NET 11: Assignment One - Resource Project

Develop an annotated bibliography of resources on ‘Being an advanced Internet User’. You should be collecting and developing this material as you work through the tasks and reading for each module. The final version must be presented as an electronic source – either a web site or a blog. You may use as a starting point the web page or blog you created in module 3.

Module 1: Introduction

CAIDA (Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis). (2007). Retrieved March 15, 2007, from CAIDA website: http://www.caida.org/home/

The CAIDA website provides comprehensive data and tools relating to monitoring and measuring network topology (properties and relationships), routing, the DNS system and other factors that influence the performance of the internet. While much of this site involves high level concepts that challenge my current sphere of knowledge, there are many articles and datasets that provide a fascinating insight into the growth of networks, their concentration, and the volume of traffic at varying times. The collection and analysis of this data contributes to the future planning of networks and allows organisations to optimise existing ones by 'mapping' factors including network types (and physical variations, i.e. T1 to fiber optic), internet traffic volumes, loads and packet path data. Many of the research findings and articles are of great value in assisting understanding of some of the challenges that the internet faces in order to grow at an optimum rate or to circumvent potential difficulties before they eventuate.

Relates to Concept 25: Identity and Location. By reading the results of many highly detailed studies of the structural and performance characteristics of the internet, I have gained an understanding of the effects of network dynamics, traffic characteristics and the relationship that the internet's physical 'backbone' has on everyday use.


Peter, Ian. NetHistory. (2007). History of the Internet Explained. Retrieved March 29, 2007, from nethistory.info website: http://www.nethistory.info/index.html

Nethistory.info is a useful resource because it contains a lot of information about the foundation protocols of the internet, focusing mostly on the technical underpinnings including DNS, TCP/IP, SMTP, FTP and HTTP. While not being the most comprehensive description of each of these protocols, they are discussed in very easy to understand terms and in a way that defines their function and role within the internet. The site contains the most comprehensive information I have found in one place concerning the development of Arpanet and its' evolution into what we now know as 'the internet', including exploration of several theories by prominent writers into its' exact origins, and the global expansion of networks that now form the internet. The site was created by Ian Peter, an internet historian and consultant to many large corporations and the Australian Government, and who founded one of Australia's earliest ISPs.

Relates to Concept 27: The Persistence of History. By discussing the very foundations of the internet and the origins of protocols and early applications, this site provides an excellent understanding of the relevance of these applications (such as Telnet, email, Traceroute and Ping) to the development of the internet and to future technologies that will be fundamental to the WWW.


Module 2: Communicating in the Infosphere

Yee, Nick. The Daedalus Project: The psychology of MMORPGs. (2007). Retrieved April 25, 2007, from Nick Yee's website: http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/

This website concerns the study of the emerging phenomenon of self-representation in Massively Multiplayer Online (Role-Playing) Games (MMO's or MMORPG's). This relatively new area of the WWW is becoming increasingly more relevant from both a commercial and psychological point-of-view. From a commercial perspective, a virtual environment offers users the ability to interact more realistically with others than email or chat and provides the ability for marketers to present concepts (or products) with great clarity due to the increased emotional response users show when interacting in an immersive virtual environment as opposed to using other forms of asynchronous or synchronous communication. From a psychological viewpoint MMORPGs are the catalyst for new avenues of personal development, expression and communication. The ability to communicate synchronously while also sharing new (virtual) experiences contributes to the formation of real-world bonds that are often cited as being as real as physical relationships. The site's author, Nick Yee, is a Ph.D Communications student whose research has been performed over four years (surveying 35,000 users) and is by far the most comprehensive yet published concerning this subject. The Daedalus Project is referenced by many other websites including featuring on the Stamford University Virtual Human Interaction Lab website.

Relates to Concept 14: Cyberspace is informationally created space. MMORPGs are influencing the development of commerce and personal interaction on the WWW in a similar way to earlier forms of internet-based communication. By adding the ability to embellish personal communication with user controlled or devised environments (experiences) and physical nuances, virtual environments are beginning to replace and expand on the functionality of previous internet communication formats.


Suler, John R., Ph. D. (1996, January, Last edited 2006, August). The Psychology of Cyberspace. Retrieved April 10, 2007, from Rider University website: http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html

This website (self-referred to as an online book) provides an in-depth analysis of psychological issues associated with maintaining an online persona including self-perception, identity management, personality types, gender-switching, addiction, romance, peer influence, and group dynamics. These issues are increasingly important for younger and new users of the internet who may lack mature real-world communication skills or 'cyber awareness' and could become susceptible to more experienced users who may be able to manipulate them by utilising more advanced communication techniques or by creating a perception that they can be trusted when they should not be. Central to the topic of security on the WWW, both cyber and personal, is the perceived notion of safety that may be conveyed by interacting 'at arms length' with an unknown source – whether it is a threat to your computer (spam, hacking, viruses, trojans, worms etc.) or a threat to your person (online scams, psychological or physical influence). John R. Suler is a licensed clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Rider University, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and this site is hosted as part of the Rider University website.

Relates to Concept 26: Privacy and Security. The open nature of communication on the internet requires that an advanced user recognises and accepts that this method of communication is accompanied by great risks and consequently, responsibilities. Not only is care required to protect the 'cyber' presence of that user, but increasingly, discretion is required to ensure protection on a more personal psychological or even physical level.


