Week 12- Social & Ethical Issues

Lecture-

Week 12's lecture focused on the characteristics of copyright and plagiarism on the Internet and being able have privacy in some areas. Intellectual property(IP) has no restriction to what is on the Internet. This is the problem when plagiarism creeps in and ignores the rights to copyright and the system is abused and ignored. When dealing with copyright some things we learnt were to always acknowledge the work of others. always refer to the reference guide to ensure that you reference correctly.

Another huge issue discussed was the lack of privacy on the web. The Internet leaves digital trails which shows where a person has been on the Internet. The issue with freedom vs. protection of information, and the rights of individuals and/or organisations.

This was a very informational heavy lecture with lots of discussion and talk about the issues.



Workshop-

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We were asked to go to the Australian Copyright Council at http://www.copyright.org.au/

Many undergraduate students are unsure with the rules of copyright and what is necessary for the uni life. Here are lists of the information sheet that are relevant to undergraduate students.

1. Copyright protects documented/ textual material - i.e. journals, books, websites, and articles.

2. Most things on the net are copyrighted - this does not make them free. As students, we often think that material on the net is free to use, but it is actually under copyright and you are breaking the law if you do.

3. Copyright does not protect information that is stored or thought of in the head. e.g. an idea, a concept.


4. Anyone that wishes to use material that is under copyright cannot unless they seek and receive permission from the author or artist of suggested material.



5. Protects the works of artist and musical students and also the department of film and broadcast.

I then went and had a look at the Department of justice's intellectual

www.cybercrime.gov/ipcases.htm.
‘Warez Leader Sentenced to 46 Months’ was the article of the case of a man called John Sankus Jr. The story is about Mr. John Sankus Jr. and his trail that got him up to 46 months behind bars after being found guilty for scheming to infringing the criminal copyright laws. John was the leader a large international software piracy company on the internet. Along side john is prison was a worker of the company which was sentenced to 33 months. These two sentences became the biggest imprisonment charges for crimes via the internet.

The group was called Drink of Die and was known as a online software piracy company. The company then cracked big software companies such as Microsoft and adobe releasing it on the internet to distribute and be used by anyone. With the copyright defaulted in these companies, John and the team were able to illegally reproduce the other companies software to anyone.

http://netsecurity.about.com/library/weekly/?once=true

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http://www.howstuffworks.com/virus1.htm

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http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,34058,00.asp

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These three websites explain and talk about how to protect your computer from viruses. This is just on simple way of protecting yourself from hackers.


1. Change ID- Don't use your name

2. Disable identifier broadcaster- Don't show or proclaim you have wireless. Easy target for hackers

3. Use firewall to protect unnecessary traffic.

4. Enable encryption

5. Install antivirus software.To protect yourself from viruses

Readings
EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy
This article contains 12 steps to protecting your privacy online. It also provides links to many different websites containing information on the subject. The advice within this article is very useful and is a good reference.
Ethics in Computing - Social Justic Issues: Electronic Monitoring
This page contains many different links to information pages. Some of the pages include information on workplace privacy, monitoring the workplace, privacy laws and many others.
Computer Viruses and the Internet
This article contains information on the history of computer viruses. It discusses many of the older viruses, and how they started, as well as where technology is today and what problems exist within the internet today.
Brown & Michaels - Overview of Intellectual Property
This article contains information on how to protect your intellectual property. It goes through different types of property and different steps in protecting them.
Music, Copyright & the Internet
This webpage lists many frequently asked questions about copyright laws surrounding music. Each question is linked to the answer. This page provides a lot of valid information and is a useful tool to anyone conducting music downloads.
Email Attachments and Viruses
This article explains the problems with opening email attachments and gives a lot of safety recommendations. It also lists the different formats of attachments and what to look out for, as well as which ones are the safer option.

Week 11- Building Knowledge

Lecture -

In the lecture we learnt about the relationship between data, information and knowledge. The relationship between the three all links up with data building into information which then minded into knowledge. This helps when you find data and information to back up a theory or question, establishing a greater knowledge to the topic in context. papers, press releases and marketing strategies are examples of knowledge put together with the help of data and information being useful to that topic.

