Definitions for Cyber World

Definitions for Cyber World

Cyberspace 

Cyberspace is the total landscape of technology-mediated

communication. This includes not only the internet and the World Wide

Web but also mobile and fixed phone networks, satellite and cable

television, radio, the Global Positioning System (GPS), air traffic control

systems, military rocket guidance systems, sensor networks, etc. As more

devices become interlinked through the processes of digital convergence,

cyberspace is rapidly covering more of our physical world and channels of

communication and expression. Importantly, cyberspace also includes the

people that use these devices and networks.

The Internet 

A subset of cyberspace, the internet is a system of

interconnected computer networks. The internet is comprised of both

hardware and software that facilitate data transfer across a network of

networks, ranging from local to global in scale, and encompassing private,

public, corporate, government and academic networks. Functioning

primarily as a global data exchange system, it carries a wide range of

resources such as email, instant messaging, file transfer, virtual worlds,

peer-to-peer file sharing, and the 

World Wide Web(WWW)

The Web The World Wide Web (or, simply, web) is a more recent

development than the internet, with its origins in the European academic

community of the late 1980s. The web is one of the many services reliant

on the internet. It consists of an assemblage of files (audio, video, text,

and multimedia), each assigned an address, which are connected to one

another through the formation of hyperlinks (more commonly, links). The

contents of the web are (usually) accessed via the internet using software

known as browsers.

User-generated Content 

User-generated content (also usercreated

content) is an umbrella term referring to a wide range of

online materials that are created by internet users themselves. Usergenerated

content has blurred the distinction between the ‘producers’

and ‘consumers’ of information. It is thought to be behind the massive

expansion of the internet in recent years, which now encompasses a wide

variety of blogs, discussion and review sites, social networking sites, and

video and photo sharing sites. Radicalisation Most of the definitions currently in circulation

describe radicalisation as the process (or processes) whereby individuals

or groups come to approve of and (ultimately) participate in the use of

violence for political aims. Some authors refer to ‘violent radicalisation’ in

order to emphasise the violent outcome and distinguish the process from

non-violent forms of ‘radical’ thinking. 

Extremism 

Extremism can be used to refer to political ideologies

that oppose a society’s core values and principles. In the context of liberal

democracies this could be applied to any ideology that advocates racial

or religious supremacy and/or opposes the core principles of democracy

and universal human rights. The term can also be used to describe the

methods through which political actors attempt to realise their aims, that is,

by using means that ‘show disregard for the life, liberty, and human rights

of others’.