Glossary

Please See Also: Glossary of Social Media

A

Adsense: Google's pay-per-click, context-relevant program available to blog and web publishers as a way to create revenue.

Adwords: The advertiser program that populates the Adsense program. The advertiser pays Google on a per click basis.

Aggregator: A web-based tool or desktop application that collects syndicated content.

AIR - Short for Adobe Integrated Runtime, AIR is a new Adobe environment that is an extra layer of software that allows the same program to run on different operating systems and hardware, much like Java runs. AIR allows applications to be installed on the local operating system and accessed from the desktop just like the other applications that the desktop user runs. At the same time,AIR applications can access online information. AIR applications can run either online or offline, but is aimed at Web developers and its primary use is to enable Web applications and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) to be deployed to the desktop. The eBay Desktop and Google Analytics are examples of prototypical AIR applications.

AJAX: Short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, it is a term that describes a new approach to using a number of existing technologies together, including the following: HTML or XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets, JavaScript, the Document Object Model, XML, XSLT, and the XMLHttpRequest object. When these technologies are combined in the Ajax model, Web applications are able to make quick, incremental updates to the user interface without reloading the entire browser page.

Akismet: Comment spam filter popular with WordPress blogs.

Anonoblog: A blog site authored by a person or persons who don't publish their name.

API: An acronym (Application Programming Interface) representing a computer system or application allowing for requests to be made of it by other programs and allows for data to be exchanged. Think "programmable web"

Archives: Most often an index page, often organizing posts or entries by either category or date.

AstroTurfing: A fake grass roots push to generate buzz or interest in a product, service, or idea. Often this movement is motivated by a fee or gift to the writer of a post or comment or may be written under a phony pseudonym.

Atom: A popular feed format used for syndicating content.

Autodiscovery- In RSS terminology, autodiscovery is the process used by spiders to look for RSS content. When audodiscovery is enabled for your RSS feed, browsers and aggregators can then automatically detect the RSS feed, making it easier for users to subscribe to it.

Avatar: A graphical image or likeness that replaces a photo of the author of the content on a blog.

B

Beta - A stage of product development. The term beta is usually applied to tell users of a software that it is still in development. This release some pressure from the developers when users find problems, they are more likely to be understanding and even provide feedback on what went wrong.

Blog- (n.) Short for Web log, a blog is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author. (v.) To author a Web log. Other forms: Blogger (a person who blogs).

Blog and Ping - An online marketing term applied to a system that utilizes blogs and pings (short for pingback) to deliver content and /or sites for indexing in search engines with the ultimate aim of profit.

Blogroll - Found on blogs it is a list of links to other blogs and Web sites that the blog author commonly references or is affiliated with. Blogrolls help blog authors to establish and build upon a their blogger community. In Web 1.0 terminology, a blogroll would be the equivalent of a list of hyperlinks on a personal Web page.

Blogosphere - Meaning all blogs, it is an expression used to describe the 'world of blogs'.

Blogsnob - A slang term used to describe a blogger who doesn't respond to blog comments left by people outside his or her own circle of blogger friends.

Blook - A slang term used to describe a book that was derived from blog content.

C

Captcha- A small computer program that displays a message and requires the user to input the message into an entry box. The captcha tool is used to make sure that it is a person and not a software program that is trying to access something on a computer.

Chicklet- A feed button that normally contains a feed reader logo and has a specific blog or feed information attached to it. It is coded to easily allow users to subscribe to a feed.

Comment Spam - In search engine optimization (SEO) terminology it is any comment that has been posted to a blog for the purpose of generating an Inbound link to the comment author's own site or blog.

Cookie - Information that your web browser keeps in memory as a record of what websites you visited and sometimes information that you entered into the website like your password. Cookies are helpful if you are often filling out forms, becuase they remember what you had previously entered.

Corante - A blog network that consists of blogs written by leading commentators, analysts and observers in their respective field. Blog categories on Corante include technology, law, business, management, science and culture.

Creative Commons license - A licensing concept created by Creative Commons that builds upon traditional copyright practices to define possibilities that exist between the standard "all rights reserved" full copyright and public domain "no rights reserved". A Creative Commons license lets you dictate how others may use your work. The Creative Commons license allows you to keep your copyright but allows others to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit and only on the conditions you specify. For online work you can select a license that generates "Some Rights Reserved" or a "No Rights Reserved" button and statement for your published work.

