Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Web Portfolio as a Responsive
Environment
The postmodern technologies have shown us Web capabilities that go beyond
simple search and retrieve. The Web has become a responsive environment
which enables real time interaction. Filling out forms, sending immediate
dynamically generated e-mails, and responding and posting to chat rooms all
provide a responsive environment. The key to responsive environments is an
interaction. The interaction must be provoked by communication.
The Wiki may become part of the Web portfolio as a responsive environment.
Wiki.org defines the Wiki as:
a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and
edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports
hyperlinks and has simple text syntax for creating new pages
and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.
(http://wiki.org/
wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki, 2002)
Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the
organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself. There
may be Wiki sections in the Web portfolios of the future. Like many simple
concepts, “open editing” has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage.
The ability for a Web portfolio to allowing everyday users to create and edit any
page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web
and promotes content composition by non technical users (wiki.org, 2002).
This may contribute to Web portfolios becoming places where collaboration
occurs. Various collaborations will happen on home site, a possible expression
for your Web portfolio or mine.
The possibilities are endless when it comes to creative expression and collabo-
ration and Web technology as a whole. Web portfolios may also use computer
mediated technologies to provide real time communications. Such environ-
ments include the Macromedia Breeze platform and the Webex collaborative
Web solution.
Chat rooms and bulletin boards have been used for electronic communication
since networked computing began. These responsive environments will be
embedded into the Web portfolios of the future, as well as they will dedicate
