2. DC 11 - 1 DATACOMM John Abbott College JPC Overview of Cyberspace M. E. Kabay, PhD, CISSP Director of Education, ICSA President, JINBU Corp Copyright © 1998 JINBU Corp. All rights reserved

3. DC 11 - 2 Overview of Cyberspace l The Geography of Cyberspace l Online databases l CompuServe l The Internet l The World Wide Web

4. DC 11 - 3 THE GEOGRAPHY OF CYBERSPACE Internet BBSs VANs WWWWWW

5. DC 11 - 4 THE GEOGRAPHY OF CYBERSPACE Internet Newsgroups FTP / Gopher Sites

6. DC 11 - 5 THE GEOGRAPHY OF CYBERSPACE VANs Forums Commercial Services

7. DC 11 - 6 THE GEOGRAPHY OF CYBERSPACE WWWWWW Web PagesWeb Pages

8. DC 11 - 7 Online databases l Overview l Features and costs l News clippings services

9. DC 11 - 8 Online databases: Overview l Remote mainframe l Search using Boolean logic l Qualify hits by keyword, type, date.... l Read abstracts and select best hits l Download target information--dont read online!

10. DC 11 - 9 Online databases: Features and costs l Thousands of OLDBs l Connect-time charges; e.g., $15/hr l Per-item charges; e.g., U$1.00/item l Levels of detail available – Index entry only – Abstracts – Full-text

11. DC 11 - 10 Online databases: News clippings l Select newswires l Define keywords l Scan daily l Expect false-positives l Download best

12. DC 11 - 11 Online databases: Less searchable sources l Internet FTP sites – Need full Internet access – Difficult locating files – Internet Yellow Pages – Usually impossible to search text – Different, incompatible text formats – Several guidebooks available l VAN Libraries (see below)

13. DC 11 - 12 Online forums l Types – Usenet – Mailing lists – VANs – BBSs l Etiquette l Libraries

14. DC 11 - 13 Online forums: Usenet l Users access news groups through software l Moderated newsgroups – editor/moderator – controls what appears – high signal-to-noise ratio l Unmoderated – automatic distribution of anything – Low signal-to-noise ratio

15. DC 11 - 14 Online forums: Mailing Lists l Users subscribe & unsubscribe l Mailing-list software – sends out e-mail messages to subscribers – copies replies to all participants – e.g., Majordomo l Some mailing lists have Digests – single large file instead of many messages

16. DC 11 - 15 Online forums: The Internet l An internet is network of networks – The Internet grew out of ARPANET – Based on TCP/IP linkage of networks l Includes 25-40 million users – Has 2-3 million nodes – Growing by 2,000,000 users/month l Users often have free (uncharged) access – Some cities have Freenet service

17. DC 11 - 16 Online forums: VANs l E.g., CompuServe, AOL, MS-Network, Prodigy l Wide local access, good-quality lines l Email l Gateways to online databases l EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) support l Services for special-interest groups l Many companies sell products & services through VANs l Relatively high costs (e.g., U$8.95/month & $2.95/hr) compared with pure Internet Access Providers (IAPs or ISPs)

18. DC 11 - 17 Online forums: BBSs l Professional and amateur l May require long-distance calls l Unregulated: hatred, obscenity l Some moderated, others unmoderated l Unreliable: virus-infected software l A few run by and for criminals – stolen software – ads for stolen goods

19. DC 11 - 18 Online forums: Libraries l Catalogued by topic l File descriptors l Key-word searches l Free uploads

20. DC 11 - 19 Online forums: Messages l News announcements from sysops l Sections by topic l Messages include subject line l Post and read public or private messages l Limited number of messages (e.g., 5,000) online l Threads of connected messages on one topic

21. DC 11 - 20 Online forums: Etiquette for professionals l Lurk before you leap: learn specific style l Stick to the forum/section subject area l Make messages concise l Quote only relevant text from previous message l Respect copyright laws l Dont flame people l Avoid profanity, ethnic/religious slurs, etc. l On USENET, everything you write may be archived and available forever

22. DC 11 - 21 Lab exercises: Demonstration of CompuServe (homework) Make notes for credit on following demonstration l Compuserve Topics l Online Databases (COMPDB) l Executive News Service l Forums relating to Programming l National Computer Security Forum l Other Forums accessed during demonstration

23. DC 11 - 22 Lab exercises: Demonstration of Usenet (homework) Make notes for credit on following demonstration l Domains l Finding a newsgroup l Newsgroup styles

24. DC 11 - 23 Lab exercises: Demo WWW (homework) Make notes for credit l Web Browser Terminology l Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/) l White Pages (http://www.four11.com) l Computing Canada (http://www.plesman.com/cc/cc.htm) l NCSA (http://www.ncsa.com) l Other reserouces accessed during demonstration

25. DC 11 - 24 Additional homework l In addition to the notes required for the exercises on the preceding pages, scan the textbook by Carroll et al. in preparation for its use in the Hot Topics portion of your course l Answer the questions supplied by the instructor l Hand in all homework at front desk of Cont Ed by 12:00 noon on next day of instruction (e.g., Monday)