Friday, April 15, 2011
Wikipedia: My humble opinion
Wow!!! I really hated wikipedia before this class and didn't really have a reason to. Most of my hatred stemmed out of arrogance. I felt that using wikipedia for research was lazy and unreliable. Boy was I wrong. Wikipedia is reliable, you just have to be careful about what you are reading in wikipedia. You also need to double check the information you find. I plan on using Wikipedia in a future Health class setting. I could use Wikipedia for any Health subject. I could have the students research a health subject only using wikipedia and distinguish between accurate and inaccurate information.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a web-based informational site contolled by the masses. Wikipedia uses mass communication to allow anyone to edit a post. Thier theory is if everyone can edit information, this will weed out any false information or vandelism. Larry Sanger was one of WIkipedias founders and left the company because he wanted more professionals to have control over the site.He went on to create a new site called Citizendium. When the author talks about abuse or vandelism I think he is saying when someone changes a post to something entirely untrue. Also vandelism could be when someone posts something offensive or totally biased, having no factual information. Wikipedia is one of the fastest growing web sites in the world. It is also one of the first hits in a google search, and more and more people visit this website everyday. I think wikipedia is so successful because it is easy to find information and the information is not watered down. You can almost also rely on wikipedia to be accurate because usually there is someone closely monitoring that page. I dont think Wikipedia wants advertisement because that could bring in some bias. That would be a slippery slope, and I dont think Wikipedia wants to go down that road. Wikiscanner is awesome because it allows the reader to check the IP address of the editor in question to the article. This is really cool because it lets you see what the editor is all about.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Web Page Evaluation
The site that I am evaluating is http://www.thedogisland.com/.
The domain for this site is thedogisland.com/
This domain lessens the validity of the website because it is a commercial web page. When dealing with a commercial web page there is always a bias.
There is no individual author identified in this website. However it would appear as if the group or organization responsible for this website is dog island.
While the organization is mentioned in the website, it lacks credibility. The website does explain its purpose, goals, and guiding principles but it does so in avery vague way. This site does not seem to give all of the details needed to be a real company or organization.
This website only provides many names in the organization. Xiao Min is the President and Co-founder, Han Fei is the Chief Dog Handler, Soong Lee is the Director of Imports, Linda Reyes is the Direct Initiative Director, Diane Rogers is the Researcher and Dogologist, and Jenny Bliss is the dog trainer. I tried googling these names and found nothing other than the link to dog island. This seems really fishy to me. If this site was credible wouldn't the author or company provide background information about its employees.
I was really skeptical of this website because of the vagueness and lack of information that could be backed up. I went to google and typed in Dog Island for real? The first link that I got was snopes.com
Snopes is dedicatied to revealing false information and providing the general public with accurate information. Here is what snopes.com has to say about Dog Island:
The Dog Island site was a hoax created by students as a project for a Contagious Media class.
The domain for this site is thedogisland.com/
This domain lessens the validity of the website because it is a commercial web page. When dealing with a commercial web page there is always a bias.
There is no individual author identified in this website. However it would appear as if the group or organization responsible for this website is dog island.
While the organization is mentioned in the website, it lacks credibility. The website does explain its purpose, goals, and guiding principles but it does so in avery vague way. This site does not seem to give all of the details needed to be a real company or organization.
This website only provides many names in the organization. Xiao Min is the President and Co-founder, Han Fei is the Chief Dog Handler, Soong Lee is the Director of Imports, Linda Reyes is the Direct Initiative Director, Diane Rogers is the Researcher and Dogologist, and Jenny Bliss is the dog trainer. I tried googling these names and found nothing other than the link to dog island. This seems really fishy to me. If this site was credible wouldn't the author or company provide background information about its employees.
I was really skeptical of this website because of the vagueness and lack of information that could be backed up. I went to google and typed in Dog Island for real? The first link that I got was snopes.com
Snopes is dedicatied to revealing false information and providing the general public with accurate information. Here is what snopes.com has to say about Dog Island:
The Dog Island site was a hoax created by students as a project for a Contagious Media class.
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