Week 7 Readings

Articles

Tyson, J. (n.d.). “How Internet Infrastructure Works.” Retrieved October 8, 2013, from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet-infrastructure.htm

            Overall, the article provides a good recap of this past Monday’s topics. It covers basic information such as how routers function in terms of devices and the Internet (Tyson, n.d., p. 4), the use of IP addresses (ibid., p. 6) and the Domain Names System (DNS) (ibid., p. 7), and the Uniform Resource Locater (URL) and its connection to the domain name (ibid., p. 8). J. Tyson (n.d.) offers other details as well, such as how the octets of the IP address not only separate numbers but can be split into two categories – Net, containing the first octet, and Host, or Node, having the last octet (ibid., p. 6). As such, the article was a good review, reteaching and investigating these newly-learned info.

            Tyson (n.d.) brings up a crucial thought near the beginning of the article when describing the Internet. Specifically, he notes that no one owns the Internet itself (Tyson, n.d., p. 1) – a state that I am personally happy does not exist, since it would limit the content of the Internet, give one person or group more global power than anyone should have, and/or require a fee to use. Tyson, however, adds that the Internet is being monitored and maintained; for example, the Internet Society “oversees the formation of the policies and protocols that define how [users] use and interact with the Internet” (ibid., p. 1). This raises some questions. Who authorizes such monitoring? Does the Internet Society abide by a neutral, unbiased stance in its duties?
  

Pace, A.K. (2004, February 1). “Dismantling Integrated Library Systems.” Library Journal, 129(2), 34-36. Retrieved from http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2004/02/ljarchives/dismantling-integrated-library-systems/

            A. K. Pace (2004) firmly situates the article on the status of ILS systems. Based on his descriptions, the situation seems to be a seesawing of construction and destruction; Pace notes that while librarians are dismantling systems, they develop new modules (under “Librarians and their vendors,” para. 2). However, since “the interoperability in library automation is more myth than reality” (ibid., para. 3), this implies that a balance cannot be attained at this time. The system is too chaotic for any librarians to settle on any one system or module. Thus, in this regard, steadiness is more important than fueling new creations which will quickly become obsolete.

            I do not entirely agree, though, on the Innovative Interface’s argument. Pace supports their idea that if the core functionality of the established ILS has not changed, then it is better to retain the business logic and workflow standards supporting it rather than replace them with new logics and workflows (Pace, 2004, under “More alike than not,” para. 3). If such a model has been successful so far, then it would make sense to not change anything too much. Such a stance, however, implies a stubborn refusal to accept that the world and technologies are constantly changing. Keeping the basic ideas is acceptable, but there should exist some flexibility so that the functionality of the ILS adapts more easily to arising issues.

Brin, S. and Larry P. (n.d.). “Sergey Brin and Larry Page: Inside the Google Machine.” TED Talks video, 20:36. Accessed October 8, 2013. http://www.tv.com/web/ted-talks/watch/sergey-brin-and-larry-page-inside-the-google-machine-1545457/

S. Brin (n.d.) introduces the episode with a look at how Google affects the world. His methods in presenting it was impactful. Showing the world and the travel of queries real-time (Brin and Page, n.d., 0:40-3:58) makes their job physical, something that can be seen and rather than imagined. Thus there is almost an illusion that their job has a physical presence in the world and that they manipulate and produce physical things rather than digital. Additionally, the use of lights and colors to represent the flow of queries plays off of human psychology. In Western thought at least, light – particularly white – represents goodness, purity, and truth. When combined with images of parts of the world black or empty of light, it reinforces assumptions that Google is providing information that act as beacons in a world dark with ignorance.

L. Page (n.d.) continues the episode by summarizing the small projects Google has invested in for developing web tools and how staff work within the company. In particular, one note he says caught my attention. He acknowledges that a person has to be smart in how they search via the search engine, and that the ideal search engine would have artificial intelligence (Brin and Page, n.d., 16:35-17:02). He, however, doesn’t elaborate on what kind of “smart” is necessary. In fact, I think it would take more than intelligence to become successful in searching the web. Anyone who has never spent much time searching for anything would have trouble no matter how intelligent they are. Additionally, since everyone uses the Internet, there are different standards and methods of organizing information and various terminology that varies with each field. Being smart helps figure out the patterns and routes to take, but other factors – experience and good judgment skills, for example – should also be taken into consideration.