XML is a richer form of HTML. XML and CSS are two technologies that have been agreed upon by W3W to support the exchange of information on the WWW. XML has a lot more tags than XML to account for semantics. It is a mark-up language that has exponentially more functionality and possibilities but requires a fraction of the processing power of other mark up languages like SGML, although they are compatible – SGML as a first attempt that was quickly replaced with XML. XML works through a collection of declarations that define structure, elements and attributes called DOCUMENT TYPE DEFINITION (DTD). (Lecture Materials)
My colleague and I flew through the XML code review exercises. We spotted all of the flaws that were either not valid or not well-formed. It was great fun – like playing a word game. Grammar and syntax aren't just concepts in books anymore, they are actually tools. XML is a language that more robustly serves information search and retrieval. It is a stack of virtual shelves upon which information lives.
An example of XML at work in my field, which is media and marketing, is GETTY IMAGES, one of the leading image banks in the world. See my search for images of Greece, both editorial and creative:
Getty Search - Images from Greece
Getty uses XML to result in images tagged with what the user specifies as the entire system operates according to the rules set by firstly DTDs ultimately defined by TCP/IP.
Issues arise when the metadata are not written into the XML as a user specifies. I entered the word ‘Tsangarada’ into the Getty search and it did not return any images. It is unlikely that they have no images taken from that location because it is notoriously beautiful, but they did not define that metadata to any images in their archive.
Advertising banners on the WWW also operate through XML. Moreover, this blog operates on XML. I actively use XML every day.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Graphic Designers Have Painstaking Jobs (Session 4)
Amazing - I have updated my webpage in my own html with a picture of my mother and me in Paris and an image of David Hockney from The New York Times, because today was all about images and graphics.
To view my altogether pathetic work please click on the following: Maria's HTML
I followed course instructions with images – manipulated them, changed sizes and colors with IrfanView 4.23. It was straightforward but I don’t enjoy the work. It’s great to know what is available, if needed, but I will post pictures on my blog with the tools available through Blogspot, and leave graphic design to the designers. For my marketing work I use MailingManager which allows images to be uploaded and manipulated (size, color, and quality).
The difference between a GIF and a JPG is the amount of information stored in each (bits per pixel). JPG stores millions of colors but has limited use on the WWW. More programs can read GIFs as they display only 256 colors, making them perfect for the WWW as they are easier to process and have the maximum amount of color that the WWW can handle. PNGs lose no information when they are shrunk in size because they use the fewest bits per pixel, thereby making them ideal for web pages, but they have a limited color palette so they have largely fallen out of use. (Reference)
To view my altogether pathetic work please click on the following: Maria's HTML
I followed course instructions with images – manipulated them, changed sizes and colors with IrfanView 4.23. It was straightforward but I don’t enjoy the work. It’s great to know what is available, if needed, but I will post pictures on my blog with the tools available through Blogspot, and leave graphic design to the designers. For my marketing work I use MailingManager which allows images to be uploaded and manipulated (size, color, and quality).
The difference between a GIF and a JPG is the amount of information stored in each (bits per pixel). JPG stores millions of colors but has limited use on the WWW. More programs can read GIFs as they display only 256 colors, making them perfect for the WWW as they are easier to process and have the maximum amount of color that the WWW can handle. PNGs lose no information when they are shrunk in size because they use the fewest bits per pixel, thereby making them ideal for web pages, but they have a limited color palette so they have largely fallen out of use. (Reference)
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
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
‘Byte’ My Metadata, Murdoch! (Session 2)
‘Bits’ explain in real terms how much information is required for a computer to be a useful tool in ordering and retrieving information. I remember pop-up notes during the dial-up days which specified whether you had 56 or 128 speed of bits transmitted. ‘Bits’ make sense when recalling how this information was pertinent. The way data is stored, transmitted, represented and managed is based on bits, and thereby they are the foundations of how information is used, shared and developed today. The printing press looks lame.
