Lesson 12: WWW (Part II)


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	Lesson 12 WWW Part II

Lesson 12: WWW (PART TWO)

"I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts." -- Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

Ok, back to work - and fun!

There are are a number of important issues that face the individual browsing the web. Finding information easily, concerns about security (See Lesson 8), determining the quality of the information you find, copyright issues, and knowing what information services are available, - these and others are all questions that arise once browsing starts to become second nature . This lesson will point out some important ideas as you navigate the web.

And in the end, as a town officer, you have to ask why browse the web at all? Yes, that link to the NASA site was fun and all, but what has that got to do with the doings in a town office? The answer is: Information services.

Much of what happens in a town office is driven by information. It used to be that if you wanted information generated at the state government level you had to actually go to Montpelier to get it. Or, barring that, you had to phone in, or mail a request for that information then wait for that information to get to you via the US mail. Now, with the advent of the World Wide Web, and its skyrocketing popularity, more and more information that could be of use to you is available on the web. This means that your response time to the needs of your town can be cut down by days in some cases.

And, that is just the basics. Having access to the World Wide Web does not limit you to just what you need. With this kind of access you now have the ability to hunt for ideas . When faced with problems or projects, for which you may have no precedent, you are not limited to looking just where you live, or even at the state level. You can get up on the web and look for documents posted by others from all over the world who just might have already dealt with just what you are faced with. You can look and see their success, and their failures. You can avoid the pitfalls others may have been dumped into. The ability to find information, be inspired by others ideas, and to communicate with the whole world at the cost of a local phone call and your ISP fees - that is power of the World Wide Web.

Finding Information

There are a lot of tools out there to find information. The following lesson (Lesson 13) will be on search strategies, so watch for that lesson for a more comprehensive help with searching. But in the interim, use the tools below as starting points for finding information.

For listings of web sites that are organized by subject category, try Yahoo at:

http://www.yahoo.com

Also, it is possible for you to do keyword searches (much like the Veronica searches we did) using one of the Web's many search engines. A search engine is a software tool that searches for and organizes web documents. One of the best Web search engines is Digital's Altavista at:

http://www.altavista.digital.com

Also try Hotbot at:

http://www.hotbot.com

Another good search tool is the Northern Light. The Northern Light's URL is

http://www.northernlight.com/

Is the Information Any Good?

Just because the information is on the Web doesn't mean it is a quality resource. As news media often present an angle to the news, or omit key aspects of stories, this can also be true on the Web. Being a good information consumer is a good skill to have these days.

I'm including some tips to consider as you look at websites: (From Elizabeth E. Kirk, "Evaluating Information Found on the Internet")

Who wrote the document or site?

Is the author viewed favorably in the field or by trusted authorities in that field?
Is the document linked from a trusted site?
Is there biographical information supporting the expertese of the author?

Where was the information published?

Is the site a respected authority or organization in the field of your interest?
Is the page on an individual's site, or part of a reputable organization's site?
Was the document reviewed by peers or by other authorities?

Point of view

How invested is the organization or individual responsible for the article, in the projection of a viewpoint that will serve their own interests?
What might those interests be?
How controversial is the topic? The more controversial the topic, the more likely there is a bias.

Other Points:

- Does the article refer to other resources, or is aware of the literature on the subject?

- Is there a description of the research methods or the means of collecting the data in the article?

- Is the information verifiable from another source?

- How current is the information?

- If the information was gathered from a search engine, know that some search engines are paid to return sites to the top of the list. The most accurate or unbiased may not be the first one located.

See the references below for more information.

If you use information from the Web, know that it is the intellectual property of the originator of that resource. It should not be used without consent, or without proper citation.

In general, use the four factor fair use criteria to determine if you can use materials. These are guidelines only, and legal advice is recommended. (From Georgia Harper "Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials", http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/copypol2.htm )

Ask yourself: the following questions when considering the use of published materials.

1. What is the character of the use?

Low Risk
Nonprofit
Educational
Personal

Medium Risk
Criticism
Commentary
Newsreporting
Parody
Otherwise "transformative" use

High Risk
Commercial

2. What is the nature of the work to be used?

Low Risk
Fact/ Published

Medium Risk
A mixture of fact and imaginative

High Risk
Imaginative/Unpublished

3. How much of the work will you use?

Low Risk - Small amount of the material

Higher Risk - More than a small amount of the material

4. What effect would this use have on the market for the original or for permissions if the use were widespread?

This is a tricky area. Determine with the above factors, whether your copyright use is balanced toward fair use or not. Use this question to tip the scales one way or the other.

Low Risk

After evaluation of the first three factors, the proposed use is tipping towards fair use

Medium Risk

Original is out of print or otherwise unavailable - and/or -

There is no ready market for permission - and/or -

High Risk

Competes with (takes away sales from) the original - and/or -

Avoids payment for permission (royalties) in an established permissions market

How do I know what's out there?

There are always a lot of new tools and resources on the Web. It's constantly growing. To keep open to the new developments on the web, periodically browse to the following resources to see what might benefit you. The newspapers often are sources for new information sources. Many Sunday editions have a section on Cyberspace, or the WWW environment.

The What's New sections on web index pages are good sources such as Yahoo's What's new at: http://dir.yahoo.com/new/

Also, gateway organizations or sites on the topic areas of your interest are good ways to find reviews of sites. Ie. the best movie reviews, or the best of the web resources such as:

http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Searching_the_Web/Indices_to_Web_Documents/Best_of_the_Web/

Enjoy your searching and browsing

SOURCES

WWW FAQ Part 1 - August 94, available from the University of Alabama's LISTSERV file server (GET WWW FAQ1 F= MAIL).

Jacobson and Cohen, "Evaluating Internet Resources", http://library.albany.edu/internet/evaluate.html, University of Albany Libraries. April,1996. Accessed March, 2001

Michael Engle, "Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools", http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html , Cornell University. 2000. Accessed March, 2001

Elizabeth E. Kirk, "Evaluating Information Found on the Internet". Purdue University. http://milton.mse.jhu.edu/research/education/net.html 2001. Accessed March, 2001

Georgia Harper "Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials", http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/copypol2.htm , Accessed March 2001.

HOMEWORK
Using any browser, go to Yahoo, and find the Site called "Browser Watch", which describes the different types of web browsers available. Look at Browser Boulevard on their site to see the different types of browsers compared.

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