Week 5 Lecture notes

History of the web screening: "The Dawn of the net"

The Internet is literally just computers linked by phone lines.
Invented by USDoD - U.S Academics.

Early uses of the Internet:

Email, FTP - (File transfer protocol), Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
MUDs, MOOs, Mushes etc.

More recent internet applications:
-Instant Messaging (IM)
-Peer to Peer (P2P) file sharing
-Weblogs and various forms of 'blogging'
-Portable audio (MP3, AAC, OGG etc) and podcasting
-VOIP and voice chat
-3G Mobile technology - (mobile platforms for content developments
-MMOGs and online gaming
- Virtual worlds
-Web 2.0 which brings together the idea of social networking software and also user
generated content.

Netiquette and bad behaviour:
Etiquette on the Internet - Based on the 'Golden Rule' (do unto others as you would have them do unto you)'.
SPAM- (unsolicited emails)
"Cracking" & "Hacking" - Hacking is computer crime.

Kevin Mitnick:
A notorious cracker - who got into the US Air Defence System in his youth.
- Did a year in prison for reading a company's email.

Viruses:
Have the potential for massive damage for little input. The case of Queenslander Clint Haines
is instructive. The question remains - who benefits?

Emoticons:
Data Rape.alt.humour vs rec.pets.cats - these sites explore the issue of stories as threats - Language is given an exalted and problematised position on the internet because so far, one form of linguistic text is the lifeblood of the net.

Virtual Reality:
The issue of 'virutuality and reality' - questions the content of such sites on the web.

Economics of Cyberspace:
John Perry Barlow's "Economy of Ideas"

Social Network Capital - The value in person interaction - Though we may never meet.
Knowledge capital - The value of ideas - The sharing of information.
Cultural capital - The value in the values we share.