So a web address has a pattern to it and has definite meaning.
Really understanding this allows you to understand well how to use addresses and the web rather than just stumbling around it.
There is already a host of information on the technicalities of how URLs work so I’m not going to just go on about that part here.
Check out the links below if you need to know more about this:

• Wikipedia article
• Webopedia article
• World Wide Web Consortium Definition (W3C)

These links will all open in new windows or tabs so you don’t have to worry about losing your place here.

Actually all my external links open in new windows or tabs.

What I find when I am talking to people out there, as I constantly do either in the classroom or in the workplace, let alone over a drink… is that people have a lot of trouble getting web addresses correct and often even knowing if they are being told a web address or an email address.

I’m going to just talk a little about the main types of issues I see and hear rather than tell you how a URL works.  It will be kind of like a story telling narrative of what I come across.

I very often notice that if you tell an address and ask them to bring up the site they will open a browser, and type the address in to google.  Many people are only vaguely aware of the address bar at the top of their browser and even think that the only way to get to somewhere on the net is to put it into google.

Another big one is when I see them type spaces into addresses.  If you can just get this rule into your head it will help this so much - you CANNOT have spaces in website addresses.  Really simple, if you think there is a space in an address, nup there is not.  (Please comment to me if you read this and think you know why there can and I will happily discuss it with you but in practice when typing in an address there cannot be spaces)

I often see people who do use the address bar to type an address directly will waste a lot of time and energy in how they go about this.  They will take the mouse and click in the address bar, then begin to carefully highlight back til they still have   http://www.   in the address.  Of course the mouse is a slippery animal and it can take 2 or 3 attempts to get the right bit highlighted right…   Then they begin to type the address, looking at the keyboard and have no idea that after a letter or 2 the address is showing.  Then as they are not looking dammit they make a spelling error in the address and hit enter BEFORE looking up and wonder why they didn’t get there.

OK I’m so pedantic about saving myself every single keystroke and mouse click that I can and I know it.  But I also know that over the years I have saved myself literally millions of them so I’m smug about it.

If it were me - I would click once in the address bar, type the first couple of letters (and everything that was in there has been replaced immediately) look at the list of recent sites that drops down and if I’m returning to an address press the down arrow on the keyboard until on the one i want and press enter.

We are talking a far shorter process here!

Even if the site I want hasn’t dropped down it should be faster.

It is even interesting to try typing the shortest version you can.

I’ve typed simply  bitts4learning   into the address line and get a whole list of pages within my web sites.

To get to my internet banking site I only have to type 1 letter into the address line, nit the down arrow and enter.  This is even faster than using bookmarks!

Honestly I’ve seen that a lot of people are out there using computers on a daily basis the SLOWEST and least productive way possible.  This stuff is really hard to learn if you think you are a fair user because you use the technology a lot because it is right back to the basics.

People who use the computer like an electric typewriter are causing their work to take far longer than if they had just picked up a piece of paper or a telephone.

But it is not the fault of the technology if it isn’t being used efficiently.

BITTS can conduct any manner of customised training to help people fill in the gaps with all those basics and start to use their technology efficiently.  You have to want to stop fighting against the computer if you are going to find it working like a dream for you.

To finish off, one of the most common things I hear people say in the classroom particularly is:

Oh I know someone (at work, in the family etc) who can just do everything so fast - he/she just taps away at a few keys and all this stuff happens magically. It isn’t magic, it is understanding the underpinning procedures that are common across most things on the computer,  trusting that they are working, and recognising early if they are not. Keyboard shortcuts are not as hard to learn as some people think and are one example of this ‘magic’

Computer keyboard

We all know exactly how to address an envelope and have known it for so long we wouldn’t even think about why we do it the way we do and would think it madness to lay it out in a different order.
Just as a pattern is used to lay out an address so the post offices around the world can deliver your mail, so web addresses and email addresses have a pattern to them.
Understanding this pattern may help you to remember an address you are told or find an address you are not sure of. Web addresses are technically know as URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
The first element is seen in the web browser when you have finished typing the address but you don’t actually need to type it. This is http://
Most addresses begin with www. We pronounce the full stop ‘dot’.
As a general rule you can usually also omit typing the www.
If you have trouble finding an address try putting the www. in front.
Next is the name of the domain or the address name that has been registered. This name signifies something about whose site you are visiting and is normally linked to the business name or the person. For example the domain for BITTS is BITTS4Learning
Following the domain name is the top-level domain that is usually 3 characters but can be 2 or more. The generic ones that we are most familiar with are .com or .org
This is followed by second level and lower level domain names. We are most familiar with this designating a country.
Some addresses have several levels of domains for example government addresses may specify a lot of information such as .health.nsw.gov.au
So to make sense of all this an example is the URL http://www.northernstar.com.au/
To get there we can simply type into the address line northernstar.com.au and when you arrive you will notice that the full URL is showing.

