This document provides details for an activity assignment related to social media for an IT toolbox course. It begins by noting that the instructor, Jonathan Briggs, will be uploading the activity details by Saturday and giving students a full week to complete part 1. It then provides some introductory questions to get students thinking about topics related to social media like the popularity of Facebook, the purposes of different social networks, how Facebook makes money while being free, what user behavior can be learned from social networks, and the purpose of the "Like" button. It closes by reminding students that completing all activities is essential to pass the module and that the exam may be delayed until September for those who don't finish the activities.
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Members
double check we have your submissions Messages 5
I have published a PDF that lists your Kingston ID numbers against the Activities
we have received from you. Drafts 1
Download it here Queue
Some of you have contacted us wondering whether we have received this or
Launch Mass Post Editor
that activity from you. It became too big a task to answer each and everyone so
we compiled this list. If an activity you thought to have submitted is not listed in
this PDF we have not received it. ▾
If you do have submitted any other activity that is not listed there are two things
you can do to correct it:
1. Find the receipt you received after submitting the activity and email it to me at
p.warnsberg@kingston.ac.uk
or
2. If you saved a copy of the submitted answers as advised you can submit the
activity again. Make sure you receive the E-mail receipt and if you don’t contact
me (p.warnsberg@kingston.ac.uk) The links to submit any of the activities are
still available on the blog http://ittoolbox.tumblr.com/
You have until 6pm on Friday the 27th of may to send in email receipts or re-
submitt any missing activities. After the 27th we will go through the quality of
your answers one last time and start to set the Marks.
Beware that just because the PDF says you have submitted an Activity doesn’t
mean that it has passed. We still have submissions to read through and check.
Thank to all those who have kept up and submitted great work!
.petter
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Activity 20 Exploring trends and starting your
own business
by Jonathan Briggs
I have split this activity into two different components and you can choose to do
one or both parts. In the first you will continue to research trends as discussed
in todays lecture. In part 2 you will have an opportunity to think about a new
business of your own.
Part 1 - trends
Choose one of the following trends
• Changing consumer expectations of interfaces
• Moving data and services into the cloud
• Location based services and tracking
• Rise of India and China as knowledge based economies
1. Research your chosen topic properly and write a 300 word article with good
English and spelling. Make sure that you prepare the essay offline before you
upload it.
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2. List the 5 main points/arguments in your article
3. List at least 5 up-to-date sources from where you have taken ideas
Here is the survey to feedback your answers to part
1: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/536236/Toolbox-Activity-20-1-2011-Trends
Part 2 - startups
Think of a technology based business that you could start based on some of the
toolbox thinking you have been exposed to. The business should meet a real
need and ideally should be relatively easy to start small and grow. It could offer
products or be a service. All ideas will be kept confidential as part of this
activity.
• Describe your new business idea in a single paragraph
• Give your new business a snappy name
• Describe the consumers or audience for your idea
• Describe the real need that is being met by your idea
• List at least 3 technology ideas that you would use from this course in
creating this business
• Research and list similar business ideas that you found exist already (List
3-4)
• Describe how your business would be different from those out there
• Discuss the resources and investment you think you would need to make
this a real business
Here is the survey to feedback your answers to part
2: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/536832/Toolbox-Activity-20-2-2011-Startup-
Ideas
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Activity 19: Exploring the semantic
web
by Jonathan Briggs
Following the last lecture I would like you to research the semantic web further.
Here are some articles for you to read but you should also find some of your
own. In part 2 you can experiment with Google Refine.
Articles
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/may/18/wolfram-alpha-
semantic-web-competitor-google
• http://code.google.com/p/google-refine/
• http://google-refine.blogspot.com/
• http://www.w3.org/2009/Talks/1214-Darmstadt-IH/Applications.pdf
Part 1
In your own words answer the following questions
• Describe the semantic web to a friend in simple terms
• What is the motivation behind trying to develop the semantic web?
• Give an example of the kind of application that would become possible.
• Discuss whether Wolfram Alfa is really an example of a semantic web
search engine
• Who would be worth following on Twitter to keep you informed of
developments in the semantic web? (at least 4 Twitter names)
Here is the link to feedback your ideas for Part 1:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/521045/Toolbox-Activity-19-1-2011-Semantic-
Web
Part 2
Explore Google Refine and then answer the following in your own words
• Describe the (software) relationship between Google Refine and
Freebase?
• Describe the kinds of applications for which Google Refine has been
developed
• What does Google Refine reveal about the way data is stored inside
Freebase?
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• Describe the experiments you did and what your learned?
• Discuss why Google spends time developing Google Refine when it
already has the main Google search engine.
Here is the link to feedback your ideas for Part 2:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/521046/Toolbox-Activity-19-2-2011-Semantic-
Web
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Final sessions and activities
by Jonathan Briggs
There will be two final sessions for this module: this Thursday 7April and
Thursday 5th May. The first will be about the Semantic Web and the second will
review Toolbox thinking (a question and answer session).
I will publish both the final exercises this weekend and as with Toolbox 1 these
will be more open ended than usual to stretch students who have already
completed most of the other activities.
I have reviewed the previous activities and there are still many students
(although a minority) who have not completed 6+2. You should use the next few
weeks to catch up because the “resit exam” will not be made available until
September.
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Activity 18 - Build a mobile web app
by Jonathan Briggs
In this week’s exercise I want you to explore a new tool that has been published
during the past 2 months and was noticed by one of the class. Something new
happens almost every day and Twitter, sites like TechCrunch and Mashable and
insights from friends help us keep on top of it.
The tool is Mobile Nation at http://www.mobilenationhq.com
The deadline for both pieces of work is 5th April at midnight
Part 1
I want you to evaluate this software/service and write a 250 word review for an
online technical magazine such as TechCrunch. This must be entirely in your
own words and help the reader understand the potential of the new system. You
must make your opinions clear and describe how you think it fits in with trends in
the market. Make sure that spelling and grammar are correct before submitting
it.
To help you construct your article please answer the following:
• List one relevant TechCrunch article you looked at to discover the style of
writing required
• List 3 Google searches you performed to find relevant information
• List 2 competitors to Mobile Nation you examined
• List the 5 main points you decided to include in your review
• Now add your review (strict word limits)
Here is the link to submit your work:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/504215/Toolbox-Activity-18-1-2011-Mobile-
Nation-1
Part 2
Create a mobile app prototype with Mobile Nation. You may need to find a
friend with an iPhone to test it once you have published it or you may be able to
find a simulator/browser and see if that works. Your final prototype needs to
include at least 2 of the following: images, a tab bar, an RSS feed, maps, video
and must not simply be a copy of one of the tutorials.
