Duomo Press

ORDER From Amazon GETTING the WEB: Understanding the Nature and Meaning of the Internet by Jeanne M. Follman The dot.coms have boomed and busted, but the Web continues to change the world around us in fundamental ways. This book helps you understand the Web and figure out what it can mean to what you care about and what you do. ISBN 0-9679456-9-0 176 pages Chapter Summaries and Free Chapter Downloads: The Big Picture - Technically, it's all quite complex and sophisticated. Conceptually it's a simple matter of moving files back and forth between servers and clients to engage people in communication and exchange. In Part I, we see what happens when individuals exchange words, pictures, sound, motion, and logic by putting them in files and moving them back and forth on the Internet - the telephone company for computers. The Telephone Company for Computers - How the telephone network and computers, as either clients or servers, make up the fabric of the Internet and create the basic mechanism for communication. Files - Traffic on the Internet is no more or no less than billions of requests and files, flying back and forth all over the world, between clients that have requested the files and servers that have served them. Files of Words - How the Internet fits into the written tradition and how it turbocharges the power of the word, visualizing discourse and giving each individual the power to create complex repositories of thought and to enter into a conversation on that thought with anyone else on the planet. Files of Pictures - How images on the Web can be used to convey complex information that can only be fully done pictorially. Files of Sound and Motion - How the Web can enable each one of us to become radio and video broadcasters. Files of Logic - Smart clients, smart servers, B2B: what happens when we start creating Web clients and servers that not only do "show and tell" (i.e., transmit files of words and pictures), but do the million other things that software is known for. Part II explores why the Internet is the way it is: how computers and telephone networks shape the nature of the Internet. We see how open standards successfully orchestrate the daily movement of millions of files, we look at search engines, we see why bandwidth is an issue, and we explore the crucial difference in a public network between content and connection. Open Standards - Open standards are the power that fuels phenomenal growth, providing the clarity and stability necessary to create new forms of communication and exchange. They provide an elegant, transparent way for people to interact in a cooperative fashion. As Tim Berners-Lee says, "As long as we accept the rules of sending packets around, we can send packets containing anything to anyone." Searching the Web - Push vs. Pull, metadata, and why it's so hard to find what you're looking for on the Web. Bandwidth and the World Wide Wait - A quick tour of the Internet, why squeezing bits through the voice telephone network is such a slow process and what forthcoming "broadband" solutions, especially ADSL and cable, can do to help the situation. Content and Connection - What happens when a number of centralized, private networks such as TV broadcast and cable networks crunch into the distributed, decentralized public network that is the Internet. In Part III, we discuss the ways in which the Internet shapes communication and exchange and ultimately, us. The Internet gives us a splendid mechanism to hold an enriched conversation or to do business with anyone on the planet. And when people start talking on the Internet, information flows freely, anyone can publish, barriers to entry for many businesses are virtually eliminated, intellectual capital increases, feedback shapes content, communities of interest gain voice, local communities thrive, and complex and differentiated entities form and emerge, like the open source movement and the Internet itself. Information illuminates. The Internet will make obvious new ways of doing things and create new ways of looking at life. With it, we can more easily see ourselves in the full context of who we really are and ensure that our institutions truly function the way they should. Individuals in Conversation - On the Internet, the vast complexity and storage capacity of computers fuses with the reach of the telephone network, dramatically enriching our conversations. If your interests, your business, or your mission in life lay within the realm of communication or exchange, the Internet is the tool for you. Are you ready? Formation of Community - On the Internet, it's not unusual for people who would otherwise be complete strangers to do cool stuff as a community for no other reason than their love of doing cool stuff. Far from being a force for social isolation, for people of like minds or similar interests, the Internet is a wellspring of community formation, and is itself the product of such a community. The Internet dissolves barriers, the main but not the only one being distance, and provides a forum for conversation, debate, and interaction. Conversations Driving Change - The Internet doesn't cause change but the people using it certainly do. If there are conversations between people and within communities that the Internet can bring about, it is from these conversations that change will come. Information and access have become both democratic and global, generating deep structural changes in the way we communicate and do business. An Outbreak of Sanity - Information illuminates. With it, we can see ourselves in the full context of who we really are and insure through transparency that our organizations function the way they should. Using the Internet, each individual, alone or in communities of interest and knowledge, finally has the power to trump the agenda of the institution and shape it to serve those who give it meaning. It may be just the thing we need to permanently nail into place the mother of all paradigm shifts: the idea that the person gives meaning to the institution, not the other way around. Glossary Bibliography and Index   Also see a Detailed Table of Contents.

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