Internet Applications

Spring 2008

Housekeeping

• Expectations

• Introductions

• Course structure

• Overview of Syllabus

Documents

• Course documents– Syllabus / course packet– http://blackboard.unc.edu– INLS572_Spring2008@listserv.unc.edu

Group discussion

• Break into groups (4-6 people each) and discuss what you expect to learn in this course (technologies, concepts, etc).

• Be prepared to report the main concepts that stood out in your group to the class.

Background and experience

• What is our background with the Internet?

• What roles do online applications play in our lives (personal, social, educational, work)?

• What are our expectations and goals for this course?

Definitions

• The Internet

• Applications

• Information

• Architecture / organization

• Users

Common examples

• Google docs

• Songza

• Microsoft live

• Yahoo

• Blogs - Technorati

• Wikipedia

Common themes

• Users / clients• Developers, contributors, readers, buyers

• Platforms• Systems, devices, applications, languages

• Application design• Look and feel, functionality, relationship to users

• Information structure• Organization, data structure, portability, extensibility

• User issues• Security / Privacy, Accessibility, information need

Application boundaries

• What are the boundaries of Internet Applications?– What can internet applications do?– Where do we think that ‘non-internet’

applications take over?– What creates these divisions – technical

reasons, social reasons?

Next week

• History of Internet

• Structure of the Internet

• The anatomy of an Internet application

• Group sign-ups