• What is the URL of your app? (these will be each be checked)
• What does you app do? (Describe in detail)
• How do you feel about the tool? (Describe the positive and negative
aspects of the service)
• What problems did you have in creating your app? (describe in detail)
• What features would you want to add to the tool to create even better
apps?
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Here is the link to submit your work:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/504235/Toolbox-Activity-18-2-2011-Mobile-
Nation-2
The deadline for both pieces of work is 5th April at midnight
Private marketquarter: share delete edit
By Jonathan Briggs
Here is this week’s video, rather later than I hoped
but fairly short (35 mins) so I hope you have time to
watch it as soon as possible.
Please add comments and questions and make sure
that you have done Activity 17.
share delete edit
This weeks lecture on Social
Networks delayed
Dear All
My hand remains bad and I have been advised to restrict typing to 45 mins per
day. I have decided to complete the lecture and publish it on Saturday together
with next week’s activity.
Apologies for the delay! I will send out an email when the lecture has been
published.
Jonathan
share delete edit
Activity 17 - Social Media (the
details)
Part 1
Choose ONE of Facebook, Twitter, Quora or LinkedIn and make sure that you
are signed up with an appropriate profile. You may use your existing profile.
I want you to explore the chosen service distinguishing between the functionality
provided (video sharing, profiles etc) and the technology used to provide the
service (video hosting, CSS etc).
1. List 10 specific pieces of functionality that are delivered by the service.
2. What specific technologies are used to deliver the service you have
chosen? You will need to research the technology background of the
service to find out the hardware and software they are using. List 8-10
different technologies and for each state what it does for this service. Do
not simply copy text from the web but show that you understand the
technologies involved by framing them in your own terms.
3. Discuss the technical challenges of building a similar service yourself
based on the hosting technologies you have rented. What pieces of the
jigsaw are missing? List 3 different specific technical issues you can see.
Make sure that you use your own words.
4. Find open source or commercial software components that would allow
you to recreate the core functionality of your chosen network. List the
URLs and describe the software you have found.
5. What questions are raised by researching this activity?
Here is the link to submit part 1:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/496242/Toolbox-Activity-17-1-2011-Social-
Networks
Deadline: Saturday 26th March at midnight
Part II - the like button
Read the following short article and then research the issues involved for
yourself: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/11/30/1734249/Facebooks-Like-This-
Button-Is-Tracking-You
1. Research and describe the technologies that enable the Facebook “like”
button to track consumer behaviour even if they are not a member of
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Facebook. Make sure you really understand what is going on here -
this will require you to read a variety of different sources.
2. What are the likely business opportunities that are made possible
because of this type of tracking technology? Think hard about how
Facebook can be offered for free and how it intends to make the
millions needed to grow and develop.
3. How would you explain to an ordinary member of the public what is
happening here? Phrase this in your own words to really show that
you understand.
4. What are your own reactions to the ways in which you are being tracked
by social networks? Think hard about the tradeoff between privacy
and usefulness.
5. What questions have been raised by this activity?
Here is the link to submit part 2:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/496245/Toolbox-Activity-17-2-2011-Social-
Networks-part-2
Deadline: Saturday 26th March at midnight
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Lecture 16: Ubicomp and wireless networks
kingstonlectures on livestream.com.
The videos shown during the session:
Light painting WiFi
Systems of systems
The Future Internet: Service Web 3.0
Lynx Excite Angel Ambush London Victoria
#lecture
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Activity 17 - Social Media
by Jonathan Briggs
Hi All
Well its time for me to come back and teach the remaining sessions. I’ve
recently damaged my hand which has made typing hard! I will upload the next
activity by close of play on Saturday and give you a full week to do part 1.
For various reasons I have decided to present lecture next week by video only
and this will be uploaded before next Wednesday. I will then be around in
person to present the final two sessions on mobile and trends which I hope will
round off the course nicely,
Please be aware that finishing 6+2 activities is essential if you want to
pass the module. Only one student passed the examination last semester
whereas almost everyone else passed through activities - you have been
warned. We reserve the right to delay the examination to the normal resit
period in September.
To help get you thinking about Social Media for this week’s activity consider the
following questions…
• Why is Facebook the biggest network on the planet?
• What is the point of services such as Twitter, LinkedIn or Quora?
• How can a service as big and complex as Facebook be free?
• What can you discover about people from their behaviour on Social
Networks?
• What is the purpose of the Facebook “like” button? Is there a deeper
purpose?
• What software tools exist to help you design and build your own
communities and social networks?
• How can social networks be integrated, “mashed up”, into other services
and sites and what would be the point of doing this?
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A full set of activity questions by Saturday but these should get you thinking.
Private petterw: share delete edit
Hi Everyone,
On thursday I am back after JC’s run of hands-on
toolboxes and I will bring a session about life after
wireless networks; always online, anywhere and with
computers integrated into the world around us. We
will also look at how to hijack other’s Facebook or
Google mail accounts with Firesheep and how an understanding of that
technology can help us safeguard ourselves.
I uploaded this short video taster.
If you haven’t started with the activity yet you can as always find it
on http://ittoolbox.tumblr.com/activities Submit your answers by the
Wednesday deadline so that I can include it in the feedback on Thursday.
The session will as always be streamed from the module blog
or http://www.livestream.com/kingstonlectures
Best of luck .petter w
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Lecture 15: Ajax
Watch the live streaming video from kingstonlectures at livestream.com
http://www.livestream.com/kingstonlectures/video?clipId=pla_a801fb49-d773-
4c03-a855-89771110934e&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb
#lecture #jcnebel
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Activity 16: Ubicomp and wireless networks
Ubicomp and wireless networks
In this 16th toolbox activity you need to spend a couple of hours exploring
wireless network technologies, put advertising claims to the test and think up
future computing products for the home.
The activity has been written by Petter Warnsberg and the aim is to better
understand the possibilities and constraints with the wireless technology that we
use to link devices together.
Deadline: Midnight, Wednesday 16th March 2011
:::: Introduction
In the first semester we talked some about computers, the hardware and how
we see it more and more in the everyday things around us. We talked about how
our phones have turned into smartphones with more capabilities than most of us
utilise. That is all great, fascinating and fun. They have lots of computational
power do execute our commands and we can interact with them in more and
more sophistivated ways, touch, feel, talk, shake and so on. The computers are
ubiquitous (look the word up if it is new to you) and the idea is that instead of us
entering their world, once the room of a big super computer or in more recent
years to sit down in front of a desktop, the computers now enter our world and
exists not as a destination but as and when we need them, often without us
seeing them. That is ubiquitous computing or Ubicomp.
