Module Four Searching the Web Task

Four types of web search tools:

Web Index or Search Engine – uses ‘spider’ crawler’ and ‘robot’ software to list the words in the search box with all available web pages. This search tool collects the largest amount of information on the web but doesn’t list everything. Search engines search billions of websites that have the search word in its metadata and are used for quite narrow and/or specific searches.

Web Directory – More selective than indexes, web directories search in categories and/or classifications. Searching for the best website on a particular topic would be suited to this search tool. Best used for broad & general searches.

Specialized Database – provides in-depth results for very specific focused searches. This search tool will find specific factual information not easily found by other search tools. In this search tool using alot of search terms may not always yeild the best results. Start with only a few search terms.

Meta Searcher - is a convenient tool that allows you send your search word to many different search tools (or specify exactly where to send your search) then group together the search results. If two same results are given, meta searcher will collate the results so you only view a repeated web site result once. to construct a search and then forward it to many different Web Indexes and Directories at once. Meta means 'more comprehensive'.

Search tips:

• Use as many search words as you can think of to describe your topic Put the best words first; those that are unique, important and explicit in description.
• Be specific avoid common or vague words (maybe even remember the ‘old word’ rule.
• If search results require the search words to be shown in the exact order they appear in the search bar place them in inverted coma's ""
• Use correct syntax: For example the NEAR Boolean operator cannot be used in google (an asterisk is used instead)
• In some cases it may prove benefitial to limit your search by domain, country of origin, date, format, language and occurrences.
• Search within results. This method can assist in narrowing a search but will require new search terms.
  

Boolean Operators – a group of commands that tell the search tool how to combine and/or display the various search words and/or results entered in a search.


Examples:
To use all the search words: bowl AND championship or +bowl +championship. To find any of the search words; Buckeyes OR Bucks.
To eliminate words from search results: bowl NOT Rose or +bowl -Rose

B.I.L.S

Sometimes searching a subject yeilds better results then searching with terms. Search words are hit and miss. Subject searching can provide more complete and comprehensive results. B.I.L.S is a helpful tool to assist in finding good subject headings to use in search tools.

B – Browse a keyword search results.
I – Identify a relevant result. You may need to browse first to find one that best represents what you are seeking.
L – Look at the subject terms used in this result and select any that seem relevant to you topic to use in the next step S – Search using the terms you collected in the previous step for more focused results.


Quiz from http://gateway.lib.ohio-state.edu/tutor/les5/ Tutorial

I score 73%, 3 out of 5 answers correct on the first attempt.
Clusty - Web index (Incorrect, it’s a Meta Searcher. How can you tell?? It looked like google!)
The National Gallery of Art – Web Directory (incorrect, it’s a Specialized Database)
Librarians Index to the Internet – Web Directory (correct)
Ask.com – Web Index (correct)
Occupational Outlook Handbook – Specialized Database (correct)

Pop Quiz's from http://gateway.lib.ohio-state.edu/tutor/les5/ Tutorial

Which type of tool is best for a broad (general) query? Web Directory (Correct)

A search within a Web directory generally finds your search words in: Both are correct (Correct)

To determine which Web pages are most relevant, search engines may use: Algorithms (Correct)

A meta-searcher gives results from: Web Indexes and directories (Correct)

Which search will work best to find the home page of the World Conservation Union? "World Conservation Union" (Correct)

Specialized databases are: Focused (Correct)

Which type of database provides descriptions of published works, like books and articles? Bibliographic (Correct)

When you do a "subject heading" search, you are searching: Anythin in the record (Incorrect) You are searching controlled vocabulary for that database.

How many search terms should you use in a specialized database? Only a few (correct)

To locate a specialized database, search: Library Web Site (Incorrect) Any website will work.

