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What is the W3C World Wide Web Consortium?
What is the W3C World Wide Web Consortium. Find a simple explanation. Use your own words.
W3C is an organization which was created in 1994. W3C develops common protocols for the web standards that promote WWW's evolution and ensure its interoperability. W3C develops technologies such as secifications, guidelines, software, and tools.
- Find and write simple explanations for the following terms.
- Cyberspace
A term originated by author William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer, 'cyberspace' is the digital world constructed by computer network, and in particular, the Internet. It usually refers to the online world that actually exists as a communication medium.
- download
To transfer data from a server, host computer to a smaller computer (usually the computer you are using). The opposite of upload.
- upload
To transfer data from a smaller computer (usually the computer you are using) to a larger, host computer. The opposite of download.
- GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
Pronounced as jiff, GIF is a common format for image files which is especially suitable for images containing large area of the same color. GIF format files of simple images are often smaller in size therefore downloaded quickly. But this format does not store hige-resolution images as well as JPEG.
- JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)- or JPEG
Pronounced as jay-peg, JPG is another type of common format for image files. It is suitable for photographs, naturalistic artwork, and similar material; not so well on lettering, simple cartoons, or line drawing. It handles only still images.
- PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
Pronounced ping, PNG is a graphic format specifically designed for use on World Wide Web. It enable compression of images without any loss of quality, including high-resolution images. The PNG standard is free of any licensing costs.
- login (or log in)
- Noun: The account name used to gain access to a computer system.
- Verb: To make a remote computer system or network recognize you by giving your credentials (usually your 'username' and 'password') so that you can begin a computer session,
- mailing lists (listserv and majordomo)
A (usually automated) system that allows people to send e-mail to one address, whereupon their message is copied and sent to all of the other subscribers to the maillist. In this way, people who have many different kinds of e-mail access can participate in discussions together.
- The most common kind of maillist, "Listserv" is a registered trademark of L-Soft international, Inc. Listservs originated on BITNET but they are now common on the Internet.
- Another popular mailing list server is "Majordomo", which is freeware. This mailing list runs under Unix.
- newsgroups (the name for discussion groups on USENET)
- What is USENET?
USENET, or Unix User Network is a communications medium in which users read and post textual messages (called "articles") to a number of distributed bulletin boards called "newsgroups". It is a worldwide bulletin board system (BBS) that can be accessed through the Internet or through many online services. The USENET contains more than 14,000 forums (newsgroups), that cover every imaginable interest group. You need a news reader program to join, but uasually web browsers like Explorer or Netscape include it. URLs beginning "news:" refer to USNET newsgroups.
- How is USENET different from our class Discussion Board?
USENET newsgroups and our Discussion Board are similar in that people post messages to them to share information about certain topic. However, there is a major difference: our Discussion Board is a separate board where messages are kept on a single server maintained by the owner or originator (our Professor) of the board, whereas messages on USENET newsgroups are replicated to hundreds of servers around the world while being distributed to various categorized boards.
- packet switching
Network technology that breaks a message in digital format into tiny parcels of no more than 128 characters, each with the same destination address, then routes them separately as transmission circuits become available. When the packets reach their destination, they are checked to ensure that no data was lost in transmission, then reassembled in original sequence. Packet switching enables the transmission capability of a computer network to be used with maximum speed and efficiency, reducing costs and enhancing productivity.
- router
A hardware device designed to direct the tiny packets of digital data comprising an electronic message from one node on a computer network to another by the most efficient pathway. Routers also perform other functions in the control of network traffic.
- cookie
A small string of data created by a Web server, transmitted to a computer connected to the Internet and stored in the cookie file of its Web browser. Originally intended to reduce the amount of time required for Web site registration by retrieving from the user's hard drive input provided in a previous visit, cookies can also be used to determine what a user viewed on previous visits, and on visits to other Web sites.
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