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Course Overview &
Exploring the Internet
Week 1
LBSC 690
Information Technology
Agenda
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Why study information technology?
Course description and syllabus
Seven uses of the Internet
Computing at UMCP
Why Study Information Technology
• Doing a better job in your profession
Help clients
Develop new services
• Affecting the social impact of these
technologies
education and the web
digital libraries
ecommerce and the web
• Fun
Course Goals
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Learn to use common software tools
Solve practical problems
Evaluate the role of information technology
Develop a personal plan for further study
Understand computers and networks
(building a better “mental model” of how
information technology works).
(go browse course web pages)
Instructional Approach
• Readings
– Provide background and detail
• Class sessions
– Provide conceptual structure
• Electronic online provided in class
• Slides and videotapes available
• Homework, lab sessions, project
– Provide hands-on experience
Course Organization
• Master the tools relatively early
– Internet, word processors, spreadsheets, databases,
programming, multimedia
– 2 readings and one homework each class session
• Apply the tools towards the end
– Group work, library automation, educational
computing, social issues, digital libraries
– 2 readings each week and the term project
Some Other Good Things to Do
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Consider aITs courses for background
Work ahead
Ask questions about readings
Give us feedback
Think about a project soon
Ask for accelerated work if you can handle
it (we’re looking to GRAs, web designers,
researchers, etc.)
Course Materials
• Textbook
– Oakman, The Computer Triangle 2nd edition
• Supplemental readings
– Course packet available from IDSC
• Daily access to a networked computer!
• A few 3.5 inch floppy disks
Fall 96 LBSC 690 Grades
Final Score (Excess 75)
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3
4
25
5
6
7
8
20
9
10
11
12
13
15
Score-75
14
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10
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20
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5
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25
26
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
Rank (higher better)
27
28
29
Observations on Grading
• Exam scores are very important
– The final is worth up to 7 homeworks
– Moral: Use the homework to learn the material
• Little things can make a B into an A
– less than 1 point typically separates B+ and A-
The Fine Print
• Group work is encouraged on homework
– But you must personally write what you turn in
• Deadlines are firm and sharp
– Allowances for individual circumstances are
included in the grading computation
• Academic integrity is a serious matter
– No group work during the exams!
– Don’t discuss exam until the completion
deadline is past
Breaks
• 10 minute break after the first hour
• 5 minute break after the second hour
• No sodas or food in class the teaching
theater
Seven Uses of the Internet
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Telnet
Email
Finger
Web (HTML/HTTP)
File Transfer Program (FTP), downloading
Newsgroups
Talk, IRC
Describing Internet Applications
• Who participates?
– Person-person, person-machine, machine-machine
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How many participants? (one other, many)
Directionality? (one-way, two-way)
Authentication? (authenticated, unauthenticated)
When? (synchronous, asynchronous)
Networking Concepts
• Understand the basic service as much as
possible
• Networked vs. Stand-alone
• Clients and servers
• UNIX versus PC/MAC
• (more in 2nd class session)
Telnet
• Two way, computer-person, authenticated
• Gives you a login on another computer
– Use telnet to read your email from wam.umd.edu
• Terminal emulation (VT-100) protocol allows
only text
– The pine email program is designed for VT-100
– X Windows extension adds graphics
• WAM X-terminals available in CSS 4352
• Usage: from “run window”
Electronic Mail (email)
• Person-person, one-one, asynchronous
• Pine on WAM is easy to use
– Eurdora is ok if you always use the same
computer
• Mailing lists provide one-many capability
– 690 mailing list is [email protected]
• Anyone can send to that list
Email Addresses
• userid@machine+domain
– (e.g., [email protected])
• Machine names are like postal addresses
– Most general part is at the end (.edu, .com, …)
– Most specific part is at the beginning (glue, …)
• Your userid (login name) is widely known.
Protect your password
Finger
(find user name and activity from login)
• Find a name given an email address
– finger [email protected]
• other “white pages” services
Web Pages
• One way, computer-person, unauthenticated
• Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
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Protocol
Machine/Domain
Port
Path
File
http: (HyperText Transfer Protocol)
//www.clis.umd.edu
(implicit) port 80
/academics/courses/fall99/690/
(implicit) index.html
Finding Web Pages
• Bookmarks
– Useful if you have been there before
• Access by category
– (e.g., http://www.yahoo.com)
• Limited to things processed by hand
• Access by content - search engines
– (e.g., http://www.altavista.com)
– Broad coverage, but lots more trash
– No really good search engines yet
File Transfer Program (FTP)
• Two way, computer-computer, authenticated
• Used to move files between machines
– Better than carrying a floppy disk around
– Use FTP to send class notes from here to home
• ftp raven.umd.edu
• Unauthenticated version
– Userid “anonymous” provides public access
– Web browsers provide one-way anonymous FTP
• Usage: Command line
• Basis for much downloading, like mp3
Net (USENET) News
• Person-person, many-many, asynchronous
• Similar to a large set of mailing lists
– Hierarchical organization
• Most general appears first (comp., soc., …)
• Most specific appears last (rec.aviation.military)
– Organized by site rather than by individual
• No need to “sign up” for a newsgroup
• Reading news – www.deja.com
– pine (wam mail reader)
Talk/IRC
• Synchronous, authenticated
• Talk - connect to one other person
• IRC - connect to many other people
Computing at UCMP
• Open Labs (IBM, Mac, Unix)
– HBK 2101 (open lab), HBK 2108 (CLIS only)
– PG2 and HBK Basement: 24 hr WAM labs
• Need an aITs “pay for print” account
• Dial-in access (Unix only)
– College Park (301)209-0700 (3hr)/864-2087(15min)
– Baltimore
(410)962-88865(3hr)/962-8867(15min)
• WAM userid and password required
Homework
• Preliminaries (ungraded)
– WAM account, print account, email forwarding
• Email (use “pine” which is the wam mail
interface)
• Listserve/Majordomo
• World-Wide Web
• USENET News
• FTP