Searching the Web Task

1. Choose your most commonly used internet search engine and do a search with words of your choosing.

My most commonly used search engine is Google. The search terms I chose were 'Internet Culture'


Record the first hit and number of hits in your learning log

First hit on Google: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Internet_culture

Number of hits from Google: Results 1 - 10 of about 41,000,000 for Internet Culture

2. Using copernicus or similar, set it up to search at least three search engines (including one that will search the 'deep web') and repeat eactly the same search

First Hit on Copernicus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_culture

Number of hits: Copernic found 417,000,000 results for Internet Culture

First hit on Deep Web search engine: http://www1.au.shopping.com/xGS-culture~NS-1~linkin_id-8025953


Number of hits on Deep Web search engine: 41

I was unable to add the Deep Web search engine into the trial version of Copernic so I ran it as a sepearate search. The deep web search tool I used was http://turbo10.com/

Module Four Download Tools/Plug in Task

Description

Try downloading at least two unfamiliar programs.

I chose Copernic, Webcopier and Bookmark Buddy. I chose Sherlock as it is necassary for the next task, Webcopier because I am about to move house and my cable connection will be out for a few days so I (hopefully) will still be able to access the cirriculum during that time and Bookmark Buddy just to learn what it is.
Downloading, installing and learning to use these programs has gone smoothly. However when I switched on my computer this morning it opened in 'safe mode'. Once this problem was solved, I was then unable to log into Curtin WebCT.

Concerns

Have these new software downloads caused these problems?

Evaluation and Analysis

The best thing about this lil problem was that it made me put into place my new lesson of reading things properly until I understand them. I followed the directions to uninstall Webcopier first and was going to follow on by uninstalling Bookmark buddy but the computer returned to 'normal mode' once webcopier was removed so I left Bookmark Buddy. Once the computer was running normally again, I attempted to log into Curtin WebCT and recieved the message
"Unable to connect to host - sm-portal1.curtin.edu.au. Contact administrator” . Once again, I carefully read the instructions on getting help for logging on and found the url for curtin which led me to thinking that perhaps something happened to the url I had stored in 'favourites'. I typed the url into the addy bar and was able to access Curtin. In the past I'd have panicked and phoned someone. Plus I understand some of what happened and why it happened. I'm hoping 'Bookmark Buddy' will be a better way to save url's than favourites.

Conclusion

I will now save the Curtin WebCT page (and Monash for my psych unit although it's not as essential as it is not an online unit) into Webcopier so I can access them while I'm moving. I'll also put the url's I have in 'favourites' into 'Bookmark Buddy' aswell and see how that goes.
I've aquired a "java" icon in my task bar?? More on this when I find out why and where and what for..... I'm guessing it is Webcopier related because that is designed to run text and images but I'm guessing.

In your learning log record which programs you downloaded and note which (if any) facets you think might prove useful.

"Bookmark Buddy"
"WebCopier Pro" for Windows - Webcopier makes available complete websites offline. This could be useful anytime internet connection is unavailable (for example on a laptop)
"Copernic"
* I unfortunately didn't have time to learn to use either of these programs except a little with Copernicus which I will persist with. Bookmark buddy and Webcopier will expire before I have time to have a go at them.

Concept: The Challenge of Fast Data

Key Focus Points

• Information on the www is constantly changing and not always maintained.
• Advanced Internet users analyse and evaluate received information and adapt to new research opportunities .
  

Concept: The Paradox of The Worl Wide Web

Key Focus Points

• The www is a user friendly, fun informative online community. It is also a highly complex, ever changing and growing technology that requires constant learning to understand and adapt.
• This concept is tied in closely with the invisibility of difference in that not all Internet users have the skills, time or opportunity to learn enough about the www to fully utilise it’s potential.
• The idea of the www and the Internet being the same thing coupled with the idea that the Internet is ‘easy to use’ are perpetuated by large companies that can profit from these misgivings.
  

* Additional text after unit was completed in red

Module Four Unit Work

Taking from the WWW

Software

PDF: Portable Document Format. A program for reading text files that preserves original formatting.

Flash/Shockwave: Files containing animation and interactive applications. These are playable via a free ‘plug-in’ player.

Java: A ‘platform independent’ computer language. Operates in a similar way to Flash/Shockwave.

Video: Common video file formats of which a standard has not yet been decided. The main three are Windows Media player (wmv), Real One (rm) or Quick Time (mov). These are all free and play a variety of video/audio file formats and can stream video.Each also has a preferred priority file format..

Tools: Bookmarks, Meta search and Organisational tools.

