MODULE 5

Information Ecologies.

Here we are provided with a few readings discussing "information ecology" and are asked to reflect on the following questions regarding the metaphor of the "ecology":

• how might the metaphor of an ‘ecology’ impact on the way you think about, understand or use the Internet?


• how are the concepts ‘information’ and ‘communication’ understood within the framework of an ‘information ecology’?


• why don’t we talk of a ‘communication ecology’?

The idea of "ecology" when speaking of the internet is an interesting one. If we first consider the definition of the word ecology, the way the internet has evolved along with the way pepople use it can in fact be related to as an ecology.

The internet is made up of various communities, whether it be social communities or our own NET 11 community, these communities are ever changing. Ecology depends on shared knowledge to aid in evolution, take our little community as an example; many of us have a varying degree of expertise or knowledge in a particular area. To enable our other classmates to understand our own individual strengths, it is vital that the information be shared amongst those less knowledable than yourself. By providing the knowledge you have, it enables others to expand on their own skills and knowledge, thereby, eventually leading to that knowledge being added to as well as passed along to yet more members of the community.

This passing of knowledge allows new users to adapt more easily to how they understand the internet, and perhaps, down the track add to or develop new ways of internet use or information. Within our Net 11 community there are many people who are knowledable or have expertise in the area of web page design or html, css etc. With their knowledge being passed on to the rest of us, we are better able to understand how coding and web page design works. Without expertise, but more importantly, shared knowledge, the internet as an ecology would not exist. It would be unable to evolve without the contribution and implementation of new ideas. As I related to in my concepts assignment, updates are vital in protecting your computer from Malware etc. Security programs and anti-virus software etc, would not be able to be improved upon unless there were new viruses etc to protect our computers from, so in other words, the more malicious the virus, the better able we are to come up with a superior protection service.

From this we can determine that information is ever changing, although the information is passed on via communication, it is not the communication that changes, rather the way we communicate, whether it be by phone, face to face, e-mail etc, it is the technology and the iformation which evolves which is why I think we do not refer to communication as an ecology.

Module 4

Evaluating The Web.

In this task, we were asked to firstly follow a tutorial on web evaluation and then choose a site from the last task to reflect on according to the tips and pointers in the tutorial.

I decided to use Lee Ratzen's journal article on internet metaphors. Based on the above image, I evaluated this site accordingly.

The purpose of this article is an information research paper for a information and library studies course from Reutgers University which looks at various case studies about uses of metaphors related to the internet. Lee Ratzen's article was submitted to a peer review based site called Information Research.net, which publishes informative journal articles. Articles are only published if passed by the editors in a review. The editors decide if the papers are informative enough to warrant publishing. The information contained in the article is unbiased and the coverage of the topic is extensive and easy to comprehend.

The paper was last updated in July 2000, so is relatively current. The site is cited by 13 people in del.ici.ous and 12 people according to google scholar, which indicates the quality of the article.

CONCEPTS ASSIGNMENT

Concept #7 Netiquette
Good communication practice on the Internet is not something one “learns”, but something one “practices” so as to teach others, less familiar than yourself, how it is done.(Allen, n.d)


So what is Netiquette? As the word suggests, it is etiquette on the internet. There are certain “rules” when communicating via the internet, whether it is communication via e-mail, discussion boards or instant messaging. This is because when we are communicating online, the recipient doesn’t have the ability to see the facial expressions we use or hear the tone in our voices, all they see is the text we send them. Rules vary from community to community; however, the basic rules are generally all the same.


“The Core Rules of Netiquette:

Rule 1: Remember the Human
Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behaviour online that you follow in real life.
Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace
Rule 4: Respect other people’s time and bandwidth.
Rule 5: Make yourself look good online.
Rule 6: Share expert knowledge.
Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control.
Rule 8: Respect other people’s privacy
Rule 9: Don’t abuse your power.
Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people’s mistakes.”(Shea, 1994)



Let’s look a little closer at some of these rules; we do at times seem to forget that we are actually communicating with another human, not an inanimate object, so before sending your communication, ask yourself if that is what you’d say to the person’s face. A great idea for getting across your mood or tone is to use emoticons when you can.

