Week 12, Social & Ethical Issues, 23-10-2007

LECTURE

The week 12 lecture was all about the Internet. The Internet is open to abuse and it has no standards. There are open protocols. The information on the Internet could be published by anyone and has no control on bias and unethical information. The smart people that use the internet are the ones that abuse it, for example hack into other peoples accounts, where as the dumb people are the ones that give up personal information. The problems that arise from the Internet are copyright breaches, intellectual property, plagiarism, security, privacy and freedom of speech.

The problem of intellectual property is that the information can be stolen by anyone. With copyright there usually are strict laws of using it and Justine recommends that students ask for permission of use of information for educational purposes if they need to. Plagiarism is a major factor as the ideas and words are taken without acknowledging the source. Privacy could be invaded for instance, people gaining your information at an Internet café, where as it is less likely to happen if you use home computers. Security risks such as probe attacks, which take your passwords; or virus attacks that are caused by such things as emails and downloading etc.

All these problems can be preventable. Installing firewalls is a good way in preventing harmful things happening to your computer. Installing anti-virus programs and generally scanning and being aware of attachments with emails etc is another warning made by Justine. Another thing that Justine says is to at least once a month scan your computer. All of these methods will help prevent problems with computers.

TUTE



The first task for week 12 was to visit the Australian Copyright Council at http://www.copyright.org.au. I am going to provide a list of information sheets from the website that I have found relevant as an undergraduate student.

· Quotes and Extracts: copyright obligations
· Research and Study
· Internet: copying and downloading
· Libraries
· Creating and publishing on the Internet

The second part was to visit the website of the US department of Justice’s intellectual property cases.

This was a very real and relevant case to the students, I also believe Justine may have included a bit in the lecture. John Sankus was more commonly known as his online nickname eriFlleH. Sankus was co-leader of one the largest Internet software piracy companies called DrinkOrDie, which was an Internet software piracy group that specialised in acquiring new software by breaking the copyright. They had the ability to post programs on the Internet. He was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for conspiring to violate the criminal copyright laws, which in turn was the longest sentence given out for piracy.

We also had to visit 3 websites then provide a plan on how to protect ourselves from attacks on our privacy and security threats such as viruses, Trojans. The 3 website are which are:

· NetSecurity
http://netsecurity.about.com/library/weekly/aao52501a.htm

· How Stuff works
http://www.howstuffworks.com/virus1.htm

· PC Magazine
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,34058,00.asp

There are many ways in which we are able to protect ourselves from attacks of our privacy. Things including Trojans and viruses can affect the way we use our computer. The ways we can protect ourselves include the following:

· Installing and updating your Antivirus software on a weekly basis
· Do not give out any personal details (Passwords, bank details, addresses etc)
· Use commercial software that it provided from CD's instead of programs from unknown sources that have been downloads from the internet
· Don't open email attachments that come in .EXE, .COM, .VBS etc
· Don't open emails that you find suspicious (unknown sender or SPAM etc)
· Always ensure that your cookies are enabled

A Trojan Horse is seemingly a harmless computer virus that turns out to be extremely destructive. A Trojan Horse often comes in the form of programs in a clever way, claiming newer versions to ensure the downloading of these harmful viruses. A virus is a program written to cause damage to a computer system. It is a self-replicating program that inserts copies of it in computers and documents. A virus might attach itself to a program and every time that the program runs, the virus runs too giving it the chance to replicate and attaching itself to other programs. It is very harmful and it can be very harmful to your computer as well as other people’s computers.



READINGS


EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy – This is a simple reading which gives the user a list of the top 12 helpful information on using the internet. Some of the hints are simple and should be implemented. Also gives links for the user for further information.

Social Justice Issues: Electronic Monitoring – This website provides a collection of information under the following headings: monitoring, privacy, suggested policies and privacy resources. The links provide information on the rights and also information in defence of employees.

Computer Viruses and the Internet – This is a PDF as well. The main point of this reading is to provide information of the history of viruses. It also gives a range of information on viruses of today.

Brown & Michaels - Overview of Intellectual Property - this website provides information about protecting your intellectual property. It goes into detail about trademarks and also copyright. The whole point of this is to tell you about your limitations.

Music, Copyright & the Internet – This website is about providing the most common questions and providing answers (FAQs). The questions are very good and also are very reasonable. Some are just common knowledge but it does provide good information on them.

Email Attachments and Viruses – This reading was all about warning people about the dangers of attachments on emails. It goes into detail about attachments providing a list of files that could be sent to anyone by email. It also provides other links that will help prevent virus attacks.