We find these computers in different Sizes and Mark Weiser suggested we
define them as: Tabs small enough to fit in a watch, Pads that are hand held and
primarily represented today by mobile phones, and finally Boards that are larger,
like the kiosks we use to book tickets for example. Other definitions that are
more wide ranging has been proposed and suggests there will be computers so
small we can refer to them as Dust, computing products that will be like fabrics
that can be worn or painted onto a surface; Skin, or 3 dimensional products that
can take any shape or form, referred to as Clay.
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To me the biggest game changer and that has had the biggest impact on us and
will continue to have is not the size, the speed or the input/output of these
devices, it is the Ubicomps ability to communicate, be networked, wirelessly.
And the speed by which they can communicate and transfer data is increasing.
These are the two topics for this weeks activity and session. Ubicomp and
wireless networking.
:::: Part 1
Task 1
First we need to familiarise ourselves with some of the technologies. Here is a
list of wireless technologies and protocols. Find out for each of these
technologies what their maximum supported speed for downloading data is,
what year it was introduced and if you can find it what range it operates in i.e.
how far the wireless link works without loosing connection. Look it up if you do
not know and technical topics like this are often well documented on the web
including Wikipedia.
1. GSM
2. UMTS
3. WiMAX
4. 802.11b
5. HSPA
6. 802.11n
7. Wi-Fi
8. 3G
9. 4G
When you submit your findings there is a table to insert it all into.
Task 2
Find a WiFi enabled device near you. Go into it’s settings, preferences or
whatever it is called on your specific device to try and configure it. Does it
anywhere talk about security, encryption or similar? Can you see anything about
WEP, WAP or is there a “none” option? List here the available security options
and tell us which one you would use to connect wirelessly in what situation and
why. If you would use different settings in different situation you can list that too.
Task 3
The latest iPhone/iPad iOS4.3 update that came out on the 9th of March had a
new feature that was called “Personal Hot Spot”. Other platforms like Android
and Windows Mobile have had this functionality for a while. Research it and
share with us how this feature could be useful for someone that like me travel a
lot and what the pitfalls are.
Feedback your results for PART 1 using this survey:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/491013/Toolbox-16-1-2011-Ubicomp-and-
wireless-networks
You will pass this activity if you give sensible (not necessarily correct answers)
to the above questions.
:::: Part 2
The Part 2 activity is more open ended and requires you to do some research on
your own to find the answers.
Remember that in order to do a good grade you should complete both part 1 and
part 2 of each activity before the deadline.
Task 1
When you plug-in an ethernet cable into your computer that is a direct
connection to your device and it is comprehendible how the data can go through
that cable and reach your computer like water in a hose.
With a Wi-Fi network there are so called stations that can be either access
points or clients. Your laptop is most likely a client that communicates with the
access point via radio frequencies. So far so good. But in a room full of Wi-Fi
enabled devices how does the data know to find it’s way to your device so that
not everybody can see for example your emails and IM?
Task 2
For this question we want you to imagine a furniture home store like Heals or
IKEA in 2016. Then we want you to come up with a product that has wireless
networking capabilities that you can buy in that store. It should be a product that
cannot be bought today and the more creative the better. How to describe it?
Start of with a few sentences that tells us what it is and then a tech spec. list with
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features and specifications listed. List at least 20 relevant things. For inspiration
see for example the iPad http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/ , but obviously we
don’t expect any images and you can’t lay it out in the survey.
Task 3
For the final task we want you to test the speed claims of the technologies listed
in part 1.
What is the actual speed you can get in the real world. We ask you to go out
there and use services like Speedtest.net to measure the download and upload
speed you can get.
Do two or more different tests under two or more different circumstances.
Depending on what technology you have access to you can for example try
different locations, while moving at a certain speed, with different protocols (on
my iPhone I can for example turn off 3G) etc. Each test you would have to do
several time for accuracy.
Describe the different tests, the configurations and the average result. Wrap up
with a sentence or two where you can describe any conclusions drawn from your
test.
Feedback your results for PART 2 using this survey:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/491015/Toolbox-16-2-2011-Ubicomp-and-
wireless-networks
You will pass this activity if you give sensible (not necessarily correct answers)
to the above questions.
Best of luck!
#activity
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Lecture 14: MySQL
Watch the live streaming video from kingstonlectures at livestream.com
http://www.livestream.com/kingstonlectures/video?clipId=pla_9f9e0248-8fc5-
426a-924d-db3f1ee99345&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb
#lecture #jcnebel
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Activity 15: Ajax
AJAX
Written by: Jean-Christophe Nebel
Deadline: Midnight, Wednesday 9th March 2011
In this 15th toolbox activity you need to spend a couple of hours exploring AJAX.
The aim of this activity is to start exploring a technique for creating fast and
dynamic web pages. AJAX is about updating parts of a web page without
reloading the whole page (AJAX is not a new programming language, but uses
internet standards such as html, css and JavaScript).
:::: Before you start
In the first part of this activity, you will study AJAX web pages. In particular, you
will learn the secret behind the ‘Google Suggest’ facility: ‘When you start typing
in Google’s search box, a JavaScript sends the letters off to a server and the
server returns a list of suggestions’.
In the second part of this activity, you will first answer a quiz and then you will
modify some AJAX code so that you could integrate it into your own webpages.
You will need to be online and go to various websites for this activity.
:::: Part 1
In order to demonstrate AJAX in action, I have created 2 dynamic webpages that
you can access at the following addresses:
http://staffnet.kingston.ac.uk/~ku33185/ToolBox/HintHerName.htm
http://staffnet.kingston.ac.uk/~ku33185/ToolBox/QnA.htm
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The first webpage offers a ‘suggest’ facility when you fill in the name of a female
firstname in a form. The second one gives an example of a ‘quiz’ facility where
the answer to a question is revealed by pressing a button.
(code of both pages can be downloaded from
http://staffnet.kingston.ac.uk/~ku33185/ToolBox/ajax.zip).
Once you have used those dynamic pages, study their code and asssociated
files in order to answer the following questions:
1. In the HintHerName.htm webpage, where do the names come from?
2. Currently, there is no name starting with ‘M’. What do you need to do to make
sure the name ‘Melanie’ appears if the user types a ‘M’?
3. Can you explain what is behind the Google Suggest facility? Where do the
suggestions come from?
4. What does the following line do ‘xmlhttp.open(“GET”, “answer.txt”,true);’ in the
‘QnA.html’ code?
5. What does the following line do {button type=”button” onclick=”go()”}Answer
{/button} in the ‘QnA.html’ code?
6. Explain how your webpage could benefit from these dynamic features.
Feedback your results for PART 1 using this survey:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/483018/Toolbox-15-1-2011-AJAX
You will pass this activity if you give sensible (not necessarily correct answers)
to the above questions.
:::: Part 2
The Part 2 activity is more open ended and requires you to do some research on
your own to find the answers.
Remember that in order to do a good grade you should complete both part 1 and
part 2 of each activity before the deadline.
