Internet Communications

Internet Communications Info
One of the best uses of the Internet and World Wide Web is communication. We have come a long way in the last 10 years, and a lot of our internet communication techniques have really become sophisticated, and pretty nice to work with and view.

Traditionally, most internet communication was text-based. This means that you could only see letters, numbers, and other similar characters. They were primarily ASCII characters. With the emergence of HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language), we now can communicate with colors, graphics, and hyperlinks. This new (relatively speaking) look is called GUI (graphical user interface) and is commonly pronounced, "Gooey."

A concept that is very important for positive internet communication experiences is Netiquette. Netiquette is proper etiquette while communicating online. Please read Chapter 1 in your text, concentrating on the following terms:

spamming, flamed, all caps, lurk before you leap, and scrolling the chat room.

The types of communication we will work with in this course are discussion groups and email.

Discussion Groups
Discussion groups are also known as threaded discussion groups, electronic fora and asynchronous chat. They are very similar to newsgroups and mailing lists. Discussion groups are much more organized than live-chat, and tend to be topic-related. Many users prefer discussion groups because they can think about their response before posting. Usenet is the largest collection of Newsgroups.

Discussion Group Task
Your assignment is to post to the Discussions topic called Netiquette. You will find the Class Discussion icon on the Homepage. Compose an original message and then reply to one other posting. For the rest of the course, it will be your job to answer any questions that are asked of you in this area. You must research these questions, and answer them to the best of your ability.

Email Info

Email is short for Electronic Mail. In order for an email account to work, you need to have a few things. First you need an email provider or server. This often comes with your internet service provider such as AOL. Then you need to have the software for email, which is often called the client-software, loaded on your computer. Thirdly, you need to have an email account, which will require a username and password normally. By the way, the process going on when you enter a username and password is called authentication. Authentication is the server checking the user's credentials, almost like when a bouncer at a night club checks ID, the authentication process is designed to allow only those who are supposed to be in that account in that account.
Email is sent via a data packet. The packet is sent through the internet wires, to the specified address, much as a parcel is sent via the US mail, except for much, much, faster! The packet sits there (on the server) until the participant checks his/her mail and then deletes it.

Sample Syllabus