Keeping your behaviour the same online as you do in real life is something a lot of people do not follow, we teach our children from a very young age to treat others as they would want to be treated. It is no different on the internet. If you do not engage in criminal activity in real life, don’t engage in criminal activity online, yes there are crimes you can get into serious trouble over, for example, downloading music, which is costing artists and record companies millions of dollars in losses every year.
Before deciding to jump right in and participate in a group or community, have a look around first, listen to others who are already there, or read the archives. Acceptable behaviour varies from group to group, so become familiar with the respective behaviours and then you will fit right in with other members.

One of my pet hates is chain mail; they are a complete waste of time and never work anyway. As soon as I get an e-mail that says “pass this on to 10 friends or you will have a bad life” I straight away click the delete button. Not only are these e-mails annoying, they are a complete waste of time. In today’s society, people are very busy and their time is limited, it’s polite to keep that in mind. I know I have better things to do than send 10 e-mails to friends who will probably do the same as I do and delete them.

Basically, Netiquette is simply using manners to get along with others you communicate with online, something that we are taught from a very young age. The idea of chat groups and the like is to make friends isn’t it? Sometimes in real life, there are people we don’t get along with, but do we antagonize those people? Usually the answer to this question is no, most of us keep our distance from such people, do the same online. As long as you follow these simple guidelines and behave in an appropriate manner, your online experience should be a pleasant one.

Site 1:
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html (retrieved June 26, 2008)

This site is the home of Albion books, the publishers of Virginia Shea’s “Netiquette”. I found this site to be a wealth of knowledge on Netiquette. Although Shea’s book was published in 1994, the basic rules still apply. The information gives great insight for new internet users on what’s acceptable online and what’s not. When I first started using the internet, and in particular chat sites, I was quite confused about some of the terminology, things like: asl, lol, brb, ttyl, ty, yw, bbs, and rofl. Had I known of Netiquette, and researched first, I wouldn’t have found it so confusing.

Site 2:
http://www.propertytraining.com.au/rsg/g_netiquette.html (retrieved June 25, 2008)

This site was a more technical one, explaining more about netiquette for a number of areas, such as e-mail skills, web skills, discussion skills and general skills. This explains things such as notifying people upon receipt of an e-mail, how to write, read, and check e-mail before sending it. When I first started using e-mail, I stuck to the format we use for writing letters and sending them via the post or “snail-mail” as people now refer to it. Basically, we were taught at school how to write a letter in the proper manner, writing e-mail is basically the same principal.

Concept#17:The Impact of Text-based Real-Time Chat.
Communicating in real-time with text enables a form of ‘authoring of the self’ that is similar to the processes of face-to-face speech but which is much more amenable to authorial control, experimentation and reflection. Further, text-based communication carries with it the possibility for multiple, differing conversations occurring simultaneously, relying on the ability of the human brain to deal with text much better than speech.(Allen, n.d)

Text-based chat as we know it today began its popular rise in the mid 1990’s with the introduction of ICQ in 1996. Since then, the appearance of similar programs has increased, but is not limited to strictly text-based chat, recently, ‘virtual worlds’ such as ‘IMVU’ and ‘Second Life’ have emerged. So why are they so popular and can they have an impact on our lives, either positively or negatively?

Some reasons why this type of communication has become popular may be:
*the ability to communicate synchronously
*the ability to hold multiple conversations at the same time
*no matter how many conversations you hold at the one time, it doesn’t cost you any extra.
*conversations can be carried out with multiple users, known as conferencing, which saves the user time by not having to re-type their conversation to each separate contact.
* the ability to ‘interact’ with fellow chatters, especially those which provide ‘avatars’ in virtual worlds.
* the ability to create ‘fantasy lives’, perhaps participating in activities one wouldn’t participate in, in the real world.
* the ability to save conversations to re-visit at a later date

But is this type of communication healthy for us? There are numerous studies and articles speaking of Internet addiction, though some believe it is real, others do not. Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, principal author of the study on internet addiction says they decided to undertake the study because of “an alarming rise in patients seeking treatment for excessive computer use”. He goes on to say that "We don't definitively know right now if it is clinically addictive, but it certainly seems that (computer compulsion) problems are widespread." Many psychologists believe that spending too much time on the internet, whether it be surfing or engaging in social interaction, can have a detrimental effect on our personal lives and mental well being, however, it is not known if the internet is contributing to this or the user was predisposed to mental health issues prior to engaging in online activity. It is known though that when the time spent on the internet is starting to effect real-life relationships, that there is definitely a problem. Conversely, there are studies showing that real time chat improves the way people interact socially in the real world. Being able to speak freely as an “anonymous” user, gives that person the confidence required to interact more capably in a face-to-face situation. Interacting online also aids in a user being able to overcome shyness, thereby increasing their social circle.

