Remarks on Terminology -or- The Primordial Ooze

2007-06-18 22:12 |

To be as precise as possible during the following discussions, I will introduce some of the very basic concepts from computer science and ‘Web jargon’. Occasionally, certain expressions are used inappropriately among Internet users but in literature as well, which may cause confusion and misunderstanding. For a profound discussion of my topic, as it is strongly related to Internet issues, defining particular concepts will be necessary, as there are so many different notions at which even experts on their fields often stumble1. For that purpose, I have picked out definitions from some of the most accessed online glossaries of computer and Internet items. Web professionals may forgive me for coming up with Adam and Eve again, but I often recognise wrong usage and spelling which should better be clarified right from the beginning.

‘Internet’ vs. ‘Web’

When speaking of the ‘Internet’ (upper case ‘I’), Barker (~2004) explains that one refers to the vast collection of interconnected networks that all use the TCP/IP protocols2. An ‘internet’ (lower case ‘i’) is therefore any computers connected to each other (a network); they are not part of the Internet unless they use TCP/IP protocols. An ‘intranet’, as Barker (~2004) continues, “is a private network inside a company or organization that uses the same kinds of software that one would find on the public Internet, but that is only for internal use. An intranet may be on the Internet or may simply be a network”. However, it is important to know that the Internet is not a synonym for the World Wide Web. The Web is rather a subset of the Internet; it is the most popular part of the Internet, though (see also Runkehl et al. 1998). Christensson (~2004a) explains: “The Web consists of pages that can be accessed using a Web browser. The Internet is the actual network of networks where all the information resides.” There are several services that use the Internet and are transmitted via the Internet like Telnet, Usenet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Internet gaming, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and e-mail, but that are not part of the World Wide Web. In other words, the user ‘surfs’ on the Web, but people use the Internet for several services, such as e-mail.

Most important, however, is the fact that ‘Internet’ and ‘Web’ are proper names and therefore need to be capitalised, which is often ignored!

‘Web site’ vs. ‘home page’

The Web comprises all the documents that can be transferred using the ‘Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol’ (HTTP). With ‘hypertext’, words or phrases can contain a ‘link’ to another document. All Web documents are basically written in the ‘Hyper-Text Markup Language’ (HTML), which works in conjunction with HTTP (see Christensson (~2004a)).

Furthermore, a ‘Web site’ is not the same thing as a ‘Web page’; a Web site is rather a collection of Web pages. For example, www.corona-labs.com is a Web site, but there are several Web pages that make up the site (see Christensson (~2004b)).

The ‘home page’ is the starting point or front page of a Web site. This page usually holds the table of contents on it and often describes the purpose of the Web site. For example, www.corona-labs.de/index.html is the home page of www.corona-labs.de. Another way the term can be used is for a ‘personal home page’ that many people have (see Christensson (~2004c)). However, this will not be meant when referring to the term ‘home page’ within this blog.

From ‘Web server’ to ‘online’

According to Barker (~2004), a ‘Web server’, also called a ‘host’, is a computer connected to the Internet, running a software so that it can provide documents via the Web. “Web servers are the closest equivalent to what in the print world is called the “publisher” of a print document.” (Barker (~2004)) A computer that accesses respectively downloads the information that is stored in those documents (e.g. a user’s workstation PC) then is called a ‘client’. The client must run software to access and visualise Web documents – a ‘Web browser’.

The last term that I need to specify for the use in this paper is the word ‘online’. For my discussion, online exclusively refers to the different types of connection to the Internet only. Wagner (2002), for instance, also speaks of online information and online texts sorts, even as he relates to software interfaces or comparable screen applications that have no connection to the Internet. Also Horton’s book on Designing and Writing Online Documentation (1994) does not automatically focus upon Internet documentation. I do not follow that usage of the term, except for describing processes or documents solely connected to the Internet.

1 See Bergien (2003) for a discussion on the complexity within the usage of the term ‘Internet’.

2 “(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) — This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now available for every major kind of computer operating system. To be truly on the Internet, a computer must have TCP/IP software.” (Barker (~2004)) It is like a standardised language that all the computers connected to the Internet must speak.

Published by Christian Kuhn

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