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HTML Portfolio Page – Ta-Ruedee Pholpipattanaphong (Ploy)

Webpage link: http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~trp297/week1/ploywebsite

Since it was my first time playing around with codes, I do find some small problems, which eventually I overcame. 

For instance, when I used the tag <p></p>, I initially don’t know how to tab for the shortcut of the code. This is because I included “<” in front of p when I’m supposed to write only p then tab. After knowing the shortcuts, it makes the coding a lot easier. 

Another obstacle I found was that the image file was too big. Therefore I need to minimize the size of the image down by changing the width and height. 

Lastly, I think I renamed the file for week1 wrong, by writing “week 1” (with space in between) I forgot that computer can not process it through the computer language. 

It all comes to ‘practice makes perfect’.  

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Response to Long Live the Web and The Room Where the Internet Was Born – Ta-Ruedee Pholpipattanaphong (Ploy)

“Long Live the Web” written by Tim Berners-Lee stresses that the Internets and the Web are a major part of our life, but sometimes we take it for granted. Lee supports that the Web brought us free speech, and just “like democracy itself, it needs defending” (80). It is the users who need the Internet and the Web to run, and therefore it is our responsibility to maintain, protect, and improve it.

Before reading this, when I think about the benefits of Internets, it would be access to numerous websites and to communicate globally. However, I never thought about how the Web grants us free speech. Thinking more of it, (through its’ purpose) it is the only thing we completely have control on. No matter who you are, you have the power to choose what to write and post. Despite that, there are threats that arise from the freedom we earned. For instance, the issue of web security and the monopoly of information. I never thought about the scary versions of the web. It’s scary to know that our personal data that are posted can be reused for other purposes. It’s also scary to see that if one browser gets bigger than others it can limit innovation. To prevent those threats that affect everyone, not only the person who posts, we should keep the web within “open standards” (83). Therefore, to successful reach universality, we must ensure and regulate through laws that the Web respects all human rights.

“The Room Where the Internet Was Born” written by Ingrid Burrington fascinates me. I see how much the internet has impacted all our life greatly that thinking about how it originates from just a small room is totally incredible. It’s unbelievable that all of this starts from a single message, sent through the ARPANET. Burrington emphasizes that the web is after all ahistorical and that it cannot be seen as a whole, but rather as the emersion of fragments.

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Week 1: Response to “Long Live the Web” and “A Network of Fragments” – Daisy Chen

After reading Tim Berners Lee’s “Long Live the Web”, the metaphor that came to mind is the internet as a special society. We, the Web’s users are all members of this society. And every one of us is responsible for the future development of this society. The Web as “an application that runs on the Internet” therefore plays an important role. This Internet soccer is different from other communities since it doesn’t have any boundaries. People can use the Internet as long as they have access to it. And all the members are linked through data (or information). The open standards and the principle of universality allow the Web to work no matter what language or connection people use, giving the Web developers and users enough space of freedom.

The threats to the Internet is also closely related to the precious freedom. The censorship on the Internet, the interference on the Internet traffic and the walled-off system (like iTunes) are all factors undermining the rights of the Web users. These are not potential or future threats but things that are happening around us. For example, data company Cambridge Analytica uses private data on Facebook has affected millions of Facebook users. Censorship on the Internet blocks people from accessing information. The empowerment of the web is a double-edged sword which can be used to spread the knowledge to a wide range but also do harm to people worldwide. That’s why it’s the responsibility of all the web users — not just the web developers — to protect the Internet environment. How to do is another question. Protect the principles like universality and open standards are one of the priorities. Meanwhile, the Internet is a grey area due to the complicated countries and issues involved, which makes the legislation more difficult. How to balance freedom and regulation is also a question.

“A Network of Fragments” by Burrington offering insights into the Internet infrastructure approaches the Internet society from the physical world. Unlike other countries, the Internet is abstract and even the infrastructures that build the network of the internet are made up of pieces. The fiber, towers are all existing as small units. What’s magical about the internet may be the way these small points connect into a huge network with such a big impact.

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Week2 – Response to “Long Live the Web” and “A Network of Fragments” – Jamie (Ziying Wang)

The article “Long Live the Web” stresses it’s important to distinguish the internet and the web. The web can change and renew while the internet exists in the background. This is just like how Berners-Lee compares this to the gadgets that rely on electronic network and electronic network itself. By separating the web and the internet, the development space for innovation will grow. Therefore, we need to ensure the openness of the website, it drives diversity in web design and liberty for people. However, even though we have achieved a lot on the internet, we need to pay attention to personal safety on the internet. Users’ data may not be completely wiped out from the internet when they think they already delete them all. Furthermore, this data may be used by others who might sell the users’ information.

In “A Network of Fragments”, Burrington writes about the internet infrastructure. The cloud, as Burrington explains, can only be seen in fragments. Fiber, for example, is buried in the ground, usually along the highway where vehicles don’t usually stop, that’s why people don’t see them often. Even though towers are mostly built in open areas, the placards on them are opaque. The stories provided by fibers and towers are not as sufficient as data centers do. This reminds me of the picture of a beach, where it is also the place of the world most important data center. The internet is something we cannot live without, but it’s also something we can never see physically.

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Response to “Long Live the Web” and “The Strange Geopolitics of the International Cloud” (Jiannan Shi)

Tim Berners-Lee defends principles of the web in his article “Long Live the Web.” He says that the Web is critical to free speech as a medium which is based on egalitarian principles. Berners-Lee mentions that universality, decentralization, open standards should be the principles and features of the Web in order to make itself powerful enough. The threat to these principles, includes the increasing tendency of internet censorship, consumerism, and the dictatorship of technology giants. What Berners-Lee mentions about the Web is quite cogent, but it would be more interesting to present his ideas in the Chinese context. Even though the Web could exhibit democratic values, the authorities treat it in a different way. The Web media, however, should be the mouthpiece of the Party and lead the public opinion, says CPC News. The threat of the universality principle is shown in the Chinese landscape as well. Berners-Lee mentions that it is dangerous to see “one search engine . . . gets so big that it becomes a monopoly” (82). In 2016, Wei died from cancer after he’s getting medical treatment from a hospital where he had found to be listed the top in the search result of Baidu.com, the biggest Chinese web searching engine, and it caused a social panic. It was found that the reason why that hospital would be listed top was that Baidu treated it as a commercial advertisement.

Ingrid Burrington discovers the geopolitics of the “cloud” in his article “The Strange Geopolitics of the International Cloud.” Although technological and climate concerns are part of the considerations to build “data centers,” political concerns also need to be considered given the increasing call of data sovereignty. In the Chinese context, this article reminds me of the news on the data center of Apple in China. In 2020, a new data center will be open in Guizhou Province to dedicating itself as a holder of iCloud data for Chinese mainland users, according to Xinhua News. Although Guizhou province is not a technologically advanced or talent-attracting place to build a data center, the Chinese data of iCloud are to be saved here mostly because of political concerns.