Click on the term below to see the definition:
- Blog
- eCards
- Mashups
- New Media
- News Reader
- Online Chat
- Photo Sharing Services
- Podcast
- RSS Feed
- Social Bookmarking
- Social Media
- Social Network Services
(Social Networking Sites)
- Texting (or Text Messaging)
- Usability
- Video Games
- Video Sharing Service
- Virtual World
- Web 2.0
- Web Button
- Webcast
- Web Conferencing
- Webinar
- Wiki
- Blog
- A website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. “Blog” is also a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
- Example: AIDS.gov Blog
- eCards
- Similar to a postcard or greeting card, with the primary difference being that it is created using digital media instead of paper or other traditional materials.
- Examples: The CDC Health-e-Card site, and ISIS’s inSPOT
. - Mashups
- A mashup combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool. Data sources often include maps (such as Google Maps) and databases (such as business locations). Mashups depend on organizations sharing data. They also depend on software developers to create programs that can work together.
- Examples: AIDSportal , and International AIDS Candlelight Memorial of the Global Health Council .
- New Media
- “The idea of ‘new media’ captures both the development of unique forms of digital media, and the remaking of more traditional media forms to adopt and adapt to the new media technologies.”
- Also see “Social media” and “Web 2.0”.
- Example: Many of the examples in this glossary!
- News Reader
- Also known as a feed aggregator or feed reader is client software or a Web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, and podcasts in a single location (a “personal newspaper”) for easy viewing.
- Example: Google News Reader
- Online Chat
- Can refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, but is primarily meant to refer to direct one-on-one chat or text-based group chat, using tools such as instant messaging applications. The expression online chat comes from the word chat which means “informal conversation”.
- Example: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
- Photo Sharing Services
- Photo sharing services allow an individual to publicly or privately share their digital photos online. This functionality is provided through both websites and applications that facilitate the upload and display of images. The term can also be loosely applied to the use of online photo galleries that are setup and managed by individual users, including photoblogs.
- Examples: Flickr , SmugMug , BubbleShare , Picasa , and Photobucket .Back to Top
- Podcast
- A series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet for playback on portable media players and computers. The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.
- Example: San Francisco AIDS Foundation Podcast
- RSS Feed
- A family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format. An RSS document (called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner.
- Example: AIDS.gov’s Podcast and News RSS Feeds
- Social Bookmarking
- A method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet. In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains.
- Example: Del.ico.us
- An umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.
- Also see “New media” and “Web 2.0”.
- Example: Many of the examples in this glossary!Back to Top
- Social Network Services (Social Networking Sites)
- Uses software to build online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most services are primarily web-based and provide a collection of various ways for users to interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and so on.
- Examples: MySpace and Facebook
- Texting (or Text Messaging)
- The common term for the sending of “short” (160 characters or fewer, including spaces) text messages from mobile phones using the Short Message Service (SMS). It is available on most digital mobile phones and some personal digital assistants with on-board wireless telecommunications. The individual messages which are sent are called text messages, or in the more colloquial text speak texts.
- Example: SexInfo SF
- Twitter is a social network and micro-blog service that allows users to send, receive, and subscribe to short messages, or “tweets” through their computer or cell phone.
- Example: AIDS.gov’s Twitter profile .
- Usability
- Usability measures the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system—whether a website, a software application, mobile technology, or any user-operated device. In general, usability refers to how well users can learn and use a product to achieve their goals and how satisfied they are with that process.1
- Examples: Step-by-Step Usability Guide, and AIDS.gov’s blog posts on usability.
- Video Games
- Video games can be either played on game consoles (such as Wii, XBox, and Playstation) or personal computers. Another distinction is single player games (one person versus the computer), social (or multiplayer) games (where several players play with and against one another, over a local network or the Internet), and massively-multiplayer online games (MMO), where large numbers of participants play together over the Internet.
- Examples: Pos or Not , and HIV/AIDS Maze from the National Institute on Drug Abuse .
- Video Sharing Service
- Also called a video hosting service allows individuals to upload video clips to an Internet website. The video host will then store the video on its server, and show the individual different types of code to allow others to view this video.
- Example: YouTube
- Virtual World
- A computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. These avatars are usually depicted as textual, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional graphical representations, although other forms are possible (auditory and touch sensations for example). Some, but not all, virtual worlds allow for multiple users.
- Example: Second Life Back to Top
- Web 2.0
- A term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social networking sites, wikis, and blogs.
- Also see “New media” and “Web 2.0”.
- Example: Many of the examples in this glossary!
- Also known as button graphics, Web badges, or stickers are pictures in some World Wide Web pages which are typically used to advertise programs.
- Example: AIDS.gov’s Web Badges
- Webcast
- A media file distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology. As a broadcast may either be live or recorded, similarly, a webcast may either be distributed live or recorded. Essentially, webcasting is “broadcasting” over the Internet.
- Example: Kaiser Family Foundation’s Healthcast
- Web Conferencing
- Is used to conduct live meetings or presentations over the Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to other participants via the internet. This can be either a downloaded application on each of the attendees computers or a web-based application where the attendees will simply enter a URL (website address) to enter the conference.
- Example: WebEx (software)Back to Top
- Webinar
- A specific type of web conference. It is typically one-way, from the speaker to the audience. A webinar can be very collaborative and include polling and question & answer sessions. In some cases, the presenter may speak over a standard telephone line, pointing out information being presented on screen and the audience can respond over their own telephones.
- Example: Go To Webinar (software)
- Wiki
- A collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.
- Examples: Wikipedia and PBWiki
* Note: Unless otherwise noted, information was excerpted and/or adapted from Wikipedia during July 2008 and January 2009.
1 Excerpted from: http://www.usability.gov/basics/whatusa.html. Accessed 1/02/2009.
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