Well to start off with, I have finally gotten in to University and settled in my halls very well! In my first web lecture we have been introduced to the web and its uses and how it has rapidly progressed over the years.
We were set a task for our independent learning which was simple and really helped with getting into the flow of how University works and gradually learning about the web rather than being thrown straight in at the deep end.
We had to read three articles based on the world wide web, the past and future of the web and mosaic and the web. Following this we had to write a 750 word essay based on one chosen technology related to the web so I personally chose to research more on HTML’s, I found it very interesting to learn how HTML works and its progression since 1989 when it was created by a man named Tim Berners-Lee. In all honestly I became quite confused whilst reading up on the research I have found because HTML has changed so much that trying to memorise all the dates and upgrades for it to make sense in my mind was tough. I followed up on my research by finding out more about HTML5, this is what I found very interesting yet overwhelming as half the research I had gathered says that HTML5 will not be ready for several years but then another portion of my research was telling me that HTML5 is here now but may have a few downfalls with specific web browsers which aren’t up to date, In my spare time I plan to read up more on this to find out what the current situation is, ask my lecturers for information or even just browse through my classmates blog posts to see how their research relates to mine or whether they have got something completely different as to what I have found.
Focusing more on the articles, the first one I read through was written by a man named Tim Berners-Lee; The past, present and future of the WWW. As I already mentioned, Berners-Lee was the man who had created the web and HTML. It explains in detail how the internet was made easy for its users by using HTML (Hypertext mark-up Language) to move around a web page and navigate to other pages using hyperlinks, how computers are given domain names and IP addresses to control the safety of the internet today by being monitored but back when the web was first invented, computers were given domain names so that communication between people could be made easier to find, just like now we navigate around the web using URL’s as it is a simple method that anyone can follow. It also taught me how mark-ups command the web page to look a certain way for example a common command is <b> </b> tells a certain text to be presented in bold and also how information on multiple web pages can be communicated to anybody across the world.
The second article I had to read was called ‘the internet and the world wide web’ which was written by Alfred C Weaver to recap the evolution of the web. This article gives an overview of the history of the internet and how information can be found and accessed on the web through the process of URL’s and search engines. The article was also widely based on the big and most important uses of the web for personal uses but also small and large companies for communication such as using emailing and the purpose of using it and how that is still expanding. The article gives a wide range of resources focusing on travel and leisure such as shopping, gaming and pretty much any other topic you can think of, even the weather right up to financing or education can be accessed online today. AC Weaver at the end of his article stated that he sees in the future, the web will shift from being an information source to a tool for business and also java programming language will be introduced which can avoid having to use seperate developments for computer platforms such as windows and macs in a few years, so far I would say his predictions were pretty accurate.
The final article was based on mosaic and the internet, written by Ronald Vetter. This focused on HTML which was created by Tim Berners-Lee whilst he was working in computer services in a company based in switzerland called CERN and a small summary of what HTML means such as hypertext can link up text and images and how the mark up presents this text to us through the instructions it is given. This article developed my knowledge and gave me information on CERN which I could include in my Essay based on HTML overall. This piece also mentioned information about the comparisons between the WWW and Gopher/WAIS which I still feel like I need to broaden my knowledge on this topic and do some further research. The article showed diagrams of mosaic browsers and servers used with HTML.
Overall I didn’t think I would have learnt so much in my first week which I had no idea about before hand and at first it seemed overwhelming however I found I could do the work when i just put my mind and focus into it.