Exponential possibilities are afforded by adding more bits but extra processing speed would be required by hardware to make binary code with more bits in a chain. (Lecture materials) I am peeking through the door of mathematics and am amazed. The data that binary code represents only means what the author wants it to mean – that why we have coding rules and standards. ‘It is a human decision to apply this meaning’. (Lecture materials) Code is meaningless unless context is defined and agreed by a community of users.
File Format (bits are stored in files) is defined by ASCII so we all use the same formatting rules in English to communicate between all computers (think of it as the ‘alphabet’ of a computer language) and data files help us organize the information on all computers effectively. (Lecture materials) The file is manipulated by the user as a distinct entity – it is a fundamental unit of information that can be used in a distinct way with the FORMAT defining how it can be used. This is the system by which the ‘library’ of a computer is organized.
Metadata is a set of rules that define how the data contained in files is useful, and this metadata is defined as important by the programmer. Metadata is either semantic or presentational, and semantic metadata proves more useful. (Lecture materials) This is the ‘Dewey’ system of a computer ‘library’. We are learning about metadata because this is how the internet works with ‘mark-up languages’. I remember seeing the word ‘mark-up’ in a programmers books once but it makes sense that there is mark up language coded into a PC in general (like Word) because the computer must search for files to operate. Similar principles apply to a mark-up language written with defined metadata as to physical document filing – a file pathname is the same as the structure of a document filing system. There is an academic theoretical model of this ‘root’ architecture in library sciences. There are other academics who say that information is actually organized like tangled, folding ‘ganglia’, but still all files in the digital world are organized with a root structure otherwise we would never be able to find anything. What information is stored in those files is what varies. Data can be stored in a manner that is either ‘File-Centered’ or ‘Document-Centered’. (Lecture materials)
There is sense of data ‘lossless-ness’ surrounding digital information. Because data can be infinitely retrieved/replicated/modified/referenced, IPR issues are created. (Lecture materials) This is demonstrated with the fight between Google and News Corp. – the information publishers/creators VS. search engines that allow us to access/retrieve that information.
Exponential possibilities are afforded by adding more bits but extra processing speed would be required by hardware to make binary code with more bits in a chain. (Lecture materials) I am peeking through the door of mathematics and am amazed. The data that binary code represents only means what the author wants it to mean – that why we have coding rules and standards. ‘It is a human decision to apply this meaning’. (Lecture materials) Code is meaningless unless context is defined and agreed by a community of users.
File Format (bits are stored in files) is defined by ASCII so we all use the same formatting rules in English to communicate between all computers (think of it as the ‘alphabet’ of a computer language) and data files help us organize the information on all computers effectively. (Lecture materials) The file is manipulated by the user as a distinct entity – it is a fundamental unit of information that can be used in a distinct way with the FORMAT defining how it can be used. This is the system by which the ‘library’ of a computer is organized.
Metadata is a set of rules that define how the data contained in files is useful, and this metadata is defined as important by the programmer. Metadata is either semantic or presentational, and semantic metadata proves more useful. (Lecture materials) This is the ‘Dewey’ system of a computer ‘library’. We are learning about metadata because this is how the internet works with ‘mark-up languages’. I remember seeing the word ‘mark-up’ in a programmers books once but it makes sense that there is mark up language coded into a PC in general (like Word) because the computer must search for files to operate. Similar principles apply to a mark-up language written with defined metadata as to physical document filing – a file pathname is the same as the structure of a document filing system. There is an academic theoretical model of this ‘root’ architecture in library sciences. There are other academics who say that information is actually organized like tangled, folding ‘ganglia’, but still all files in the digital world are organized with a root structure otherwise we would never be able to find anything. What information is stored in those files is what varies. Data can be stored in a manner that is either ‘File-Centered’ or ‘Document-Centered’. (Lecture materials)
There is sense of data ‘lossless-ness’ surrounding digital information. Because data can be infinitely retrieved/replicated/modified/referenced, IPR issues are created. (Lecture materials) This is demonstrated with the fight between Google and News Corp. – the information publishers/creators VS. search engines that allow us to access/retrieve that information.