D

Dashboard: The administration area on your blog software that allows you to post, check traffic, upload files, manage comments, etc.

DataPortability - The DataPortability Working Group is an industry Data Portability standards working group that educates, designs and advocates interoperable DataPortability to users, developers and vendors. The DataPortability Working Group defines DataPortability as "the option to share or move your personal data between trusted applications and vendors".

Date-Based Archives: The archives of a blog site, organized by time-stamp. Almost every blog will have some form of time-stamp and many archives are listed along the sidebar. Some list in weekly, but most on a month-by-month basis.

Del.icio.us - A social bookmarking Web site that serves as a bookmarks manager for users, similar to a collection of favorite links. You can add bookmarks to your del.icio.us list, categorize the bookmarks, tag them and also share them with others. On some blogs the words "del.icio.us" may appear below a blog post as a hyperlink that readers can click to submit the post to their del.icio.us bookmarks.

Digg- A community-based Web site where users submit content and rate that content by "Digging" what they see and like best. A submission that earns a larger number of Diggs, and therefore is more popular with users, is moved the Digg homepage for the category of content it belongs in. The Digg Web site was founded by Kevin Rose and launched in November 2004. Digital Storytelling: A digital story is a nonfiction narrative, composed on a computer, often for publishing online or publishing to a DVD. This can be done with any combination of images, video, narrative, music and text. (h/t - Ourmedia's Social media glossary)

Domain Name: The identifying name of an internet site. The domain name of my site is "www.converstations.com"

Dooced: A term associated with someone getting fired for the content written in a blog post or web site (not for the act of writing, but for what was published). From the popular site, Dooced (by an author who once vented about her company — and got fired because of what was written).

Dynamic content - Web site or blog content that changes frequently and engages the reader, dynamic content can include animations, video or audio.

E

Ecosystem: A community and their environment functioning as a whole. The blogosphere can be viewed as an ecosystem (See It's the Conversation Economy, Stupid)

Ecto: A stand-alone publishing application, allowing users to compose posts offline.

Edublog: A blog site focused on education, be it teacher, administrator, consultant or student.

EFF: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world

Embed- To copy HTML from one website and paste it into another. Embedding is very common with videos and widgets.

Entry: An individual post or article published on a blog. Each of these entries, while appearing in an index, are also web pages unto themselves. (See Blog Posts are Inventory)

Event Blog: A blog specifically launched as a companion to an event (e.g. Blogger Social)

Expression Engine: A robust content management system (CMS) with plenty of features. Not a free tool.

Eye Rest: Using "gifts" in your posting to give your readers a rest. Includes images, bold text, bullet points, lists, and hyperlinks. May go against writing like your teacher taught you - but does she read your blog?

F

Faceosphere- A loosely used slang term to describe the emerging Facebook ecosystem of application developers, groups, bloggers, innovators and so on. Similar to the term blogosphere, faceosphere is used to describe the people and events connected both inside and outside of the popular social networking service, Facebook.

Facebook Connect - A type of data portability technology that enables users of the social networking site (SNS) Facebook to connect their Facebook account with any partner Web site using a trusted authentication method. Using Facebook Connect, members will be able to use their Facebook identity across the Web, including profile photos, name, friends, groups, events, and more. Facebook Connect also uses what the company calls "dynamic security" which ensures the privacy setting you use will also be used on the third-party Web sites.

Feed aggregator- In Internet technology it is software or a hosted application that collects feeds from various sources and displays it in a single consolidated view, either in a window on your desktop or in a Web browser. Also called feed aggregator or RSS aggregator.

FeedBlitz: An RSS service that makes it easy for those addicted to email. Read FeedBlitz in a Nutshell for more.

FeedBurner: FeedBurner is a Google company/tool allowing web sites, blogs and podcasts to "burn" content into a simple way for readers to subscribe (incl. email). I don't just recommend this tool - it's a must-have.

Feed Reader: An aggregator of content, subscribed to by the user, so that specific content or search results arrives in their "reader". Among the popular (and free) tools are GreatNews, Feed Demon and Google Reader.

Findability: Refers to being locatable. Though tied closely with Information Architecture on the Web, particularly within one site, findability has also become a popular term in creating a findable, locatable and navigable presence on and across the web and social networking. Also see findability.org

Flogs- fake blogs or reviews by employees or other profit motivated people. It appears that this marketing method finally came to the attention of the right people and marketeers have to watch out not to face legal action.

