Web Standards

Written by Thom Leggett


The internet, believe it or not, is a fiendishly complicated system. With millions of different entities, all with their own agenda, it is nothing short of a small miracle that they all play nicely together. So how is it all held together and who ensures that we won't end up with a digital Tower of Babel? And can we guarantee that our digital content of today will be accessible to everyone today and inrepparttar future?

What are standards? When we drive a car we are accepting and using a set of standards that have evolved sincerepparttar 118823 turn ofrepparttar 118824 century to ensure safety, convenience and fair access for all users ofrepparttar 118825 road system. Some of these standards are globally accepted (for instance a road is made from tarmac and wheels are made from rubber) whilst others vary from country to country (for example if we drive onrepparttar 118826 left orrepparttar 118827 right). The practical upshot of these standards is that a car designed and built for use in one country can be safely used in another (possibly with a little bit of inconvenience).

Technical and Social standards In general we can divide standards into two broad groupings: infrastructural and social. Infrastructural standards concern themselves withrepparttar 118828 practical issues involved in buildingrepparttar 118829 system whereas social standards relate torepparttar 118830 use ofrepparttar 118831 system. Sticking withrepparttar 118832 road metaphorrepparttar 118833 infrastructural standards concern themselves withrepparttar 118834 technicalities of road building and car manufacture whilstrepparttar 118835 Highway Code neatly representsrepparttar 118836 social standards. As a rule infrastructural standards are easier to agree upon as their needs are more clearly defined and change more slowly but onrepparttar 118837 other hand social standards are much more difficult to pin down as they cannot be deduced by clever thinking - they have to evolve over time in response to problems encountered during normal use.

What has all this got to do withrepparttar 118838 web? Wellrepparttar 118839 internet is a transport mechanism just likerepparttar 118840 road system onlyrepparttar 118841 internet carries information from A to B rather than things. It too has underlying infrastructural standards which, likerepparttar 118842 roads, are driven byrepparttar 118843 technicalities of getting stuff from one place to another. These standards, maintained by a body calledrepparttar 118844 Internet Engineering TaskForce (IETF), are as globally accepted asrepparttar 118845 manufacture of roads and cars. In fact you directly refer to this every time that you enter a web address into your browser;repparttar 118846 http:// atrepparttar 118847 beginning stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol - a standard designed for sending and receiving linked textual information. It is only because every software manufacturer inrepparttar 118848 world conforms to this standard and hundreds of others like it that we have a world wide web at all.

Social standards onrepparttar 118849 web Founded byrepparttar 118850 father ofrepparttar 118851 web, Tim Berners-Lee andrepparttar 118852 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),repparttar 118853 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) isrepparttar 118854 body responsible for maintaining social standards onrepparttar 118855 web.

Social standards forrepparttar 118856 road system are relatively simple compared torepparttar 118857 nightmare that unfolds when you try and devise procedures to represent and display visual information. All ofrepparttar 118858 social standards forrepparttar 118859 road system including speed limits, parking restrictions, lane discipline etc can be contained within a 100 page booklet that is easily readable by most people. Since it was founded in October 1994repparttar 118860 W3C has produced over fifty deeply technical specifications and it still isn't even close to finishing its job.

Tips For Managing Your Domain Name

Written by Richard Williams


Managing your domain name is a very simple task, but one mistake could meanrepparttar difference between your site being on-line or off-line. When managing your domain name there are a number of items you need to pay close attention to. Attention to detail and patients is all you need to successfully manage your domain name. Your WHOIS Record.

Your WHOIS record is a record of essential ownership information about who owns and controlsrepparttar 118822 domain name. It also states what Name serversrepparttar 118823 domain name is pointing to. When registering your domain name or viewing your WHOIS record there are a number of terms that it is helpful to know.

WHOIS Record Terms: Registrant: The name ofrepparttar 118824 person/organization that registeredrepparttar 118825 domain name. The Registrant information also includesrepparttar 118826 contact information forrepparttar 118827 domain name owner.

Administrative contact: The name person/organization that will be responsible for all administrative issues pertaining torepparttar 118828 domain name, including registrant information.

Billing contact: This isrepparttar 118829 name ofrepparttar 118830 person/organization responsible for billing issues related torepparttar 118831 domain name. Technical Contact: The Technical contact isrepparttar 118832 name ofrepparttar 118833 person/organization that is responsible for technical issues forrepparttar 118834 domain name. This information is very important! It is not unusual forrepparttar 118835 Technical Contact to berepparttar 118836 registry that registeredrepparttar 118837 address.

Make sure you keep your Technical Contact information up to date. Registrar of record: The domain name registry that registered domain name. This name may be different fromrepparttar 118838 name ofrepparttar 118839 company you used to registerrepparttar 118840 domain name.

Record last updated: The last time any alteration or update was made torepparttar 118841 domain name’s WHOIS record.

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