Internet History Timelines

I was definitely impressed by all of the groups' presentations Tuesday in class. It was interesting to see how many people dropped the class following the first session, but proves that the students who stayed through to Tuesday's class are in it for the long haul. That alone speaks volumes for the students who sat among us on Tuesday.

Group 1 set the bar high for all of the subsequent groups to follow. Their research was excellent and their presentation made it easy for their audience to pick out important facts and associate them with specific dates. I liked how the group focused on the later years of the Internet, specifically when it comes to social networks.

Group 2 certainly had the most creative presentation with the video they put together. The video editing skills portrayed were impressive. I know we are encouraged to offer helpful criticism. The one challenge this group had in doing a video is that the information they had to present is not easy to associate with non-text visuals. I think without text as part of their movie, like making the important dates scroll across the screen, some important information won't be retained by the audience. I can only be so picky because of how well the content and video editing were done. They certainly set the standard very high in terms of creativity and talent.

Group 3 I thought was the most revolutionary, trying out a new service online. Their timeline certainly provided the best visual of all the presentations and included a lot of important information. I liked how they picked a theme within the Internet's history, the history of file-sharing.

When it comes to my group, I thought it worked out that we did not pick a focus, but offered a greater context to what the other groups discussed. I find it funny how we did not meet, as groups, to see what other groups were doing or focusing on, yet we all chose different aspects.

On a random side note, I'm always looking for fellow college students on Twitter. If you do tweet, please follow me at @AndrewDonovan.

Facebook Group Created

In order to stay in touch with Facebook with fellow students and Professor Dean, a Facebook group has been created. Nobody has to be friends with people they don't want to be, but can still communicate with everyone via the group.

There are also settings to adjust how often you get chat messages and alerts from the group.

The group is called "Digital Networks - Spring 2011 (POL 363)." If you are not already Facebook friends with me, you need to request to join.

Here's a direct link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_141458959248626