Workshop -

We were asked to find on the Internet some dictionary meanings of the terms data, information and knowledge. www.google.com/Top/Reference/Dictionaries/

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Data-

1. a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn; "statistical data".

2. In general, data consist of propositions that reflect reality. A large class of practically important propositions are measurements or observations of a variable.Such propositions may comprise numbers, words, or images.

Information-

1. a message received and understood

2. knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction

3.Information is the result of processing, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the receiver. In other words, it is the context in which data is taken.

Knowledge-

1. cognition: the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning

2.Knowledge is what is known. Like the related concepts truth, belief, and wisdom, there is no single definition of knowledge on which scholars agree, but rather numerous theories and continued debate about the nature of knowledge.

3.Knowledge is what is known. Like the related concepts truth, belief, and wisdom, there is no single definition of knowledge on which scholars agree, but rather numerous theories and continued debate about the nature of knowledge.

5 organisations that rely on data, information and knowledge;

1. Hospitals - Gathering more information on diseases giving more chances to cure the cause
2. Phone Company - increase reception and deals = meaning a larger audience to maintain.
3. Fast food outlets - to find out what kind of food people enjoy to eat.
4. Banks - to gather low interest rates which attracts more customers.
5. Train transport- to see how they can make traveling more comfortable and easier.

Readings

Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom
This article describes the process of transferring data to wisdom, and the different steps involved in between the two. It goes through the definitions of data, information, knowledge, wisdom and understanding as well as showing a diagram of what is involved in this process. I found the information in this article to be very informative and easy to understand.
Information Literacy
This website contains a few different quizzes aimed at testing the user’s knowledge of the information presented. Before commencing the quizzes, there is also links to different pages with information to help with successful completion of the quizzes. The information in these pages include research strategies, how to produce and organise knowledge as well as information on how to reference correctly and respecting copyrights.
Data, Information & Knowledge
This article gives the definitions of datum, information and knowledge and talks about the importance of creating information from data and then passing in on as knowledge. Data, without being information is simply stats and facts and doesn’t hold any true meaning. Once information is created from data, you can learn from this information, which in turn becomes knowledge.

Week 10 - Online Libraries & Databases

Lecture - This lecture consisted of two different parts. Part one was about online libraries which discussed about why use online libraries and different types of libraries online. Firstly the great thing about using a online library is that its convenient and accessible 24/7. Its open to much more current sources then a normal library. The types of libraries online range from online journals to musical and artwork libraries.
Part two focused on the online databases which information retrieved online placed in data fields characterised into their area. The great thing about online libraries and databases are that they are extremely useful sources of information. many available subscription and others free. They are always up to date and informative.

Workshop -

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We were asked to go to the ECU library web page at www.ecu.edu.au/library and record ten useful functions and give a brief explanation.

1. "Information resources" - The subheading allows you to enter many other functions within this web page. These include the Library Catalogue, Online Databases and Internet Search Tools.

2. "Information About" - This heading allows students to look and learn about the functions at the ECU Library.

3. "Information for Students" - This link allows all students to explore all they need to know about the libraries schedule. From trading hours of the library to where on the campus the library is.

4. "Search the Catalogue" – This gives the option of searching any author, publisher, book and even lecture to do with your subject or unit.

5. "Services" - Some services include Multimedia Services and Document.

6. "Resources For" - Subheadings include Students, Researches, Academic Staff, External/offshore Students, Community and Alumni.

7. "Loan Services" - This link shows and tells students the steps of taking and bringing back books.

8. "Online database" - This allows you to search journal articles on the net through the Uni database.

9. "ECU Reference Guide" – This gives the ECU reference guide to reference appropriately and right.

10. "Learning Assistance" - This link has its own subheading which include Liberty: Learning to Find Information and the ECU Referencing Guide.

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After accessing the Library homepage, we were asked to access www.medlineplus.com and spend time looking at articles about health and drugs.
This website would give such service to many. This website is a search engine for different health and drug issues. Anyone that has a disease or knows someone with a drug supplement problem could use this website to find out the reasons and causes to these problems.

