Week Four

Lecture Summary

This weeks lecture was all about the Internet and the World Wide Web, discussing how we distinguish the difference between them since it has often been mis-understood that they are the same thing, when they in fact are not. In order to explain this well, the lecture looked back on the history of the internet and the web as well as mentioning the actual definitions of each term ( i.e. the world wide web and the internet ), and made it clear that although they are both differnent in essence, the web cannot exist without the internet, and the internet is of no good use without the web. The rest of the lecture basically familiarised us with common internet and web language which is important for us to understand if we want to become experts in the use of the internet and web.

Tutorial Tasks

The two first websites we were given to analyse, http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.com/ and http://www.molossia.org/, both contain some aspects that appear to be of a genuine nature. These are: providing a date, publisher, terms and conditions, and general disclaimers at the bottom of the web page; large stylised headings; site maps; and the haggishunt site even contains a drop-down menu for other websites from the same publisher.

Clues that give away each site as being a spoof

For www.molossia.org/:

1. First of all, there is no such thing as the Republic of Molossia, since they were in fact an Ancient Greek tribe from the Mycenean period (As i learnt last year in my year twelve TEE Ancient history subject). Furthermore, the site has even provided a fake disclaimer stating that "The Republic of Molossia bears no relation of any kind to the Ancient Greek nation of the same name", which simply confirms that it is a spoof because a normal site belonging to a state or country would not make such a statement.
2. The 'History' of the nation is very obviously made up. It describes a fake war with a fake nation that has a ridiculous name, 'Mustachistan', which sounds quite phonetically similar to names of countries often ridiculed such as Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.
3. There is a link under 'Special Links' in the menu that clearly confirms the fictionalization of the site and how we too may make our own fictional nation, ' How to start your own micronation', a 'fun' service provided by geocites.com.
4. Last of all, the general appearance and content of the site is not the sort that a real national site would contain, as it would be more on serious matters and news.

For http://haggishunt.scotsman.com/:

1. The concept (i.e, searching for a 'Haggis' which is in fact a platypus) is quite obviously silly.
2. The name of the 'chief ghillie', 'Farquhar Farquharson' is ridiculous enough in itself.
3. One of the 'facts' about Haggis says, "Haggis is waterproof, but not showerproof". Which makes no absolute sense.
4. The cameras placed around scotland, supposedly to spot Haggis, look simply like still shots of security cameras, or photos made to look like a still shot of a camera.

Martin Luther King website:

http://www.martinlutherking.org/

Before viewing the site, the name of it gave me the impression that it would be a site belonging to an organisation of Martin Luther King supporters with a possible historical feel to the site or maybe even teachings of some of his philosophies. However, once i looked at the site my impression was that it is not very proffessional in appearance, and upon reading some of the material on the site it was confirmed to me that the site was not a serious one. For example, a quote on the home page supposedly from Newsweek magazine, claims that Martin Luther said some explicit comments after a wild night in his hotel room, i.e. "...I'm f**ing for God and I'm not a negro tonight!"; Something that of course does not seem true of a person that the world knew was a good man.

Readings

A Brief History of the Internet:

(Is not a very brief piece of text)...These are some of its points;

• The Internet is a form of communication that has had an amazing impact on the world.
• The Origins- Firstly a written concept known as the "Galactic Network" by Licklider in the early 1960s.
• During the 60's. Licklinder pushed his theory to action through Kleinrock, who with some other specialists, experimented with the first wide-range computer to computer communication.
• After provong its feasability, it was only a matter or coming up with a better means than a telephone line for file transfers.