Thursday, October 27, 2011
Muddiest Point #8
I don't think I have a muddiest point this week. All of the different CSS style tags and formats we went through were hard to understand, but I think the hands-on assignment for creating our own webpages will help me understand this concept better and how to use it.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Muddiest Point #7
I understand that the web browser displays the notepad file we saw in class....but when we make a personal website, do we save those files to the Pitt server? How do we do that?'
Also, reminder to Jiepu-- our posts are worth two points, not just one, same as muddiest points (1.5 points)...also... Congratulations on your marriage!
Also, reminder to Jiepu-- our posts are worth two points, not just one, same as muddiest points (1.5 points)...also... Congratulations on your marriage!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Muddiest Point #6
We talked about URLs and how part of it includes the www for world wide web, but sometimes you can type in an address without it and it still goes to the site. Does the browser automatically add that in when you forget, or are some sites without the www prefix?
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Reading Notes #10- Last One!
Digital Libraries
This article discusses digital libraries and a survey of the work done in this area. It appears that funded projects first began around 1993/1994 by the National Science Foundation and the Digital Libraries Initiative which funded 6 universities for research, including CMU. There have also been other non-governmentally funded projects, including publishers, LoC, NISO, W3C, ISO, Google Scholar, and the open source community that have contributed to digital libraries. In the 21st century, we have many different organizations and people working to contribute to resource access through the internet/web in ways that I do not think could have been anticipated in 1993.
Dewey Meets Turing
This article discusses the Digital Library Initiative (DLI), which began in 1994 by the NSF, but it involved publishers, librarians, and computer scientists, people who I am sure that previously considered themselves in the same field. This project gave computer scientists a way to use computers to enhance library systems and research. It gave librarians (finally!) some funding, but it also gave them more efficient ways of searching and managing large collections. What this article calls the "cuckoo's egg surprise" is the introduction of the WWW and how this affected digital libraries. I thought this line summed up the issue well: "The Web not only blurred the distinction between consumers and producers of information, but it dispersed most items that in the aggregate should have been collections across the world and under diverse ownership. This change undermined the common ground that had brought the two disciplines together." While computer scientists did not feel shaken, those in the library field, used to their systems already in use, were faced with learning such a new technology and somehow integrate into those existing systems. Plus, with publishers starting to charge extra for digital availability of content, small budgets have forced libraries to cancel them. In the end, however, the author asserts that the DLI only helped to create new opportunities for librarians and library models.
Institutional Repositories
This article begins in 2002, when institutional repositories began to be used for scholarly communication, and standards were set for metadata and other aspects of digital information. The DSpace institutional repository was ed by MIT, and in 2003 it was duplicated for many other universities, and now can be found in open source form. According to the author, a "university-based institutional repository is a set of services that a university offers to the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members" (2). It not only makes information available, but preserves it in digital form. However, it is noted that there are questions regarding how an institutional repository fits in with other organizations that do similar things. Another thing that is questioned is the legitimacy of digital publication, especially of something that never existed in print form. Many university faculty members do not have the time or energy to defend this choice, but by not publishing digitally, they cannot insure that their work will be available as formats and technologies change. An institutional means of managing all this information could make it easier to keep such publications current and available.
MIT also makes information available through OpenCourseWare, a free application that allows anyone anywhere with an internet connection to watch MIT courses. These were very helpful for my boyfriend, who was taking Quantum Mechanics in Italian at the Università di Bologna and needed a little extra, especially English, instruction. However, the author notes that this software could also be used to share and save campus events, and other extra curricular activities.
The author also gives some caution and states some concerns about the future of DL. One is that institutions should not be trying to control faculty/student work, merely accepting responsibility for it. Another is that there may be a tension between these repositories and other means of scholarly publication. A third is that institutions may try to create a repository, but lacking resources, does so out of pressure and does not do it justice. It needs to be a serious commitment to accept such responsibility. The message seems to be that digital institutional repositories may help many aspects of scholarly communication, but it may not (and maybe should not) be the answer across all disciplines.