In this activity you need to do a bit of research to complete the quiz. Then, you
will study more in details the code of QnA.htm so that you are able to modify it in
order to create a dynamic pages where the users can get the answers to several
questions. Note that, unlike HintHerName.htm which relies on PHP code which
needs to be processed by a PHP server, QnA.htm can be ran locally on your
own computer.
Take this short quiz selecting the best answer for each question:
What does AJAX stand for?
• Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
• A Dutch football team
• Advanced Java Applied to Xbox operating system
Which application does NOT use AJAX?
• Google Maps
• Static webpage
• YouTube
Which standard is NOT part of the AJAX framework?
• XHR
• Java
• CSS
What tag do you need to add in your webpage before adding AJAX script?
• ajax
• button
• script
Which commands do you need to send a request to a server?
• xmlhttp.open & xmlhttp.send
• xmlhttp.load & xmlhttp.send
• xmlhttp.open & xmlhttp.write
You will then have to:
- Explain the concept of asynchronous request.
- Explain how to change the ‘QnA.html’ code to provide answers to several
questions.
- Provide a link to your updated version of ‘QnA.html’.
http://www.tumblr.com/tumblelog/ittoolbox 04/10/2011
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Feedback your results for PART 2 using this survey:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/483026/Toolbox-15-2-2011-AJAX
You will pass this activity if you give sensible (not necessarily correct answers)
to the above questions.
#activity
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Lecture 13: databases
Watch the live streaming video from kingstonlectures at livestream.com
http://www.livestream.com/kingstonlectures/video?clipId=pla_a419325c-de18-
4a55-8ac4-9c02af22d58e&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb
#jcnebel #lecture
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Activity 14 - MySQL
MySQL
Written by: Jean-Christophe Nebel
Deadline: Midnight, Wednesday 2nd March 2011
In this 14th toolbox activity you need to spend a couple of hours exploring
MySQL.
The aim of this activity is to start exploring the most popular open source
database management system, i.e. MySQL. This is only an introduction, but you
will learn more about this topic next year.
Since databases are at the heart of most computer systems, it is essential that
you are aware of a popular way of querying them.
In the first part of this activity, you will get under the hood of your blog and
extract data from the tables its associated database relies on. It is unlikely you
will manage to complete activity 1 if you have not worked on the activity 1 of
Toolbox 13.
In the second part of this activity, you will first answer a quiz and then you will
add and update data in the table you created in the activity 2 of Toolbox 13.
:::: Before you start
You will need to be online and go to various websites for this activity. In order to
complete it, you will need access to your blog and a web browser.
:::: Part 1
Your website configuration and management software application, e.g. cpanel (it
depends on the web hosting service you use) should provide you with a
database administration tool, e.g. phpMyAdmin. You need to find the SQL ‘query
window’ menu which will allow you to run SQL commands.
These commands can be applied to any databases you have installed and/or
created on your website. However, since you have all created a blog using
Wordpress, one of your databases, e.g. ‘wrdp’, must be dedicated to your blog.
In activity 1, you will query this database. We will focus on the usage of the
‘SELECT’ command which is essential to database query using MySQL.
Before we start, be aware that the MySQL Reference Manual can be found at
the following address http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/index.html. You
may find it useful.
‘SELECT’ is essential to extract information from databases. However, it has
other usages. For example, the ‘SELECT VERSION();’ command returns the
version of MySQL which is running on your server. Other valid commands
include ‘SELECT CURRENT_DATE;’ and ‘SELECT PI()/2, 2+3;’
‘SELECT * FROM … WHERE …’ may be the most useful MySQL command.
‘SELECT * FROM my_ table;’ displays the whole content of my_ table, whereas
‘SELECT * FROM my_ table WHERE field1 LIKE ‘%user%;’ extracts all the
records which contain ‘user’ in the field ’field1’.
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‘SHOW’ provides information about databases, tables, columns, or status
information about the server. For example, ‘SHOW DATABASES;’ lists all the
databases which can be found on your server. ‘CHARACTER SET’, ‘TABLES’
and ‘PRIVILEGES’ are some of the parameters which can be associated with
this command.
‘USE’ species to which database present on your MySQL server MySQL
commands are addressed to.
DESCRIBE provides information about the columns in a table. ‘DESCRIBE
my_table;’ displays the structure of ‘my_table’.
1. Write down the version of MySQL which is running on your server..
2. Write down the single command which allows you to display the current
date and time, and the value of the sine of an angle of 36 degrees (i.e. pi/5).
3. List all the databases which can be found on your server and write down
the command which provided you with that list.
4. List the names of all the tables which can be found in the database
associated to your blog. Do not forget to specify your MySQL server that you
want to apply the command to your blog database.
5. Explore the table related to ‘users’ by displaying its structure using
‘DESCRIBE’. How many fields are there?
6. Extract all the records in the ‘posts’ table which contain ‘you’ in the field
‘post_content’. Copy below their ‘post_titles’.
7. Write down the command which allows you to display all posts posted in
October 2010.
8. Provide an explanation of the general function of the MySQL ‘SELECT’
command.
Feedback your results for PART 1 using this survey:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/476281/Toolbox-14-1-2011-MySQL
You will pass this activity if you give sensible (not necessarily correct answers)
to the above questions.
:::: Part 2
The Part 2 activity is more open ended and requires you to do some research on
your own to find the answers.
Remember that in order to do a good grade you should complete both part 1 and
part 2 of each activity before the deadline.
In this activity you need to do a bit of research to complete the quiz. Then, using
the SQL ‘query window’ you will work on the database and table you created in
the activity 2 of Toolbox 13. During the learning process, you may seriously
damage your table. Therefore, make sure that you use a table which is NOT
used by your website or blog. Find out the exact MySQL command which would
allow you to add a record in your table. Add a record of your choice in your table.
Find out the exact MySQL command which would allow you to update a field in a
record in your table Update the field of your choice in your latest record.
Take this short quiz selecting the best answer for each question:
MySQL runs on which operating systems?
· Linux and Mac OS-X only
· Any operating system
· Unix, Linux, Windows and others
· Unix and Linux only
To remove duplicate rows from the result set of a SELECT use the
following keyword:
· NO DUPLICATE
· UNIQUE
· DISTINCT
· None of the above
Which of the following command add a row to a table?
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· Add
· Insert
· Update
· Alter
What SQL clause is used to restrict the rows returned by a query?
· AND
· WHERE
· HAVING
· FROM
Which of the following commands should be used to create a database
named “student”?
· CREATE student
· CREATE DATABASE student
· DATABASE student
· ADD student
Feedback your results for PART 2 using this survey:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/476822/Toolbox-14-2-2011-MySQL
You will pass this activity if you give sensible (not necessarily correct answers)
to the above questions.
