Module 2 website analysis - A Significant personality

In part 1 you are required to find one website for each module that would be an additional suitable resource for future students. This should not be a site that is already provided in the course material, but rather one that you locate yourself. You should produce an analysis for each of theses sites on separate pages. Each page should be no more than 500 words. The analysis will include:
Link to site
Site description
Site usefulness for T171 students
How site relates to the course material
References

Paul Baran  

Paul Baran [1 ]

The Paul Baran web site I have located can be found here: http://livinginternet.com/?i/ii_rand.htm [Accessed 04 September 2003].

Site description

This site is a comprehensive reference for the history of the Internet. From the home page there are links to the history and design of the Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW) and much more. From the Internet history I found the Paul Baran page. This page starts with Paul Barans early career with links to Rand and publications such as Distributed Communications that Paul Baran wrote and developed. The site covers his whole life right up to present day. The page introduces other personalities such as Joseph Licklider and Lawrence Roberts so this site is a good reference for these personalities also.

Navigation of the site was consistent and easy with a fixed hyperlink menu bar at the top and another down the left-hand site. These allowed access to the home page, the main subject headings and a search engine.
 
The site is presented well, colourful and clear, the style and writing is easy to understand and follow with simple navigation and links to similar sites.
 
Site usefulness for T171 students

This site is relevant for T171 students as it has information on most of the key personalities that created the Internet and WWW. It contains the history of how the network was conceived, specified, designed and constructed. I feel that this site is relevant as it covers the story from earliest times until the take-off of the World Wide Web.

At great human and economic cost, resources drawn from the U.S. Government, industry and the academic community have been assembled into a collection of interconnected networks called the Internet...
- Internet Activities Board; Ethics and the Internet; RFC 1087; Jan 1989
The Internet [2 ]

The Internet link above is the start of the history, from here you can select your personality, technology or establishment for research. This is relevant as module 2 was about learning how the Internet came to be and you can do this through the history.

The Paul Baran page was the most useful to me, it contained a picture, historic information and links to more research information such as ARPANET and the Institute for the Future which he co-founded.


How the site relates to the course material

The site relates to the course material as it is full of information on the key personalities whose thinking and work led directly to the creation of the Internet and the WWW. Module 2 describes the roles that various personalities took in the development of the Internet and this site reinforces that information and adds much more for an interactive experience.

The site also has information on the key institutions in the story such as RAND and the National Physical Laboratory allowing for an understanding of the role played by these places which was introduced in this module.

There site perspective was a factual history with nothing detrimental as it was a collection of useful information gathered for research purposes.

My overall opinion of the site is very good, it is easy to use, all the links work, it is colourful and interesting, I found myself reading more than I needed to as the site ensnared my interest.
 
References

[ 1] William Stuart. [online] Available from: http://livinginternet.com/?i/ii_rand.htm [Accessed 04 September 2003]
[ 2] William Stuart. [online] Available from: http://livinginternet.com/i/i.htm [Accessed 04 September 2003]

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