Module 3: Contributing to the Infosphere: e-writing

Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) - Internet. (2007). Retrieved April 05, 2007, from Reporters Sans Frontières website: http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=273

With the rapid development of the internet and WWW, an avenue of broadcast has been opened for millions of people who would previously never have had the means to publish their opinions with such ease, widespread readership, and therefore, impact. Principally via the avenues of web pages, blogs, newsgroups and to a lesser extent email, ordinary citizens as well as journalists are now able to express their viewpoint to a potential audience of millions. Along with this new capacity for freedom of speech has come the issue of government censorship and regulation of the internet. This site provides a fascinating insight into developments around the world with respect to these issues and the archives section in particular is a vital source of information on all aspects of government imposed control of free speech on the internet, from new legislation to monitoring and reporting cases of human rights abuses.

Relates to Concept 22: Public Space and regulation. The issue of regulation and censorship, whether it is self or government imposed, is critical to the expansion of the internet in the future. It is important to understand the issues and influences that, while not being pervasive for residents of democratic societies, continues to be a major factor in shaping the development of methods of open communication on the internet in general.


Zeropaid.com (2007). Retrieved April 25, 2007, from Zeropaid website: http://www.zeropaid.com/

The Zeropaid website is a portal into the world of Peer to Peer (P2P) file sharing. It is a useful resource because it documents the latest legislation, activity in the area of Digital Rights Management (DRM) laws, news articles, lists and provides guides and tutorials. The rapid rise in popularity of P2P file sharing over the internet is notable for the way in which files are sent from one individual computer to another, utilising the entire available network rather than relying on a central server to accomplish the transfer. With the advent of digital media and P2P networks comes the ability to exchange any kind of data around the globe instantaneously, prompting calls for regulation from governments, software vendors and media developers alike, as well as being a vital element to be considered for its influence on network development, legislation, copyright and Intellectual Property laws. P2P file sharing is becoming an increasingly popular avenue for internet users to publish their own Intellectual Property (including writing, images and art) for the access of like-minded users due to the fact that it is now possible to submit personal Intellectual Property to P2P lists, thereby making it freely available to millions of other web users' desktops. While this site would probably not qualify as an 'Academic Quality' resource, it provides comprehensive coverage of all issues concerning this diverse and popular technology.

Relates to Concept 24: Client-server two way interaction. As web technologies mature, a widely used function of the internet is the ability to share files on a P2P basis, meaning the 'server' in these cases can effectively be a desktop computer in a private home. This function has at the same time become hugely popular and very controversial with its' potential to remove software or media from the control of its' creators and place it in the public domain.


Module 4: Using the infosphere: Taking & organising

Barker, Joe. (2007). Invisible or Deep Web: What it is, Why it exists, How to find it, and Its inherent ambiguity. Retrieved April 15, 2007, from University of California, Berkeley website: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html

This web page is part of a series of pages on the UC Berkeley website called "Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial" by Joe Barker, who is Librarian at the UC Berkeley Teaching Library. The 'Deep (or invisible) Web' is the portion of the WWW that is largely hidden from conventional search engines and therefore the majority of internet users. Various studies estimate that at least 90% of all web-based information, and possibly many times more, is contained on the Deep web. This information is mainly comprised of non-HTML formats, dynamic pages, some (but not all) databases, pages that require manual typing to access them, password protected pages and pages that have been selectively excluded by mainstream search engines. This web page provides information on how to access the Deep Web and reminds us that in order to search for some types of information we may need to bear in mind that our search techniques will need to be refined. The page is also valuable because it contains several hyperlinks to more search-related information hosted on the UC Berkeley website, and which is also authored by Joe Barker.

Relates to Concept 32: Virtually a library? This is especially relevant to the concept of cyber information being a kind of 'virtual library' because much of the information on the 'Deep Web' is actually information that is outside the conventional hypertext method of linking documents and is categorised in databases, thereby having a defined directory structure.


RSS 2.0 at Harvard Law. (2007). Retrieved April 15, 2007, from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School website: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/index.html

RSS (an acronym for Really Simple Syndication) is a 'web content syndication' format that is a dialect of the XML programming language. The "RSS 2.0 at Harvard Law" website should be viewed as the ultimate authority on the RSS format due to the fact that the RSS 2.0 specification, which was originally authored by Dave Winer, is now owned by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, although it is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike license which enables it to be improved, customised and republished by others. RSS is a vitally important new technology because it allows authors to syndicate digital content for distribution over the WWW via 'web feeds' which are read by software 'aggregators' and can consist of text, hyperlinks and images. These feeds are able to be frequently updated, automatically uploading (pushing) rapidly changing data directly to a users' desktop. The RSS 2.0 at Harvard Law site details the broader applications of RSS along with its technical specifications, development and history, and provides links to dozens of blog posts that link articles about this remarkable and useful technology.

Relates to Concept 29: The challenge of 'fast' data. RSS is a relatively new technology on the internet and embodies the notion of 'fast' internet data. RSS data appears to be transient in that the conventional methods of monitoring RSS 'feeds' convey the information on a perpetually changing and updating basis.