OLR: Exercise 3 – Topic 8

A) The term tag is in the context of social bookmarking sites a single word  used to describe what your post is about. A bit like keywords.

“Tags

A tag is simply a word you use to describe a bookmark. Unlike folders, you make up tags when you need them and you can use as many as you like. The result is a better way to organize your bookmarks and a great way to discover interesting things on the Web.”

(http://del.icio.us/help/tags)

B) Youtube, myspace and flickr are all similar in the fact that they let users share content and self created content. For example youtube is video and flickr is photos.

Youtube lets users upload video content and create their own channels. These allow people to subscribe to them  and share video. Most recently both Australian and American Politicians have taken to Youtube to deliver their message to a younger audience.

Myspace allows users to post info about themselves as well as music and movies.

Flickr allows users to share photos.

Each of these sites performs the same basic functions of sharing user created content and networks. The main difference is the mediums they allow people to share.

C)  Another web 2.0 site that I have mentioned previously in this blog is curse.com this site allows users to submit modifications for various games as well as share stories and video that is video game related.

OLR: Exercise 2 – Topic 8

RSS

RSS is as described by Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format))  “RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel,” contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text.”

Aggregation is described as by wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregator)   “In computing, a feed aggregator, also known as a feed reader or simply as an aggregator, is client software or a Web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing. ” This allows feeds to be brought in from various sites into one central location for people to read.

Syndication is “Web syndication is a form of syndication in which a section of a website is made available for other sites to use.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_syndication)

These technologies have allowed for the increase distribution of information both to users and between websites. This sharing of information gives realtime news and information to users. RSS feeds are becoming alot more commonly used and useful then mailing lists as they allow users to feed live data straight to their website or RSS reader.

AJAX

The Ajax patterns website is a repository of all types of AJAX related tools, these include frameworks, libraries etc. One thing of interest to note is that this site uses Wiki software to drive the site.

Perhaps one of the best descriptions that I have found as to what AJAX is for the layperson is this “Ajax is just a style of design, one that milks all the features of modern browsers to produce something that feels less web and more desktop.” (http://ajaxpatterns.org/Whats_Ajax)

The Ajax patterns website seems to be community driven with the users contributing to the library.

OLR: Exercise 1 – Topic 8

Upon first logging into the site we are presented with a screen where we can see all of our documents created and stored in docs.google.com

 It may be my connection but this screen seemed to take a bit to load. Once in there we simply click New and then spreadsheet to take us to a new spreadsheet section.

 The new spreadsheet screen seemed to come up very fast and from all accounts looks like your standard spreadsheet application. The spreadsheet could easily be mistaken for a standalone locally installed spreadsheet application such as Excel. It is fully functional and allows data to have formulas applied to it as well as sorting.

 This application would be great for people that travel alot and dont neceserally have a laptop to carry around with them. It would also allow them to access their data while away from home and share it with a number of users.