This article discusses digital libraries and a survey of the work done in this area. It appears that funded projects first began around 1993/1994 by the National Science Foundation and the Digital Libraries Initiative which funded 6 universities for research, including CMU. There have also been other non-governmentally funded projects, including publishers, LoC, NISO, W3C, ISO, Google Scholar, and the open source community that have contributed to digital libraries. In the 21st century, we have many different organizations and people working to contribute to resource access through the internet/web in ways that I do not think could have been anticipated in 1993.
Dewey Meets Turing
This article discusses the Digital Library Initiative (DLI), which began in 1994 by the NSF, but it involved publishers, librarians, and computer scientists, people who I am sure that previously considered themselves in the same field. This project gave computer scientists a way to use computers to enhance library systems and research. It gave librarians (finally!) some funding, but it also gave them more efficient ways of searching and managing large collections. What this article calls the "cuckoo's egg surprise" is the introduction of the WWW and how this affected digital libraries. I thought this line summed up the issue well: "The Web not only blurred the distinction between consumers and producers of information, but it dispersed most items that in the aggregate should have been collections across the world and under diverse ownership. This change undermined the common ground that had brought the two disciplines together." While computer scientists did not feel shaken, those in the library field, used to their systems already in use, were faced with learning such a new technology and somehow integrate into those existing systems. Plus, with publishers starting to charge extra for digital availability of content, small budgets have forced libraries to cancel them. In the end, however, the author asserts that the DLI only helped to create new opportunities for librarians and library models.
Institutional Repositories
This article begins in 2002, when institutional repositories began to be used for scholarly communication, and standards were set for metadata and other aspects of digital information. The DSpace institutional repository was ed by MIT, and in 2003 it was duplicated for many other universities, and now can be found in open source form. According to the author, a "university-based institutional repository is a set of services that a university offers to the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members" (2). It not only makes information available, but preserves it in digital form. However, it is noted that there are questions regarding how an institutional repository fits in with other organizations that do similar things. Another thing that is questioned is the legitimacy of digital publication, especially of something that never existed in print form. Many university faculty members do not have the time or energy to defend this choice, but by not publishing digitally, they cannot insure that their work will be available as formats and technologies change. An institutional means of managing all this information could make it easier to keep such publications current and available.
MIT also makes information available through OpenCourseWare, a free application that allows anyone anywhere with an internet connection to watch MIT courses. These were very helpful for my boyfriend, who was taking Quantum Mechanics in Italian at the Università di Bologna and needed a little extra, especially English, instruction. However, the author notes that this software could also be used to share and save campus events, and other extra curricular activities.
The author also gives some caution and states some concerns about the future of DL. One is that institutions should not be trying to control faculty/student work, merely accepting responsibility for it. Another is that there may be a tension between these repositories and other means of scholarly publication. A third is that institutions may try to create a repository, but lacking resources, does so out of pressure and does not do it justice. It needs to be a serious commitment to accept such responsibility. The message seems to be that digital institutional repositories may help many aspects of scholarly communication, but it may not (and maybe should not) be the answer across all disciplines.
Reading Notes #9
Introducing XML
This article breaks down the importance of XML (which upon reading this article LAST since the link wasn't working, a lot of my following questions are probably answered, so please disregard them):
XML allows users to:
Survey of XML Standards
Written by IBM, this website gives an overview of XML standards. The author provides links to other websites that explain aspects of XML (extended markup language). It also mentions XML namespaces, catalogs, base, inclusions, and something called canonical XML, XPath, XLink, and XPointer. Although the website is considered for introductory audiences, I really know little about XML and how it is used. The link to the Tidwell tutorial was the most helpful, which broke XML down to make it understandable, but the survey only contained helpful links. Tidwell explains that XML helps you make your own tags and was created as an improvement to traditional html.
XML Tutorial
Bergholz is right... I am doubting the simplicity of XML. There are so many components that I don't understand. The syntax, the structure... it's like learning a foreign language when I have no computer science background. Style, schema?
XML Schema Tutorial
This tutorial explains the XML schema, which defines the elements of XML. It explains that XML schemas are better than DTD (not sure what that is exactly) because it can support data types, use xml syntax, secure data communication, and are extensible. To be completely honest, looking at all the code/rules for the dtd versus xml, some of the xml looks familiar, but otherwise it looks foreign to me, and I can't say I understand it. Simple elements are only text, but more complex elements have attributes and restrictions. I understand what each of these types signify, but when it comes to all of the code written out, I'm clueless!
