key elements of metadata to make them sendable, and also routinely contain other key elements to make them useable, many websites do no really have good metadata and, with the URL, no-one needs that data. Furthermore, URLs are, rarely, much help as metadata in themselves, unless the site is carefully constructed in such a way as to make the URL communicate to you as well as to the computer. However, as you can see by looking at the metadata in websites, it is important for the proper functioning of search engines and other finding tools.
Conceptually, we are seeing the use of metadata in information services change from being a tightly controlled, ‘professional’ activity (ie a classifying system used by librarians, such as Dewey Decimal, MARC etc) to being an activity completely entwined with the many, diverse processes of everyday, social life. Hence, marketeers carefully think about the metadata they can place in a site so as to attract an audience; pornographers try to make their sites ‘available’ to as many different kinds of search engine requests as they can get away with; even non-commercial sites use metadata to attact people. Thus, rather than being data that describes the data, metadata is slowly becoming (at least in part), data that tries to predict and attract certain types of users.
There is a finite amount of meaningful marketing metadata available. It is getting harder and harder to get original and relevant urls. Even personalised numberplates have re-emerged using 3 for 'e' and colour variations to try to get some more life out the finite scope of 6 letter words.
There is also a cultural aspect to metadata being used world-wide. When I ftp'ed a person in the miidle east, the URL was 'enduringlife'. And this was an advertising agency. So url styles vary around the world. This name would put me in doubt-mode and I would probably not open an email like that unless I knew who it was from.
It is interesting that the URLs are ultimately a number when they are hatched. I was often intigued about how language was actually filed. No problem for meaning but duplications and variations is a problem. And the more names which are created the less their meaning is accurate. So many times I have to settle on a password or user name which is a couple of steps removed what I actually intended. This also adds to the hit and miss perception of the internet.
A great web-site which I have kept an eye on for the last 10 years is http://www.thebranflakes.com/. If you key in http://www.branflake.com/ it defaults to some other url. I actually found it 10 years ago and I haven't thought about it again until now.
The Branflakes are a band. They make amazing music out of found music. They piece all this old stuff together and make something truly original.
I emailed them to find out what they have done with their nifty web 'danger button'....
Hi Joanne,
I do recall you asking about the song. That was years ago and our site has most certainly gone through many transformations. Our Danger area is still active, but hidden. It's accessible from our about page in our bio, http://www.thebranflakes.com/about.html and located here, http://www.thebranflakes.com/danger/index.html
A lot of the content has changed in that from 1997-2000 the website had side projects that Mildred and I were doing, but since 2000 we sort of turned the site into just a place for the band and other projects went over to http://www.happityme.com/ and http://www.otisfodder.com/ and http://www.libsci.com/
Very nice to hear from you and thanks for wanting to use our site as an example.
Cheers,
Otis and Mildred
From: Joanne Murray [mailto:justjoanne@iprimus.com.au] Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 7:01 AMTo: info@thebranflakes.comSubject: Hello
I just want to say hi to you guys from Australia.
I have not thought about you in over a decade and I see your web site is still going!! Your videos are a breath of fresh air.
I stumbled on your site while looking for music - 'She's the ginchiest' by Lee Gordon. Do you remember me? I vaguely remember emailing you then. And I think you answered.
Anyway... I am using your site as an example of meta-data for my Internet Communications course (it is your url http://www.branflake.com/ isn't it?). I was disappointed to see your site doesn't have that 'don't push button'. Why'd you let it go?
This web site has been the bench-mark for me for the mysteries of the internet. How did you all know so much so early? You are real pioneers.
love joanne x
_______________
How's that for some meta-data which does not even try to make sense? 544 words
http://lii.org/pub/subtopic/3247
This website covers in depth about a lot of types of meta-data.
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