There are many ways to obtain information.
In some ways this world we live in today revolves around information!
Information can be a valuable asset, but at the same time there is a load of freely available information on the world wide web.
One thing though is that you have to sift through huge amounts of the stuff to find what is:

• relevant
• current
• authentic

This is probably the hardest part for most people. Anyone can type some words into a search engine, but can you find the information you need?
If you start by thinking about how you would search for this information without a computer you may get some clues as to how you can actually search on the web.
For example if I want to know how business is performing in Australia I will start by thinking of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Well I can get there using a web browser and find a host of information!
Some of these reports you may have to pay for but there is a lot of data that is reported freely here that can be extremely useful for any business person working on their business.

One of the things that make computers so useful today is the world wide web and the information that is immediately available at our fingertips.  I was always one of those children that wanted to know why and was constantly asking questions. My web browser is happy to provide me with so much information that I more often than not suffer from information overload.

As always the trick is in finding the right balance.

I know that years ago I used to wonder what the Australian Bureau of Statistics do with all their data and now I can browse through it at my leisure. Business owners are always doing a balancing act too – how much technology do they need to employ in their business.  The answer to this is of course different for every business and dependant on many factors. We would all agree however that it is virtually impossible to conduct business today without the aid of some technology – imagine not having a telephone today. Computers have been widely used within business at least as word processors since the 90’s but the web is still impacting on how computers are used each year. Over 80% of business use the internet but less than 40% have their own presence (web sites).  Online transactions are a growing trend even though less than 40% of businesses order this way and less than 30% offer this type of service. Well over 80% of business have broadband connections and therefore have the means to use the internet for their business and it would seem that within the next 5 years every business will be expected to work this way. Internet commerce was running at 57 billion in 06 and this figure of course is only increasingly yearly.

How is your business taking advantage of technology?

I’ve used a variety of flow-charting type software before for various purposes but the concept of mind-mapping software is a little different and gives more dimensions than simply flow charting.

As part of some innovations work I’ve been doing I’ve found myself needing to mind-map and set about on a search for the right software tool.

I could back-track and say that I actually went on a much bigger software search before this one but then I would be digressing …

The example below is a mind-map that was a result of the search that I am not going to digress into - it is by no means a finished product but I thought it was good enough to give an example of what this software is capable of.

Maybe a little later I will come back to this topic with some examples of some finished products as the software I settled on has some amazing capabilities and I’ve not yet been able to explore to the very depths that I need to go to.

I am using VUE for a couple of reasons.

Firstly it is open source and I’m rather a fan of using open source when possible especially for the fact that you can download this software for pretty much any platform. This means I can use it directly on my MAC but the same software can be downloaded for PC.

It is able to export your map in a host of formats meaning that after creating a map you have a huge range of choices of what you can do with it.

Mind map for converting from Powerpoint to multimedia and upload to Content Management System

The example above is a simple map that I’m working on for the process I have been developing to create multimedia student learning objects. (eh?  things with sound and movement for students to watch on a computer or iphone)

The software allows me to save a copy as an image file.  Of course it is not interactive then as it can be with other output formats, but it gives a good idea for this purpose of what a mind-map could look like - a visual representation of anything (but usually it is a process of some kind).

Check this software out and with a little imagination you will find that it could be used for so many different situations.

As business owners, how much time and energy working do we spend on how we want our business to grow?
Can anyone say that their business is exactly where they want it to be right now?
Where do you want it to be?
You can only answer this if you are already spending time working on your business plan, marketing and business growth strategies.
If you are always waiting til you get more money, or have more time then you’ve created your very own barrier to innovating.
Innovation means either radical or incremental changes in thinking, processes or services. Many people think of innovations as inventions but this is a narrow view.
Innovators are risk takers, and stand out from the rest generating envy when large risks pay off.
Being an innovator in your business however doesn’t always mean taking large risks. Innovation should lead to growth through improvements in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitive positioning, market share and more.
Innovation can be introduced to every area of your business and one impressive tool that can be used to assist in innovation is mind-mapping software.
Simply by the employment of a highly visual tool you can change your usual approach to business thinking. “Get your thoughts out of your head and into a form that you can share, test and challenge.”
You can download trial versions of these tools and there are some excellent open source solutions available at no cost.
Creative thinking needs to steer away from being overly serious and contain elements of excitement. Visual software maps out your thinking with colours, images, links to resources and connecting pathways.
One of the great beauties I love about using technology is the ability to amend a document over and over. So as your creative thinking progresses and inevitably changes you don’t have to draw up a new plan, you simply continue amending the original until you reach your goal.

At the end of the day, no matter what software protection you have in place we have to rely on human beings to use the technology.

I like to call this the ‘warmware’.

As a business you can instigate all kinds of policies, procedures and protection software, but if people are interacting with all of this then there is always still a risk.

So how can we minimize this final risk factor?