Week 11, Data, Information & Knowledge, 16-10-2007

LECTURE

The week 11 lecture was all about data, information and knowledge. Data is a fact or positions, where as information is collection of facts or data that is related. Knowledge is what has happened, been found or learnt. Some of the main points of data stated by Justine is that data is factual, non-judgemental, has intrinsic meaning and value etc. Information has the following, summaries, relational, dimensional, has meaning etc. Characteristics are subjective, experimental, judgemental etc. The main use of data is to collect valid and unbiased data. Information importance is to inform the reader and be meaningful. Knowledge should show clearly the origins and conclusion.

Some of the examples that Justine gave out for data is sampled data (e.g. shares) and measure data (e.g. weather). For information; historical information (e.g. tables of census data) and records (e.g. budgets, minutes). Knowledge examples are the white papers, press releases and marketing strategies. Justine also gave out hints on assignment work. Highlighting keywords, definitions and also knowing what you are looking for will go a long way in working out what information you need. With assignment work, data refers to the researching phase of the assignment, information is the building phase of an assignment and knowledge is the composition phase of the assignment. Justine recommends that this all should be looked at as a helpful tool in doing assignments.

TUTE

For the first task of week 11 we are to use some online dictionaries to find the definitions of the words Data, information and knowledge. I firstly went to the website http://www.dictionary.com and found the following definitions:
Data


Information


Knowledge


I also used the website The Free Dictionary at http://www.thefreedictionary.com to find the definitions of the same three words- information, data and knowledge.

Data


Information


Knowledge


This is a graphical interpretation


The need for all three plays a major role in university life. As you are a student, these three play as a backbone sort of role in general work in particular assignments. Finding data is a big part as it is the first step. Finding data will enable you to get an understanding of the information. Bringing all that data in and interpreting it will give you the information that you need. When the two are combined knowledge becomes present. It is helpful no matter what a student is using it for.

This sort of information can be needed by:
· Census, which the government needs, find out information about the public
· Supermarkets (Coles, Woolworths), so that they can provide products to customers
· Car companies like Holden, why make a whole bunch of fuel guzzling cars when petrol costs so much?
· Building businesses like Dale Alcock, so that he can find out how many people that he needs to employ to keep up with the boom
· Local government, so that they can have a better understanding of what their needs and wants are, is there a need for more roads? etc



READINGS


Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom – The heading of this reading is what the reading is pretty much about. This pretty much gives information about each one. I have noticed that some of the graphs were used in the lecture.

Information Literacy – this provides help with the above again. In addition this provides the user quizzes to test the user about what they have learnt. There are seven quizzes. This website was designed to help students from Spring Hill College.

Data, Information & Knowledge - This is a reading by Jim Mullaney and is in PDF format not a website like the others. This also gives definitions of data, information and knowledge. In this reading, it talks about the relationship between them and also questions that are related to data, information and knowledge.

Week 10, Using Online Libraries & Databases, 09-10-2007

LECTURE

The week ten lecture was all about online libraries. From the lecture I have learnt there are many reasons for me to use online libraries. Online libraries can be accessed anytime and anywhere. There is large quantity of useful information that is available, Justine says. The information is up to date and easy to make notes from so that we are able cut and paste the information we need and many more reasons. According to Justine there are 5 different types of libraries. These are:
· Online Text Repositories
· Online Journals
· Electronic Journals
· Musical
· Artworks

The online journals is a common and valuable resource, in my eyes, as I have used it many times to get information for UPC0002.

Online libraries also include their share of difficulties. With some information, all that we could get is a catalogue or will be required to pay for information and also the issue of copyright. In saying copyright, Justine recommends that if it is for an educational purpose, email the company and they may let you use the information. Justine also strongly pushes forward, that referencing is a major part of obtaining information. It is a major matter to include a reference of source of the information obtained. The use of correct referencing shows that the information is correct, legible and does not break the Copyright Act.

An online database was also a part of the week 10 lecture. It has the same advantages as the online libraries, as well as disadvantages. One significant difference is that it is difficult to navigate through at times. It is hard to tell the two apart. They are very useful tools in helping students doing research.

TUTE


This is the library page. A whole range of information is available just on the first page.

Journal articles- this is a search just for journal articles. It is very useful as journal articles are one of the best sources of information

Library pod casts- these are very good as it gives the student tours as well as lectures they have missed or want to know more about.

Quick Catalogue search- this helps looking for books within the library without leaving your home.

ECU referencing guide- this helps making sure that when you reference you include the correct information and layout.

