Notes for Week 7 Required Readings

Tyson, Jeff. How Internet Infrastructure Works.
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet-infrastructure.htm

Internet: interconnected networks

The Internet Society: established in 1992; defined how people use and interact with the Internet.

Networks rely on NAPs, backbones and routers to communicate to each other.

• Point of Presence (POP): a place for local users to access the company's network
• Network Access Points (NAPs): high-level networks connect to each other through NAPs.
• Computer network hierarchy: a network of networks (computers becomes part of the network when they connect to the internet)

Internet Backbone: fiber optic trunk lines

• The more the fiber optic cables combined together, the higher the capacity.
• Today, many companies operate their own high-capacity backbones, and interconnect to each other through various NAPs.

The function of an Internet Router: determine the destination when sending information.

• Ensures the information does not go where it is not needed.
• Ensures the information does make it to the intended destination.
• Protect the network from one another.

Internet Protocol (IP): The language that computers use to communicate over the internet.

• Domain Name Systems (DNS): maps text names to IP addresses automatically

IP Addresses: a unique identifying number that every machine on the internet has.

• Octets: the four numbers in an IP address; each can contain any value between 0 to 255.
• Certain values are restricted (0.0.0.0: default network; 255.255.255.255: broadcasts)
• Net & Host: While Net identifies the network that a computer belongs to, Host identifies the actual computer on the network.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

• The DNS servers will translate the human-readable domain name into the machine-readable IP address every time people use a domain name.
• Top-level domain names: .COM, .ORG, .NET, .EDU, and .GOV

Internet servers: the machines that provide services to other machines.

Clients: the machines that are used to connect to those services.

Ports: used by any server machine that makes its services available.

Hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP): the protocol that every web server on the internet conforms.

Andrew K. Pace "Dismantling Integrated Library Systems" Library Journal, vol 129 Issue 2, p34-36.2/1/2004
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2004/02/ljarchives/dismantling-integrated-library-systems/

The old technology VS. new web technologie

• New modules are expected to be able to communicate with old ones;
• Products from different vendors are expected to be able to work together;
• Existing standards are expected to make distributed systems seem transparently whole.

However, the real situation is in an ironic twist, and interoperability in library automation is more myth than reality.

• Practical experience proved that creating a completely new ILS is unrealistic.
• Additionally, incremental functionality improvements to existing systems are more and more expensive.
• Rapidly growing number of users and a more complicated web environment lead to new challenges. One-stop search and retrieval becomes libraries new desire.
• Some companies have reinvented themselves with new software and successfully met the changing needs of libraries.
• Librarians are motivated to seek solutions because of health competition with peers and disparate information resources, and they are forced to look at new tech.

Better costs more.


Sergey Brin, Larry Page: The genesis of Google (Inside the Google machine)
http://www.ted.com/talks/sergey_brin_and_larry_page_on_google

The part that talking about innovation in this presentation really interest me.

"the 20% time": many valuable innovation were came out of this.
Challenges

How to keep innovation running

• Problem: over 100 projects.
• by writing them down and order them, you can do pretty good job deciding what to do and where to put your resources.
• that allowed them to be innovative and still stay reasonably well-organized. 

Highlight things

• Providing equitable access to everyone.
• The ability and responsibility to provide the right and objective information (never accept payment for search result).