Advanced Internet Searching

• Learn to use the advanced search options and better search techniques.
• Develop a greater awareness of the sources from which you can search-know whats out there.
• Evaluate the information recieved in a search result like you would any other source material (validation, credibility, content, purpose, relevance, currency etc)

Module Three Completed

FTP Task

Description

Completed all but:
*Test your web page according to the W3C standards by going to their ‘validator’ page &
*Think about any differences between the articles: for example, is the advice in Nielsen’s paper -- written in 1997 – still current?
Both these tasks were optional.

There is no "Blog Task" entry as I completed the following in an earlier entry:
* In your learning log, record your ‘top five tips for new bloggers’
Given that my learning log is my blog, also did not:
* Take a screen shot of your blog and paste into your learning log .

Module Three WWW Standards

Website Development Tips

Few ppl read all of a websites, word by word.
Some ways to ensure a website is most effective in relaying information are:

• Highlighting key words or phrases: When highlighting words, use words that match the users search queries. Make sure the words are precise and familiar. Old words are words that ppl have a familiar association to. If you have to use a new term, supplement it with an ‘old word’.
• Macro content = 40-60 characters to explain your website using the rules of old words and ruthless editing and no fluffy political correctness or embellishments.
• Call a spade a spade, don’t embellish the truth. Supplement brand names with generic terms. Avoid “politically correct’ terms.
• meaningfull sub headings (not “cleva” ones)
• bulleted lists
• one idea per paragraph
• a lower word count
• credibility that can be easily validated (like a link to the authors bio)
• other credibility links so the reader can scan through them. This shows the author of the site has researched their topic well.
• Good quality images and good economical writing
• Avoid exaggeration or ‘marketing”. Always show numbers as numerals. Eg: 2 instead of 'two'. It's easier to read and 'feels' quicker.
• If you included detailed research results, give the reader a brief description and put the complete results on a link. This way the user can decide how much they want to know.
• Research suggests ‘F’ shaped text is more often read than the conventional ‘heading, paragraph, paragraph,” format. The “F” shape text is two short horizontal text lines followed by a vertical text line. According to this theory, the reader will scan the left side of the page more than anywhere else. Using sub headings, paragraph titles and highlighted key words placed in this area will make your text more likely to be read. The first two words are read more frequently than any others. The first word is the most important so make it an information carrying word.
• State the most important information in the first two paragraphs.
• If writing for teen keep the text simple (but not childish) and include interactive features as teens tend to become bored more easily than adults. With any specific demographic, research your audience.
• The intro (or “blah blah blurb”) is often to long and skipped by most readers who are looking fr more “actionable’ text like bullet lists, prices or links.
  The worst kind of intro has no purpose. Eg: “welcome to our site we hope you find it__” Kill the welcome mat and cut to the chase. Readers want to get their issue addressed asap and move on. Anything that doesn’t lend itself to this purpose shouldn’t be included. Nothing fluffy or feel good needs to be included in the intro. The intro and the whole site require ruthless text editing. The intro need only establish what the site is about and if necessary put it into context. Excessive word counts make ppl less interested in looking further.
• A tag line explains what the company or website author is about. Two question to ask in developing good tag lines are: Would it work just as well for a competitor? Would another company claim the opposite?
  “Search the largest inventory of cars and trucks on the Internet. More than 1.5 million listings, updated daily."
  This is an example of a good tag line. Readers can quickly establish what the site is and does.
• Traditional writing guidelines are clear on the use of passive voice:
  Worst: The passive voice should be avoided.
  Bad: The passive voice should be avoided by writers.
  Better: Writers should avoid using passive voice.
  Best: Writers should use active voice.