Folksonomy: The collective indexing by use of tags, labels or keywords by the consumers of the content. The tagging system of Flickr of Delicious are examples of this social indexing.

Friendster - The name of an online social networking site (SNS) that provides the tools and applications for people to connect with friends, family and co-workers and stay in touch online. As of June 2008, Friendster has more than 70 million registered users and is available in eight languages.

G
Google docs- Google's online version of word processing, spredsheet and presentation programs. Similar to Microsoft's Word, Excel, and PowerPoint respectively.

Google Gears- An open source Web browser extension that is used by developers to create a rich platform for Web applications. Gears works with a select group of sites that are specifically designed for compatibility. Gears enables Web applications to interact with your desktop, store data locally in a fully-searchable database, and Run JavaScript in the background to improve performance. Google Gears requires Windows XP or Vista and Firefox 1.5 or Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher.

H

HTML: The acronym for HyperText Markup Language. The coding language used to create and link together documents and files on the World Wide Web. The code is embedded in and around text and multimedia files in order to define layout, font, colors, and graphics.

Haloscan: A free, easy to use commenting, ratings and trackback service for weblogs and websites, allowing visitors to leave instant feedback. Popular on Blogger sites.

Hat Tip: A hat tip is a public acknowledgment to someone (or a website) for bringing something to the blogger’s attention. Also known as H/T (H/T for this definition: Blogossary)

Hits: A measurement used in Web analytics, a "hit" is often defined as any request for a file from a Web server. In one web page, there could be several files embedded in it. If on one page you have four images, two JavaScript items and you use an auxiliary CSS file — you'd have eight hits on one page.

Hyperlink: A navigational reference to another document or page on the World Wide Web.

HyperOffice- A collaboration tool with features ranging from e-mail to shared workspaces to project management. It offers Outlook integration that specifically targets the challenges of extended team members, and also helps users break free from reliance on Exchange or SharePoint. Some of its newest features include collaboration tools that connect the Apple iPhone to corporate e-mail, contacts, calendars, notes, and tasks.

I

Instant Messaging/Chat/Txt Messaging/Chat rooms - Instant messaging tools support instant communication between two or more people. most chat tools support text only, others support audio and video as well. A chat room is environment where more than two people can chat so that others can participate.

J

JVoiceXML - An open source free VoiceXML interpreter for Java that supports Java APIs such as JSAPI and JTAPI. JVoiceXML is an implementation of VoiceXML, the Voice Extensible Markup Language. It is designed for creating audio dialogs that feature synthesized speech, digitized audio, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, recording of spoken input, telephony, and mixed initiative conversations.

K

Keywordsv - Descriptive words that summarize the contents of a piece of media for the purpose of making it easy to find in a search of the words. Website designers use keywords in the background of the site so that when someone types that word into a search engine the website can be found. This process is known as a search engine optimization.

Klog- Short for knowledge blog, klog is a type of blog usually used as an internal / Intranet blog that is not accessible to the general public and that serves as a knowledge management system. The term klog is also being used to describe a blog that is technical content oriented. (v.) To author a knowledge blog. Other forms: klogger (a person who knowledge blogs).

L

Library - Where media assets are stored, organized and served. Analogy: Similar to a school or public library, online libraries provide the storage, organization, search and display tools for media. Many times online libraries are called galleries and include photo, audio and video assets.

Linkbait- A type of Web site marketing used to increase your Web site link popularity. Linkbait is actual content within a Web site or blog that is included by the author to encourage (or "bait") other bloggers and webmasters into linking back to that content from their own page. The content is usually sensational in nature or, at the very least, interesting enough to catch other's attention.

M

Mashup– The term mash-up refers to a new breed of Web-based applications created by hackers and programmers (typically on a volunteer basis) to mix at least two different services from disparate, and even competing, Web sites. A mash-up, for example, could overlay traffic data from one source on the Internet over maps from Yahoo, Microsoft, Google or any content provider. The term mash-up comes from the hip-hop music practice of mixing two or more songs. This capability to mix and match data and applications from multiple sources into one dynamic entity is considered by many to represent the promise of the Web service standard (also referred to as on-demand computing).

Mashboard- Also called real-time dashboard, a mashboard is a Web 2.0 buzzword that is used to describe analytic mash-ups that allow businesses to create or add components that may analyze and present data, look up inventory, accept orders, and other tasks without ever having to access the system that carries out the transaction.

