Web Hoaxes

The article “Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet” is an eye opening article that illustrates problems with fictitious websites on the internet that I did not know existed. I knew that there were some sites that seemed fictitious or not 100% accurate but I did not know that there were sites that were devoted to such idiotic ideas as lip balm addiction. I also agree with the statement that there are many sites which contain accurate information for the most part but may have errors due to poor editing which could mislead or misinform its readers. These sights are not bad but the sites that try to fool readers on purpose and sell products or ideas that are completely false should be eliminated from the internet, but there is no way to do this. One website that came to mind when I was reading this article is “LegalSteroids.com”. This website attempts to sell every banned steroid in the United States “legally”. Anyone who would seriously try to order products from this site and give them a credit card number would have to be out of their mind. Although the products seem legit and the site is somewhat professional looking, there is something about it that just tells you it is trouble. There are sites that are fake that are not harmful or deceitful that can be for shear amusement of readers such as Edreport.com as listed in the reading. This site was created by two creative writers who wanted to entertain readers while voicing opinions. There is a line that should not be crossed as far as funny/fictitious sites and harmful/illegal/deceitful sites that do nothing positive for the internet and society.

news article 10

On Friday, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank and senior member Ron Paul announced the introduction of legislation to prohibit the federal government from issuing regulations called for in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The legislation, H.R. 5767, will forbid the secretary of the Treasury and the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System from proposing, prescribing, or implementing any regulation that requires the financial services industry to identify and block internet gambling transactions. There have been issues dealing with internet gambling for the last few years because there is really no way to control what people do with their own money and by u sing the internet they can gamble on sites run from over-seas. According to Ron Paul the Act of 2006 infringes on two basic rights of Americans: freedom from the government regulating our internet use, and the right to do what we want with our own money. These two reasons are solid grounds for getting rid of the Act because honestly what is the harm in people spending their own money gambling? The internet allows us to gamble with/against people in other countries and makes it so we do not have to go to Vegas to go on a gambling spree. I think that the main concern with the Act of 2006 is the rights of Americans. The expense of enforcing the regulations is an unnecessary cost for our country and we should focus on more significant issues than someone losing their money on an online poker site etc.

news article 9

A group of teenagers who videotaped a beating of a fellow teenage girl were arrested in Lakeland Florida last week. The father of the victim is blaming the internet in general for the beating of his daughter because of the popularity of youtube videos about fighting and beatings that lure kids today. What is disturbing is that one of the teens was heard saying “make it good”, meaning they wanted the video to be something that would be good to watch on the internet and would get lots of attention. The internet is putting a spotlight on lots of illegal activities as far as videos on youtube go because children can access the site and watch gruesome fights and even see people being killed and they feel that there is nothing wrong with this behavior. I would have to agree with the father of the victim as he feels the internet is to blame because of its appeal to teens and the desire to see videos of brutality. However, it is the fault of those who put these videos on the internet not the websites themselves. Youtube could edit and not allow such videos but then it would lose its popularity. This is just another situation where there are lines of what is right and acceptable and what should not be allowed on the internet. Seeing young teens making videos of brutality is disturbing, however our society is entertained by such things and there is no easy way to edit material being put on the internet today.

reading #4

The answer to the question, “can wikipedia ever make the grade?” is not a question with a simple answer. The online encyclopedia that can be used by anyone with internet access and can also be updated and have information added by anyone with internet access has had a reputation for supplying many false statements and false information. However, recent studies are showing that the information on wikipedia is actually fairly accurate and is almost as accurate as the encyclopedia Britannica. A study performed by the journal Nature, showed that the average amount of errors in an encyclopedia Britannica article was three while the wikipedia only averaged four. Alexander M.C. Halavais, an assistant professor of communications at Quinnipiac College tried to design his own experiment to see how well wikipedia edited information added by adding articles with completely false information and bogus stats. The errors he added in his articles were found within hours and deleted from the site, showing that wikipedia is trying hard to become a credible source of information that can be used in research and not seen as an error filled source of information.
If professors and scholars would help by adding their research or helping share their knowledge on wikipedia the site would become a much more credible source and could rid itself of its bad reputation. Of the 40,000 contributing members only about 1,000 list themselves as graduate students and hardly any list themselves as professors. If more scholars add information then the information will be more accurate and trustworthy which will help wikipedia make the grade it desires to obtain.