#activity
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Activity 13
Databases
Written by: Jean-Christophe Nebel
Deadline: Midnight, Wednesday 23rd February 2011
In this 13th toolbox activity you need to spend a couple of hours exploring
databases.
The aim of this activity is to start exploring the world of databases. This is a very
vast subject that is introduced to you this year. But you will have a whole module
on this topic next year.
Since databases are at the heart of most computer systems, it is essential that
you are aware of them and have some basic understanding of their structure
and how they store information.
In the first part of this activity, you will get under the hood of your blog and have
a close look at the data behind it. Where are they? Which data are stored? How
are they organised?
In the second part of this activity, you will first answer a quiz and then you will
create your own table to store data of your choice.
:::: Before you start
You will need to be online and go to various websites for this activity. In order to
complete it, you will need access to your blog and a web browser.
:::: Part 1
Your website configuration and management software application, e.g. cpanel (it
depends on the web hosting service you use) should provide you with a
database administration tool, e.g. phpMyAdmin. Using that tool, you will explore
the databases which are present on your account. The number of available
databases depends on what you have installed on your website. However, since
you have all created a blog using Wordpress, one of your databases, e.g. ‘wrdp’,
must be dedicated to your blog. In this part, you will investigate the content and
structure of this database.
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1. List the names of all the tables which can be found in the database associated
to your blog database
2. Explore the table related to ‘posts’ and look at its structure. How many
different fields are there?
3. In the ‘posts’ table, list all the fields whose type is ‘datetime’
4. Each individual ‘post’ record is stored in several fields. Select a record and 5
of its field. For each of them, list its name, its content and describe briefly the
nature of the data it contains
5. Provide an explanation as why records are stored in fields instead of as single
blocks of data
Feedback your results for PART 1 using this survey:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/469682/Toolbox-13-1-2011-databases
You will pass this activity if you give sensible (not necessarily correct answers)
to the above questions.
:::: Part 2
The Part 2 activity is more open ended and requires you to do some research on
your own to find the answers.
Remember that in order to do a good grade you should complete both part 1 and
part 2 of each activity before the deadline.
In this activity you need to do a bit of research to complete the quiz. Then, using
your website configuration and management software application you will create
a table containing information of your choice, e.g. premier league football clubs,
your favourite books, films or cheeses, or the planets of the solar system.
You may want to create a new database for this table. However, if your web host
limits the number of databases you can create, you could add a table in your
blog database.
1. Take this short quiz selecting the best answer for each question:
Which of the following is NOT an example of a Database?
• KU’s student records system
• A personal diary
• A box of old photographs
• A Telephone directory
What can you NOT find in a FLAT FILE database management system?
• Structural relationships between the records
• Plain text containing one record per line
• Encoding of a table as a single file
• Single fields separated by commas
A unique KEY field
• Is a special field that identifies a particular record in a database
• Is a special field that each database has to have
• Is a special field that identifies a particular record in a table
• Is a special field that has to be a unique number
Which of the following is a valid key field?
• House number + Street Name
• Initials + Family Name + Date of Birth
• A Book Title
• Car Registration number
Data cannot be stored if their type is unknown. Which of the following
statements is false?
• DATE can be a data type
• A TEXT data type can contain 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9
• A Logical data type can store three values, TRUE, UNKNOWN and
FALSE
• Numerical data can be stored in different formats
Feedback your results for PART 2 using this survey:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/469733/Toolbox-13-2-2011-databases
You will pass this activity if you give sensible (not necessarily correct answers)
to the above questions.
#activity
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IT Toolbox 1 Marks (updated 2110)
Hi All,
It has just come to my attention that there might be something wrong with some
of the marks for IT Toolbox 1 that has just been released. I am posting this in
case you have heard that too or have any concerns to let you know that we are
aware and are looking into it. At the moment I can not say what is wrong or even
if anything actually is wrong so bare with us, rest assure we care about you
getting the right mark and we will keep you posted.
Best as always .petter
Looks like its my fault folks! (Jonathan) and that some of the columns in the
spreadsheet were transposed after the resit exams were added. We are
working on the new spreadsheet now and will update the results as soon as we
can. Truly sorry about the mixup :(
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Lecture 11: Toolbox Semester 2
A new year, a new semester, toolbox continuos. In this session we did a re-cap
on what Toolbox is about and how we want you to continu to question the
technology around you, what it is for, how it works and how it can be improved.
View more presentations from petter.
The recording is incomplete. We are trying to get you all parts of the session.
Watch live streaming video from kingstonlectures at livestream.com
The HTML / CSS grid template that we were to turn into a Wordpress theme
http://cssgrid.net/
jQuery, the javaScript library that we would use for some more advanced User
Interface (UI) customisations of the Wordpress blog
http://jqueryui.com/demos/accordion/
The SEOMoz blog that gives us some tips on what domain name and page
naming strategy to go for
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-vs-bing-correlation-analysis-of-ranking-
elements
Drupal, the Content Management System we chose for the more advanced site
where we needed more customisation
http://drupal.org/
PHPMyAdmin, the database management tool that we used to set up the MySql
databases
http://www.phpmyadmin.net/
Elance, the site we would use to outsource a lot of the Drupal development.
http://www.elance.com/p/how-it-works.html
ClickTale, the analytics tool that gives you videos and heatmaps over how
visitors interact with your site. We will use it to optimise the usability of our
Drupal site
http://www.clicktale.com
Will use Indie GoGo as a platform to raise founds to support parts of the
development, unless Kickstarter opens up to the world outside of US real soon
http://www.indiegogo.com/
http://www.kickstarter.com/
Flattr, an alternative revenue source once we start to produce valued content
http://flattr.com/
#lecture
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Activity 12: Extend your blog
In this weeks activity which has been set by Petter asks you to explore the ways
your Wordpress blog can be extended and tailored for your specific purposes
and needs.
The deadline is midnight on the 16th of February and Petter will provide
feedback during his session on the 17th.
Wordpress is an open source product with a huge community around it. Two of
the many things that makes Wordpress special and have contributed to its
popularity is its Plugin and Theme system. Both act to extend the out of the box
installation of Wordpress and you might already have explored changing the
default look by changing Theme or adding some extra functionality through
Plugins.
Wordpress has been developed in such a way that the look of it, the design of
the Wordpress blog can be easily customised through Themes and functionality
can be added, extended or overwritten through Plugins.
There are lots of existing Themes and Plugins to download and use free of
charge while others have made it a business to produce and sell them. The
availability of Themes and Plugins is an effect of having such huge community
around the product and is something that is worth looking at when selecting
what tool or software to use for a project; how active is the community
supporting and using the system.