Meme: Keeping things simple, here's a partial definition from "The Daily Meme": In the context of web logs / 'blogs / blogging and other kinds of personal web sites it's some kind of list of questions that you saw somewhere else and you decided to answer the questions. Then someone else sees them and does them and so on and so on.

MicroBlogging: A form of blogging allowing users to compose brief text updates and publish them. These messages can be submitted and received by a variety of means and devices, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, mobile device, MP3 or the web. Think Twitter

Moblogs: A blog published directly to the web from a phone or other mobile device.

Movable Type: Movable Type is a publishing platform a served web publishing platform (it sits on your server) created by SixApart, the same folks who operate Typepad (a hosted web publishing platform — hosted on their server).

MyBlogLog: A Yahoo-owned community and social networking site that tracks traffic and visits to member sites. One of the better community-building applications available. Also read: Faces on a Blog…

MySpace - The name of a social networking site (SNS) that consists of a network of member's profiles, Web logs, photos, e-mail, forums, group, and more. MySpace was founded in August 2003 by the Internet company eUniverse. In 2006 News Corp. bought Intermix Media, parent company of MySpace for $580 million.

N

Navigation (Nav): A menu of links or buttons allowing users to move from one web page to another within a site. Top navigation is what I use on this site. You will often see links as a footer on a site. That would be bottom nav or footer nav.

NetNewsWire: A free RSS news aggregator for the MAC

New Media - The style, content and medium enabled by web 2.0 publishing and collaboration. see below. (wikipedia) Publishing mass media one way designed communications on the web is not new media. New Media is a style of communication characterized by collaboration and participation. I like to sometimes call it direct media because it is direct between people, does not go through the mediums of print, radio and TV.

News Aggregator: A web-based tool or desktop application that collects syndicated content

NewsGator: An RSS company that provides us with FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, its own web-based feed reader and powers the feeds in Microsoft Outlook.

Newsvine: An open source, community news service, which lets members customize the news viewed by "seeding" articles or posting for others to view and rate.

Ninnyhammer: An idiot. It's also a term of endearment (my wife's nickname for me).

NoFollow: An HTML attribute instructing search engines to not allow a hyperlink to a web page to be influenced in ranking by that link. Originally implemented to combat certain types of search-engine spam. There is a movement to NOT use the No-Follow on blogs, especially the comments area (See How to Remove No-Follow in Typepad Comments).

O

OpenID - A shared identity service that enables users of multiple OpenID-enabled Web sites to sign in under one single profile, or single user identity. It's a free and open standard under which users are able to control the amount of personal information they provide on Web sites, and in particular social networking sites (SNS). To use OpenID across multiple sites, users must first choose an Open ID provider. Once you create an OpenID it stays with you, even if you choose at a later time to switch to a different OpenID provider. OpenID works by using existing Internet technologies such as URI, HTTP, SSL and Diffie-Hellman to transform the information you provide on one site (or service) into an account that can be used at other sites that support OpenID logins. Some of the online and Internet services supporting OpenID include AOL, Blogger, Flickr, LiveDoor, LiveJopiurnal, Vox, Yahoo, WordPress, and others.

Ontology Web Language (OWL) - The Ontology Web Language (OWL) is a set of markup languages which are designed for use by applications that need to process the content of information instead of just presenting information to humans. OWL ontologies describe the hierarchical organization of ideas in a domain, in a way that can be parsed and understood by software. OWL has more facilities for expressing meaning and semantics than XML, RDF, and RDF-S, and thus OWL goes beyond these languages in its ability to represent machine interpretable content on the Web. OWL is part of the W3C recommendations related to the Semantic Web.

Open profile - When referring to social networking sites (SNS), the term open profile describes a dynamic user profile that can be openly shared on (or exported to) other SNS where the user is a member. Social networking sites that support open profiles would enable users to update their profile on one site and have those changes reflected on partnering sites.

OpenSocial - Developed by Google Inc., OpenSocial is a set of common APIs for building social applications across multiple Web sites, including social networking sites (SNS). OpenSocial applications use Google's gadget architecture but with extensions that provide access to social data within its container environment. Similar to Google Gadgets, OpenSocial apps are hosted XML documents with HTML and/or JavaScript within their bodies. The OpenSocial API can be accessed on the client-side using the JavaScript API, and on the server-side by using RESTful data APIs. Some Web sites currently using OpenSocial include Friendster, hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace, orkut, Salesforce.com, and others.

