The A to Z Guide to the Internet

W

WAHM- An acronym term for Work at Home Mom. A variation is WAHD (Work at Home Dad). The actual origin of the term is unknown, but it is used on a large scale due to the growing interest of women to stay at home and bring in income at the same time.  Many women wish to have a career and raise their children, instead of working outside the home and placing their children in daycare. WAHMs run their home-based businesses in a variety of fields. Some women focus on telecommuting and freelancing opportunities. Others participate in Multi-Level Marketing programs, e-commerce or auctions.

Web 2.0- This term refers to the “second generation” of services that are available on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 applications include blogs, podcasts, ppc marketing, wikis, tagging and RSS syndication. Web 2.0 is a rather large category of services that share some basic themes:

·        Web pages are “user friendly” and collaborative – rather than being only accessible by the webmaster

·        Users can own the data on the site and modify it at their convenience

·        The use of “social networking”

Web Designer- The person who is responsible for how the site looks and “feels.” The Web Designer handles the entire aesthetic and navigational creation of a Web site. A web designer is also responsible for ensuring that the graphics are clear, the links are working and the navigation on the site is intuitive. Normally, a web designer is responsible for the creative aspects of a website, rather than the programming, however a knowledge of web programming is necessary.

Web marketer- This is an alternate term for Internet marketer. A web marketer is an individual or company whose primary income comes from marketing products or services on the web. Marketing as business is very possible and popular online. Web marketers can make money by promoting other people’s products or their own.

There are a wide variety of techniques that a Web marketer can use to promote websites and products. Please see the entry for Internet marketing for more details.

Webmaster- This term can be used for a variety of individuals who are involved with creating and/or managing a Web site. A Webmaster is the person who maintains the content and functioning of a website. This can include receiving all of the feedback from Website users, maintaining graphics, supplying content updates and handling all programming matters. A Webmaster may, or may not, have designed the initial layout of the website. Some larger websites have a Webmaster that handles the content of the site, and one that handles the more technical aspects.

 WIKI- A type of website that allows users to add, remove or edit most of the content very quickly and easily. The ease of interaction and operation makes wiki a tool for collaborative sites and communities. The term wiki can also refer to the software that enables users to participate in a website. The name comes from the Hawaiian term “wiki-wiki” which means fast.

Essentially, a wiki is an editable website that doesn’t require users to know HTML or any other programming language. Most systems have a record of changes, so that a page can be reverted to any of its previous states. Many wikis allow completely unrestricted access so that people are able to contribute the site without registering. There is no moderation before posting, but the content is often moderated afterward.

www- These three W’s are short for World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is a global information space, and is also called the The Web. Text documents, images, multimedia and other types of resources are identified with URLs so that each can be found in a simple way.

The World Wide Web is actually the system by which information on the Internet is categorized and not the Internet itself. The World Wide Web is like the Dewey Decimal system for the Internet.