Writing Tips in a Passive Voice (as cited in www.useit.com)

When structuring a sentence, active voice ("Actor does X to Object") is usually better than passive voice ("Object has X done to it by Actor") because it more directly represents the action. As a result, readers don't have to jump through as many cognitive hoops when trying to understand what's going on.
For the same reason, it's usually better to write a positive statement ("do X") than a negative statement ("avoid Y"), and it's almost always horrible to use double negatives ("avoid not doing X"). Again, the simpler the translation between the text and the user's mental model, the easier the writing is to understand.
Typically, it's even harder for readers to understand passive sentences that don't explicitly state the actor. This style can also lead to additional usability problems if users misinterpret who's doing the action. For example, if you write, "Social security taxes must be paid monthly" readers might think that employees have to pay the tax. In contrast, "Employers must pay social security taxes monthly" is clear and easy to read.
Usability increases when users need fewer mental transformations to convert a sentence into actionable understanding (what they should or could do to address their issue)
The easier the writing is to understand, the more likely customers are to plough through your words. Users don't like doing hard work. That is, users prefer effortless reading (to state it positively, and thus improve readability).

WWW Standards Optonal Task:

Make a summary of what you believe are the 5 most important ‘rules’ for writing online.

1. Write well: Too much text information will not encourage a reader to continue reading thru your site to find the information they seek. Research suggests most reader’s skim through websites. When choosing text for the website make sure all text is relevant, necessary and well written using familiar words everyone will relate to. Use highlighted key words or phrases, headings and ruthless editing.

2. Remember the purpose of the site: A website visitor wants to resolve their issue absolutely ASAP. Everything written/added to the website should cater to this need. Anything else should be edited out.

3. A good tag line: 40-60 characters explaining how this website is going to help a reader achieve resolve ASAP.

4. Research: There is an abundance of research available regarding how to write for a website. Also research should be carried out on the demographic the website aims to attract.

5. Be honest: Online readers are discerning enough to know (or eventually find out) if a website is offering what it says it does. Don’t embellish or add any annoying ‘teaser’.

Concept: Communication and Information Are Related

Key Focus Points:

• An electronic communication is made up of the original source of the message and it’s destination, the act of communicating and the item of information communicated.
• Saving electronic communication is automatic and usually requires little effort or thought on the part of the reader.
• Good organisation is the key to best utilising electronic asynchronous communications (such as emails)

Concept: Cyberspace is Informationally Created Space

Key Focus Points:

• Humans create a type of “imagined physical space” online through MMORPG’s, detailing physical acts in online chats and IM’s (like touching another user or handing them something etc) even having “cyber’ sex.

Legal Issues

Have you used images or words on your web page or website that contravene copyright laws?

I'm not sure which website these questions refer to?? If it is re: the index.html test page done on the html tutorial, this is a straight copy from that tutorial. From the information I read, it has not breached any copyright law. The only additions I made were text additions using my own words. HTMLdog.com suggested adding their logo to this 'test page' there by giving their permission.

My blog has possibly breached copyright because I honestly dont know where the pretty picture at the top came from. I own the copyright to the picture below and the text is my own. Wherever I have used direct quotes, I've cited where they are from.

Would you be in breach of copyright if you put the Curtin logo at the top of your web page for an assignment?

No, if the student follows the assignment instructions and doesn't alter the logo. It would fall under 'fair use". In this situation, the Curtin logo would only be used as part of a Curtin students test web page which is part of the units cirriculum. The nature (academic), relative amount (minimal and of a quality established by Curtin, unless the student alters the logo) and market value (nil) are all 'fair' and present no harm to Curtin University. The only area that could potentially be harmful is 'purpose". As stated in www.benedict.com/info/FairUse if the student adds to or changes the logo, copyright could be infringed on the basis that it's value would then be different to its intended value.

Assignment One Debrief

Description

I prepared an Annotated Bibliography for 'Being an Advanced Internet User'. Each annotation refered back to the module work and the concepts mentioned within the modules. I presented it as a blog. The assignment and reference list were required to be in APA format.
I did this - my blog did not.

Concerns

The fact that my final assignment blog reformatted itself (really an issue when part of the assignment was a reference list in APA format) has seared itself into my memory vapourizing any other concerns. It was just awful to have to let it go as it was after soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much effort (ran out of time. I literally submitted it with minutes to spare) I've never had such a complete and all encompassing disaster in an assignment ever. For god sake, I'm "in-the- 80%-&-over" kind of girl.

So, needless to say, I did not resolve the formatting issue. I have various theories as to why this happened: what I cut/paste from my word doc took formating with it into the blog but I cleared the blog and deleted EVERYTHING and started again. It still reformated.