Open Source - A licensing method that allows others to modify your creations. Linux is a software that uses and open source license. This form of licensing encourages other to add more value to the product or service.

P

Peer to Peer (P2P) - A computer network designed to leverage the power of the network by accessing computing power from many points in the network at the same time. Traditional networks consisted of a central computer that hosted all of the information and served it to computers that connected to it. In the peer to peer set-up many or all of the comuters in the network host the information and serve it as a group. This design makes the network more efficient by providing more power and back-up options.

Permalink- Short for permanent link, a permalink is a direct link to a single entry on content on a blog. As a blog is updated with a new post, that specific post will get its own page with a URL that can be used rather than linking to the main URL of the blog. On many blogs the text "permalink" will appear below a blog post as a hyperlink that takes users to the post as its own page.

Photoblog - (or photolog): a form of photo sharing and publishing in the format of a blog, but differentiated by the predominant use of and focus on photographs rather than text. Photoblogging (the action of posting photos to a photoblog) gained momentum in the early 2000s with the advent of cameraphones.

Platform - Something to build on. In the software world a platform is program that enables people and computers to build on it. Microsoft Word is a program designed for a specific task, it is not designed to be modified or adjusted to meet the needs of it's users. Linux, Facebook and many other web 2.0 software programs are designed from the very beginning to allow the users of the software to modify it to meet their needs and build other programs on top of it that they can then sell as well. A software platform is like the foundation of your house or the frame of your car, it provides the base to build on.

Plug-in – (n.) A hardware or software module that adds a specific feature or service to a larger system. The idea is that the new component simply plugs in to the existing system. For example, there are number of plug-ins for the Netscape Navigator browser that enable it to display different types of audio or video messages. Navigator plug-ins are based on MIME file types.

Podcasting – is similar in nature to RSS, which allows subscribers to subscribe to a set of feeds to view syndicated Web site content. With podcasting however, you have a set of subscriptions that are checked regularly for updates and instead of reading the feeds on your computer screen, you listen to the new content on on your iPod (or like device). The format used for podcasting is RSS 2.0 with enclosures. The podcasting enclosures refer to all binary (non-text) downloads. You can read the text description of the enclosure before downloading the item to view.

R

Rich Internet Application - Abbreviated as RIA, Rich Internet Applications are Web-based applications that function as traditional desktop applications however Web browsers (or clients) are required for access but unlike traditional applications, software installation is not required, however depending on the application you usually will need to have ActiveX, Java, Flash, or similar technologies installed on the client machine.

RSS - is the acronym used to describe the de facto standard for the syndication of Web content. RSS is an XML-based format and while it can be used in different ways for content distribution, its most widespread usage is in distributing news headlines on the Web. A Web site that wants to allow other sites to publish some of its content creates an RSS document and registers the document with an RSS publisher. A user that can read RSS-distributed content can use the content on a different site. Syndicated content can include data such as news feeds, events listings, news stories, headlines, project updates, excerpts from discussion forums or even corporate information. Because there are different versions of RSS, the term RSS is most frequently used as a name to mean the syndication of Web content, rather than as an acronym for its founding technology. When using the name RSS the speaker may be referring to any of the following versions of Web content syndication: 1. RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9, RSS 1.0), 2. Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0), 3. Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0). When using the term RSS, most will use it in reference to Rich Site Summary or the previous version called RDF Site Summary. When referring to Really Simple Syndication, it will usually be called RSS 2.0, not RSS. There are several versions of RSS available, with the most commonly implemented version being RSS 0.91. The most current version, however, is RSS 2.0 and it is backward-compatible with RSS 0.91. RSS was originally developed by Netscape. The RSS 2.0 specification was authored by Dave Winer.

S

SaaS - Short for Software as a Service, SaaS is a software delivery method that provides access to software and its functions remotely as a Web-based service. SaaS allows organizations to access business functionality at a cost typically less than paying for licensed applications since SaaS pricing is based on a monthly fee. Also, because the software is hosted remotely, users don't need to invest in additional hardware. SaaS removes the need for organizations to handle the installation, set-up and often daily upkeep and maintenance. Software as a Service may also be referred to as simply hosted applications.

Second Life - A 3D virtual world where residents create their own images, Avatars, and real estate

SEO: Acronym for Search Engine Optimization A good beginner's guide to SEO can be found at SEOmoz.

