Assignment 6 - Quality and "Credibility of Web Sites Amy Hartwell July 30,2011
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Can I find relevant information about the author? Do they have the expertise to publish the information? Better-Whois.com information describes who registered the site, the name and address of the organization behind the site, contact information and server information.
Transcript of Assignment 6 - Quality and "Credibility of Web Sites Amy Hartwell July 30,2011
FIVE W ‘S AND AN H OF
WEB SEARCHINGExploring the Web can be a fun and easy
way to learn new information. With a click of your mouse you can enter a
world far away!Let’s look at some questions on how to be
safe as you explore…..
WHO DOES THIS WEBSITE BELONG
TO?
Can I find relevant information about the author? Do they have the expertise to publish the information? Better-Whois.com information describes who registered
the site, the name and address of the organization behind the site, contact information and server information.
http://www.betterwhois.com/
WHO?
WHAT?What is the purpose?
Look around the page. What do you see?
What are the advertisements, links and other information?
You can find out which sites link to a specific Web page by going to a search engine
and entering a "link:" command in the search box, followed by the Web page's
address (URL).
You can see the pages linked which will help decide the validity of the page.
Links to a site can give much information. You can determine the intention of the
author and the opinion of the site.
Take a look!
Where? Where does the site originate?
• Learn to deconstruct a Uniform Resource Locator (better known as a URL or "site address"). We’ll use the Media Awareness Network URL as an example:
http/www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/index.cfm
http/www.• The "http" notation indicates that this is a hypertext
document (as most online documents are). The "www" is short form for the "World Wide Web," where all Web sites reside.
The second part of a URL contains the domain name of the person or organization hosting the Web site - in this case, media-awareness. The ".ca" which follows indicates that the site is hosted by a Canadian institution.
www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/index.cfm
The last section maps out the pathway of directories and sub directories leading to the page you are on. For this particular page on the Media Awareness Network site, "english/" indicates that you are on the English part of the site. The final URL entry ("teachers") indicates the name of the page or document you have arrived at. "cfm" indicates the code or format the page was created in (in this case, Cold Fusion Markup).
WHEN? WHEN IS THE INFORMATION USEFUL?These are some key questions you may
ask:When was the site originated?When was it last updated? Is the information complete and accurate?When would you use the information
provided?Are there hyperlinks, where do the go and do
they all work?
Why am I at this site?Why am I using this page?Why was this message sent?
Why? Why do I need to validate this information?
HOW?HOW DO I MAKE SEARCHING
SAFE?
Who is the author?What is the purpose?Where did the site originate?When is the information dated?Why has this page been published?
Knowing these points is how you make a safer search for information.
Congratulations!!
Let’s examine two sites.You determine which one you
consider to be a reliable source.
http://www.martinlutherking.org/
1http://www.mlkonline.net/
2
Who? What? Where? When? Why?martinlutherking.org
The author isThe purpose isThe site originatedThe site is updated toThe information is
White nationalistshare info on MLKStormfront.orgno date shownpolitically biased
Who? What? Where? When? Why?
mlkonline.net
The author isThe purpose isThe site originated
The site is updated toThe information is
mlkonline.net
share info on MLKIntellectual Properties
Mgt Estate of Martin Luther King Jr.
no date shownhistorically based
Brief Descriptor for EdwebI chose these two sites to show how two sites with the same subject can have a
vastly different wealth of information.
martinlutherking.org
Much of the criteria for website analysisproved this was not a validunbiased site. The site that supports it isa white supremacist organization. Thelinks either pointed to like-mindedauthors or were not operable. If a personused this site they need to make sure it is examined with careful eyes and viewwith the biased perspective that it iswritten.
mlkonline.net
The information from this site came from a organization that was licensed by his estate. Although there may still be some biased, the information is accurate. Thelinks seemed to work correctly and werelinked to a variety of sites. I wassurprised at the copyright that it did notallow reproduction for educationalpurposes.