internet grooming

South Wales Police in the Vale of Glamorgan are reminding parents to be aware of the dangers their children may face when using the popular internet chat-room sites such as Facebook and Bebo. Police say millions of children divulge personal information over internet chat-room sites and openly talk to anyone oblivious of the dangers that could be around them. However, parents are oblivious to what their children are doing on the internet and what information they are putting out there for the world to read. With the access to the internet becoming increasingly easier through Schools, Libraries and Internet Cafes as well as at home combined with an increase in the number of online chat-rooms, internet crime has seen a marked increase. Children are leaving themselves open to the dangers of online grooming. Popular sites such as Facebook and Myspace are very dangerous because now anyone can create an account and it is very easy to access other’s information. The internet is a great tool and is very helpful in many areas but it is also a dangerous and scary thing as far as privacy is concerned. The Virtual Global Taskforce is a website made up of police from around the world dedicated to fighting child abuse online. Its main goal is to build an effective, international partnership of law enforcement agencies which helps to protect children from online child abuse. These type of task forces are a innovative way to interact and see what children are being exposed to. There are profiles created to bate abusers and try to lure them into giving away their location and their motives. More parents need to be aware of what their childr4n are doing online and be protective of the information that they are putting out there for the world to read.

Infodiet

The comparison of Google to a fast food restaurant the way college students tend to lean toward the “quick” and “easy” way of learning is a great comparison because I can closely relate with the idea. When trying to write multiple papers or do research for projects it is sometimes inconvenient to spend loads of time doing the extensive research and working with the library search engines much like when you are in a hurry you swing by McDonalds instead of cooking a healthy meal at home. Also, I agree that though it is easy, the information found on Google or other non-educational search engines is often not accurate and can make papers not as strong and less accurate.
If libraries and librarians could somehow make the academic search engines easier to navigate I believe that students would be more likely to lean towards the academic engines than the Google’s and other popular search engines. We tend to go for the easy and quick route because often our time to write multiple papers is limited and taking extra time to do “academic” search when we can use other engines we chose the easy way out.
Another good point brought up in this article is that more often than not the professors who are giving out assignments and requiring research to be done do not know how to use the search engines that they are expecting their student to use. If students and professors alike will both lean toward the academic search engines and have a better understanding of how they are used, the learning process will be easier and the quality of work will also increase.

youtube.com problems

This weekend Youtube.com was temporarily shut down due to the Pakistan government officials believing that the site was airing digital images that were putting down the Islamic religion. Originally the shutdown was just for Pakistan but accidentally the entire website was put out of order while trying to apply the censorship. Critics believe that the “mix-up” was not so accidental but more a way of Pakistan showing that it was in power of this site and they could eliminate one of the most popular websites with ease. I think that the excuse of having negative images of the Islamic faith is a mere excuse to have a slight power trip and show the rest of the world that they had power. Most people do not know where websites are based out of or how they are controlled so when things like this happen it can be a red flag to users. There is somewhat of a trust factor with the internet because so much information is available out there. A nation state or other adversary could stir up diplomatic trouble by toying with this sort of trust built into the Internet. What would our government make of it if all of a sudden all traffic destined for .gov domains wound up in China or North Korea? We do not stop to think about these things when we are using the internet day to day and it can be an eye opener to see incidents such as the youtube.com closing. We should be wary and think about how we use the internet and what we allow to be made public.

2-14

A committee of Dallas City Council members unanimously recommended Tuesday that city libraries install Internet monitoring software on its publicly accessible computers. At first the committee had considered using more restrictive filters that actively block Web content, such as pornography. There has been much concern with the content of internet web pages being accessed in the public libraries and this new monitoring software should help to eliminate the possibility of internet misusage. The recommended monitoring software would send an electronic message to librarians and Internet users alike when possibly inappropriate content is accessed on a public library computer. There are instances when a site must be accessed for research and is not necessarily pornography, but this new software will alert the librarians allowing them to make a decision whether or not the material is appropriate. The proposed monitoring software would allow library patrons to choose whether to continue to the selected Web sites after being notified, on-screen, that they've accessed potentially objectionable content, such as sexually explicit images. The software would also automatically send a message to a librarian's computer when suspected inappropriate content is accessed on the Internet. Librarians could then request an Internet user to stop accessing material they deem in violation of the library's internal service policy.
I think that this software is a smart way of monitoring the usage of the internet in the public setting. It is one thing for someone to view inappropriate material on their own computer but to do so at a public library where children or someone who may object to such material is not acceptable.

Middle East Blackouts

Multiple internet blackouts overseas are beginning to concern those in the global internet community. The cable breaks have been causing a growing buzz on technical blogs and drawing attention from conspiracy theorists, who suspect everything from information warfare to terrorism to sabotage by the United States to take out Internet connections to Iran, whose connectivity indeed has been pretty much blacked out for most of the past week. Personally I think that it is coincidental that these blackouts are occurring in the Middle East, but that is just my opinion. Many skeptics believe that the US has sabotaged lines and cables to affect the Middle East, especially Iraq and Iran. These blackouts have affected over 80 million internet users. A group of workers says that it will take about two weeks to repair the problems in the fiber optic cables that have been the cause of the blackouts.
Many believe that these blackouts are not an accident and that it could be a terrorist attempt to cripple banks and other information systems over seas. Despite all the conspiracy speculation, such breaks are not without precedence. In December 2006, seven of the eight Internet cables connected to Taiwan were damaged by an earthquake. Internet communications in much of Asia were disrupted for weeks. However, these blackouts have been a wake up call, and have focused on the vulnerability of the over seas systems. I don’t think that it is a terrorist action or a attempt at sabotaging the internet for those in the middle east but I could be wrong. Over the next few days officials will be investigating the situation further.

