Last revised Wednesday, August 29, 2001

We cover a lot of ground in the our coursework and we have many students from many different backgrounds, so many questions come up. These are the questions from the Fall 99 term. --Jack Powers

What are the "three projects"  like? And are they also mandatory for non-credit student?

I assign three projects for the term. Students either critique existing interactive media products or sketch out their own, with the each project focusing on a different area: creative, technical, and business. For example, you may want to analyze the creative use of new media by a movie Web site, or develop a plan for your own multimedia entertainment site.

I provide a set of options for each project, but students often come up with their own ideas. We're a small enough class so that everyone can follow the area in which they are most interested. The projects are not mandatory for noncredit students.

What do these words mean?

IN3

The INternational INformatics INstitute, the research and education organization I founded in 1982 previously called the Graphics Research Laboratory. The Web site is IN3.ORG.

IP   

Sometimes it means "Intellectual Property" but it also means "Internet Protocol." It's techie shorthand for Internet connectivity -- for example: automotive IP, immersive IP, assembly line IP -- and comes from the acronym TCP/IP which stands for "Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol," the engineering term for the Internet's communications infrastructure. (We'll be learning about that in the September 29th class.)

CEMA

If this is a reference from my Web site, it's about a lecture I presented at the Computer Exhibition Managers Association, the trade association for people who sell computers at trade shows. I often post my slides to the IN3.ORG site following up a presentation.

ISP

Internet Service Provider, the private company like America Online, Bell Atlantic or Mindspring that sells subscriptions to public Internet dial-up accounts. In a university or large corporate setting, the company is really the ISP.

PING

This is an Internet engineering acronym for "Packet INnternet Groper." It's a very simple program that tests to see if a particular computer is accessible via the Internet. I also use it as the name for a sub-section of the INTERNET WORLD conferences that deals with engineering and infrastructure issues. By the way, there's a good Internet glossary at http://www.netlingo.com/

XML

eXtensible Markup Language is a Web page coding language for identifying data in a consistent way. It's a new Internet standard that will someday make digital information much easier to find and use.

Linux

Linux is a version of the Unix operating system that drives many Web servers. It's originator, Linus Torvalds of Finland, wrote the intiial code and gave it away to the world on the Internet. Anyone can download a free copy of Linux, and the source code is open so that anyone can improve or extend the operating system as long as they agree to make their changes similarly available for free. It's part of the very interesting Open Source movement which recalls the early days of computing when people worked together and shared their ideas. Microsoft doesn't like Linux.

View the course description.

Contact Jack Powers.

© Copyright 1999 by the International Informatics Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.