Modern Web-Based Multimedia Applications

(a) Web Portal

A web portal is defined as a point of access for internet information. Web portals offer various types of information, databases, and applications based on a unified nature or background of information. For example, if you want to know about the Malaysian Government the portal is at www.gov.my. Here you can find loads of information as well as online services provided by the Malaysian government.

As a one-stop centre, the portal is vital to overcome the problem that has become increasingly challenging in the way we use the web. Web users always want to surf and find easily the information they seek. As the complexity of web sites expands dramatically, a web portal is necessary to organise the information to be presented. This is often done through a list or directory.

Figure 7.3 illustrates the web portal architecture.

Figure 7.3: Web portal architecture Source: http://www.istockphoto.com

There are hundreds of thousands of web portals on the Internet. Since the portals manage to attract a lot of web visitors, they offer advertisers the opportunity to showcase their products or services. Hence Internet advertising has become a multi-million dollar industry. Web portals also provide the opportunity for multimedia content providers and artists to create online banners, graphics, etc.

Figure 7.4 shows the Malaysian Government portal. Here you can find a lot of important information relevant to the Malaysian citizen such as matters related to education, employment, and health. The portal also offers online governmental services through the website e-transaction centre.

Figure 7.4. Malaysian Government Portal (b) Wikipedia

Articles that had been created by Wikipedia contributors based on November 2007 statistics numbered more than 1.9 million. And that is in English alone. The popularity of Wikipedia has made it among the top 100 websites of the world.

Have you ever thought of how all the Wikipedia information came about?

It was all contributed by Wikipedia own users who entered and edited all the information that you find on Wikipedia. That is the key feature of Wikipedia ă usersÊ contribution. The first wiki was created by one Ward Cunningham in 1995.

As an encyclopaedia, Wikipedia grows every hour. This happens as its volume of information grows whenever it records thousands of changes per hour. However Wikipedia faces a problem of information correctness and validity since anyone ă amateur or professional, expert or novice can write about anything in Wikipedia.

Figure 7.3 shows how Wikipedia works. Wiki users are free to enter and edit the entry on a particular topic. The topic will then be saved in the article database.

Figure 7.5: How Does Wikipedia Work?

Source: http://www.istockphoto.com (c) Photo Sharing

I am sure that you have a collection of personal or family photos. Why not share it through the web with family and friends? Photo sharing is the process of publishing digital photos online. It enables sharing of photos through a website that allows us to upload, display, and manage our image collections. The collection can be accessed through thumbnail views. You can also preview them using the slideshow menu.

Online photo sharing is becoming easier day by day since nowadays you can capture a photo even by using your mobile phone. After that you just need to use a Bluetooth device to upload it to your computer. Then with Internet connection available, simply upload the image to your online photo sharing site. With the advancement of ICT, this application is

expected to become a killer application in the near future, if it is not already so by now.

Figure 7.6 shows a screenshot of Flickr, the most popular photo sharing site today.

Figure 7.6: Flickr Website (d) YouTube

YouTube.com accounts for more than half of all videos watched online in the US. This user-centred web-based application is so attractive because it allows you to upload your videos online. Moreover, you can share it with the rest of the world; readers or viewers can post comments and others can respond. You can even become a member of certain groups. In the future, YouTube is expected to become better than TV in terms of coverage. This is because anyone in the world can record a TV program or advertisement, and then upload it to YouTube.com.

Figure 7.7 shows a screenshot of YouTube.com.

Figure 7.7:

YouTube.com

(e) Blog System

A blog (shortened for weblog or „web log‰) is a digital online diary wherein you can type an entry. It is displayed commonly in reversed chronological order, with the last entry or posting appearing first on the web page. Your blog visitors can even leave their comments on what you have written. You can then also reply to their comments. The original intention for someone (known as a blogger) to blog was just for personal daily notes, but now the activity of blogging has become a phenomenon due to its huge popularity.

The proof is in the number of blogs that has been doubling (Tirapat, Espiritu & Stroulia, 2006). This trend seems to show as though the blog is competing with traditional media (like newspapers and journals). As the popularity of blogs expands, various styles and instances of blogs have been created and developed. There are now photoblogs (for photographs) and vlogs (video blogs).

Due to the blogÊs increasing popularity and extensive topics covered by the variety of bloggers, blogs present a wealth of information for all of us. If previously e-mail was chosen as the main medium for personal communication, nowadays blogs provide a more powerful social interaction stage. A blog offers a more personalized way for informal interaction.

Figure 7.8 shows a screenshot of my personal blog. You can visit it at snjunaini.wordpress.com.

Figure 7.8: Screenshot of my personal blog