Of Poets And Physicists … (Session 3)

This week’s graphics give a bird’s eye view of a digital world map. One showed different computers linked together, and the next showed a Domain Name system, which illustrated how the data associated with these names is stored digitally in different places. The world now has 4 billion computers at minimum. The ‘identity’ of data stored within them are assigned both names that are more intuitive to use, as well as address numbers exchanged during requests. (Lecture materials)

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) enable the identification of files, within folders, within domains within a country. The information is transferred with something called HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) which is ‘how’ we make requests for information on the WWW. (Lecture materials)

Berners-Lee understood that in OLE (object linking or embedding) information can either be file –centered (embedding) or document-centered (linking). The WWW emerged through DOCUMENT CENTERED THINKING. Software that could ‘read’ images and graphics within documents helped with the growth of the WWW. The organization of information on the WWW is based on the linking of documents, which is non-linear and reflexive. That is the basis of the programming language HTML which is written specifically ‘document centered’ rather than ‘file centered’ for this system.

There is a language of HTML by which the WWW works otherwise it wouldn’t know how to transfer binary code. Data is held in packets and http, ftp, and telnet is governed by a set of protocols called TCP/IP. (Lecture materials)

‘Mark-up’ in the WWW is particularly important, and this is why we need to learn to ‘code’ in HTML because we are ‘marking-up’. This was born out of the idea of Berner-Lee’s ‘hypertext’, which is a means of “adding value to information”. (Lecture materials) Hypertext is a section of text within a document that incorporates links to other parts of the document or other documents. (Lecture materials)

As an undergrad, the Creative Writing department was buzzing about this new thing called ‘hypertext’ and everyone was including this ‘tool’ in their dissertations. Poetry students showed me work that linked to all different places. I was stunned by it 13 years ago. Little did I know that was the beginning of HTML.

HTML allows text and images to be appropriately formatted and subsequently exchanged on the WWW, which explains why I had problems with embedding links into blog posts, but I needed to understand HTML CODE to do it properly. This is empowering as a budding information manager because I don't want to call IT when I have a problem.

I must build my HTML skills at least to a rudimentary level so I can start posting my own URLs in case I must share information quickly. When we 'published' our HTML, it had to be through a specific server, not on our workstation's hard drive, and not through the general internet. This illustrates interactions of the WWW. My workstation HD can not speak to all workstations at University - code must be uploaded to a specific server in order for it to be shared with my colleagues.
Maria's HTML