Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Spanning the Digital Gap

So, Are You New Here?

Finding yourself online can be a very overwhelming thing if you don't know what you are doing or where you are going. The first step is to take a deep breath. If you found yourself here, you are already doing great! Searching for information can seem like a daunting task, but let me assure you that things aren't as difficult as they may seem.


Where Did It All Come From?

Back in the '60s the internet started as this great tool for the Department of Defense to be able to network with. They called it, ARPANET and it was spread over several universities. And this was all there was. Regular Joes like you and me never got to touch it.

Then, in 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist, came up with the World Wide Web and changed the face of the internet forever. In '91, we finally got a browser - the WorldWideWeb.

Now, you might be asking yourself, "What in the world is this lady talking about? What is a 'browser?'" Well, let me tell you, the screen that you are looking at now, whether Internet Explorer, Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox, or whatever else you are using to search through the plethora of information available to you on the web - that, my friend, is your browser. And we went from 1969 to 1991 without one of these things. At the time, it wasn't a big deal because it was really only the DoD and scientists that had access to it. But with the advent of the first browser, and PCs that could fit in a person's home and connect to this crazy thing called the internet, the Geeky Joes of the world suddenly had access to anything on the Internet.

Two years later, a new browser comes out. Mosaic, developed in Illinois and became available to make getting on the internet even easier. Suddenly, you didn't have to understand all of the technical terms that were out there. This was where the Academic Joes were finally able to get online with relative ease and understand what they were doing. You didn't have to understand coding or technical terms to be able to access information. It was great!

Netscape followed in '94 and made thing more colorful and accessible on slower connections, so the Regular Joes of the world were able to get on via dial-up internet. That's right - dial-up. Your phone line was tied up by the internet back in the day.

'96 brought Internet Explorer 3, which was so great at the time, that it trumped Netscape very quickly and Netscape was left in the dust. There were so many exciting things that were part of Internet Explorer: Java, ActiveX, and even Mail. It was exciting and new and people were all over it.

It wasn't until after the turn of the century that Internet Explorer started finding real competition. Mozilla Firefox came out and offered a "safer" browsing alternative to Internet Explorer and people were thrilled!

In 2007, another browser company came and gave mobile users the first real opportunity to use the internet on their phones. Safari came out with a mobile browser that allowed anyone with a cell phone that allowed them to get on the internet to do so and browse really well for times.

Finally, in 2008, Google came out with its own browser. And this browser is not only still around today, but it one of the most used browsers in the world. Google Chrome took years of building and creating so that it could be fast, sleek in design and customizable. In short, it is something that so many people were looking for.

If you want to see more detailed information, you can read about it in Gord Goble's article "The 10 most important milestones in Web browser history," or "Just Browsing: a Brief history of Web Browsers."


Internet Communication

Social media has been a way for people to come together over shared interests despite the distance that may separate them. They also have the opportunity to find people with similar interests in their own area. Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter allow for people to connect and share. Sharing things that they enjoy or even just tidbits about their personal lives with the people that they want to share with. It allows them to feel connected and informed without having to leave their comfort zone.


Blogs are another great area for people to connect or even to learn. When people blog about the things that they enjoy or learn, it allows for other people that may enjoy or want to learn something access to that information in a way that may be easier for them to understand.

Now, blogs can be written by anyone, not just those that are experts in the field. Without proper citations and references for claims, it can be difficult to determine the validity of the information contained within the blog itself. Similarly, Wiki sites can be written and edited by anyone, not just experts in the field. Because of this, it is important to make sure that you fact-check the data with information from other, reputable sources. However, they are a great place to start if you are trying to find information fairly quickly. Just make sure that you check the references as you would for someone that you were considering to employ.

Another very popular form of communication online is email. Email lets you send messages in minutes rather than days that you would spend waiting on the Postal Service. There are many providers out there that even provide free email accounts. All you have to do is sign up with one of them to get started. Then, you can send an online letter to anyone that has an email address.

You may have also heard of "webcasts" or "podcasts." John Patrick Pullen tells us that podcasts are mostly audio files that you can find on the internet to download so that you can listen to (You Asked: What Are Podcasts?, 2014). Generally, they are series and you can subscribe to them so that you are notified whenever a new one is available for download. The major difference between a podcast and a webcast is that podcasts are prerecorded. With a webcast, you are watching something live and online (Webcast Definition). In other words, you are streaming a video feed.

Streaming media is something that you play directly from the internet (WhatIs.com). In addition to webcasts, some of the most common services that utilize streaming are Netflix and Spotify. You can also stream some television shows directly from the airing television station's website.



Commerce

You probably already know what commerce is. You are participating in commerce whenever you spend money. E-Commerce is the same, but instead of going to the local store to spend the money, you are doing something online. You can also be participating in e-commerce if you use online banking. Basically, any time that you deal with money online, you are participating in e-commerce. M-commerce is much the same, except that instead of using a computer, you do it on your mobile device (Siwicki, 2014).

In short...

In short, there a lot of things about the internet that you probably didn't even know you were using. Now you have a name to put to it and you can decide what you do and do not want to partake in. The internet isn't as scary as you may have originally thought. Heck, it isn't even as "new-fangled" as you may have thought before. It is a great tool. Like any tool, it is how you use it that is important in making it work for you.

References:

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