Terminology - your advice?

Tue Aug 13 10:25:41 UTC 2013

In my mind (my first language is Norwegian, not English) the terms 'Internet' and 'Web' are interchangeable. 'Online', to me, means something that you have to have an internet connection to accsess. If you can download the document (or any other file), then disconnect from the web, and then read the documetn, it is not an 'online document' but a 'downloadable document', such as most pdf-files. If you cannot download the file to your computer, the file stays as an 'online document'. 
So I see 'downloadable from the web/internet' as distinct from 'view online', 'work on online' (as the SignPuddles) or similar. 
'Online courses' may differ, if you get your course material as downloadables, then work on it, and upload your results to get response from the teacher. You have be online part of the time, but not all the time. 
So 'online' means 'stay connected' and 'on the web / internet' means accessible through the web, but maybe downloadable. 
Thus 'on the web / internet' is more general, 'online' is more spesific.

Ingvild  

Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 00:28:26 -0400
From: wreese01 at TAMPABAY.RR.COM
Subject: Re: Terminology - your advice?
To: SW-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU

    All good questions, Val.  I'd pick: all of the above.  :-)

    Really, though, many of the terminologies overlap.  When you say
    that something is on the Web, it's on the Internet.  The Web is part
    of the Internet.  Most people tend to associate the Web with browser
    pages.  It gets a bit complicated, however, as browsers can now
    access other than just HTML.  PHP runs in a web page (accessible in
    the browser) and you can even use plugins in browsers to access
    other parts of the internet, like IRC.   You can directly access FTP
    pages now through the browser.  That tends to muddy just what is the
    Web.

    "Online" is usually used when there's a corresponding offline.  For
    instance, an online file is accessible over the internet, but an
    offline file would be on your computer that only you can access.

    Now to answer your questions specifically:

    A document "on the web" is not the same as "reading a document
    online."   Documents come in all formats and sizes and some need to
    be downloaded and opened with special software.   When you read
    something online that usually means there is control of the document
    online so that you don't download it to read it.  You stream it from
    the server as you read.  It may even not end up on your computer but
    goes poof after you read it.  E-readers come to mind.

    An online course is the same as a course on the web or a course on
    the internet.  They're interchangeable because you have to access
    the internet for all three and almost all courses are accessed
    through a browser.   While it's possible to have a course through
    IRC or other chat protocol (skype?), it's usually not referred to as
    an online course.

    As to a document in SignPuddle Online, that's a document that's
    being accessed through a Web app (PHP) using the browser and so
    would be more limited than just any ol' file on the Internet.   I'd
    tend to technically say that's a "web document" but who says that? 
    Nobody.  Everyone would refer to it as an online document.  Only the
    really geeky would point out that an FTP file - or any other file
    that can be accessed through the internet - is also an online
    document and therefore "online document" - while inclusive of a web
    document - is not exclusively limited to it.  Got it?  ;-)

    It may help to keep in mind that all files reside on a computer
    somewhere.  The question then, becomes "is it accessible through the
    internet?".  If it is, it's online.  If it's not, it's offline.

    Bill

    On 08/12/2013 03:03 PM, Valerie Sutton
      wrote:

      SignWriting List
      August 12, 2013

      Question for everyone…

      I am trying to update my terminology…

      What is the difference between these three terms?
         Online…Internet….Web

      For example, when a document is "on the web", is that the
        same as "reading a document online"?

      Is an Online Course the same as a Course on the Web, or a
        Course on the Internet?

      I looked some of this up on Google, and some of the answers I
        got are pasted below, but I am still not sure…

      When I want to direct someone to read a document in
        SignPuddle Online….is that a document on the web? a document
        online? or a document on the internet?

      smile…

      and when people offer courses online, are they really on the
        web? or are they in something else other than HTML? what happens
        if it is PHP? is that on the web? 

      smile …

      Anyone have a quick explanation understood by all? ;-)

      Val ;-)

      --------

      Google searching...

      Answer: The Internet and the World Wide Web have a
          whole-to-part relationship. The Internet is the large
        container, and the Web is a part within the container. It is
        common in daily conversation to abbreviate them as the "Net" and
        the "Web", and then swap the words interchangeably. But to be
        technically precise, the Net is the restaurant, and the Web is
        the most popular dish on the menu. 

        Here is the detailed explanation: 

        1: The Internet is a Big Collection of Computers and Cables.

        The Internet is named for "interconnection of computer
        networks". It is a massive hardware combination of millions of
        personal, business, and governmental computers, all connected
        like roads and highways. The Internet started in the 1960's
        under the original name "ARPAnet". ARPAnet was originally an
        experiment in how the US military could maintain communications
        in case of a possible nuclear strike. With time, ARPAnet became
        a civilian experiment, connecting university mainframe computers
        for academic purposes. As personal computers became more
        mainstream in the 1980's and 1990's, the Internet grew
        exponentially as more users plugged their computers into the
        massive network. Today, the Internet has grown into a public
        spiderweb of millions of personal, government, and commercial
        computers, all connected by cables and by wireless signals. 

        No single person owns the Internet. No single government has
        authority over its operations. Some technical rules and
        hardware/software standards enforce how people plug into the
        Internet, but for the most part, the Internet is a free and open
        broadcast medium of hardware networking.

        Here
          is a conceptual diagram of the Internet and how it contains
          many forms of online communications 

        2: The Web Is a Big Collection of HTML Pages on the Internet.

        The World Wide Web, or "Web" for short, is a massive collection
        of digital pages: that large software subset of the Internet
        dedicated to broadcasting content in the form of HTML pages. The
        Web is viewed by using free software called web browsers. Born
        in 1989, the Web is based on hypertext
          transfer protocol, the language which allows you and me to
        "jump" (hyperlink) to any other public web page. There are over
        65 billion public web pages on the Web today.

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