Web works w HTML & Social Media Intros

Well I knew some basics before today's class on how the Web works with intros into HTML & Social Medias....I knew about servers, modems & internet connections...HA...though what I wasn't aware quite naively of is the meganormous submarine communication cables that connect the globe fiber optically, transporting the ever overwhelming digital hierarchy technology we are these days surrounded by.  In New Zealand...we are connected to the rest of the world through what is commonly known as the 'Southern Cross Cable'.  Well, there I was thinking that our virtual world was beamed through space satellite, gridding the world, probing & fueling our crazy technical existence, & turns out I was clearly off path.  Following on we were given insight into how websites are just enormous collections of files and the Internet is a collection of many many smaller networks built in different ways that interconnect giving Internet its name.

How the Internet Works in 5mins 

Brief visual explaining the how the Internet is no fluffy cloud in the sky.

HTML Intro
So basically HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is a modern code system where terminology is typically omitted from the version of the text which is displayed for the end-users consumption.  The idea behind HTML is to take a piece of text and mark-it-up by wrapping it in tags.  HTML as a language is composed of these basic parts:

Each tag wraps around a portion of the text, and also describes the portion of text it’s wrapping around.

<the opening tag> the content </the closing tag>

The opening tag is formatted like this   <p>

And the closing tag is formatted like this </p>
note the forward slash which indicates this tag is a closing tag.

Here HTML tags can be used to markup this piece of text:

<p>Stirring grey thunder over the rolling fields.  The storm is near.</p>

Some commonly used tags...

• <h1> </h1> Header
• <h2> </h2> Header
• <h3> </h3> Header
• <p> </p> Paragraph
• <strong> </strong> Strong tag - gives BOLD effect
• <em> </em> Emphasis tag - gives italic effect
• <a> </a> Anchor tag - creating a link to websites 

 ie <p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jaycee80">This is a link to my Facebook Page</a></p>

This world is oh so very confusing...well it would be a hole lot more so if we actually had to code in 9 digit numbers such as 210.54.8.253 (aka IP address) every time we wanted to visit a website....THANK GOODNESS computers are very clever and are able to transfer language they communicate with into something more palpable like www.witt.ac.nz (URL = http://www.witt.ac.nz) instead for us simple humans to be able to remember! 

Social Media Intro

Concluding the class we joined/re-activated our individual Twitter accounts to link back to our Blog sites as part of the project brief.  Click here to access my Twitter feed page...also found back on my home page