This article breaks down the importance of XML (which upon reading this article LAST since the link wasn't working, a lot of my following questions are probably answered, so please disregard them):
XML allows users to:
- bring multiple files together to form compound documents
- identify where illustrations are to be incorporated into text files, and the format used to encode each illustration
- provide processing control information to supporting programs, such as document validators and browsers
- add editorial comments to a file.
- a predefined set of tags, of the type defined for HTML, that can be used to markup documents
- a standardized template for producing particular types of documents.
Survey of XML Standards
Written by IBM, this website gives an overview of XML standards. The author provides links to other websites that explain aspects of XML (extended markup language). It also mentions XML namespaces, catalogs, base, inclusions, and something called canonical XML, XPath, XLink, and XPointer. Although the website is considered for introductory audiences, I really know little about XML and how it is used. The link to the Tidwell tutorial was the most helpful, which broke XML down to make it understandable, but the survey only contained helpful links. Tidwell explains that XML helps you make your own tags and was created as an improvement to traditional html.
XML Tutorial
Bergholz is right... I am doubting the simplicity of XML. There are so many components that I don't understand. The syntax, the structure... it's like learning a foreign language when I have no computer science background. Style, schema?
XML Schema Tutorial
This tutorial explains the XML schema, which defines the elements of XML. It explains that XML schemas are better than DTD (not sure what that is exactly) because it can support data types, use xml syntax, secure data communication, and are extensible. To be completely honest, looking at all the code/rules for the dtd versus xml, some of the xml looks familiar, but otherwise it looks foreign to me, and I can't say I understand it. Simple elements are only text, but more complex elements have attributes and restrictions. I understand what each of these types signify, but when it comes to all of the code written out, I'm clueless!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Reading Notes #8
Cascading Style Sheet
CSS, with this helpful webpage, can help you manage the style and layout of many different web pages all at the same time. You can change the code already written to create a webpage the way you want it to appear. However, I am confused how this tutorial allows you to edit multiple web pages at once. How does this simplify the process or save time?
CSS Tutorial
This tutorial explains a lot more how to make an html file, a css file, and how to use both of them. Plus, it has all the code (I'm assuming that's what you call all the tags and everything all together) already written out so that you can copy and paste it. This tutorial shows you how to change fonts and colors, and even a navigation bar, adding lines, and other stylistic aspects. It tells you to save two files, one html and one css, and to load them to your website, but I still don't see how they work together. Maybe when we start on Assignment 6 this will become clear. It says that the style comes from one file, while the information is in the html file, but why is having two files instead of one really make it simpler?
Style Sheet for the Web
Ah ha! Maybe this chapter will put all the pieces together for me. Maybe the "code" was talking about were a series of "rules" which contain a selector and a declaration, which has a property and value. These determine what the information (like the text) will look like, color, font, etc. There are four different ways to attach a style sheet to the html, which this chapter calls gluing, but I still think I'd need to see this demonstrated. They also explain what "Cascading" style sheets mean... it means that multiple style sheets can affect one html file. However, I don't see how a user can alter a rule created by the creator of the webpage! Once the rules are written, how can someone looking at the webpage (I'm assuming that's what they mean by user) change that? What you see is what you get... or so I thought?
CSS, with this helpful webpage, can help you manage the style and layout of many different web pages all at the same time. You can change the code already written to create a webpage the way you want it to appear. However, I am confused how this tutorial allows you to edit multiple web pages at once. How does this simplify the process or save time?
CSS Tutorial
This tutorial explains a lot more how to make an html file, a css file, and how to use both of them. Plus, it has all the code (I'm assuming that's what you call all the tags and everything all together) already written out so that you can copy and paste it. This tutorial shows you how to change fonts and colors, and even a navigation bar, adding lines, and other stylistic aspects. It tells you to save two files, one html and one css, and to load them to your website, but I still don't see how they work together. Maybe when we start on Assignment 6 this will become clear. It says that the style comes from one file, while the information is in the html file, but why is having two files instead of one really make it simpler?
