Glossary

A code is the basic mathematical pattern of 0's and 1's which establishes all computer and network interactivity.

DDoS, Distributed Denial of Service, is characterized by attempts to "flood" a network, thereby preventing legitimate network traffic; attempts to disrupt connections between two machines, thereby preventing access to a service; attempts to prevent a particular individual from accessing a service; and attempts to disrupt service to a specific system or person.

Hi-fi, low-fi, and no-fi elements are simple euphemisms: "Hi-fi" stands for "High Performance Technology" (such as NASA's Space Shuttles); "low-fi" stands for ubiquitous technologies (consumer technologies such as cell phones, beepers, VHS, etc.); "no-fi" stands for those communities who have no access to very little access to any technology (such as the Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico).

HTML, HyperText Markup Language, is a collection of platform-independent styles (indicated by markup tags) that define the various components of World Wide Web documents. HTML was invented by Tim Berners-Lee while at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva.

A hub is a common connection point for devices in a network. Hubs are commonly used to connect segments of a LAN. A hub contains multiple ports. When a packet arrives at one port, it is copied to the other ports so that all segments of the LAN can see all packets. A passive hub serves simply as a conduit for the data, enabling it to go from one device (or segment) to another. So-called intelligent hubs include additional features that enable an administrator to monitor the traffic passing through the hub and to configure each port in the hub. Intelligent hubs are also called manageable hubs. A third type of hub, called a switching hub, actually reads the destination address of each packet and then forwards the packet to the correct port.

A listserv is an automatic mailing list server developed by Eric Thomas for BITNET in 1986. When e-mail is addressed to a LISTSERV mailing list, it is automatically broadcast to everyone on the list. The result is similar to a newsgroup or forum, except that the messages are transmitted as e-mail and are therefore available only to individuals on the list.

A node is a processing location on a network or a local area network (LAN). A node can be a computer or some other device, such as a printer. Every node has a unique network address, sometimes called a Data Link Control (DLC) address or Media Access Control (MAC) address.

A platform is any operating system of a computer (Windows is a PC platform). Many platforms also function on top of operating systems, such as Java.

RAND (a contraction of the term research and development) is the first organization to be called a "think tank." The RAND Corporation was created in 1946 by the U.S. Air Force (then the Army Air Forces). <http://www.rand.org>.

Scoring refers to the number of points one receives for accomplishing a set goal in any game. Here, the reference is related to digital gaming where "killing" is often the main method of gaining points and moving forward towards the games dominant goal.

Side-loading is the process by which information and software is shared on a distributed network (peer-to- peer or user-to-user computing). It is different from the process of "downloading" from a centralized network (server-to-user computing).

Swarming is a digital process of gathering around an issue and a related URL as a critical mass and then dispersing without a trace.