Carefully Wading Into “The Messy Middle” (Session 1)
“Information exists in the messy middle.” (Rosenfeld and Morville, 2007) This is the essence of DITA. Information technology and architecture enables and makes use of data and knowledge. (Lecture materials)
Blogs are proliferating as a core digital communication used to organize and publish information. They are Web 2.0 technology, not static 1.0 Websites. Facebook can be viewed as a shared mini-blog platform where users do not move between URLs. It is assumed that users filter through blogs that are “credible versus rubbish”, and the rubbish thereby becomes irrelevant, therefore the democratic nature of Web 2.0. (Lecture materials) But blogs can be used by influential propagandists as well, e.g. lies spread about Obama being born in Kenya. Does democracy always get it right?
Setting up the blog was challenging because many programming languages and file formats are used. I hope to use the labeling system efficiently but can't see an option to create a robust labeling system in advance, which is frustrating. Tags are imperative to make your blog interesting and give it an ‘identity’, but tags also have to be useful for the end reader. My blog is targeted to friends/family, colleagues, and prospective employers and tags will be listed alongside for users to sort by interest. In essence is it is an online diary of my personal learning and self-discovery as I embark on a new career.
The UNIX form of information access is the foundation of information storage: the skeleton, the backbone of the “house of knowledge and information storage and access”. (Lecture materials) I had no dexterity at using the system. I know what it is, but I can’t use it. I went to http://www.city.ac.uk/tsg/unix/DoingMore.pdf and it is clear that I will not regularly command a computer through UNIX.
Certain keywords are fascinating: Graphical Information, Presentation of Representation (CSS), Information Retrieval (Google), Applications Development (JavaScript), Wikis, trackbacks (particularly cool), blogroll, Archive including Label/Tag List, Syndication (includes RSS feeds – rich site summary feeds in XML for tracking blogs). I subscribed to Google Reader. The feeds are overwhelming – must filter with keywords.
The purpose of DITA is to understand all the methods and tools available for CREATING/FINDING/ORGANISING digital information. There are industry standards and rules and teachable conventional systems. I did not know this before DITA.
Blogs are proliferating as a core digital communication used to organize and publish information. They are Web 2.0 technology, not static 1.0 Websites. Facebook can be viewed as a shared mini-blog platform where users do not move between URLs. It is assumed that users filter through blogs that are “credible versus rubbish”, and the rubbish thereby becomes irrelevant, therefore the democratic nature of Web 2.0. (Lecture materials) But blogs can be used by influential propagandists as well, e.g. lies spread about Obama being born in Kenya. Does democracy always get it right?
Setting up the blog was challenging because many programming languages and file formats are used. I hope to use the labeling system efficiently but can't see an option to create a robust labeling system in advance, which is frustrating. Tags are imperative to make your blog interesting and give it an ‘identity’, but tags also have to be useful for the end reader. My blog is targeted to friends/family, colleagues, and prospective employers and tags will be listed alongside for users to sort by interest. In essence is it is an online diary of my personal learning and self-discovery as I embark on a new career.
The UNIX form of information access is the foundation of information storage: the skeleton, the backbone of the “house of knowledge and information storage and access”. (Lecture materials) I had no dexterity at using the system. I know what it is, but I can’t use it. I went to http://www.city.ac.uk/tsg/unix/DoingMore.pdf and it is clear that I will not regularly command a computer through UNIX.
Certain keywords are fascinating: Graphical Information, Presentation of Representation (CSS), Information Retrieval (Google), Applications Development (JavaScript), Wikis, trackbacks (particularly cool), blogroll, Archive including Label/Tag List, Syndication (includes RSS feeds – rich site summary feeds in XML for tracking blogs). I subscribed to Google Reader. The feeds are overwhelming – must filter with keywords.