But the popularity of Wordpress has also brought some lesser honest developer
that produces Themes and Plugins that add ads or so called linkbeits to your site
if you use them. So if you are not sure only download Themes and Plugins from
the Wordpress site itself http://wordpress.org/extend/
But you are not limited to use what others have developed. The Wordpress
system’s architecture has been designed so that it should be as easy as
possible for anyone to develop their own Themes or Plugins.
This weeks activity is about understanding how Themes and Plugins work and
how they can be utilised to extend the look and functionality your blog. You will:
• Analyse what technologies and languages others use to build web sites
• Find suitable Wordpress plugins
• Edit your Wordpress Theme
• Explore basic server side scripting with PHP
In this video lecture from last years Toolbox module Jonathan Briggs explains
how PHP can be used to customise the look of your site, the HTML and CSS. It
is also a good recap of how HTML and CSS work and explains well how the
server client relation work with dynamic pages. All relevant for this weeks
activity.
Part 1: Web development
Web development involves a number of different technologies, programming
languages and design tools that all work together to build the web sites and
applications we see on the web. What does what and how it all links together
can sometimes be confusing.
A good way to approach it is to look what others have done, start dissecting
these websites and whenever we come across something we do not understand
we look it up.
The first part involves you critically analyse and describe the differences
between front end (aka client side) and back end (aka server side) web
development technologies which should help you assess what technologies
three different sites use in the second task. The Final task of this first part
activity is about Wordpress Plugins and to form a good idea of what they can do.
To help you with the first question and to separate the different building blocks of
web development this W3Schools introduction could be
useful http://www.w3schools.com/site/site_intro.asp
Do the three questions and post your answers using this
form http://sgiz.mobi/s3/772c8f915b27
1. What is the difference between front end and back end web development
technologies? Address the question from a
1. User interface perspective
2. Security perspective
3. Hardware perspective
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2. Visit these three sites and try to figure out what front end and back end web
development technologies / languages they have used to develop the site:
1. http://shopify.com
2. http://pitchfork.com
3. http://www.whitehouse.gov
Come up with at least three suggestions on each. It is given that they all have
used HTML, but what version? The browser command “View source” can reveal
clues. In other cases a search across blogs and forums can reveal further
details.
3. Recommend me the best Wordpress plugin you can find that:
1. Makes it easy to add a Google map in a blog post
2. Makes it easy to list tweets (posts to Twitter) with a specific hashtag in a
blog post or in the side column of my blog
3. Can help translate my blog into other languages
The Wordpress site itself has an extensive list of plugins. See link above.
Task 2: Use PHP to edit your Wordpress Theme
In the second part of the activity you will have to use your FTP skills from activity
6 ( http://ittoolbox.tumblr.com/post/1553770115/activity-6 ) You will have to find
your Theme files in your Wordpress installation folder on your web server in
order to back them up. In your Wordpress root folder there should be a wp-
content folder in which there is a themes folder with all the different themes you
have installed. If you have several themes installed figure out which one is the
current one (If you do not know it will be listed in your Wordpress administration
under Appearance / Themes http://ReplaceWithYourDomain.com/wp-
admin/themes.php )
I would seriously recommend you take a backup of the folder with the theme to
your local hard drive before you start to edit it.
There are two ways you can edit your Theme. The first is to use the editor that is
built into Wordpress ( In the Wordpress admin under Appearance /
Editor http://ReplaceWithYourDomain.com/wp-admin/theme-editor.php )
The other one is to download the file with FTP to your computer, edit it and
upload it again. It is all explained well
here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_Files
The Theme is made up of several files. PHP, CSS and image files and
sometimes some JS files as well. I want you to try and edit any of the PHP files
and recommend you go for any of content ones like header.php, footer.php or
sidebar.php. If you edit any of these you can see the changes right away much
more easily.
Edit different parts of the template file to find out what effects it has. If it goes
wrong and you get an error message back that you cant fix just change back to
what it was before you made the edit and if you cant remember how it was you
always have the back up version to replace your broken one.
To better understand what the different PHP parts means W3Schools also have
a PHP tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp or for anything
Wordpress specific I recommend the Wordpress documentation and
forum http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page
Answer these questions:
A. What is the difference between the PHP echo() function and the print()
function?
B. If you in a php page, within the HTML body tags would write: <?php phpinfo
(); ?> What would you see when you view the page in a browser?
C. In PHP, what means with an “if statement”
D. What means with an Variable in PHP?
E. How can Arrays be useful in a Wordpress Theme?
F. What means with a For Loop in PHP?
G. Comments is a feature that is on by default when you instal a Wordpress
blog. Describe how you would go about changing the HTML used to output the
comments in your current Theme.
Submit your answers through this form http://sgiz.mobi/s3/ed20e5dc0aab
#activity
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Private marketquarter: share delete edit
Making and spending money online (lecture)
A big thanks to all of you who have done Activity 11 and raised lots of questions.
The subject of “making money” certainly seems to have fired some of you up.
Here is the slide deck for the lecture
http://www.jonathanbriggs.com/data/files/ecommerce-for-toolbox-122.pdf
I will try and answer as many questions as I can in the second half of the
session:
1. Can retailers state anything they want in their privacy policy?
2. Is it easy to make your own e-commerce?
3. What is the best payment online system apart from PayPal and google
checkout?
4. How could i actually start selling products on my blog, do i need a license
or just a pay a fee to start doing that?
5. What is the future of e-commerce?
6. Considering the release of the new windows 7 platforms with it updated
security features for the internet, combined with its ability to check the
security of websites. Are we at less risk of fraudulent activity now than we
have been previously with older versions of windows? Does this then
mean that we should be less concerned about the risks of shopping online
and fraudulent websites?
7. Will we learn in this semester how to add a payment method (if you want
to sell your staff for example) in our websites?
8. Why do companies do online business? is it because they don’t need a lot
of employees or any other reason?
9. Apart from the e-commerce websites mentioned already, what are the
names of the other best e-commerce websites?
10. How would you get a VeriSign Tristed Certificate for your website and are
there any other secure methods other than PayPal which don’t take a cut
of your sales?
11. i am not sure if my picture has been uploaded, i have clicked upload but
no result has come back
12. What is the best way to drive traffic to my blog ???
13. If we all click on each other’s ads, why would Google ban those who do?
Is it money related, and they do not want to pay us? Or do they consider it
to be fowl play? Does Google really falsely accuse people of misusing Ad
Sense, especially those who are doing well with it? How do Google
monitor who is clicking on ads? Do Google keep a record of IP addresses
that click on ads
14. How many activities need to be completed to PASS?
#lecture
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Activity 11 eCommerce: Spending
& Making Money
We’ve listened to your feedback and made a few changes to the way we set and
run the activities this semester. To increase the amount of feedback we can
give we will run each activity BEFORE the lecture that covers the same topic.
This means you can think about an issue and raise questions.