Websites- this helps finding information on the net without all the hassle.

Library tour- gives the user a better understanding of how the library works.

Resources for students- gives all the information that a student generally needs such as when the library opens etc.

Simo- a link to simo, so that a student can reach his or her personal information.

Loan services- information about how to loan resources from the library.

Catalogue for music- this enables students to find information or music on the net without leaving their home.


http://medlineplus.gov/
As breast cancer runs in my family, I have chosen that.

This is what my search came up with


The sort of people that would want this sort of information would be people that suffer from breast cancer, people that have breast cancer in there family and also for educational purposes. For me it would be about education and also because it is in my family. I also would think that my mum would be interested in the information as well.

READINGS

http://www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm - This week there seemed to be no readings. There was a link to the Louvre. This provides pictures of the Louvre. This means you can view what in the Louvre without leaving your house or country.

Week 9, Using Search Engines, 02-10-2007

LECTURE

The week nine lecture was all about searching for information. As stated by Justine, looking for information on the www can be a difficult task because of the large amount of information that is found on the www. There are two main types of searching on the www, in the form of search engines and Directories. Search engines are websites specifically made to sort information found on the www, giving a number of computer picked sites that closely fit the keyword from your search. This results in a large variety of sources of information. An example of a search engine is ‘Google’. Directories are sources chosen by humans. This results information that is more reliable and searches are shorter, for example ‘Yahoo’. There are many problems that are caused by search engines such as thousands of results, information not particularly relative and the information is not Quality control. Also the ranking of the information is a problem as well. With some search engines, the information is sorted by how much the company pays the search engine, briefly said by Justine.

When doing research, writing in keywords, phrases and using advanced features will help you significantly in filtering the information which you have searched, often giving the most relevant information within the first few results. Ways to ensure that you acquire the most important results include the use of search engine tools to search for information, use several key words, guessing the location, thinking about what you want, and having back up to find where you are. These are all helpful tips that were presented to the lecture by Justine.

TUTE

There are four strategies that should be used when using search engines, that I had to find in this weeks tute. Such things as knowing how the search engine that you are using works. Yet again it comes up all the time, knowing the information that you want. What are the results that come up? Are some more frequent and the last one is what sort of keyword search are you doing. These are the four that I have compiled and I believe are correct, use several search tools, read the search tips or search information at each search engine, for keyword searches use several words and use phrases when searching for something specific

We also had to do an online test. This test consisted of 20 questions which are hard to know off by heart. The main point of the task is to prove that you have the capability to use other search engines. With these search engines I also had to prove that I know what sort of key words that I should put in.



The first question, what civilisation is associated with the once great city of Machu Picchu the spectacular ruins of which were rediscovered in 1911? From this I entered the search, Machu Picchu and 1911 in a search.

The Internet is obviously are very large network of information. Finding that information can be a difficult task to do. Using search engines can narrow down the time. But from what I have learnt, using search engines can take just as much time up. Paying particular attention to keywords will go along way in knowing what your search results are. Only using words that are useful should be consider. Helping me do research, I use mainly Google but the others that I have used are, ask Jeeves and also yahoo. Making sure what the keywords that you use are good, will narrow down the amount of results. Also never take the first result, as it could be nothing, because as I found some of the results are there, because they are payed for.

Google:


Yahoo:


READINGS

Robert Harris: "Web Search Strategies" - This reading was about solving the problem of, finding the information a person wants on search engines and also finding out if the information that is given is good enough. It gives you tips and strategies in working out what best for you. At the bottom it gives six search tips and a “life saver tip.”

The Spider's Apprentice – The second sentence of this website tells you the purpose, which is to provide the user with a better understanding of search engines. It provides a list of links on the side, which are there to help you. This website also gives strategies in finding information on the Internet.

Search Engine Watch – Yet again this is a website that provides a large list of links that help the user finding ways to get better information. There is a large amount of links listed. I saw one link that was for the above reading.

The History of the Internet: (Chap 4 - Search Engines) – This website was all about the history of search engines. It gives a brief history from the 1980’s to the late 1990’s. It has a list of different search engines and gives a brief overview of each one. I found that the search engines are listed by popularity.

Week 8, Evaluating & Authentication, 25-09-2007

LECTURE

The week eight lecture was all about searching for quality information on the internet. One of the biggest problems that Justine says, is that it is hard to find information on the Internet that is good quality. One of the phrases that she uses is ‘fit-for-use’. In other words, making sure that the information that is given is very good in the way of fitting to YOUR purpose. There is a vast amount of information on the internet. The Internet could be accessed by anyone, who is entitled to place any information they wish on various websites. This means that the Internet includes numerous sites that may contain information that could be misleading, racist etc.