Since the introduction of instant messaging, some believe that the English language has diminished due to “web speak”, while others see IM language as a shortened form of English. Because of the number of conversations held at one time, IM language has made it easier to hold more and more conversations, thereby improving one’s ability to multi-task.

The way we communicate today is obviously different to the way our parents communicated, and will continue to change with the advancement of technology, which is hurtling along at a great rate.

Site.1.
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf01313/research.htm. (retrieved July 2, 2008)
This article is from National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies in Arlington. I found this article quite informative and non- biased as it documents both positive and negative aspects of information technology in the home, there is a wealth of resources included at the end of the article which enabled me further reading and research. Along with citations from other studies, articles and papers, I found this article credible, easy to read and comprehend. This article looks at different aspects of the way technology can impact on our day to day lives, from time displacement to psychological well-being.

Site.2.
http://im.about.com/od/resources/a/imdebate.htm (retrieved 16 July, 2008)
This article was written by Brandon De Hoyos for About.com. Brandon has written for a number of newspapers and magazines about instant messaging and internet technology. This particular article focuses on instant messaging language or “web –speak” offering references to articles and papers regarding differing opinions on the credibility of instant messaging language and whether it will destroy the English language. While this article is non-biased, I found myself leaning towards a certain opinion of my own. It may be a good thing that I didn’t write this article, as I wouldn’t have written the article in such an unbiased manner.

Concept#15: Metaphors of Use and Communication Differentiation.
Internet communication technologies draw for their appeal and legibility (i.e. how they are understood) on metaphors and practices from non-internet communication. We use them, we understand them as versions of the latter, finding or creating differences between them that are not actually technically there since the net reduces all information flows to an identical format(with small variations) as it actually works. (Allen, n.d)

We use metaphors to help us understand something that is unknown or unfamiliar. For first time users, the internet can be overwhelming. By using metaphors to help visualize tasks, the internet has become a less intimidating environment. Metaphors allow us to compare the internet and computer use to things which we know or use in our everyday lives.

From the moment we turn our computers on, we have examples of metaphors, once the computer is running, we are brought to our “desktop” which contains visual metaphors in the form of icons: “folders”, “recycle bins”, “files”. By clicking on these icons, we open “windows” which enable us access to the information we have “stored” within the files or folders. Does this sound familiar? Most of these metaphors relate to an office and the tasks we undertake within an office.

There are varying kinds of metaphors spoken of when referring to the internet, however the most common relate to the internet as a tool or a place. Take e-mails for example, a tool to send mail, which happens a lot more quickly than the regular postal service. Using e-mail programs saves us time and money and we have come to expect a timely reply from the recipients. Many users refer to the internet as being “conduit” (Markham, 2003), whereby information is transmitted from one location to another, or a “highway” a way of travelling from one place to another. The internet is in fact a kind of conduit as it does transfer information from one place to another.

Another common metaphor for the internet is “virtual library”. Many students, in particular teen students, have come to think of the internet as a library and take this for granted. Before the emergence of the internet, a student had to actually visit the library, walk up and down the isles of books scanning the contents of those books for the relevant information. Upon finding that information, they would either take notes or use a pocketful of 20c pieces to photocopy the information they needed. Today, all they need do is type in a keyword and search the directories and numerous sites for information. Once they have what they need, it is a simple matter of “bookmarking” the pages they need. They then use a word processing program to write the information into; there is even a program to help them with their spelling. Once completed, the work is simply printed out via their printers, job done.

The internet has opened many doors which would not normally be available to us, it bring people from all over the world closer to one another, shortening distance, this is done by way of chat programs or instant messaging services, users envision others as being closer than they really are. Someone in Boolaroo Australia can talk to someone from Ontario Canada like they are just around the corner. The way we see the internet determines the way we use it, whether it be for work, study or communication and metaphors play a crucial role in this.

Site.1.
http://faculty.uvi.edu/users/amarkha/writing/MarkhamTPWwebversion.htm (retrieved July 7, 2008) This is an article written by Annette Markham, PhD, University of Illinois. The article talks about the different ways that people visualize the internet and how they use it. Although this is a draught of a larger document, I found it to be very informative and it gave me a clearer idea of the use of metaphors regarding the internet and the way we use the internet for communication. Until reading this article, I was struggling to come to terms with this concept; this article really helped me to get started on this particular task.