Jonathan, JC and Petter
Please note that many of the activities this Semester continue to build on what
you did last semester. If you are dissatisfied with your site then now might be the
time for a spring clean!
Please also note that we are continuing the numbering sequence for activities so
the first activity for this Semester is number 11 (!)
Here is the first activity which has been set by Jonathan. It asks you to think
about ecommerce.
The deadline is midnight on the 9th of February and Jonathan will provide
feedback during his session on the 10th.
In this week’s activity I want students to begin to explore the world of
eCommerce and if they want, to add some commerce features to their blogs.
This is a big subject and we will only scratch the surface but some of the
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pointers I will give you will allow you to explore making or saving money
yourself. In this week’s activity I have decided to put the more practical activities
into Part 2 as these are more open ended (and perhaps harder) than in the
previous activities.
Part 1: How are companies and individuals making/saving money online?
What you will do
• Explore the difference between stores, marketplaces, affiliate schemes
and revenue from advertising networks
• Identify features of good ecommerce stores
• Discuss why some people are still reluctant to buy online
Task 1
Visit and explore the following sites. This week really try and understand what
they are offering and the differences between them. You may have been to them
many times before but this time try and look at them with a professional eye
rather than simply noticing they are there. Look at how flexible they are, what
services they offer you as a customer or as an IT consultant. Make sure you
understand the range of services that may be provided by the same company.
• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon marketplace
• Ebay.co.uk
• Tradedoubler.co.uk
• Google adwords
• Google adsense
• Shopify.com
Answer the following questions. Make notes as usual for feeding back in the
online survey.
1. Which of the above sites could you use to sell items you no longer want?
2. Which of the above sites would you recommend to an offline shop that
does not currently have a site online?
3. Which of the above sites would you recommend to a company that
already has an online store to increase sales?
Task 2
Find 3 of the best specialist UK online stores here you would consider buying
things yourself. Don’t necessarily go for the obvious sites but research new sites
you may not have been to before who are really specialist in things you use in
your life. Avoid Amazon, Play, eBay and other obvious players.
What are the features of these stores that make them so good? Your answer
must go beyond “low prices” and list at least 3 distinct features. These might be
to do with design, content, customer service or any number of other features.
Task 3
• Why are some people afraid of buying online?
• How real do you think these worries are?
• What can companies and developers do to address these worries?
Here is the link to feedback answers to part 1 of this activity:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/459401/Toolbox-11-1-2011-ecommerce
Part 2: How can you add money-making components to your blog?
What you will do
• Explore opportunities to add revenue generation to your blog
• Consider the changes to your blog that would be necessary to make it a
successful source of revenue
• Discover some of the difficulties of trying to make significant revenue
Task: Find one ecommerce component that you can add to your own site.
This could be an affiliate scheme (such as Amazon Associates, Amazon aStore
or Tradedoubler), an advertising network (such as Google Adsense) or a link to
eBay sales that you create. Here are some specific suggestions but you may
want to investigate alternatives:
http://astore.amazon.com/
http://www.google.com/adsense/login/en_GB/?hl=en_GB
Choose carefully, researching the options and deciding what fits with your site. If
you are serious about keeping your blog running regularly then advertising
revenue may be the best option. If you are simply exploring the options then
signing up and building an Amazon aStore is probably the most interesting.
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Please note that if you launch Adsense and then click on your own ads (or get
your mum to click on them every hour) you will get banned and never make a
penny – you have been warned!
You will need to research how to add these to your WordPress site. Here are a
couple of tips:
http://www.justskins.com/wordpress-plugins/10-wordpress-plugins-for-google-
adsense
http://www.datafeedr.com/
Please answer the following questions
1. Describe the eCommerce tools you have added to your site?
2. Why did you choose these?
3. Upload a snapshot of a part of your page to show your money making
venture
4. List 3 ways in which you might have to change your site or the way you
use it to maximise the money you make?
5. Why does Google ban people who click on ads on their own blogs?
Here is a link to feedback your answers
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/459437/Toolbox-11-2-2011-ecommerce
#activity
Private jonathanbriggs: share delete edit
Toolbox 1 Exam
This exam is ONLY for those students who have not completed sufficient
activities. You can start working on it at 10am and must complete your work by
1pm today. The time of your submission will be automatically recorded.
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/447606/Toolbox-Examination-2010-2011
Please note that use of the internet while completing the exam is allowed but
you must sign the paper to indicate that you have not worked with anyone else
or communicated with them during the exam.
We reserve the right to conduct an additional oral exam for any student we
suspect may have abused the above rule.
Note that the results from this exam will be capped at 40% (a pass)
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New results spreadsheet
I am sorry that this took a little longer than advertised but it is a big job to collate
all the marks from all the activities and to check the work.
Here is a new spreadsheet: http://www.jonathanbriggs.com/data/files/toolbox-
2010-1-141.pdf
Please check that it is accurate. In particular check that your 5.1 results have
been entered. These have been entered where you have reported a problem
with the previous spreadsheet.
What happens next?
1. You have passed? Well done. See you next semester.
2. Your have passed or failed but some activities are not recorded? Email me
the receipts and I will make sure that they are entered before the exam board.
3. You have not passed? You will need to take an online exam in two weeks
time. Details will be published here.
Happy New Year to you all!
Jonathan
notes share delete edit
Will I have to take the exam?
READ CAREFULLY
Here is a list of students together with the activities we have registered as
complete:
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http://www.jonathanbriggs.com/data/files/toolbox-2010-results-201210-140.pdf
Find yourself on this list and make sure that we have all of your data.
What if I have a missing activity?
Email us your receipt or simply resubmit the work. The spreadsheet was correct
at 1200 on Sunday 19th December and a new version will be produced on the
4th January. No interim versions will be produced.
What happens if I have not yet done the minimum number of activities to
pass?
You have until the 3rd of January to submit any missing work. After this date no
further submissions can be counted. Remember that to pass you need a
minimum of 8 parts including at least 6 part 1s.
What happens if I have still not completed the right number after the 4th
January?
We will then offer you the opportunity to take an exam (for a pass only). This will
be an online exam and you can take it either from home or from the lab. Full
details will be sent out in early January.
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Questions raised by Activity 9 on
Mobile
Some really excellent and thought provoking questions from those who did the
activity which suggest that a good number of you have really thought about
mobile.
I will go through as many as I can in the first part of today’s session. If we don’t
have a chance to cover your question then think about how you would try to find
the answers yourself.
1. What features are there on the mobile web for people who run a
business?
2. Can I convert my existing site into a mobile web site?
3. How big is the mobile Web? Is it expensive to launch and maintain a
mobile Web site?
4. How can mobile web tackle viruses?
5. How do you tell if a user is on the internet with a mobile phone or a
computer?