The purpose of DITA is to understand all the methods and tools available for CREATING/FINDING/ORGANISING digital information. There are industry standards and rules and teachable conventional systems. I did not know this before DITA.
Monday, 7 December 2009
DITA Session 10
I love information architecture - I once dated an information architect and I thought he was the coolest thing ever - he must have been one of the first ones because I think this was 1998 or 1999 - we went to Paris together.
So a website is liek a building, or liek a grocery store for example liek in lecture today - this is very Godard-esque as now many peopel actually grocery shop online!! Who woudl have thought!
I finally identified the mystery vegetable - after first tryign to type in descriptors of my own ('vegetable, large white bulb, mutiple green stems'). Nio luck, kept throwing up pics of spring onions. So I Decided to look for vegetable pics - no luck, kept throwing back pics of veggie cornupcopias. Then I just did it the old fashioned way and typed 'vegetable descriptions'. Returned sites that were too child oriented. Then 'guide to vegetables' or 'vegetable guide' yielded a site and I had to click on the vegetable names that I didn't identify myself until I cam up with a pic that vaguely looked like the mystery veg. I then copy and pasted that into Google Image search and then that pic actually came up numbe rthree in the search! It's a kohlrabi by the way. This entire process took me over 5 minutes. Not long if you think about it - I probably would have had to go to the library 15 years ago.
Went to the tesco site and think it is wonderful how personalised nad how much control you have a a user with the 'shopiing list feature'. Excellent architecture. I guess the lack of photos and just copy heavy product description works, that is a choice of architecture that favours speed over prettiness - but it's practical and you can chose to see the pics of you like. Overall fantastic I think.
Amazon not so impressive but obviously I am the only one who thinks that or something bc they are so successful. I find the site busy and annoying and not clean - it throws too many choices at me - I feel bombarded. That being said I cna create a wishlist - which in a way is a personal library I wish I had. I need to futrther explore their e-book potential???
So a website is liek a building, or liek a grocery store for example liek in lecture today - this is very Godard-esque as now many peopel actually grocery shop online!! Who woudl have thought!
I finally identified the mystery vegetable - after first tryign to type in descriptors of my own ('vegetable, large white bulb, mutiple green stems'). Nio luck, kept throwing up pics of spring onions. So I Decided to look for vegetable pics - no luck, kept throwing back pics of veggie cornupcopias. Then I just did it the old fashioned way and typed 'vegetable descriptions'. Returned sites that were too child oriented. Then 'guide to vegetables' or 'vegetable guide' yielded a site and I had to click on the vegetable names that I didn't identify myself until I cam up with a pic that vaguely looked like the mystery veg. I then copy and pasted that into Google Image search and then that pic actually came up numbe rthree in the search! It's a kohlrabi by the way. This entire process took me over 5 minutes. Not long if you think about it - I probably would have had to go to the library 15 years ago.
Went to the tesco site and think it is wonderful how personalised nad how much control you have a a user with the 'shopiing list feature'. Excellent architecture. I guess the lack of photos and just copy heavy product description works, that is a choice of architecture that favours speed over prettiness - but it's practical and you can chose to see the pics of you like. Overall fantastic I think.
Amazon not so impressive but obviously I am the only one who thinks that or something bc they are so successful. I find the site busy and annoying and not clean - it throws too many choices at me - I feel bombarded. That being said I cna create a wishlist - which in a way is a personal library I wish I had. I need to futrther explore their e-book potential???
DITA Session 9
Javascript.
My log in info does not work - I had to go to the technical support desk.
They said I was OK. Must be something about the system.
When I get anywhere I can't make the script work - I have written it and saved it to server. I want to cry.
My log in info does not work - I had to go to the technical support desk.
They said I was OK. Must be something about the system.
When I get anywhere I can't make the script work - I have written it and saved it to server. I want to cry.
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