Site.2.
http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1995/jan/lastlink.html (retrieved July 20, 2008) This is an interesting site I came across, which contains communication between two editors of Computer Mediated Communication Magazine; Mick Doherty and Kevin Hunt. It really gives an insight into how different people view the internet and the way it’s used, both conceptually and metaphorically. I found it quite interesting and it allowed me to think about metaphors and the internet in a different way. To be able to “see” into the minds and opinions of others is quite intriguing.

Concept# 26: Privacy and Security.
The internet is a profoundly ‘open’ system and advanced internet users are cautious about either accepting or sending material from and to unknown sources and are careful in releasing information about themselves in any form. Conceptually, the internet challenges us to take greater responsibility for the protection of privacy and security than perhaps we are used to when dealing with the media. (Allen, n.d)

When it comes to Internet security, many novice users aren’t aware of the risks that come with internet use. The internet has become an integral part of our lives but also comes with the risk of having our privacy invaded, control of our computers taken away or astonishingly, the total devastation of our hard drives, rendering it totally disabled.

The following are just a few examples of what threats are out there:
· Adware
· BOT
· BOTNET
· Hoax
· Malware
· Phishing
· Spyware
· Trojan Horses
· Worms
· Viruses

Let’s explore a few of these threats to try to give us an idea of what they are and what they do.
Adware:
This is a type of advertising display software whose main aim is to deliver advertising to our computers, usually in an unwanted manner. These can sometimes contain tracking abilities. Specifically a marketing tool, however can affect the performance of your computer.
Malware:
Malware is the conjunction of the two words Malicious and software. Whilst threats such as BOTS, Trojans, and worms have specific meanings, malware is simply a word used to describe any kind of malicious software no matter what its purpose.
Phishing:
Phishing is an attack whose sole purpose is to try to obtain sensitive information such as passwords or credit card numbers. These attacks usually come in the form of an e-mail masquerading as a trusted person or company. For example the e-mails some staff and students received from Oasis requesting password confirmation.
Trojan Horses:
Also known simply as Trojans. These programs are meant to do one thing, but actually do another. They are usually in the form of a game file or similar. The purpose of the Trojan is to delete files, overwrite hard drives or in extreme circumstances, allow remote access to your computer in order to attack other sites, for example government sites. Using your computer, the culprit is untraceable.

So with all these threats out there, what can we do to protect ourselves? Firstly, we must install some type of security program on our computers. There are a great variety of programs available such as Bullguard, Kaspersky or Norton. Before deciding on a program, it might be a good idea to speak to other users first as sometimes viruses and the like appear in the form of anti-virus software.

Never give out your password or personal details, no matter who is asking. As explained previously, such requests contain threats. A trusted company such as your bank or pay pal would never ask you for those details.

Make sure your computer is fully updated at all times, it might get annoying at times, but the updates are crucial in that the software providers are constantly finding weaknesses in their programs and fix these weaknesses. By installing the updates, you are ensuring that you have no weaknesses in your program.

Regularly run your windows tools, disk clean up etc, to remove cookies which may contain any number of threats. Basically, internet security is a matter of common sense, unfortunately, we can take every precaution to protect ourselves, but as with home security, it will only keep the honest people out.

Site.1.
http://www.eset.com/download/whitepapers/NetLivingDead(20080225).pdf. This whitepaper was written by David Harley and Andrew Lee. Both authors are well respected security researchers. This paper opened my eyes to how damaging bots and the like can be. I had no idea of the havoc such threats could create. The paper describes everything about bots and how they work, from e-mail fraud to denial of service attacks. A very interesting and informative read by two of the world’s most leading experts in computer protection.

Site.2.
http://www.privacy.gov.au/internet/internet%5Fprivacy. This is an information site for first time internet users, provided by the Australian government. It describes all kinds of threats and the best way of protecting yourself from those threats. I’m not sure how long ago this was written, however, it would have been of enormous benefit to me when I first started using the internet. Had I known of its existence when I first started, I definitely would have read it before launching into the internet experience. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Module#4

