Introduction to Web Programming

1
Introduction to Web Programming

• David Robison
• David Forbes

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The Module

• Assessed by Multiple Choice to be discussed
  later
• Is designed to give you the basics you need to
  get started as a Web developer
• Is designed to future-proof you and get you
  thinking about the future of the Web (and by
  implication, your own future)
• Will be using Blackboard as a main contact point
  (this will come online soon)

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David Robison, Lecturer at EIMC

• Internet and multimedia
• Mobile content and design
• Video production
• Usability (the user in context)
• Media theory
• Industry Practitioner
• d.robison_at_bradford.ac.uk(Electronic Imaging
  and Media Communications)

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What about You?

• Name, course
• Whats your favourite Website?
• Where do you spend most time online?
• Which form of media do you consume most of?

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Pimping What, Why and How Did We Get Here?

• A brief explanation of Web 2.0

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Two approaches

• Practical How do I do it? (Forbes)
• Programming
• Hardware
• Data relations
• Theoretical Why am I doing it? What does it
  mean? Where is it going? (Robison)
• People and society
• Mobility
• History
• The future

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Today we will mostly be discussing

• How did we arrive where we are now? (predicting
  the future by understanding the past)
• What is Web 2.0?
• User Generated Content
• Social Networking
• What will Web 3.0 look like?
• Note there are many question marks in this
  presentation
• Feel free to interrupt, stick your hand up and
  ask questions/disagree

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First an exercise, and a question to which we
will return at the end

• Close your eyes and imagine you are using the
  Internet
• Now open your eyes
• Where were you when using the Net?
• Bedroom?
• Workplace/college?
• Starbucks, library, somewhere else?
• Hands up if you imagined you were sitting by a
  desk

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The most popular sites in the world include

• Yahoo and Google
• YouTube
• MySpace and Facebook
• MSN, Live Search etc.
• EBay and Amazon
• (according to Alexa.com, although the whole
  situation is very fluid and different estimates
  are given based on different criteria and data)

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A little bit of recent history

• Bursting of the dot com bubble shortly after
  the turn of the millennium
• Billions of dollars were lost when it was
  realised that the Internet was not an automatic
  route to becoming a millionaire
• The development of the Internet can be likened to
  the development of a human being the bursting
  of the dot com bubble might be the younger
  teenage years?

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A modern phenomena but has already
had its day?

• Things are changing so rapidly, MySpace is
  already looking somewhat dated
• Usability issues (sideways scrolling, mixed
  content)
• Heavy spamming
• Being banned at work (along with )
• They became popular in a very short space of time
  they are both in the top 10 most used websites
  in the world
• If they rose so quickly, could they also fall
  quickly?

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Web 2.0 is the Internet growing up?

• What has really changed?
• People are still making their own homepages,
  sending e-mails, looking at pictures, posting on
  message boards, using MSN messenger
• The underlying technologies havent changed
  radically at any given point, they have simply
  been evolving through a constant process of
  upgrade and expansion and has been going on
  right from the start of the Internet

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Evolution or revolution?

• Web 2.0 is part of an evolutionary rather than
  revolutionary change
• The 2.0 part comes from the naming of software
  versions a suggestion of incremental changes
  and improvements, 1.1, 1.2 etc
• When we get to 2.0, we expect improvements
• Web 2.0 has become an umbrella term that
  describes a combination of many different
  technologies, and also some of the particular
  behaviours of users and Web developers

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Broadband and the backbone of the Internet

• The backbone of the Internet is the connections
  between computers to servers capable of sending
  and receiving content (text, image, audio or
  video to users)
• The speed of these connections is constantly
  improving, so now it is possible to view quality
  video over the Internet, without waiting long for
  it to download
• People are rapidly adopting broadband connections
  in most developed countries and this has had a
  huge impact on the quality of user experience

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Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0

• http//web.archive.org/web/19981111183552/google.s
  tanford.edu/
• Compared to www.google.com
• http//web.archive.org/web/20000815074632/uk2.mult
  imap.com/
• Compared to www.multimap.com
• www.4clubbers.net
• Compared to www.4clubbers.ning.com

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Internet versus Television?

• Before the Internet (and even today), TV is seen
  as the most powerful medium
• Under this model, users are broadcast to. The
  stereotype is of the couch potato, sitting
  almost mindlessly, flicking through channels and
  absorbing messages through a one way system of
  delivery
• This is a model that some have tried to take to
  the Internet, with only limited success
• Whats really different about the Internet is
  that it can provide in two-way communications
  or multiple-way communications

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Who makes the money, and how?

• Commercial Television makes its money from
  advertising and MySpace does this too. You making
  a MySpace page, that somebody else sees, makes
  money for MySpace
• MySpace is owned by News International a media
  Empire, which also controls many newspapers the
  world over including The Sun and The Times, and
  also owns a good portion of Fox media

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User Generated Content

• User generated content is media madeby the user.
  Blogs, YouTube, MySpace pages etc.
• User generated content can really be anything you
  like
• In some ways this was already the case with the
  Internet
• However, a non-technical user can now easily
  include video on their page, link to their
  favourite music, and have a message board or
  discussion and communications tools

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Social Networking

• The MySpaceand Facebookphenomena!
• Social networking is a huge part of peoples
  existence, and it is particularly important for
  young people
• Facebook has gone from a small site for college
  students in the US, to receiving vast amounts of
  traffic. People return to the site repeatedly and
  stay there for large amounts of time

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Watching, learning, creating, improving the
EIMC Approach

• Some of the first New Media courses in the
  country. Bridging two cultures (technology and
  the arts)
• A critical approach is important (context and
  the bigger picture matters)
• It is important to get under the bonnet and
  understand the technologies and how we can use
  them
• As a creative person, you can help shape the
  outcome. The future is you (cheesy but true!)
• You wont need to pimp your MySpace, you will be
  able to build your own pages completely, making
  use of Web 2.0 as you see fit!

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Return to the questionWhere are you when you use
the Net?

• On a bus, receiving a message?
• In Tescos purchasing an item
• Operating your oven or setting a
• burglar alarm?
• In a museum, using your IPod?
• In front of a Big Screen in the centre of town?
• In a car, using GPS (e.g. a TomTom)
• Nintendo Wii, or Digital TV?
• Smart clothing, invisible computing, pervasive
  Internet, worries of surveillance, pros and cons

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Web 3.0 may be The Internet that has left the
desktop and entered the real world!
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THE END

• EIMC (Electronic Imaging and Media
  Communications)Informatics, University of
  Bradfordwww.eimc.co.ukwww.bradford.ac.ukE-mai
  l D.Robison_at_bradford.ac.uk