In week 3 we looked at “Networks” as a whole.
There was discussion between what defines the web and what defines the internet. Most people when using both terms, use them interchangeable for the same description however i learnt that they are not quite the same. The ‘Internet’ is the infrastructure. It is what everything to do with the online world runs one. Including the Web. In the lecture there was a very good analogy that was used to illustrate this.
The internet is like train tracks and the signalling. Whilst the Web is merely like train that runs on the tracks. The Web is a huge platform that shared the internet ‘tracks’ with other applications such as software updates, peer to peer sharing etc.
We also discussed User Generated Content, Web 2.0 and ‘the long tail’.
In our culture and economy we are seeing an increasing shift away from big markets and rather more niche ones. High end production used in big markets is quite expensive and does not necessarily have a greater reach than niche markets. Blogs and YouTube videos are cost effective compared to newspaper and TVCs and can have more reach depending on the target audience. Most advertising is now on social media and it works. This got me thinking, how many ads to i see on TV vs online. Ever since Youtube, Netflix and other streaming services became so popular, i personally do not watch that much TV unless someone else is watching and its background noise. So from my experience i cannot recall any advertising unless it was on social media, like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
From these notes i guess we can agree that there has been a drastic change in the way we consume media and this will continue to change as Networks, The Web and the Internet keep developing and changing in the future.