Assignment 1

Internet has become an essential component of the daily life of many individuals and almost all of the businesses operating today. There have been many significant events that helped Internet become what it is today. Technology advances beginning from circuit switching, packet switching to data transfer mediums & speeds. In order to integrate different hardware and software applications protocols and standards such as TCP/IP, SMTP & HTTP were developed. Research institutes, Government and military agencies have assisted with the required funding and people to help with these demanding requirements.

Since the beginning of World Wide Web there is a steady evolution of technologies, organizations & standards that are facilitating people to work collaboratively.

Ward Cunnigham, Adam Curry, Jenny Preece and David Winer are few of the people who have made valuable contributions to the growth of the technology and the cause for development of online communities.

Wiki

Ward Cunningham has been a computer programmer, and a pioneer in wiki development, design patterns and extreme programming. He developed and installed the WikiWikiWeb software in 1994 in his c2.com web server (Wikipedia, 2009a).

While he was working on projects he realized the need for a method of updating project status and performing documentation by the entire team. In his interview with Venners (2003) he describes other important criteria of providing the facility to effectively capture the nature of communicating via talking and enable the reader to discover the structure of what the author had to say.

Reviewing the current notable list of wikis (Wikipedia, 2009b) available and the applications they are being used for it can be said the work done by Ward Cunningham and his ideas has been successfully applied for daily applications.

Really Simple Syndication

Dave Winer a software developer, entrepreneur and writer is the creator of RSS 2.0 implementation. He has successfully created and managed to establish RSS 2.0 implementation among other competitors such as Netscape’s RSS implementation. (Wikipedia, 2009c)

His involvement with software development, online publishing and XML syndication contributed significantly for news agencies to make the decision to use RSS 2.0 to syndicate their news articles. (Wikipedia, 2009c)
Nomination by InfoWorld as one of top ten technology innovators in 2002 recognizes his valuable and successful contributions to the community.

Podcasting

Adam Curry was a well known video jockey on the music TV channel MTV during 1987 to 1994. And he is noted as one of the first celebrities to have been known as a world wide web entrepreneur to create and administer a web site in the 1990s.(Wikipedia, 2009d)

In 2005 he founded PodShow Inc. a podcast promotions and advertising company. He is also the producer and presenter of a podcast named Daily Source Code. He has even promoted the podcast in Second Life.

Unlike Ward Cunnigham and Dave Winer contributing via inventing new technology Adam Curry has utilized emerging technology to successfully reach new audiences and also to generate publicity for emerging technologies.

Sustainable online communities

Jenny Preece has been involved with various studies and research about Human Computer Interaction for many years. She has also authored, co-authored or editor of seven books on the subject of Human Computer Interaction (University of Maryland Baltimore County, 2009). What makes online communities successful is her research focus and the studies have provided insights into how sociability and usability are connected.

Usability of many of the major social sites would definitely be a key factor for their popularity and hence the growth and sustainability.

Reference List

University of Maryland Baltimore County, 2009,

Jennifer J. Preece, Retrieved September 7,2009,

From http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/~preece/

Venners B, 2003, Exploring with Wiki, A conversation

with Ward Cunningham, Retrieved September 7, 2009,

From http://www.artima.com/intv/wiki.html

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation Inc., (2009a),

Ward Cunningham, Retrieved September 07, 2009,

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation Inc., (2009b), List of wikis,

Retrieved September 09, 2009,

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wikis

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation Inc., (2009c), Dave Winer,

Retrieved September 07, 2009,

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Winer

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation Inc., (2009d), Adam Curry,

Retrieved September 07, 2009,

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_curry