Internet II INP 160

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Internet II INP 160

• June 6 2001

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Everybody wants to belong.

• Different kinds of communities
• a) Personal
• b) Professional
• c) Academic
• How is an online community different?
• How is it the same?

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Risks? Benefits?

• Risks
• a) Privacy-related
• b) Emotional
• c) Investment of time and energy
• Benefits
• a) Perks of membership/fringe benefits
• b) Information
• c) Personal connections

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Risk Privacy

• Any community requires a sacrifice of privacy
• How much are you willing to divulge?
• Your name?
• Your age?
• Your interests or location?
• Your email?
• What do you get in return?

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Risk Emotional

• a) Conflict
• --Especially if interest group
• --Political, personal problems, support group
• b) Rejection
• --Emotional investment in belonging
• --Netiquette

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Risk Investment

• Time and energy cost you!
• When do you cut your losses?
• When might you leave an online community?

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Benefit Fringe benefits

• Generally commercial
• Discounts, sales, frequent flyer plans etc.
• Benefit Information
• WWW sites
• Info exchange
• Interface to make exchange easier

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Benefit Personal connection

• Friends
• Pen pals
• Support
• Advice
• Accelerated feeling of belonging

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Different online communities

• Newsgroups/Usenet
• Egroups
• IRC
• Instant Messages

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Newsgroups/Usenet

• Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
• Pull technology
• Top level categories 103, but 9 major (counting
  alt)
• Plain text!
• Lots of cranks
• Lots of hobbyists

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Newsgroup Examples
soc.culture.australian soc.subculture.expatriate 
k12.ed.math  humanities.lit.authors alt.airports 

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Newsgroups in the past

• Text-only
• Newsreaders read NNTP
• Smaller audience

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Newsgroups Now

• One of many types of online communities
• Much larger audience
• Web interface available
• Newsreaders no longer widespread

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Web interfaces for Usenet

• Deja.com
• EasyUsenet
• Newsreaders.comweb site for people who want to
  use newsreaders.
• HTTP proxieseasier to use, more intuitive for
  many of us, but also slow and can be bulky.

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YahooGroups/EGroups

• Web-based
• Pull or push technology
• Typically used by preexisting groups
• Moderater determines interface
• File transfer (HTTP), calendar functions, other
  specialized options

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Internet Relay Chat

• Plain text, real time
• Pull technology
• Precursor of other instant messenger programs
• Complex system of ops and privileges
• Client required (e.g. IRCle)
• Largely replaced by IM

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Instant Messages (IM)

• Real time
• Pull technology
• Formatted text (with increasing additions, like
  smiley faces)
• Client required (e.g. YahooIM, AIM)

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Exercise

• Browse http//www.deja.com.
• Complete the worksheet.
• If youre confused, ask your neighbor.

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Netiquette

• Remember protocols?
• People have protocols, too.
• Set of rules
• Consequences?

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Sample Netiquette Rules

• Read the FAQ before asking a newsgroup.
• Dont type in ALL CAPS.
• Dont spam.
• Use Netspeak to clarify your meaning.
• Beware of flaming.

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Netspeak

• Acronyms
• LOL, ROFL, IMHO, TTYL, RTFM, OIC
• Emoticons
• ) 0 gt -) ) (

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Why use Netspeak?

• Belonging to community
• Adds emotional dimension
• Makes meaning more clear

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Break

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Break
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A Word on UNIX

• UNIX has many forms
• SunOS
• Linux
• HP-UX (among others)
• Command-line
• Requires remembering commands
• Beloved by geeks everywhere

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The UNIX Prompt

• Enter text commands
• e.g. mkdir, rm, pico
• Any response is in text
• No news is good news
• Generally lower-case

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Telnet

• A client/server application allowing remote
  access to computers.
• Requires client (your software) and server
  (remote host).

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Telnet Terminal Anatomy
UNIX version
(this window is on your desktop)
UNIX prompt
Login Password
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Telnet Why Bother?

• Run software on a faraway computer
• Edit files without FTP
• Change permissions (only with Telnet!)
• Text-based browsing (through Lynx)
• Quick-and-dirty fixes on programs or HTML files.

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Telnet History

• Stages in protocol evolution
• 1980, 1983.
• Separate protocol describing available option
• Early web browsing in Lynx
• OPACS (online card catalogs) in libraries

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Using Telnet

• Open your telnet client
• Name your window (optional)
• Enter the hostname
• Enter login and password
• At Unix prompt, get to work!

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Some Basic UNIX Commands

• ls will list the contents of your directory
• cd will let you move down (to a directory
  inside your current directory)
• cd .. will move you up one directory
• pico opens the text editor Pico
• lynxURL will open that URL in Lynx, a
  text-based browser

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Telnet Demonstration
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More on Telnet

• For reference http//www.wccnet.org/dept/cis/mod/
  na40c.htm
• Hands-on exercise http//www.wccnet.org/dept/cis/m
  od/na41h.htm

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HW for Tuesday

• Change in planFMS on Tues.
• Finish hands-on exercise, turn in writeup
• Read http//www.wccnet.org/dept/cis/mod/f01c.htm