Semantic Web - An extension of the current Web that provides an easier way to find, share, reuse and combine information more easily. It is based on machine-readable information and builds on XML technology's capability to define customized tagging schemes and RDF's (Resource Description Framework) flexible approach to representing data. The Semantic Web provides common formats for interchange of data (where on the Web there is only had interchange of documents). It also provides a common language for recording how the data relates to real world objects, allowing a person, or a machine, to start off in one database, and then move through an unending set of databases which are connected not by wires but by being about the same thing.

Sidebar:A column (or multiple columns) along either or both sides of a blog site's main content area. The sidebar is often includes contact information of the author, the blog's purpose and categories, links to archives, honors and other widgets the author includes on the site.

Skyping - chatting or phoning by using a free downloadable computer program that allows you to communicate with anyone who is also using Skype or any of the numerous peer-to-peer telephony technologies.

SMO: Acronym for Social Media Optimization, a term coined by Rohit Bhargava

SOAP - Short for Simple Object Access Protocol, a lightweight XML-based messaging protocol used to encode the information in Web service request and response messages before sending them over a network. SOAP messages are independent of any operating system or protocol and may be transported using a variety of Internet protocols, including SMTP, MIME, and HTTP

SOB: A badge of honor in the spirit of community and knowledge sharing. Created by Liz Strauss at Successful (and Outstanding) Blog(gers). A complete directory of SOBs.

Social Bookmarks: A method for Internet users to store, search, organize, and most importantly - share web pages. Two favorites are Delicious and StumbleUpon. For a great video on how social bookmarking works, check out CommonCraft's Social Bookmarking in Plain English.

Social Calendar - an online schedule that allows more than one user to read and enter data.

Social Media: The tool set (including blogs) which everyone can use to publish content to the web. This can include audio, video, photos, text, files…just about anything. And these days, everyone is a content producer.

Social network - social structure made of nodes that are generally individuals or organizations. A social network represents relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, animals, computers or other information/knowledge processing entities. The term itself was coined in 1954 by J. A. Barnes.

Social network analysis - Abbreviated as SNA, social network analysis is the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, animals, computers or other information/knowledge processing entities. The nodes in the network are the people and groups while the links show relationships or flows between the nodes. SNA provides both a visual and a mathematical analysis of human relationships.

Social networking site - Abbreviated as SNS a social networking site is the phrase used to describe any Web site that enables users to create public profiles within that Web site and form relationships with other users of the same Web site who access their profile. Social networking sites can be used to describe community-based Web sites, online discussions forums, chatrooms and other social spaces online.

Social software - A type of software or Web service that allows people to communicate and collaborate while using the application. E-mail, blogs, and even instant messaging are all examples of social software.

Spambot - automatic software robots that post spam on a blog

Splog: Nickname for Spam Blogs, or blogs not providing their own or real content. Sploggers use automated tools to create fake blogs full of links or scraped content from other sites in order to boost search engine results.

Stream- As with a stream of water that flows by, streaming an audio or video file is the processing of watching or listening to the file as it goes by. The local computer is not storing the information for any longer than it takes for you to view it or watch it. YouTube and other video services like it are primarily streaming video services. Streaming is useful when the content owner does not want to allow users to download the content.

Style or Style sheet - CSS that determines the look/feel of a site.

Syndication - Allows your blog content to be distributed online.

T

Tagging - Commonly used in blogs, site authors attach keyword descriptions (called tags) to identify images or text within their site as a categories or topic. Web pages and blogs with identical tags can then be linked together allowing users to search for similar or related content. If the tags are made public, online pages that act as a Web-based bookmark service are able to index them. tags can be created using words, acronyms or numbers. Tags are also called tagging, blog tagging, folksonomies (short for folks and taxonomy), or social bookmarking.

Tag cloud - A tag cloud is a stylized way of visually representing occurrences of words used to described tags. The most popular topics are normally highlighted in a larger, bolder font. Visitors to a blog or site using a tag cloud, are able to easily see the most popular tags within the page — making it easy to discern the topics covered in one quick look. Also called a weighted list.

Technorati - An Internet search engine that indexes and searches blogs. Technorati tracks blogs and other forms of citizen media, including video blogs (vlogs), podcasts and amateur movies and videos in real-time. All this activity is monitored and indexed within minutes of posting.

Thread - A related line of conversation. A thread is a series of entries in a forum or discussion environment that are related. For example, in a discussion forum on education there may be a thread on how to improve K-12 learning and another on best practices for using a certain technique or tool.

