Glossary
from Community Voice
ADSL: Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Lines. A technology that uses standard phone lines to deliver broadband internet connections. They are ‘asymmetric’ because download speeds are faster than upload speeds.
Adwords: A form of advertising on search engines with small ads that that will appear on a results page whenever someone searches for a particular term or keyword. Also known as ‘targeted keyword advertising’, this type of promotion has been used effectively by many nonprofits.
Banner ads: Usually static ads across the top of a web page.
Blog: A self published online journal or web log. The act of publishing to a blog is commonly called blogging and users are called bloggers.
Broadband: Any fast internet connection.
Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be transferred over any network including the internet.
Bps bits-per-second: A measurement of how quickly data is moved from one place to another. A 56K modem can move about 57,000 bits per second.
Brochure sites: A web page that has no hyperlinks. Just like a print brochure put online.
Browser software: Software that allows you to ‘surf’ the internet. Netscape, Firefox, and Internet Explorer are examples of web browsers. A browser provides an easy-to-use interface for accessing the information on the World Wide Web . A web page may look different depending on the browser used, because of programming incompatibility. Web pages should be checked for browser compatibility at the design stage.
Cable broadband: A broadband service that used the same cable as pay TV. Much faster than dial-up but usually not available in rural areas.
Client: A software program that is used to contact and obtain data from a server software program on another computer. A web browser is a specific kind of client.
Cookie: The most common meaning on the internet refers to a piece of information sent by a web server to a web browser that the browser software is expected to save and to send back to the server whenever the browser make requests from the server.
Cyberspace: Term originated by author William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer. The word is currently used to describe the whole range of information resources available through computer networks.
Domain name: The unique name that identifies an internet site. Domain names always have two or more parts, separated by dots.
DNS: Domain Name System. The DNS is the system that translates internet domain names into IP numbers. A DNS server is one that performs this kind of translation.
Download: Transferring data (usually a file) from another computer to the computer you are using. The opposite of ‘upload’.
DS: Digital Subscriber Lines. Symmetric DSL services have the same upload and download speeds. Good if a lot of uploading needed.
Email: Electronic Mail. Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another via computer. Email can also be sent automatically to a large number of addresses.
Firewall: A combination of hardware and software that separates a network into two or more parts for security purposes.
Flame: Any kind of derogatory comment.
Flame war: When an online discussion degenerates into a series of personal attacks against the debaters, rather than discussion of their positions.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol. A way to exchange files between computers on the internet.
GIF: Graphic Interchange Format. A common format for image files.
Gigabyte: 1000 or 1024 megabytes, depending on who is measuring.
Hit: A single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server. For a web browser to display a page containing three graphics, four hits would occur at the server: one for the HTML page and one for each of the three graphics.
Home page: The main or first page of a collection of web pages. The first opening page of a website.
Host: See web server.
HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol. The protocol for moving hypertext files across the internet. Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW).
Hyperlink: Text or graphics on a web page that are linked to another page.
ICT: Information and communications technology. The term is used broadly to include virtually any application of computers, telecommunications, or the internet. A broader more current term for ‘IT’.
Interactivity: Any two-way communications online.
Intranet: A private network usually inside a company or organisation.
IP Number: Internet Protocol Number. Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of four parts separated by dots, e.g. 173.124.254.1. Every machine on the internet has a unique IP number.
IRC: Internet Relay Chat. Basically a huge multi-user live chat facility.
ISP: Internet Service Provider. The ISP sells internet access (connections) to individuals and organisations. Most ISPs also provide at least one email address and many provide free space for a personal home page.
Java: A computer programming language invented by Sun Microsystems. Using Java, web developers create small programs called ‘applets’ that allow web pages to include animations, calculators, scrolling text, sound effects and games.
Java script: A programming language that is mostly used in web pages, usually to add features that make the web page more interactive.
JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group. Most common file format for photos on the web.
Kbps: Kilobits per second. The speed measurement unit of any network, including the internet. The higher the number the faster the network speed. There are eight kilobits per kilobyte and 1000 kilobits in a megabit.
Kilobyte: One thousand bytes. More strictly 1024 bytes.
Metatag: A specific kind of HTML tag that contains information not displayed to the user. Metatags contain information about the page itself, hence the name (‘meta’ means about this subject). Keywords are picked up by search engines from metatags.
Open source software: Software that has the underlying programming code available to users so they can read it, make changes to it, and build new version of the software incorporating their changes. The Mozilla web browser, for example, is open source.
PDF: Portable Document Format. A file format that is stable across all browsers and operating systems, designed to enable printing and viewing of documents with all their formatting (typefaces, images, layout, etc) appearing the same regardless of what operating system is used. Developed by the Adobe Corporation. A free Adobe Acrobat reader is available for download.
Plug-in: A (usually small) piece of software that adds features to a larger piece of software.
Protocol: On the internet protocol usually refers to a set of rules that define an exact format for communication between systems. For example, the HTTP protocol defines the format for communication between web browsers and web servers.
POP: Post Office Protocol refers to a way that email client software such as Outlook Express gets mail from a mail server. Another protocol called IMAP is replacing POP for email.
Pop-up ads: Advertisements that pop-up in a separate window when a page is opened. Unpopular with users.
Portal: A site that the owner positions as an entrance to other sites on the internet.
Proxy server: A proxy server sits in between a client and the ‘real’ server that a client is trying to use.
Search engine: A special kind of web page where the user types in a query and in return receives a list of links to sites that include all or part of what was typed. Examples include Google, Yahoo, Altavista. Some websites include internal search engines that are site specific.
Server: A computer that handles requests for data, e-mail, file transfers and other network services from other computers.
Spam or spamming: An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list by sending the same message to a large number of people who didn’t ask for it.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator (also called Universal Resource Locator). The address of a file or web page accessible on the internet (for example, http://www.ozrural.com )
Terabyte: 1000 gigabytes.
Trojan horse: A computer program that is either hidden inside another program or masquerades as something it is not, in order to trick potential users into running it. A Trojan horse computer program may spread itself by sending copies of itself from the host computer to other computers, but unlike a virus it will (usually) not infect other programs.
Virtual community: A meeting place for people on the internet. Designed to help interaction among people who share common interests and needs.
Virus: Computer programming code that makes copies of itself without any conscious human intervention. Some viruses do more than simply replicate themselves, they might display messages, install other software or files, or delete software o the host computer.
WAN: Wide Area Network. Any internet or network that covers an area larger than a single building or campus.
Web: Short for World Wide Web or WWW.
Web browser: See Browser
Web journal: or web log. See blog.
Web master: The person in charge of maintaining the content found on a website, or keeping the site up and running.
Web server: A computer that stores web pages (usually for multiple clients). A server may be anywhere in the world and it delivers web pages to anyone when a browser comes calling.
Website: The entire collection of web pages and other information (such as images, sounds, video files etc) that are made available through what appears to users as a single web server. Typically all of the pages in a website share the same basic URL.
World Wide Web: See WWW.
Worm: A worm is a virus that does not infect other programs. It makes copies of itself, and infects additional computers (typically by making use of network connections) but does not attach itself to additional programs; however a worm might alter, install or destroy files and programs.
WWW: World Wide Web. A system of documents containing text, graphics, and other multimedia material. Each web document serves two purposes: it contains information that is useful in itself, and it contains specially marked words o phrases that serve as links to other documents. These are called hyperlinks . When you select the link, the web loads the other document automatically. Frequently used (incorrectly) when referring to ‘the internet’.
WysiWyg: ‘What you see is what you get’. Used to describe web editing software that has WysiWyg functionality.