A Wiki is an online database, thats added to and updated by its users, thru the browser. One well known (and a key reference for me, in PChuck's Network) wiki is Wikipedia.
A Wiki is an online example of democracy in action. One person can write anything, but if everybody else participating sees that something is bogus, they will correct as necessary. Since correcting a WiKi is done by hand, any single person trying to make bogus entries is generally outvoted by the other participants, and technical correctness prevails. This principle is similar to the ESP Game, as discussed by Luis Von Ahn: July 26, 2006 Human Computation, and to the Google Image Labeler.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Syndication Feeds and Newsreaders
There are millions of websites out there on the Web, and not all of them are updated regularly. Anybody who uses the web, with any regularity, has dozens of favourite websites, and checks each one periodically for updates. And anyone who uses the web, with any intensity, knows the frustration of either checking the same website repeatedly and seeing the same material, or checking a website one day and seeing some information several days old, that you would have benefited from greatly, if known sooner.
So what to do? Originally, folks who ran websites that really wanted visitors would get an email address from each visitor. Periodically, or when they had written a particularly interesting article, they would email to all of their registered visitors
But the problem with most "Hey check out my website" email was myriad.
So nowadays, properly designed web sites, and blogs, include a replica of each page, that you never see when viewing a page in your browser. This replica, called a news feed, can be read only by a newsreader. You subscribe to a news feed by adding its URL to your newsreader. You read your newsreader when its convenient, your newsreader checks all subscribed web sites, and gives you a list of all feeds that have changes relevant to your needs.
The web site is updated when convenient to the author, and you read the updates when convenient to you. Your newsreader tells you which sites have changed, and you only spend time reading the changes. Simple.
You can view the news feeds that interest you using a newsreader, or other products.
So what to do? Originally, folks who ran websites that really wanted visitors would get an email address from each visitor. Periodically, or when they had written a particularly interesting article, they would email to all of their registered visitors
Check out the website, read this article.
But the problem with most "Hey check out my website" email was myriad.
- Many folks wouldn't subscribe, for fear of spam.
- Some email systems would treat the email, received as spam.
- Folks even getting the email wouldn't read it promptly.
- The email never went out often enough to suit everybody, or it went out too frequently to suit some folks.
So nowadays, properly designed web sites, and blogs, include a replica of each page, that you never see when viewing a page in your browser. This replica, called a news feed, can be read only by a newsreader. You subscribe to a news feed by adding its URL to your newsreader. You read your newsreader when its convenient, your newsreader checks all subscribed web sites, and gives you a list of all feeds that have changes relevant to your needs.
The web site is updated when convenient to the author, and you read the updates when convenient to you. Your newsreader tells you which sites have changed, and you only spend time reading the changes. Simple.
You can view the news feeds that interest you using a newsreader, or other products.
- As a stand alone program. NewsGator (not free) is well known.
- As a browser add-in. If you have Firefox (and I hope that you do), you can get Sage, a free Firefox extension.
- As a standalone reader, in a web page. Bloglines, and Google Reader, are two well known examples.
- If your web site (blog) supports JavaScript, you can have your feed hosted on a server, with a JavaScript front end embedded in your web page. FeedBurner and Feed Digest are two services that provide this possibility.
- If you have a Blogger blog with a Layouts template (and possibly other blog products), you can add a Page Element, selected as a Feed.
- You can find dozens of other possibilities in such websites as Atom Enabled, and News On Feeds.
InterRecord Chat aka IRC
IRC is the original chatroom, a "virtual meeting place where people from all over the world can meet and talk". It's a totally separate protocol from the Web (aka HTTP).
If you say that Usenet is a Many to Many communication, which operates In Virtual Time / Virtual Space, then IRC is a Many To Many communications which operates in Real Time / Virtual Space. Both IRC and Instant Messaging offer Real Time / Virtual Space communications; though the latter started out as One - One, the two are converging somewhat.
IRC communications are limited to text, with some rich text ability but nothing standard. It requires a specialised agent, such as mIRC, which is installed on the computer, for full participation.
There are dozens of IRC networks, each containing multiple servers in various world wide locations, and having their own separate rules and regulations. You can sign in to any server with an available connection, and have access to the chat rooms on that network (but only the ones on that network).
Full participation in IRC gives you access to hundreds of chat rooms, aka channels. Each channel is started, and run, by anybody who connects to an IRC server and opens a channel with that name (assuming that name is not in use on that network). The channels can be moderated by the person starting a channel, or by the owners of a server on that network, or by anybody designated as a moderator by a current moderator.
Some IRC channels are connected to Java front end scripts. You can participate in limited fashion by accessing a web site which is running an IRC front end script. The Midnightz channel, on the Blitzed network, is an example of limited particpation; that script appears to be packaged in forums like Googolians, and many folks use this channel without realising what they are using.
If you say that Usenet is a Many to Many communication, which operates In Virtual Time / Virtual Space, then IRC is a Many To Many communications which operates in Real Time / Virtual Space. Both IRC and Instant Messaging offer Real Time / Virtual Space communications; though the latter started out as One - One, the two are converging somewhat.
IRC communications are limited to text, with some rich text ability but nothing standard. It requires a specialised agent, such as mIRC, which is installed on the computer, for full participation.
There are dozens of IRC networks, each containing multiple servers in various world wide locations, and having their own separate rules and regulations. You can sign in to any server with an available connection, and have access to the chat rooms on that network (but only the ones on that network).
Full participation in IRC gives you access to hundreds of chat rooms, aka channels. Each channel is started, and run, by anybody who connects to an IRC server and opens a channel with that name (assuming that name is not in use on that network). The channels can be moderated by the person starting a channel, or by the owners of a server on that network, or by anybody designated as a moderator by a current moderator.
Some IRC channels are connected to Java front end scripts. You can participate in limited fashion by accessing a web site which is running an IRC front end script. The Midnightz channel, on the Blitzed network, is an example of limited particpation; that script appears to be packaged in forums like Googolians, and many folks use this channel without realising what they are using.
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