WWW Information and Vocabulary List The Internet is a vast collection of web sites that are linked together by hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are predefined links between two web sites or documents. Users on the Internet can gain access to the information on web sites via a computer program called a browser. A browser is a software program that lets the user search or “surf the web by fetching documents from web servers and then displaying them to the user. Web Page Building: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a code for web site building and design with web authoring tools like Netscape Composer, Front Page, and Dreamweaver, that let you create HTML web pages in the same way you create documents in your word processor. HTML is the language that encodes documents on the World Wide Web. Sites like http://www.builder.com are devoted and designed for professional to learn more about encoding web pages. Other sites like http://www.htmlhelp.com are developed from an Association of Web-page Designers and are founded to help other designers create portable web pages to be viewed on any browser or any from computer platform. Concepts on Web Design To have a better understanding about the technology of web design, there two keys to successful implementation of the technologies involved. First, a solid understanding of the foundations that went into the Internets development, and secondly, a framework for the implementation of web page construction, and a knowledge of the available tools and design strategies. To understand the foundation of web design, it is important to look at the historical background of the Internets development and how it has evolved into the commercially oriented communications technology. Historical Background The Internet evolved through an unusual alliance between the U.S. Military and civilian interests. The U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) program, the Advanced Research Projects Agencies (ARPA) and their officials that controlled them determined that they needed to communicate and exchange information between several research facilities around the nation. Existing systems of communications were inadequate. Initial efforts focused on developing a system of networks to allow each facility to communicate with one another and utilize routers with the same protocols, while allowing the sub-networks at each facility to stay intact and be under local control. The system’s development was successful. It was a data only network with no consideration for voice or video. Telephones were the choice of audio, and video was inconceivable at that time. ARPANET was the first Internet and utilized primarily by the military, researchers and engineers. By 1973 the first problems begin on the ARPANET. Its initial protocols were not designed for its growing large amount of traffic. In 1974, at a speed and latitude unheard of, software developers created programs that enhanced the existing systems of the ARPANET. It was the last hurtle in the progression of today’s Internet. Originally the ARPANET was viewed as a private domain by its designers. Once commercial networks starting linking into the ARPANET creating “collision networks”, the originators and the government had to relinquish their hold on the new Internet. By the 1990’s most of the Internet has becomes commercial. The Internet represents decades of development. The U.S. Military played a greater role in its development than most people realize. Experts outside the U.S. also made many significant contributions. It was not a medium originally intended for personal communication but rather intended for scientists to overcome difficulties of running programs on remote computers. The current commercially viewed, communications oriented Internet emerged and continues to evolve from technology, organization and political restructuring.
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