Group Discussion: WWW History
Students will work in groups to answer questions in a Wiki about WWW history. If you did not work before with Moodle Wikis, see this small video (3:36 min.) on the Wiki activity page.
Each group will answer the following questions:
- On the internet, nothing new is created if it can be reused from existing technologies. To prove this sentence, find 2 technologies from the WWW that reused technologies from pre-existing standards. For each:
- What and how was it reused?
- What were the advantages of reusing older technologies?
- In your opinion, could they have used something different? Yes or No. Justify your answer.
- Browser Wars. Companies fought wars to control the WWW technologies.
- Do you agree with the narrative for the browser wars presented in the video?
- Why?
- Point out and explain 2 facts or situations that support your point of view (discuss them separately).
Each group has to choose:
- Coordinator: To coordinate the discussions and group activities. He also has to control the time to ensure the group posts its results on time.
- Editor: To write down the group's contents to the wiki.
Each group has to create a wiki page to write the group members' names, USP numbers, and answers to the questions. A group may divide the two questions among two subgroups, but, in this case, it is recommended that you reserve some time for each subgroup to review the other's text.
Group 1
(Restore this version)
Modified: 31 March 2023, 9:45 AM User: Luiz Felipe Diniz Costa → LD
Grupo 1
Nomes e NUSP:
André Kenji Hidaka Matsumoto 12542689
Fernando César L B F 10260559
Kenzo Yves Yamashita Nobre 5028772
Luiz Felipe Diniz Costa 13782032
Rafael Kuhn Takano 11200459
Rafael Zimmer 12542612
Thais Ribeiro Lauriano 12542518
Otávio Ferracioli Coletti 11767796
Samuel Rubens Souza Oliveira 11912533
Victor Rodrigues da Silva 12566140
1.
1.1
MIME : Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is a standard that made attachments of audios, images and videos possible in an email. It was later reused in Media Types as a way to identify file types transmitted on the Internet.
DNS: Domain Name System is a system to map and translate human-readable domain names into IP addresses. DNS is an example of technology that reused older technologies, since it was based on Internet Protocol (IP) and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), besides other types of networking protocols.
1.2
The advantage of reusing older technologies is the lower use of time and money compared to creating something new. Another advantage is the interoperability, which makes the integration with other technologies a lot easier.
Besides that, stability is an important factor in reusing older technologies since they have been around for a longer period of time and they are mostly likely to have more compatibility with other devices, browsers and operating systems.
1.3
The WWW could have used some different technologies, instead of MIME, Tim Berners-Lee could have defined and created new file extensions to use on WWW, but reusing MIME was practical and easier to develop the WWW and MIME had the extensions that WWW would need at the moment.
It would have been difficult to develop the DNS system without reusing pre-existing standards. It was built on an already large foundation of preexisting work and networks, and many of the key concepts were already standardized. While it may have been possible to develop alternatives, it would have required a significant amount of time and resources, and there was no guarantee they would have been widely adopted which could therefore limit the amount of users.
2.
2.1
Our group came to a consensus that the browser wars did happen, as well as how it was described on the video. Specifically, the way Microsoft aimed for market domination, considering that the company was a prominent force in size, technology and available capital.
2.2
We believe that, analyzing the growth size of users for all browsers during the period known as the “Browser Wars” showed an unusual rate for all browsers. This arose from the multiple incentives directed towards ad programs and expanding the user base for the browsers. Not only that, but the versions of the browsers also had a rapid increase in their release rate. A good example would be the direct competition between the Netscape and the Internet Explorer browsers, which made Microsoft’s browser rise up an entire major version to match up to the Netscape browser.
2.3
There are two situations that show very well how the browser war was similar to the war of Troy, and a Browser War afterall.
The Internet Explorer development team decided it would be a good idea to deliver a “present” to the front doors of the Netscape headquarters, with their giant logo imprinted on its front side.
The second example was the declaration of the CEO of Microsoft, proposing a “cut of air supply” to the Netscape progress. This happened shortly before the change of business model of Netscape to an open source approach.