Monday, November 27, 2006

CEMS wiki

A page has been created on the CEMS wiki ready for your entries. You must login to create a page.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Shazam

Shazam is one of the few sites which makes my jaw drop. We've got used to instant responses to searches on Google but somehow, the ability to recognise any one of 3.2 million tracks from a noisy 20 second sample seems amazing. This is what Shazam does: when you hear a track you don't recognise, dial 2580 on your mobile; when Shazam answers, direct your phone to the sound source; Shazam hangs up after 20 seconds and about 30 seconds later it will text you back with the name of the Album and track [and take 50p from your account!]

Here are a couple of tracks to play to it if you can't think of your own:
and some links to papers and presentations on the technology behind Shazam:

Friday, November 17, 2006

Coursework 1 - topics

Topics selected by group members

  • Alex - Video sites
  • Daniel - Corporate
  • Dariuz - Mapping sites
  • Dennis - Auction sites
  • Malik - Shopping sites
  • Nigel - Social Networks

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Video on Web 2.0

We did not get time and could not get the audio visual systems to work in class, but this video is short - around ten minutes - and its really interesting. Watch it.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Week 7

Please read this paper by Tim O'Reilly on Web 2.0 for Friday when we will discuss it.

I've prepared an agenda for the session.

I've also prepared some slides on digital identifiers.

I'm also going to hand out some more reading for next week.

Coursework 1 - Draft

Coursework 1 - Draft

Due date 7th December 2006
Overall Weighting 25%

Subject
Each student is to select a specific type of web site which is to be agreed with the tutor. For this assignment, the type of a web site is based on the main purpose of the site. For example, here are some typically web site types with some prime examples.
  • Shopping e.g. Amazon
  • Auction : E-Bay
  • Personal Multimedia : Flickr, YouTube
  • Corporate information : BBC
  • Travel Planning : TravelLine
  • Mapping : Google Maps
We will exclude blogging, wikis, social bookmarks, podcasts and RSS readers since these have already been explored in the first presentation. Each student will choose a different web site type and there will be an attempt to get a spread of type of application types.

Research Questions

Students are required to research the site type, using one well know example site and one lesser known example

The following questions are indicative of the areas of interest but not exhaustive:
  • How did this type of site start? What was the first? What is the most successful now? How has this type of site evolved? What are the typical funding models?
  • Who are the customers? Are there common stylistic features in the user interface? What additional facilities do sites of this type typically support?
  • What technology is used to support this kind of site? What is the architecture? What are the specific challenges of this type of site and how are they handled?
Deliverables
  1. A wikipedia-style wiki entry of around 2000 words, with diagrams and links as appropriate. The aim of the entry is to provide an in-depth study of the site type, its use, development and construction. The entry is aimed at an audience of second year students with a general understanding of basic web architecture. Links should be provided to resources, such as Wikipedia, whose quality the student has assessed where additional supporting material is required. The entry is to be provided in both paper and as an entry in the CEMS wikipedia. This wiki will be used as a resource for other students.(80 %)
  2. A 10 minute presentation and discussion to the group on the key issues faced by the developers of this site. (20%)

Friday, November 03, 2006

Web tools

In the tutorial, various tools for checking and evaluating web applications were mentioned. Here are some relevant resources:

Hosts and IP addresses
Site and Page data

Validators and checkers
Test Suites

Understanding the Browser

The Browser is a core component in a web application. Every web application for users has this component, but its uniquely not under the control of the web developer. Understanding the capabilities of the different Browsers and how to configure them is a core skill.

We will explore the browser territory by looking at 3 widely available browsers IE6, Firefox and Opera.

Exercise
In pairs, select a pair of browsers. Work together through the complete set of browser controls, identifying similarities and differences. Then look at a set of web pages and note any differences in the way each browser handles the page. Report back on your findings.

Resources

Firefox
IE6
IE7 (not available in CEMS)

Opera

Thursday, November 02, 2006

ITMB lecture Nov 7th 16.45 - 18.00 in 1N5

The third lecture in this sequence is to be given by Amanda Chessell of IBM. Mandy is the joint holder of some 15 patents and active in the professional community.

"Mandy Chessell, FREng CEng FBCS has worked for IBM since 1987. She is a Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM), Master Inventor and member of the IBM Academy of Technology. Currently, she is the chief architect for IBM's Enterprise Master Data Solutions."

IBM's position on patents is an interesting topic. According to their web site, IBM for the 13th consecutive year have been awarded more patents than any other company (2,974 in 2005). It has a portfolio of some 23,000 patents from which it earnt some $1 billion from licenses on these patents - but spent $7 billion on reseach (and an estimated $10,000 onlegal fees per patent) . Some are released for general use since IBM recogises the need for open systems. However it also owns some extemely broad patents and is currently agressively pursuing Amazon Some see this as Amazon's come-upance since Amazon itself has very agressive over its one-click patent. Others see this as the exposure of the problem of software patenting generally. Taken at face value, it would appear that IBM patents apply to every E-Commerce site in the world - for example - US 7,072,849 - Presenting Advertising in an Interactive Service.

Week 6

We had two more presentations this week.

  • Dariuz on RSS
  • Denis on Folksonomy


This will be followed by a group discussion on the coursework and agreement on some core questions to be addressed in the wiki entry.

Finally a workshop on Browser capabilities.

Week 5 - Presentations

This week the sessions were led by students:

  • Daniel on Podcasts
  • Alex on Wikis
  • Malik on IRC and IM
  • Nigel on Social Bookmarks
All presentations were entertaining and were followed by lively discussion.