2-5

We as college students are surrounded by information yet we do not take advantage of the research capabilities we are supplied with. I agree with the point being made in the article “Information Navigation 101” on the point of college students being somewhat oblivious when it comes to research material and where to go to find accurate information. My first year I had no idea that we had so many resources available in the library and relied on Google or other public websites to draw information. As freshman on the baseball team we were all required ten hours of study hall per week but none of us used the library and the databases that were available because we either did not know how to use them, or we did not know that they were available. I would have classified myself as illiterate as far as scholarly research materials are concerned. A lot of websites seem as if they are scholarly and are good sources, but there is no proof that the information is accurate and can be used in papers etc.
UNCW should implement an information literacy program like Cal State Fullerton did which would allow incoming freshman to gain a solid base for evaluating information and have a chance to be more literate as far as researching. After four years I know which programs are helpful and which type of sites are not helpful in research. But if a class was offered or even mandatory for new students there would be much more information being taken in and a better chance for education.

Internet and Libraries

On Thursday, Verizon Wireless was recognized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors for their creation of an internet program for Elizabeth city (New Jersey) residents to access the web for free. Under a program called Innovative Access - Expanding Opportunities and Creating Effective Services, Verizon provided more than $200,000 in computer equipment and deeply discounted Internet access rates for the city's libraries. The city, in turn, is making Internet access available to tens of thousands of residents, including more than 13,000 who are participating in the Innovative Access program at the libraries. The Elizabeth Main Public Library installed 200 computer stations throughout the building. All are networked through the Innovative Access program. The Innovative Access program uses Verizon's Access New Jersey network, which connects with points around the state and around the world. Over the past several years, Verizon has invested more than $150 million in the program. The initiative has been used in multiple ways including connecting families in New Jersey with military members stationed abroad, as well as connecting researchers in the Panamanian rain forest with numerous classrooms in New Jersey.
This project by Verizon goes to further show the importance of libraries and their ability to help educate the public. By having free internet access portals, Verizon and Elizabeth City are helping underprivileged people gain the access to internet and information that they would never be able to have without this program. If more companies would team up with libraries to up their information technology and its availability, education and information would be easier to access resulting in a more educated public.

Librarians are far from obsolete and still are very important in order for students to achieve a solid education. However, students are not the only people who are in need of librarians. As stated in the article, “Are Librarians Totally Obsolete”, there are 33 reasons listed why we need librarians. You could probably come up with even more reasons that librarians are a necessity if you stopped to think how many times you have needed assistance in the library while a student at UNCW. I have had to ask numerous times for not only locations of books, locations of class rooms, but also help in using the library databases.
The internet has tons of information, but how much of this is actually reliable? You can find information on blog sites and websites that sounds accurate but how can we know for sure if the person writing this is a reliable source? In libraries we can ask a librarian for help on searching for books relative to a subject or even finding a reliable internet source. It can be overwhelming when researching and not having the help of someone to point you in the right direction and give you advice to ease your troubles. Librarian’s knowledge is not limited to books but they also know the internet in and out making them an incredible tool that needs to be used in the future. Technology is prevalent in all walks of life, but what is technology without someone to help you figure it out? Librarians are not obsolete and will not become this way anytime soon.

Teachers in the state of Washington are working together in an effort to pass a bill that would keep the libraries from suffering due to budget cutting. The argument for keeping librarians and the libraries themselves are that students today need library assistance in order to stay up to date on their learning and to have a better chance to learn outside of the classroom. A quote from a Washington middle school teacher states that without libraries and the ability to work with technology, students could be set back and facing a serious deficiency in their lives.
The bill that is being pushed by teachers would supply a $12 state fund for each student which would cover costs for materials. Also, they are trying to have a set amount of librarians at each school to ensure students are being helped and have the best chances to learn. In the Olympia school district, there are very few full-time librarians. The majority of the library workers are teachers who serve part-time as librarians. They take shifts and usually there are two or three teacher/librarians per school. At each level of schools the librarian jobs are being eliminated which only means that the kids are being limited in their resources at an even earlier age.
The bill being pushed is Senate Bill 6380 and was addressed this afternoon. I do not know what the results are yet but obviously there is a need for libraries in our schools. Students need to have access not only to books but to the internet to allow for the best learning environment possible.