Style Sheet for the Web
Ah ha! Maybe this chapter will put all the pieces together for me. Maybe the "code" was talking about were a series of "rules" which contain a selector and a declaration, which has a property and value. These determine what the information (like the text) will look like, color, font, etc. There are four different ways to attach a style sheet to the html, which this chapter calls gluing, but I still think I'd need to see this demonstrated. They also explain what "Cascading" style sheets mean... it means that multiple style sheets can affect one html file. However, I don't see how a user can alter a rule created by the creator of the webpage! Once the rules are written, how can someone looking at the webpage (I'm assuming that's what they mean by user) change that? What you see is what you get... or so I thought?
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Reading Notes #7
HTML Tutorial and Cheat Sheet
This tutorial shows you how to write HTML to make your own website. It even shows you how to add colors, do line breaks, and other stylistic aspects that you may want on your website beyond black and white text. You can also add images, tables, or hyperlinks! It looks like a lot of code, but with this tutorial you can just copy and paste the < > instructions where you need them in the html editor.
The cheat sheet is a pdf download that gives you those "instructions," called tags, for text, formatting, forms, and graphics. This document is much easier to use and follow than all the links on the tutorial page! If I had to make websites all day, I would definitely print out that cheat sheet and keep it pasted next to my keyboard!
Beyond HTML
Not being familiar with html or web development at all (beyond blogger) a lot of this article went over my head. I definitely know that Dr. He will explain this well! The authors talk about the CMS and databases of the Georgia State University Library. Many of the graphic examples LOOK like the Access database relationships we had to create for our assignment, but even more complex. This article is really intimidating for an introduction (or beyond?) to html!
This tutorial shows you how to write HTML to make your own website. It even shows you how to add colors, do line breaks, and other stylistic aspects that you may want on your website beyond black and white text. You can also add images, tables, or hyperlinks! It looks like a lot of code, but with this tutorial you can just copy and paste the < > instructions where you need them in the html editor.
The cheat sheet is a pdf download that gives you those "instructions," called tags, for text, formatting, forms, and graphics. This document is much easier to use and follow than all the links on the tutorial page! If I had to make websites all day, I would definitely print out that cheat sheet and keep it pasted next to my keyboard!
Beyond HTML
Not being familiar with html or web development at all (beyond blogger) a lot of this article went over my head. I definitely know that Dr. He will explain this well! The authors talk about the CMS and databases of the Georgia State University Library. Many of the graphic examples LOOK like the Access database relationships we had to create for our assignment, but even more complex. This article is really intimidating for an introduction (or beyond?) to html!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Reading Notes #6
Tyson Internet Infrastructure
How stuff works makes difficult topics very simple by putting them into more common language. The Internet is a series of networks. You can connect with an internet service provider (we have Comcast at home) or a LAN. There are also different points of connection, like NAP and POP (Network Access Points and Points of Presence).
An internet router helps to send information from computer to computer, making sure the right information gets to the right location. Routers are common in personal internet computer connections, both wired and wireless.
The internet backbone was created by the National Science Foundation in 1987 called NSFNET and made of fiber optics, making the internet faster and able to handle a larger capacity for information.
IP, or Internet Protocol, addresses are in decimal format but represent a binary code that computers can read. There are different classes of IP addresses, but it identifies an individual user/computer.
The domain name system makes it easier to remember the names of websites, instead of memorizing their IP addresses. This way, a URL as we know it connects to the right IP address. It was created in 1983 at the University of Wisconsin. A URL is a uniform resource locator that includes the domain name, allowing users to access specific content, by automatically retrieving the IP address.
An internet server and clients have a static IP address, usually connected to your home modem, but if you dial up for internet, you are assigned a new IP address every time.
Ports also make the internet possible and HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol. I knew some of this information, but howstuffworks.com definitely explained the internet step by step.
Dismantling Integrated Library Systems
This article addresses the introduction of technology to libraries and its incompatibility with ILS, leaving libraries to either create their own programs or purchase new options. However, these programs can be expensive, but the author of this article maintains that compared to other library costs, it is more based on stubbornness of librarians' budgets than true expense. The advent of this new product has also led businesses who sell these products to reassess their business models. The "chicken and the egg" appendix/thing I think is the focus of his thoughts: do librarians or vendors truly control this market?