Week 9- Using search engines

Lecture -
In the lecture we discussed what are search engines and their pro's and con's. A search engine is a web-based application that crawls the internet and using the textural information contained on them, meaning the website usually has indexed according to the keywords. The two main search engines are google and yahoo.
The issues and problems with search engines have are that too many results pop up.

Workshop -

We were also asked to go to www.monash.com/spidap and note four strategies that will help in structuring a good search.
Four strategies are:

1. Keep the search precise.
2. Use + - in the search to limit unnecessary information.
3. Using “ ” will help in narrowing what you want.
4. Putting certain words in characters will limit the search as words such as NOT will tell the search engine you do not want something.

Complete the online internet quiz found at:
http://www.siteseen.co.uk/questions/generalknowledgehard/

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The best way to search on a search engine is to only put in key words and leave out common words to try and be specific.

Readings

Robert Harris: "Web Search Strategies"
This article contained information on different research strategies. The information within this website the same as the lecture, as it describes firstly the different categories of information on the internet and then goes on to give advice on researching.
The Spider's Apprentice
This website contains different links to pages containing information on different aspects of internet searching and research. It also provides a history of searching and the internet.
Search Engine Watch
Within this website there is links to different websites containing information on internet searches. This website also contains abstracts for all the different pages it has links too. These abstracts help the researching process as it quickens a search for particular information on this topic.
The History of the Internet: (Chap 4 - Search Engines)
This article provides information on the history of search engines as well as where the technology has progressed to today. It also provides information on how to conduct a successful search as well as the different search engines available.

Week 8- Evaluation and Authentication

Lecture - This week we learnt the basic and steps to searching and finding quality information on the World-wide web. The phrase "fit-for-use" is commonly described as what is information quality. Fit-for-use implies that IQ (information quality) is relative and or is appropriate for one use. One context of the World-wide web is open protocols which is when virtually anyone can design and create a web content. Other areas are questions such as who publishes on the WWW ? why publishes publish on the WWW ? What is published on the WWW ?

We also learnt how to evaluate IQ on the WWW and determine the quality of the content on the WWW.


Workshop -

Week 8 we are discussing evaluation and authentication of web resources. We were asked to look at the following website and record several strategies.

http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think.html




Record the several strategies on evaluating information found on websites.

Six points were:

1. Make sure you are in the right place. ( ask the question, are you using this website because its easy and fun; when really you should use it for the appropriate source of information you are seeking.)

2. When in doubt, doubt. (Always check how accurate the web page context is and examine assumptions.)

3. Consider the source. (A source will usually have the authors name. A good source will have some other form of information that indicates that this is the author and not some poor graded web page.)

4. Know what's happening. (Try to identify the reason the Web page was created in the first place.)

5. Look at details. (internal clues on a web page can determine a lot about a web page. Good spelling and grammar is a huge aspect to that.)

6. Distinguish Web pages from pages found on the Web. (Just a quick reminder that most web pages aren't from books or articles, but both articles and books can be found on the web.)




http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think60.html




This exercise consisted of going to two of websites from the pages and using criteria for evaluation.

My findings were from : "American Cultural History"...

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ACCURACY: It was accurate and showed all areas of the American history. e.g. Fashion and art.

AUTHORSHIP: Susan Goodwin.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this web and library guide is to help the user gain a broad understanding and appreciation for the culture and history of the 1960s.

DETAIL AND DESIGN: The design was basic, but was detailed very well with all references visible and usable.

OVERALL WORTH: Very easy to follow and understand. would be great for information quality on the American cultural history throughout the 1960's.

A Trip Through the Sixties' ...

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ACCURACY: Accuracy wasn't a strenght in this link of a web page, it was a comic play.

AUTHORSHIP: Michael Dale who is a comedian.

PURPOSE: A comedians relief.

DETAIL AND DESIGN: The design was created well, with some very appealing colours.

OVERALL WORTH: Nothing, as it can not be relied on for history evaluation.