6. How secure is the site when paying for items it terms of hacking and fraud
7. Is more profit made by business’ made by users of the mobile web or
those of the normal web?
8. Is the site well optimize for mobile search?
9. Is there Pay per view/Pay per click on the mobile web?
10. What is the hardware of a mobile web server?
11. Will the mobile web take over the normal web in years to come.
12. How do you update the website while having the same layout design?
13. Why does internet increase the impact phone battry
14. When developing a mobile website, how would companies go about
making the website compatible for the many different browsers that the
different smart phones use?
15. How advanced will phones get in relation to live streaming?
16. Could a mobile website be avaliable offline.
17. I remember we were asked how free web apps and mobile apps paid for
themselves, I did answer but I would like to hear a proper answer from
you guys?
18. In the next couple of years will mobile web be cheaper and unlimited
downloads, like the way broadband is in today’s market? and will
broadband companies us there servers and start providing mobile internet
services, to compete with mobile networks? who will be better at
providing, mobile networks or isp?
19. Is there a current standard for publishing mobile websites and does this
effect the openness of the web as a whole?
20. From the lecture I got knowledge of how the process of designing Apple’s
applications looks like and what is approximately the cost. My question is
if the application is designed does it automatically appear on the Apple’s
application store?
21. I don’t have any about the mobile web, but something about the web at
large: Are people ever going to sort out this years-old standardisation
issue? Every browser worth it’s salt has a “Quirks Mode”? Didn’t know
that until recently… If you do have hindsight on this issue: do you reckon
it might have been better if, when faced with the danger of enforcing
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standards, MS said: ‘It’ll break half the internet sites out there? Sure thing,
why not!’ People would have rebuilt, and standardisation is necessary, so
why is Microsoft so much further behind standards implementation with
Internet Explorer than other, far less profitable organisations?
22. How much research and development is put into making a mobile web, or
isit simply just making a mobile web version of there original site.
23. How do companies know if their mobile site is appealing to customers?
24. Do advertiser prefer to advertise more on normal web or mobile websites?
Whats the cost difference in running a normal website and a mobile one?
How much does it cost to set up a mobile website? Does it require more
or less adminstration than normal website? Is the HTML code for mobile
web site more complicated to write than normal one? How do you make
your mobile website to be viewd on any mobile platform e.g Iphone,
Blackberry, Android.
25. Why are most leading websites part of our daily lives still not mobile
compatible? ~why do these non mobile compatible websites still require
users to zoom into articals to read them properly? ~why does the world
leading websites still have too much clutter and bulk content that are not
useful for users on the go?
26. How can a website be simplified enough to be able to be compatible on
most phone browsers other than safari and android and is it profitable for
a business to make a mobile site
27. Do those developers who make applications for smart mobiles phone and
then let people to download them for free get paid or how do they make
money from it?
28. Why do some pages have diffrent versions on diffrent phones, for
example when i load a web page on a iphone its just like on a computer
but when i load the same page on a nokia it gives me a short mobile
version.
29. How do make the app to where it updates itself and lets you know of the
changes? Are the prices of the new technology going to shoot up or is it
going o come down like very cheap so the technology is available to every
one and make the money by selling the services
30. Is it possible to make my blog into a mobile app, where the content
displayed on the app is from my blog?
31. How do website makers create website versions of there original
websites. For example mobile youtube you can get on your phone.?
32. How are businesses able to maintain demand even when prices of the i-
phones can soar above £500 a piece.
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Activity 10 - Planning and building
a mashup
This activity is about Mashups; web based software systems that build on data
and services from other software systems.
The deadline is Tuesday 14th December at midnight.
During this activity you will
• Explore existing mashups to see the range of applications that are being
produced
• Select 2 that you think are particularly clever or useful
• Find data sources from which a mashup can be created
• Devise a mashup of your own that could be constructed using this data
• Explore and evaluate some of the tools for creating mashups
• Construct a mashup of your own (part 2)
Part 1
Using the links below explore some the mashups that have been published so
far. Make sure that you look at a range of different types including news,
mapping, music, sport, shopping, mobile etc.
Try and work out how much effort has been involved in manipulating and
presenting the data
Think of a mashup of your own.
This is hard but if you think about things that you might use (in your local area
perhaps) or about topics in which you are particularly interested then I think you
may find this possible.
Perhaps consider a very specialized news service or plotting some cool
information onto a map very local to where you live.
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Now have a look at some of the tools (at least 2) for creating mashups and see
which might be suitable for your particular idea. Try and find some new ones.
Make notes about them as you examine them so that you can select one if you
do part 2.
Definitions and introductions
• What are Mashups? (YouTube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=U9sENSA_sjI
• Google Mashups Showcase (YouTube): http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=-GeU3Rp7wnY
• Introduction to Yahoo Pipes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=qUINn5evcZM
• http://mashable.com/2007/05/15/16-awesome-data-visualization-tools/
Links to mashups
• http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/
• http://www.programmableweb.com/
• http://www.mashupfeed.com/
Links to tools
http://www.dapper.net
http://www.xfruits.com
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/
http://mashmaker.intel.com/
http://www.freebase.com
Here are the questions you have to answer to pass part 1 of this activity
1. How would you describe mashups to someone who has never heard of
them?
2. Provide the correct URL links to two mashups that impressed you
3. Describe why each of them was interesting
4. Which tools did you try (at least 2)?
5. Describe what each of these tools does
6. Describe the mashup you would like to try and create
Here is the survey link for feeding back your answers to Part
1 http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/428445/Toolbox-Activity-10-1-2010-Mashups
Part 2
Ok, go ahead and try and make your mashup!
To complete this activity you don’t have to get it completely working but you
need to be able to explain how far you got.
1. Describe the user experience you are trying to create? Describe the data
sources that you will use?
2. List the URLs for these data sources List the tools that you use to
experiment with manipulating these data sources
3. How far did you get? If you succeeded in producing something then take
a snapshot of your screen and upload it to the feedback survey
4. What problems did you face and how did you solve them?
5. Why do you think mashups will be important to your future IT career?
Here is the survey link for feeding back your answers to Part
2 http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/428446/Toolbox-Activity-9-2-2010-Mashups
Deadline for feedback and inclusion in results: Tuesday 14th December Midnight
#activity
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Lecture 10 - mashups
This is the last session of the module and I want to look back over the last 10
weeks and forward to the future. This is a highly experimental module; a journey
that most of you have followed all the way.
Most of you are now able (or close to being able) to:
1. Build a website using powerful content management software
(Wordpress)
2. Buy and operate your own hosting server and domain names
3. Move files around inside your server and from outside
4. Manipulate links, images and links to video
5. Describe the interactions of your server and search engines
6. Describe different computer architectures, browsers and services
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