Inside the Google Machine
This video features a talk with Google's co-founders, Brin and Page. I really loved the earth graphic, showing people logging on to Google from all over the world, showing Google's international reach. For Google, power= internet= google searches. Visualization definitely helps one to understand Google's global scale, and the way in which information literally travels. Even showing all the search terms that occur in ONE SECOND on their slideshow was amazing. I think we are all aware of how much Google is used, but to see all those words together was remarkable. Google also has the ability to track popularity by location and time, which gives us additional data about how we as a social function. I also thought it was really interesting to hear that the U.S. is only 30% of Google's searchers.
They also discussed the Google Foundation and Google Grants given to other charities by using Google advertisements. He also mentioned Okrut, which I had never heard of, who wanted another social network, that sounds a lot like an early version of Google +. The innovation comes from Google's 20% policy, where 20% of an employee's time can be spent on a budding project they believe in, and this was how Google News was created. They cited Mendel as the inspiration.
They also mentioned "new" projects, though this video was filmed in 2004: Deskbar, Google Answers, Froogle, as well as physical projector enclosures. Google itself is really employee-friendly, from laundry machines and dogs! They even talked about how the Google logo changes daily and user-relevant ads, that keep the Internet growing and searching becoming more productive.
How stuff works makes difficult topics very simple by putting them into more common language. The Internet is a series of networks. You can connect with an internet service provider (we have Comcast at home) or a LAN. There are also different points of connection, like NAP and POP (Network Access Points and Points of Presence).
An internet router helps to send information from computer to computer, making sure the right information gets to the right location. Routers are common in personal internet computer connections, both wired and wireless.
The internet backbone was created by the National Science Foundation in 1987 called NSFNET and made of fiber optics, making the internet faster and able to handle a larger capacity for information.
IP, or Internet Protocol, addresses are in decimal format but represent a binary code that computers can read. There are different classes of IP addresses, but it identifies an individual user/computer.
The domain name system makes it easier to remember the names of websites, instead of memorizing their IP addresses. This way, a URL as we know it connects to the right IP address. It was created in 1983 at the University of Wisconsin. A URL is a uniform resource locator that includes the domain name, allowing users to access specific content, by automatically retrieving the IP address.
An internet server and clients have a static IP address, usually connected to your home modem, but if you dial up for internet, you are assigned a new IP address every time.
Ports also make the internet possible and HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol. I knew some of this information, but howstuffworks.com definitely explained the internet step by step.
Dismantling Integrated Library Systems
This article addresses the introduction of technology to libraries and its incompatibility with ILS, leaving libraries to either create their own programs or purchase new options. However, these programs can be expensive, but the author of this article maintains that compared to other library costs, it is more based on stubbornness of librarians' budgets than true expense. The advent of this new product has also led businesses who sell these products to reassess their business models. The "chicken and the egg" appendix/thing I think is the focus of his thoughts: do librarians or vendors truly control this market?
Inside the Google Machine
This video features a talk with Google's co-founders, Brin and Page. I really loved the earth graphic, showing people logging on to Google from all over the world, showing Google's international reach. For Google, power= internet= google searches. Visualization definitely helps one to understand Google's global scale, and the way in which information literally travels. Even showing all the search terms that occur in ONE SECOND on their slideshow was amazing. I think we are all aware of how much Google is used, but to see all those words together was remarkable. Google also has the ability to track popularity by location and time, which gives us additional data about how we as a social function. I also thought it was really interesting to hear that the U.S. is only 30% of Google's searchers.
They also discussed the Google Foundation and Google Grants given to other charities by using Google advertisements. He also mentioned Okrut, which I had never heard of, who wanted another social network, that sounds a lot like an early version of Google +. The innovation comes from Google's 20% policy, where 20% of an employee's time can be spent on a budding project they believe in, and this was how Google News was created. They cited Mendel as the inspiration.
They also mentioned "new" projects, though this video was filmed in 2004: Deskbar, Google Answers, Froogle, as well as physical projector enclosures. Google itself is really employee-friendly, from laundry machines and dogs! They even talked about how the Google logo changes daily and user-relevant ads, that keep the Internet growing and searching becoming more productive.
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