When looking for information on the www, remember to keep in mind who authored the information within?, why it is there?, and what is published?. Justine reinforces this many times to make sure that she has emphasized that the information presented on a computer screen is not always correct. When looking for information it is important that you have some kind of criteria that will help you search for relevant and valuable information. The best one in my opinion and also my peers is Accuracy, Objectivity, Currency and Coverage by Beck 1997. My peers and I found that this form of information quality check, covered most of the basis of looking for information. Just remembering that the information on the www could not all be trusted. There is a large quantity of information available, yet not all of it fits to your purpose.

TUTE

ICYouSee

There are six simple strategies that can be put in place to help any users of the Internet in valuating a website. The most important strategy is making sure that you are in the right place. Don’t be distracted by a web page’s glitz and glamour, as the information may not even be close to what you want. See if the information that is presented to you is good and ideal for YOU and your purpose.

Don’t believe everything you see. The information that is given to you may include ambiguity, manipulative reasoning and bias. Finding out whether the information is accurate or not can be a hard task unless you compare the information with another source. Checking if the information that is given has some sort of reference will go a long way in helping the user finding out what sort of information they are looking at.

The first thing that everyone should do is look up who wrote the information. Are the details of the author there? Do they have some sort of expertise in the area of the information that was written up? Some sites provide links to the author but that’s not always the case. Looking for the author in Google may give the user a helping hand. Also considering the source is a big help as you can tell if it is an organization, government, education etc.

When you first see the site, ask yourself, ‘what is the purpose of this site?’ Usually most sites have some sort of reasoning for being there. Sometimes it could throw you off track. The information could be there to sell you something or to persuade you, diverting you from gaining the information that you really want. Seeing if the information is a document will be a very handy tool, because you see if the information is good or not.

Seeing if the site is well organised and contains no spelling mistakes goes a long way in proving if the site is a good one or not. Having the links working and whether the links contain information that is useful and dependable just proves that the information is more than reliable. Comparing it to encyclopaedia can be helpful. Why look on the net when you can easily find the information in an encyclopaedia? Having the graphics there only to guide you is another thing. If the graphics distract you, the information becomes harder to believe.

Having an idea if the information is designed for the web is a good one. Ask yourself, ‘is the information originally put here for the purpose of the website or was it gained from somewhere else?’ If it was for something else, what was it? That something could be easily found somewhere else, or that the information may have been misinterpreted.


http://www.hippy.com/php/sitetopics.php?topic=1
Accuracy- the information is not documented thus I don’t think the information is accurate. Take this for example, I would find it hard a president would say this about their own country.


Authority- from the site I cannot find anything that is related to who wrote and what there credentials are. Thus the information to me is useless and unworthy.

Purpose- the point of view was about stopping people from going to Vietnam War so the point of view was against the Vietnam War.


Detail and design- the information that is given is very large. It provides a large amount of links to other sites and also within itself. The site is set up semi professional but has signs up asking for sponsors.


Overall- I find it hard with this task. The information that is given seems to be reliable. Just some aspects of it I find hard to believe. I think that the information can not be that reliable as there is no referencing.

http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/sixties/index.html

Accuracy- the information that is given seems to be very accurate. The reason why I say this is because it seems to be believable and also it states who wrote it at the bottom.


Authority- as I said previously the author is given which is the University of Virginia, making the information more believable.

Purpose- the purpose of the site is to inform the user about the 60’s. It doesn’t seem to be in a harsh way, just to give general information.

Detail and design- the detail and design seem to be very good. To me, it was set out by a uni student. It is easy to read.

Overall- I think that this information is reasonable. What gives it away the most to me would have to be the URL, which has EDU in it, hinting that its an educational source.



READINGS

The readings did not need to be recorded. In a general overview, the readings were about Evaluating Internet information and finding out if the information that is presented to you is quality or not.

Week 7, Using the WWW, 11-09-2007

LECTURE

The week seven lecture was about the World-Wide Web (www), and the Internet (net). This lecture also covered the history, web protocols and also web browsers. One of the first points in the lecture was, what www and the net actually were. The www is very different to the net according to Justine Freeman. The www is only a small portion of the net. The www could not exist without the help of the net. The reason for this is because the net links the computers together, where as the www is used to gain documents. The net was created in 1989 by Tim Berber-Lee for the reason of sharing information and also web development. This best states; “the information is available through a gigantic network called the Internet.”

