Sunday, March 18, 2007

Blog Post #6: Bookmobile Webpages

Hello, everyone!

It is so wonderful to be able to share our work with each other. It was a scary but exciting journey and I, for one, have learned a ton. My family is amazed and not quite certain who I am when I start talking html, etc.

Click to view the Bookmobile web pages.

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Wee me



Tried out the WEE ME site mentioned on the "Who wants to be a librarian" blog! Thanks, it was fun to do! I am spending why too much time in front of this computer though!

Blogpost #5 Gore and the Internet

Al Gore invented the Internet?

On March 9, 1999, in an interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN, Al Gore said, "I took the initiative in creating the Internet." The news media took Gore's statement out of context creating an atmosphere where it became politically incorrect to mention the Internet in a public debate or campaign.

Two days after Gore's comment, Declan McCullagh wrote that the Vice President was taking credit for the Internet in his article on Wired News. Later, McCullagh called House Majority Leader, Texas Republican, Dick Armey and got this response,"If the Vice President created the Internet then I created the Interstate highway system." Then Michelle Mittelstadt wrote a story which appeared on the AP wire. It's title read,“Republicans pounce on Gore’s claim that he created the Internet.” In the article she said that Gore claimed to be "father of the Internet." Mittelstadt was guilty of "tendentious paraphrase" , changing the wording of a quote to make it more sensational. Shortly thereafter, Jay Leno added one liners about Gore inventing the Internet to his Tonight Show monologues. David Letterman also joked about Gore in June and December of 1999, with his Top Ten lists. Thus comedians, the news media and political adversaries began a two year campaign of ridicule which ultimately may have effected the outcome of the 2000 Presidential election.

Seth Finkelstein has compiled a chronology of articles which traces the written origins of the Gore/Internet story as well as those which debunk it. Of particular interest is the article by Richard Wiggins in First Monday. Wiggins thinks, "the cumulative effect of all the Gore Internet jokes is a diminution of the quality of real debate," over Internet issues. He feels that, "too many voters are satisfied with sound bite character assessment-and sound bite assassination." Many sources cited by both Finkelstein and Wiggins attest to the very real contributions Gore has made to the development of the Internet through his political activities.

Scott Rosenberg writes,"the next time you hear an "Al Gore, Internet inventor" joke, think about the strange twisted path a politician's words can take in other people's hands -- and be glad we can use the Internet to try to straighten it out."

Blogpost #4 World Wide Web

A book, History of the Internet by Moschovitis, Poole, Schuyler, and Sengt was just weeded from our library's non-fiction collection. The book was published in 1999, which is why it had been removed. Never the less, I brought it home thinking that I might find a topic to blog about.

Tim Berners-Lee's creation of the World Wide Web has interested me since our first days of class so he will be the topic of this entry. Berners-Lee was born in London to parents who were both working on an early computer, the Ferranti Mark I. He studied physics at Queen's College, Oxford University, graduating in 1976. In 1984, he began work at CERN. Five years later, he submitted a proposal for the development of a hypertext data system. His subsequent work yielded what we now know as the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee does not view himself as the inventor of the WWW. "He says he provided only the blueprint, whereas the communities of Internet users assembled the pieces and made the WWW grow with breathtaking speed." This comment sounds like something out of Time magazine's "Person of the Year: You" articles which illustrate how the contributions of many have swiftly lead to refinements on the internet and the web.

Berners-Lee left CERN in 1994 to direct the newly created W3 Consortium at MIT in the United States. "The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C is a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding." There he continues to coordinate the development of Web tools and standards. A MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" was awarded to Berners-Lee in 1998. Berners-Lee is still acting director of the W3 Consortium and has spoken to the Congressional Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet regarding the future of the Web as recently as this past Thursday, March 1st.

His brilliance in the creation of the World Wide Web is enhanced by what has been termed his humble nature. When he completed his WWW software, he was approached by companies to commercialize it. He decided against copyrighting this product thus losing out on the financial return he might have received from it. "Berners-Lee remains committed to preventing any single corporation from dominating the Web." Through his work with the W3 Consortium, he continues to promote and protect an easily accessible, public web.

Berners-Lee is yet another unsung hero of our times. We are fortunate to have him battling for public accessibility on the front lines in Washington and internationally.