TRAINING!!

So much of the time the problem is simply that people are ignorant of the risks they are taking.

We can’t do an awful lot about people who are deliberately wreaking havoc - the processes of risk reduction here are quite outside technology - these people need to be identified early and hopefully removed from a position of causing damage.

So back to my point - much of the time the problem is simply ignorance and you hear exclamations such as:

• I didn’t know that!
• I didn’t read that!
• I didn’t see it!
• I thought it meant something else!

I don’t mean any disrespect when I say that in my experience there are way too many people out there in the workplace using computers on a daily basis who have very little idea of what they are doing (so far as technology).

This is not a matter of smart or stupid, but purely a matter of lack of training!

In this context we are thinking about how to safely use the www with a windows computer when there is just so much malware out there. There are a huge number of contexts I could talk about here but I will try to keep myself contained to just the use of the www.

A good way to assess whether your staff could benefit from learning more about safe usage and smart practice out there in the www, and increase your office efficiency, is to have your staff complete a short skills survey on internet usage and threats to ascertain where knowledge gaps are and enable a customised training session to be designed to take your business where you need to get it to.

BITTS specialise in assisting you to assess your training needs and find solutions.

Once you have put defence systems in place and feel you have some strong walls up against malware threats you need to think about the human side of your technology.
How well does your staff understand risk behaviour online?
Certainly a good defence system will prevent some types of risk but care needs to be taken nevertheless.
Most workplaces have policies concerning staff internet usage, and the larger the organisation the more money that is spent on software to monitor that staff are adhering to policies.
This indicates that even with security of anti-virus, anti-malware and firewalls the human factor is still there.
Just as the software protection of your systems has various components, for the user, safe practice when using the web also has various components.

Scams on the web are still rife because it is just a numbers game – hit enough people with something and the small percentage that falls for it could be a huge number of people when you have the whole world to try for.
Recognising suspect pop up windows and knowing how to get rid of them without activating anything.
Giving out information to web sites that may be used by adware.
Using strong passwords and changing them regularly.
Understanding a secure site from one that is not secure and what information is OK to give out either to non-secure sites or emails.
Installing peer to peer software (which means you allow others to connect to your computer to take what you got from others)

The ever-changing nature of the Internet means that your business should continually monitor these threats and budget for staff training on how to be alert to anything suspicious that might confront them. The costs of training will most certainly out way the consequences of your business information falling into the wrong hands.

Malware is the collective term for any software that is designed to infiltrate or damage a computer without the users consent.

Of course the word has been put together from Malicious Software…
It covers a range of types of nasties
Most people think of nasties as the virus but there are now many types of malware and not all of them are viruses, and hence many smart people have more than one type of defence system on their computer.
Some of the types of malware out there are:

• viruses
• worms
• trojan horses
• rootkits
• spyware
• adware
• botnets
• keystroke loggers
• dialers

Quite a range indeed!

Wikipedia reports that as many as one in ten web pages may contain malware.

That’s a real concern if it is true - I often visit up to 40 web pages in a day - for example each week when I am preparing these newspaper columns and blog supplements. So I could be coming in contact with a good handful of malware sources.

(thank god I’ve got a MAC then she says relaxing in her chair again)

Microsoft actually have some good information on this, maybe they are finally taking notice that people are vulnerable?

The main rule for the Windows user is:

ALWAYS have Anti-virus software both installed and updated

ALWAYS have some Malware (at least spyware) software both installed and updated

ALWAYS have a fire wall operating

NEVER let your kids play on the net with your computer if you use it for any important business uses. (they will typically just say yes to anything that wants to install or download)

ALWAYS take care where you go on the net and particularly take care when responding to pop ups and message boxes when using the net.

Now that you have spent your precious time checking all your software licences and generally getting some computer housework done let’s think about the security of your system and how this is maintained.
Maintenance has two components – keeping security software updated and users understanding safe internet usage.
You may have all the best security protection running on your system, but if your staff don’t understand some basic principals they may still open the door to risks.
We have a range of threats to windows-based computer systems out there called ‘Malware’. Malicious software is any software that attempts to harm or compromise your computer system.
The range of malware and methods of infection are varied and sometimes people shy away from wanting to know about it, as it can seem overwhelming.
Every time we take a breath of air we are breathing in a host of microbes unawares and our bodies defence system screens what has entered and deals with any problems. There are many components to the defence system in the body such as nasal hair, skin, and white blood cells.
Computers need a defence system made up of various components too.
A strong defence system on your windows based PC is a necessity.
Most anti-virus packages today include defence against some types of malware, however having specific anit-spyware and adware software is still recommended. These packages offer protection by blocking and defending your system from some hidden dangers even if your staff try to access sites that are not safe.
Installing this software is not enough– the most important thing to remember is that you need it to be updated regularly and install any upgrades offered.
The final strength of your defence will come by having your staff trained in safe internet usage.