TrackBack - TrackBack is a type of peer-to-peer communication system that was designed to send notification of updates between two Web sites via a Trackback Ping. Ping in reference to TrackBack refers to a small message sent from one Web server to another. TrackBacks are useful for informing a Web site that you have referenced its Web site within your own Web site, and is popular with bloggers. TrackBack was first released as an open specification in August 2002.

V

Viral - Something that designed to spread. Viral videos are created to be interesting and unique enough to cause the viewers to share them with their friends. Saying something is viral is like saying it has a strong word of mouth essence about it.

Virtual World - An online environment that mimics our physical world. While all activitiy online represents some part of our physical world, when we use the term virtual world we are typically referring to a 2D or 3D environment that has objects representing physical objects. i.e. This online document is in the virtual world of the World Wide Web but it does not have images of desks, chairs and people as a virtual world would have.

vlog - (n.) Short for video blog, it is the term used to describe a blog that includes or consists of video clips. Typically updated daily (or with regular frequency) vlogs often reflect the personality or cause of the author. Also called vog. (v.) To author a video blog. Other forms: vlogger (a person who video blogs).

vlogosphere - Meaning all vlogs, vlogosphere is an expression used to describe the "world of video blogs."

Voice 2.0 - A buzzword used to describe the trends, technologies and applications used to bring IP telephony to the Web to create a new class of voice-enabled applications. Applications such as Skype is an example of Voice 2.0.

VOIP (Voice over internet protocol) - The technology that enables phone calls on the internet instead of the phone system. Skype and Vonage are two popular VOIP service providers.

W

Walled garden - On the Internet, a walled garden refers to a browsing environment that controls the information and Web sites the user is able to access. This is a popular method used by ISPs in order to keep the user navigating only specific areas of the Web, whether for the purpose of shielding users from information — such as restricting children's access to pornography — or directing users to paid content that the ISP supports. America Online is a good example of an ISP that places users in a walled garden. Schools are increasingly using the walled garden approach in creating browsing environments in their networks. Students have access to only limited Web sites, and teachers need a password in order to leave the walled garden and browse the Internet in its entirety. The term walled garden also commonly refers to the content that wireless devices such as mobile phones have access to if the content provided by the wireless carrier is limited.

Web 2.0 - is the term given to describe a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information online. Web 2.0 basically refers to the transition from static HTML Web pages to a more dynamic Web that is more organized and is based on serving Web applications to users. Other improved functionality of Web 2.0 includes open communication with an emphasis on Web-based communities of users, and more open sharing of information. Over time Web 2.0 has been used more as a marketing term than a computer-science-based term. Blogs, wikis, and Web services are all seen as components of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 was previously used as a synonym for Semantic Web, but while the two are similar, they do not share precisely the same meaning.

Webconference - Live conference on the web. Webconfrences can include two way text, audio, video and collaboration space.

Web services - The term Web services describes a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services available and UDDI is used for listing what services are available. Used primarily as a means for businesses to communicate with each other and with clients, Web services allow organizations to communicate data without intimate knowledge of each other's IT systems behind the firewall. Unlike traditional client/server models, such as a Web server/Web page system, Web services do not provide the user with a GUI. Web services instead share business logic, data and processes through a programmatic interface across a network. The applications interface, not the users. Developers can then add the Web service to a GUI (such as a Web page or an executable program) to offer specific functionality to users. Web services allow different applications from different sources to communicate with each other without time-consuming custom coding, and because all communication is in XML, Web services are not tied to any one operating system or programming language. For example, Java can talk with Perl, Windows applications can talk with UNIX applications. Web services do not require the use of browsers or HTML. Web services are sometimes called application services.

Widget - a generic term for the part of a graphical user interface that allows the user to interface with the application and operating system. Widgets display information and invite the user to act in a number of ways. Typical widgets include buttons, dialog boxes, pop-up windows, pull-down menus, icons, scroll bars, resizable window edges, progress indicators, selection

Wiki - (n.) A collaborative Web site comprises the perpetual collective work of many authors. Similar to a blog in structure and logic, a wiki allows anyone to edit, delete or modify content that has been placed on the Web site using a browser interface, including the work of previous authors. In contrast, a blog, typically authored by an individual, does not allow visitors to change the original posted material, only add comments to the original content. The term wiki refers to either the Web site or the software used to create the site. Wiki wiki means “quick” in Hawaiian. The first wiki was created by Ward Cunnigham in 1995.

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