Overview

The purpose of today's session is to:

Begin a discussion of the World Wide Web, including:

• Survey student experience with the web
• Discuss the history of the web, including its relation to DARPAnet, Gopher, and NCSI Mosaic.
• Discuss web acronyms
• Discuss and evaluate browsers
• Discuss publishing on the web

Thus far this semester, we have made numerous references to the Internet, and to one important component - the World Wide Web. We have not engaged in any more systematic discussion about the Web, such as its history, uses, structure, and implications for science.

The main purpose for today's session will given you a historical foundation to help you understand how we got to where we are, and to enhance the way that you use the web, especially in ways that pertain to academics and communicating science.

Many sites provide information about the web's origins, and other features related to browsing, ethics, etc. Rather than re-invent the wheel here, I provide you a link that lists many sites that give an overview.

Some Historical Perspectives

Compared to many modern marvels like radio, television, automobiles, and airplanes, the Internet and the World Wide Web are rather recent innovations. A brief history is given on this page.

By the early 1990s, it was possible to locate and receive files using a protocol called "gopher" that was developed at the University of Minnesota. Gopher was a menu-based system for helping users find information on the Internet.

A bit later, a major development that enhanced the use of the web as we now know it was the creation of a program called Mosaic that could read documents written in hypertext markup language (HTML). Through embedded scripts, it became posssible to develop webpages that have certain formatting features that go well beyond ASCII. Moreover, impages could be imbedded. Perhaps the most important aspect is that pages could be linked to one another - providing a "Web" of interconnected information.

Until the mid-1990s, use of the web was largely by governmental agencies and academic institutions. However, the commercial value of the web became appreciated, and its use exploded in the late '90s.

Web Acronyms - URLs, HTTP, HTML, GIF, JPG

The web has developed a rich jargon. Part of the reason is that new procedures and protocols were created for reading and executing computer-based instructions, and those procedures had to be given very specific names. Three are worth noting.

URLs - These stand for Uniform Resource Locator codes. These are essentially the address for the webpage, given in a symbolic format that computers can read. Every webpage has its own unique URL. The anatomy of a URL is given here.

HTTP:// - This stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. That is a method by which hypertext-based information is moved from one computer to another. Note that other transfer protocols include Telnet://, FTP://, and Gopher://.

HTML - As noted, this is an acronym for hypertext markup language. Each page has an HTML format that is read by the browser. The tags are not evident to the reader, but come through as formatting or links. To publish anything on the web, one must create a document that contains information (content) coupled with HTML formatting. Some web authors prefer to write their own source scripts, embedding tags that they write in. Others prefer to use web-authoring programs that allow the user to generate a formatted document (much like a word processing program) and automatically embed the HTML in the source. Indeed, most word processing programs now have a "Save as HTML" option.

GIF and JPEG - These are two of several formats used for images. They will be discussed in more detail.

Browsers

As noted, viewing anything on the web requires the use of a browser, which is an application that can read HTML and convert the tags into formatted pages. An overview of browsers is given here.

As noted, the original browser was NCSI Mosaic. Soon, that application was replaced by Netscape's Mozilla software that evolved in the mid-'90s.

Of course, not wanting to be outdone, Microsoft entered onto the scene with its Internet Explorer. You are probably aware that Microsoft was accused of illegal business practices when it bundled its IE with its Windows operating system.

Each browser has certain features, to be discussed in class.

Publishing on the Web

In pre-web days, if you wanted to reach a mass audience via the printed word, you had to generate a document and submit it to a publisher. If accepted, the publisher would typeset your document, print it on a press, and then distribute it.

Due to the advent of the web, a new paradigm has emerged. Now, it is possible to reach an audience by generating your own webpages and uploading it to a server that is connected to the web. Potential visitors can find your page by going through a search engine, that identifies your page based on key words.

Obviously, the printed word is only one category of information that can be distributed via the web. Other categories include images, sounds, videos, and data.

The issues associated with web publishing are enormous and well beyond the scope of this course. The overriding point is that the web is like the wild, wild west. Millions of people have published billions of web pages to date, and the number keeps increasing dramatically. Added to that point is the fact that few filters exist to ensure that information on the web is accurate. Thus,individuals looking to obtain scientific information from the web must remember that most of the information is unreviewed, and therefore may be unreliable. One site that provides suggestions on how to evaluate information on the web can be found here.

A second issue is that individuals seeking to publish their own material must be aware that style does matter. Numerous websites provide tips concerning effective webpage design. A sampling is provided here, and here, and especially here.

This page posted and maintained by Kenneth M. Klemow, Ph.D., Biology Department, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766. (570) 408-4758, kklemow@wilkes.edu.