Information Design Definitions - 10

POP3 - is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection.

Shareware - trial based or limited copyrighted commercial software that is distributed without payment.

Wiki - a collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone with access to contribute or modify content.

Social Networking - can be defined as a community of people/users with similar interests/activities or interested in exploring those of others.

Cloud Computing - is where dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet.

Source: Wikipedia.org, Dictionary

Information Design Definitions - 9

Spyware - software used to collect information on a computer user and their browsing habits without their known consent.

SiteMap - is a list of pages usually used to breakdown the structure of a website and is usually accessible to crawlers or users.

CNAME - a record in the Domain Name System (DNS) that specifies that the domain name is an alias of another, canonical domain name.

VoIP (Voice over IP)- a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) - protocols that provide security and data integrity for communications over networks such as the Internet.

Source: Wikipedia.org, Dictionary

Information Design Definitions - 8

E-commerce (electronic marketing) - consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems.

Open source (software) - computer software for which the source code and some other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that meets the Open Source Definition or that is in the public domain.

Phishing - a fraudulent attempt to collect sensitive information and is against the law.

Wireframe (for web) - is used to show the layout or structure of a web page and also used to observe information among related content/pages.

Algorithm - is a complex sequence of instructions, that provides step-by-step procedures for solving a problem and may be used for data processing and calculations.

Source: Wikipedia.org, Dictionary

Information Design Definitions - 7

Bandwidth - a rate of data transfer, throughput or bit rate, measured in bits per second.

Spam - unsolicited or undesired bulk email messages.

Meta element - are HTML or XHTML elements used to provide structured metadata about a Web page.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface) - is a standard protocol for interfacing external application software with an information server, commonly a web server.

Intranet - a private computer network that uses Internet technologies to securely share any part of an organization's information or operational systems with its employees.

Source: Wikipedia.org, Dictionary

Information Design Definitions - 6

PPI (Pixels per inch) - a measurement of the resolution of devices in various contexts.

SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) - is an ISO Standard metalanguage in which one can define markup languages for documents.

SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) - a W3C-recommended XML markup language for describing multimedia presentations.

XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language) - a set of language technologies for defining XML document transformation and presentation.

Malware - is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the user's informed consent.

Source: Wikipedia.org, Dictionary

Information Design Definitions - 5

DPI (Dots per inch) - measurement used for print resolution.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) - a bitmap image format that uses the lossless data compression technique to reduce the file size without degrading the visual quality.

GUI (graphical user interface) - a type of user interface which allows people to interact with electronic devices.

Linux - is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel.

MySQL - a database management system which runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases.

Source: Wikipedia.org, Dictionary

Information Design Definitions - 4

DNS (Domain Name System) - Internet system used to translate names into IP addresses.

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) - this is used mostly on mobile/PDA devices for internet access using a WAP browser.

LAN (Local Area Network) - a computer network for covering small physical areas.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) - A non-profit organization that oversees internet related tasks.

RGB - a color model comprising of 3 primary colors (red, green, blue) which are added together to produce an array of colors.

Source: Wikipedia.org, Dictionary

Information Design Definitions - 3

Wikipedia – a free online encyclopedia, that is editable by almost anyone.

VPN – (virtual private network), used for remote hosting or networking access.

Malware – a harmful file or computer program, which can collect information from an unknowing computer user.

Joomla – an open source content management system, it also allows you to place various add-ons/plugins allowing functionality depending on your need.

ActionScript - an object-oriented programming designed specifically for Web site animation (used with Adobe Flash).

Information Design Definitions - 1 & 2

AJAX- (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), is used for development of web based applications by using various web development techniques; incliding XHTML, CSS, XML and XSLT just to name a few.

Google Maps – is an application (web/API) developed by google which can be used for navigation/general map exploration purposes.

Web application – is usually a software or application developed to be used in a browser.

Javascript – is a scripting language used for client-side web based development and allows the creation of dynamic content.

Database management – it basically defines itself, it’s used to control/manage a database. It’s also used to store and retrieve information both on the back and front-end.

BitTorrent – is a peer-to peer open source application used for file sharing e.g. software and general media files.

API – (Application Programming Interface), it can be defined as part of the foundation/support used for building applications (mostly used for web based apps). It’s function is determined by the routines used to carry out its process.

RSS – (Really Simple Syndication), can be defined as a feed used for updated information e.g. for a newspaper the headlines of each updated article would be published in the feed, making it somewhat a table of content.

Blog – based from a web log, is a web site used by most for news or as an online diary/journal and contain various types of media. Most blogs have a CMS so it’s easily manageable for most.

Ruby (Ruby Rails) - is a programming language used for dynamic content, it’s inspired/based by Perl and Smalltalk Eiffe, Ada and Lisp.


Method of collecting information:

With “Google Maps”, I used 4 sources for information. Wikipedia, Google Maps itself in the about section and two web developer websites. I also used my personal knowledge being a regular user of the application.
I took all the sources of information and cross referenced things that were similar to each other before coming up with a final definition for the web based application. This is how I would usually collect information in general, though Wikipedia is a useful source on a rare occasion the information may or may not be accurate.