Obviously, I should have "blogged it" ALOT earlier. I only gave myself two and a bit days to pretty-up the blog. If I had a day or two more, I probably could have overcome my formating drama-rama.

The other issue was submitting via the drop box with coversheet. I miss read the instructions. My brain was clouded with this formating nightmare and I missed the coversheet (ironically I even asked about which cover sheet to use and STILL screwed it up).
I know the lesson here: s l o w d o w n . . . .

Evaluation and Analysis

It was suggested that we collect references early in the unit for this assignment so I just had to collate them and fix my blurb. They were already attached to the module they related to and I had already done a quick blurb. The one issue I had is that it was a bit pre-mature. I spoke to a few other student who felt the same way. Alot of us had not completed all of module 4, even some of three, so I know at least one of my annotated ref's is a bit sus (the html ref). I just hadn't completed the task work (I'm sticking to juggling two units and the great computer meltdown of 07 for my lapse). The task work in Module four would have been very useful to have completed before this assignment.

Conclusion

This is my conclusion for all assignments I have ever done

You Can Never Start Too Early

I always start on my assignment work asap. It's never early enough. There could always be improvements. This was a tricky one because it didn't allow for any lapse in unit work (fair enough really).
My conclusion for the submitting fiasco is, once again

S l o w D o w n & R e a d E v e r y t h i n g P r o p e r l y

Amen

As for the sequence of assignments/unit/task work, the tasks in module four should have come earlier (module three maybe??) although I can see thata certain amount of knowledge needs to be gained before taking on the Tasks in Module Four. I understand the sequence. It just doesn't allow at all for lagging students like me.

Module Three HTML Task

Description

I completed the test page and uploaded it onto the webct presentations page. I also played with the html a bit to change some text mostly but also tried different links and images with mixed results.

Concerns

I had two.

Problems:
1. Uploading my test web page onto the uni webct presentations page.
2. Being able to change the image within the test page.
Solutions:
1.The solution to uploadin to the presentations page lay in the DB. Robert saved my ass once again and doesn't even know it. I saved my test web page as webtest.html. It should have been index.html. Once I saved it correctly I uploaded it no problem.


Evaluation

I enjoyed the tutorials and made up a "html explained" word doc (incl. aa the end of this post) with the information I gathered. Both tutorials were really good. I didn't care much for the text in the web test page so I changed it (I know it must be hard to put something in there that is "fun" but inoffensive across the board...I apprecaitte the effort. I changed the text mostly so I could confirm the lessons I learnt to make sure I understood them correctly.

It could be my 'beginner advanced" knowledge (or lack there of) but it seems to me that the uploading of the index.html file, like the assignment upload, could be better executed. I was exhausted and frustrated with the blog formatting fiasco (see assignemt one post...see assignemt one for that matter!!) but still, it seemed confusing to many other students too, the way in which information is submitted to the uni. Maybe online education is in it's formation too and I should just cut it a break and stop my whining.

Analysis

I was sure html/website development was a huge clique that I would never comprehend. I'm all turned around on that one. This excercise was an instant gratifier - type it in and bingo! u gota web page :)) I love it. From the tutorials, I gather there is alot more to learn about html/xhtml - what's "done" and "not done", the new trends and versions etc but I feel well equipped to start really understanding html. All good :))

Conclusion

Before this task, I thought html was simply a rich text setting. The applications for understanding html well enough to write up a simple web site are very broad, from setting up my own website to helping others set up theirs to learning more so I can produce better web sites. Understanding html is essential as it seems all websites are based on it.

Concept: Paradox of The World Wide Web

Key Focus Points

• Humans create a type of “imagined physical space” online through MMORPG’s, detailing physical acts in online chats and IM’s (like touching another user or handing them something etc) even having “cyber’ sex.
  

Concept: The Relationship of Data to Meta Data

Key Focus Points

• Meta data is descriptive data. Meta data can be manipulated to assist internet users in organising and processing incoming dtata.
• The process of manipulating meta data ( by sorting, annotating, copying and resorting) results in making the data one’s own.