Organising Search Information
Choose the best three sources found in the previous task (and be aware all these sources and information can be contributing to your resource bank assignment!)
Using whatever software or tool you think appropriate, record the following information about those sites:
URL.
author,
institution,
blurb/ summary / screen shot (this can be a direct copy of an appropriate abstract or introductory paragraph on the site: but make sure you record and reference it as such)
Again, using any useful software you have downloaded, or utilising your existing software, record this information on your computer in the way that you think will be most useful to you in terms of preparing for your third assignment (that is, in terms of how easy you will find it to access, retrieve, understand, contextualise and recall why you saved it - and with what!).
Source.1.
URL: http://lii.org
Title: Librarians' Internet Index
Institution:The Califa Library Group
Summary: This site is a directory rather than a site, it featires lists of the best websites for particular topics or subjects. You are able to suscribe to receive a weekly newsletter as well as being able to browse the directory to help you find articles or sites you are looking for.
Source.2.
URL:http://informationr.net/ir/6-1/paper85.html
Author:Lee Ratzan
Institution:School of Communication, Information and Library Studies
Summary:This site is an information research paper, entitled "Making Sense Of The Web: a Metaphorical Approach" written by Lee Ratzan. The idea here is to enable people to use the web more effectively, thereby understanding how the web works, how metaphors are used to make using the web easier by relating tasks to objects or tasks we use in the real world, eg: "surfing" the net or using the information "highway".
Source.3.
URL:www.zdnet.com.au
Author:Brian Haverty, Editorial Director;Munir Kotadia, Editor;Liam Tung, Senior Journalist ;Alex Serpo, Reviews Editor;Suzanne Tindal, Journalist
Institution:ZDNet Australia
Summary:This site features, reviews, articles, newsletters, whitepapers etc on varying topics from technology to film and music. Helpful information is available on just about anything you're looking for, I found it particularly useful when researching internet security.
I stored these sources at diigo, I also use connotea, but found diigo more suited to my needs. It provides the option of adding sticky notes to the actual web page, highlights specific parts of the text, which I found easy to retrieve. One click and you can record your site/article in diigo with the addition of a great little toolbar. Once bookmarked, I can easily access my bookmarks again with the use of the toolbar. Being taken to my bookmarks page, brings up a list of all sites I have added, by clicking on the links, that site is opened and appears just the way you left it, sticky notes and highlighting still there.

IRONY

How Ironic
This past week has been a nightmare, and that's not an understatement! Living in a illness infested household was bad enough, but to feel well enough to get back into my studies and discovering my computer was infested with trojans and viruses brought me to tears.
It's ironic that up until now, I have never had trouble with any such problems, now that I am aware of all aspects of internet security, to find them lurking on my computer left me feeling defeated and deflated. Perhaps it was because I myself had been feeling unwell contributed to my deflation, I felt like giving up.

This week however, I am feeling much better and although I need a new computer (currently using my mum's) I thought about the options available to me and no longer feel like everything is too overwhelming. I was fortunate to come across a government initiative which offers computers at a drastically reduced price. I am in the process of waiting for a refurbished pentium iv with 40GB HDD which I was able to purchase for $350. Feeling grateful and looking forward to completeing this unit (and on time) ;)

Module 4

Boolean Searching.

For this task, I used Dogpile advanced search options, adding specific "keywords", which I thought appropriate to what I was looking for. I used this task to help me towards my concepts assignment, keeping this in mind, i typed in "Internet Metaphors" and added the keywords "communication" "differentiation" and "use" which gave me the results below:

As you can see, this search tells me which search engines the respective sites were found, but doesn't tell me how many hits there were. I decided to use Google advanced search options as well, here are the results:
This search brought about basically the same results, however, the search enginesw aren't noted, but there is a hit count. Boolean searching brings about more options for searches, by using specific keywords or in fact omitting some words enables a search to bring you closer to the exact type of article or site you are looking for. I already had experience with this type of searching, however didn't know it was called "boolean searching"

Searching the Web

Search Engine Task.

For this task, we were asked to do a search using words of our own choosing, using our regular search engine as well as a meta search engine and record the results.

My regular search engine is google, I did a search using the following words "Internet Metaphors", here is a screenshot of the results:

As you can see, there were many hits,1,920,000 to be exact. The first hit is titled "making sense of the web:a metaphorical approach"

Using a meta search program, specifically MetaCrawler, I conducted a search using the same words. Again I have a screenshot of the results:

Using meta crawler brought 54 hits, the first hit is the same as that using google "making sense of the web:a metaphorical approach" There are alot less hits using metacrawler, I think this is based on the fact that it is a more specific search. For me, at first glance, meta crawler provided the more promising of the two, from what I first saw, the information offered by the hits in web crawler seemed more relevant to my search.