BookofthewebConcepts

Outline, Timeline, Core Concepts, Secrets of the Web, Ingredients of the Web, Example Campaigns

What 10 concepts do you wish everyone on the internet understood?

[add your ideas, or edit ideas already here]

• Web pages are remixable and changeable. That's one of the things that makes the web different and more interesting than television.
  • Browser add-ons are the prime example that showcase the utility of this. It would be great if everyone knew that they existed, and that they are about changing the Web to be the way that users want--not the way authorities want them to see it--even if they don't actually use addons themselves.
• My information is on my laptop or my secure server vs. my information is on someone else's server.
  • Or something else basic that helps people understand when they are or are not in control of their own information.
• There are different degrees of privacy. I can (or should be able to) make choices about what information I share with whom.
• The internet is transparent. You can view source to see how it works (???).

• Email addresses and increasingly URLs are core to your identity online. It would be tremendously helpful if people understood the tradeoffs in using 3rd parties for this (e.g. gmail.com, wordpress.com, facebook.com, posterous.com, etc).

• There are a variety of ways that websites can store passwords. Some do a lousy job. If you reuse passwords and yours is compromised, you may have other accounts compromised (e.g. paypal.com, ebay.com, google docs, etc).

• If someone compromised your email, they have tremendous power to compromise your identity elsewhere. Never give out your email password and always use strong passwords for email.

• if someone's offering a service for free, there's usually a reason -- sometimes it's because they're just being nice; sometimes they're making money (or hoping to) off of your use somehow. understanding that is a good idea. (added: My fav quote about this is "If something is free, you're probably not the customer. You're probably the product.").

• the internet isn't magical -- it's powered by machines made by people, and by people interacting on it.

• almost anyone can put almost anything on the web, even you. Ergo, don't believe everything your read. ("don't believe everything you think" is also wise, but irrelevant)

• if something's too amazing to believe, look into it -- it could be awesome, it could be a scam - it's not that hard to tell the difference if you try.

• on the internet nobody knows you're a dog, and its corrolary - on the internet, the person you're talking to may not be who they claim they are.

• if you embed content directly from a third party on your website, you are trusting that third content not to serve malware to your users. Javascript embeds for instance are one of the most common reasons websites are hacked.

• without taking certain precautions, everything you transmit on the web or over email is sent as plain text. You should be comfortable knowing that a lot of people may be able to access that content.

• it is possible that a website you are visiting is not actually that website (DNS spoofing, phishing, etc).

• ssl certificates not only verify that data sent between a browser and a server is encrypted but also verify that the website you are viewing is actually the website identified by the URL you use to access it. never trust a web site with a self-signed ssl certificate (browser will warn you) unless you really know what you are doing.

• The big difference between a http:// and a https:// URL: One most probably provides security while the other certainly doesn't.

• Accessibility for developers

Creating web content with accessibility in mind is important because many people cannot see, read, or understand the contents of web pages as easily as you may be able to. Some may not be able to access/use your content at all if accessibility isn't addressed.

• Accessibility for end users

Through a browser's default options, and/or by installing browser extensions, you can view, or even hear the web the way that best suits your needs (examples).

• The difference between the web and the Internet - understand that and you understand a lot

• The "Cloud"

The cloud is more than a marketing concept, it's a paradigm for distributed computing that is just beginning to bear fruit. The devices people carry around with them and have sitting at their desks can eventually become part of a large cloud system and used to provide access to massive computing power without the need for systems with fixed costs.

• The concept of the technology stack. Not necessarily the TCP/IP stack but the much more basic concept that there are multiple layers involved in getting online: the hardware level, the OS level, the web browser (or other application) level, plug-ins or add-ons to the web browser, the local network connection, the internet connection, and then the web page or web application. What each of these levels is basically doing (No, "Yahoo" is not your web browser.) The fact that you have a choice of different technologies or providers at each level. That you should be suspicious of claims that originate from the wrong level (i.e. a web page telling you "Viruses found in your windows directory! Click here to fix them" or a laptop with a sticker that says "Facebook-enabled!"). How to know which level you should be blaming when something goes wrong.

• That the URL bar tells you where you are, that sometimes you're not where you thought you were, and you should double-check it to see whether you're really at the page you thought you were at. (And then check it again to see if it's HTTPS). How to read a URL and what the different parts of it mean.

• The difference between engaging in a useful dialogue with someone about an issue and just leaving rage-filled drive-by comments on every page that says something you disagree with. Probably starts with the understanding that there's a person behind that page, with their own feelings and histories and beliefs that may not be obvious from what they wrote. That you should have some idea of what you hope to gain from your communication beyond just arguing for the sake of arguing. That sometimes getting to know somebody and understand where they're coming from is a more important goal than "correcting" anonymous strangers.

• That personal ads on Craigslist are completely public (more generally, that "public" is the default and that there's generally no way to completely erase something or take it down once it's been said.

• That not all sites with "wiki" in the name are affiliated.

• That the strength of the web is in its decentralization and so you shouldn't expect the traits of a hierarchical system with somebody in charge (i.e. you can't call up the Department Of Internet and demand that they take down content you don't like). That we should be suspicious of attempts to centralize things.

• People need to understand that the process of learning how to use the web takes effort and time. Many people stick to the simplest solutions instead of venturing in new things and tools of the web, in order to improve their understand of it. Learning takes time!

• To understand the structure of the internet and what are the protocols of communication is also very important. This goes in the same line of Atul's thoughts on "where does my computer end and the internet begin?".