- The author mentions the beneficial and “ill effects” of the Web. Describe two examples of these effects from your own experience on the web.
Benefits: share my pics and favorite music with my friends, feeling more connected with them; be able to effectively search for resources for both academic and daily use
Ill effects: my private information like my whereabouts being monitored by the government (and the sensation of being watched was significantly strengthened during the covid because we were required our track through the health code); censorship on free speech
- In your own words, describe the concepts below, contrast them to one another, and, if possible, share associations from your own experience on the web.
- Universality and Isolation
Universality means that the web is open to people with different identities and opinions, people who are healthy and disabled. And the various information can be accessed by anyone. The URI (Universal Resource Identifier) allows you to follow any link no matter the content it leads. While isolation means that some connections and resources exist only within one site. For example, social networking sites like tweeter collects your information and give back value-added service which is only within their site. Universality allows for decentralization while Isolation creates more of a centralized platform where you are unable to have full control over your information.
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- Open Standards and Closed Worlds
Open Standards refer to standards that are universally recognized and available for free on the Web. Closed Worlds are created by companies that invest money in developing applications instead of Web apps, making a closed loop for users as they can’t make any link to any information inside the closed worlds. Closed worlds provide users with exclusive and unique online communities and the companies related can make more profits. Nevertheless, Open standards used to and will always be the fundamental stone of the web because if there is no connection, there is no room for the web to exist as it loses its diversity and richness.
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- The Web and the Internet
The Web consists of pages that people browse while the Internet is the network of connected computers that the Web works on. In other words, if the Internet is the rode that connects cities, then the web is the car on the road.
- The author talks about his visions for “the Web in the future”. More than 10 years after this text was published, identify the elements of his vision and discuss the ways in which they are (or aren’t) still present in today’s web. Feel free to also point out issues that have since arisen (e.g. the idea of “fake news”), and discuss how they might relate to the author’s vision.
In the author’s vision, the Web in the future, in general, would be more open and accessible to all people, the study of the Web would go deeper, and the use of it would be wider. Open data is still present nowadays, helping with various scientific studies and people’s daily life. Additionally, efficient bandwidth has been applied in developing countries and greatly improved the economy and education, though in most areas the bandwidth is not free yet. There are also new issues that have emerged since the publication of the text. For instance, new kinds of Internet fraud have been disturbing people’s life and, cheating people out of their money, in some worse cases. As the Internet is anonymous in theory, it increases the difficulty of finding criminals online. While people are receiving benefits from the universality of the internet, they also give away some of their personal information, which gives opportunities to cyber criminals. In addition, censorship on the Internet has been increasing in some areas of the world, which is against the openness of the Internet.