The www has a range of protocols that it follows. The protocols that it abides by are the following, TCP/IP, HTTP, DNS and also URL. Another thing that many people recognise whilst using the www is the where the information came from. Using the URL, I can get a better understanding if the information is from a certain country, its type of domain - is it a business?, etc. Everyone that uses the www uses some sort of web browser. This is simply a template, which you are able to use to surf the web. One tool that is located on the web browsers is the place to type in an address. This allows you to go to other places on the www. All of the browsers have the same function but a different layout, but they practically all do the same thing.

TUTE
The tute was abput internet making information seem real. This is the first website I went to and parts of the website that made it seem real:


By l_mason at 2007-10-28

They have put in information about the haggis making it seem like the creature is real.



Selling of clothing



Shows the different species and looks professional



Showing of prizes that could be won.

Republic of Molossia and that parts of the website that make it seem real:



The URL makes it seem authentic



The country has some sort of national flag



It has information about the country.



It has gone to length of giving the temperature and also the weather conditions.

Martin Luther King website

From the URL, it looks like the information will be authentic. From the URL the type of clues would be that it is an organization and would be for his memory.

My first impressions were amazed and confused. At first I thought that it would say good information about Martin Luther King, but I was very much wrong. The information that was presented was very negative. It seemed as though every word that was in it was a negative point of view of him. The articles that are contained in the website just promote the wrongdoing he allegedly did. All of the information that was put on there was to harm the credability he has had.


READINGS

Search Engine Watch Tutorials - This reading is all about helping users with search engines. It also provides other websites as other research engines. This website provides an array of information through links in making search engine use easier.

History of the WWW (from the W3C) - The heading of the reading says it all. This reading is about the history of the www. It gives information about the history from 1945 to 1995. At the bottom of the link it also provides links for further history on the topic.

History of the World-wide Web - Yet again the heading pretty much tells what this topic is about. With this website, it is set out more professional. On the sidebars it gives links to other parts of the site. Also this website seems to give more coverage of information.

Week 6, Information Management, 04-09-2007

The week 6 lecture was all about Endnote. From the lecture, Justin discussed about what endnote is, how it works, why use endnote and gave an example in front of the whole lecture how to do one. The main point about endnote is to make life easier. Endnote is a program that can be accessed on ECU’s computers and also be downloaded off the Internet. The use of endnote is to reference. What you do is place the needed information in the boxes provided and the program automatically moves the information around correctly to the APA 5th. This program makes life so much easier so a student that is doing an assignment doesn’t have to spend hours on end writing the reference list.

The main point of having a reference list is to give your work evidence and also to give the readers a place to go to get their information according to Justin. Many people lose marks over incorrect use of referencing and this program takes that element of risk out if used correctly. It is another way of managing your information. When you do an assignment, you will have many references, so different files can be set up to store this information. To find it again is very easy as the information is stored in alphabetical order. One major thing, which is highly pushed by Justin is that all information must be backed up encase something happens and you lose all your work to numerous problems.

The program is not very hard at all to use, but in saying that you are not expected to know how to use the program straight away and get a hang of it. “Have fun” was strongly recommended by Justin as a tool to discover how to use the program and getting use to it. Another helpful hint is to use standalone application. There are two different methods of using endnote and the other is integrated in MS word, but first time users should not use this as it may cause confusion. Standalone is the method of tracking your references and also eliminate any clutter.

This is a very good and useful program. As a high school leaver I never learnt how to reference properly. In UPC0003 we did an assignment on referencing. I found it a bit hard to work out which headings I should put in italics etc. This program just takes out the element of risk that is involved in typing up the references, which will give me a bit more confidence in what I am doing. Also as a first time user of referencing I will take long periods of time in writing up the simplest ones. I would assume that this program would halve the amount of time I need in making up a reference list.

The tutorial was manly about getting use to the program. In the tutorial we had to do eight different references. Theses references where all mixed up, in different formats. The end products are as follow:

By l_mason at 2007-09-10

By l_mason at 2007-09-10

By l_mason at 2007-09-10

By l_mason at 2007-09-10

By l_mason at 2007-09-10

By l_mason at 2007-09-10

By l_mason at 2007-09-10

By l_mason at 2007-09-10


I found this task a little difficult as I found it hard to work out what type of reference each one was. I believe that most were journals as couple were conferences.

For week six there was no resources for readings. The information that was provided was mainly for endnote. The point of this resources is to provide first time users how to use endnote. It provides arrange of information on templates, tips, styles etc.