Fluency with Information Technology 2012-01-25Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 1 INFO100 and CSE100 Katherine Deibel

In Search of Truth on the World Wide Web

Fluency with Information Technology

2012-01-25 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 1

INFO100 and CSE100

Katherine Deibel

The Key to an Information Society

Search allows us to manage large amounts of information

Largest area of research within Artificial Intelligence


Finding true information in the library is easier than finding it on the Web because

A. Librarians usually choose only authoritative sources.

B. The truth of information on paper pages is higher than on electronic pages.

C. Most books in libraries are old, and people used to be more truthful in the past.

D. None of these choices.


Librarians choose what is available in the library, and they try to get the best information possible.

Libraries pre-vet the information for you.


Books have limited research value because they

A. Take a long time to produce

B. Contain only information the author selects

C. Contain only a single point of view

D. All of the above

Of course, books are note bad source of information, but these factors must be taken into account.

History: Book Indices

How is a book index made? Not just a list of all words in the book

(that is called a concordance)

Human-led process

Subjective selection of key terms and locations in the text

Cross-referencing of related terms to aid the reader


Book Index and Search

Take the textbook Look up fluency in the index

How many pages does it list? Imagine a digital version of the book

How many times will a search find the word 'fluency'?


Discuss with your neighbor

Electronic books are common, and many e-readers provide search functionality. Which is more helpful: the human-

created index or the search engine? Does it differ by task? How so?


Lesson

Search is a Tool not a Solution!


Searching WiselyMaking Google, Bing, etc. work for you


Looking In the Right Place

Google and other search engines are not always the first place to look!

You might be able to guess the site and the URL you need Need tax information: irs.gov

Need spelling help: dictionary.com

When is "Leverage" on: tnt.com

Ooops… that should be tnt.tv


For a word to be hit in a Web search such as Google, the word

A. Must be used on the hit page.

B. Must be used on the hit page more than once.

C. Could be on another page as anchor text in the link to the hitting page.

D. None of these choices.

The word must be descriptive of a page meaning that it is:• used on the page • in the URL for the

page • used in the anchor

text for a link to the page.


Page rank on a search engine is usually based on popularity.

A search engine has two parts:• The Web crawler• The query processor

How many major parts does a search engine have?

A. oneB. twoC. moreD. don’t know


The query processor _______.

A.Checks search terms against the database of web pages, or Index

B.Cleans up the search termsC.Follows links to Web pages

to find matching termsD.1 and 2E. 2 and 3F. Don't know


Search Engines

No one controls what’s published on the WWW ... it is totally decentralized

To find out, search engines crawl the Web Two parts

A crawler visits Web pages building an index of the content (stored in a database)

A query processor checks user requests against the index, reports on known pages


Only a fraction of the Web’s content is crawled

The Index

Constantly updated Huge!

http://www.worldwidewebsize.com/ Google's index is currently averaging

49 billion web pages!


http://www.worldwidewebsize.com/

http://www.worldwidewebsize.com/

The Truth about the Index

It's not just one index


Alice Bob

Google Index

The Illusion


It's not just one index


Alice Bob

The RealityGoogle IndexGoogle

Index


It's not just one index The large database and high demand

requires a distributed approach Separate servers run different

versions of the index Each server is updated at different

times and rates


Alice and Bob's Results

Their search results will differ slightly First page of results will likely be the same


Alice Bob

The RealityGoogle IndexGoogle

Index

Lessons

Search results constantly change Bookmark the sites you find... They

might drop down in the results Collaborative searching can be tricky


Boolean Queries

Search Engine terms are independent

Words don’t have to occur together Use Boolean queries and quotes

Logical Operators: AND, OR, NOT

monet AND water AND lilies

“van gogh” OR gauguin

vermeer AND girl AND NOT pearl

Search for Mona Lisa


AND is the default

Most search engines will return pages containing ALL of your search terms Too many words in a search could hurt

The OR operator is helpful here IBM stock prices 2005 OR 2006 OR 2007


Google Advanced


Search Strategies

Limit by top level domains or format Find terms most specific to topic Look elsewhere for key words, e.g. bio Use exact phrase only when universal If too many hits, re-query

Add another search term

Decide if you want an AND or OR

Try quotes around paired words


Terms most specific to topic

The key to good research My dissertation example

I kept looking for: assistive technology rejection

The research terms are:abandonment or discontinuance

Went from finding <10 papers to >100 papers


Search Engine Tricks

These apply to Google but many search engines have similar features "several words"

search for words in that order "word"

search only for that word and not any synonyms, plurals, etc.

-wordexclude word from the search

site:urlsearch only on a specific site

~wordinclude synonyms of word in the search


Further Google Tricks

define word 67 to hex 1072 * 35 150 GBP in USD Do a barrel roll


Judging CredibilityWhen Finding is not Enough


Much of the Information on the Web is

A. Wrong.B. Correct.C. Pictures of cats.D. Pornography.E. Meaningless chatter.F. Of varying usefulness

and credibility


You've heard it before…

Accessing information from the web is easy

But you must be careful Anyone can post anything

It is easy to fake authority

Don't use Wikipedia


Let's take a different look

The Web is a common source of information

The problem with misleading information is in people accepting it at face value


Writing Guides: The Checklist

Authorship Is there an author? You may need to… Can you tell whether the author is knowledgeable and credible?

If the author's qualifications aren't listed…

Sponsorship What does the URL tell you? The URL ending often specifies the

type of group hosting the site: commercial (.com), educational (.edu), nonprofit (.org), …

Currency How current is the site? How current are the site's links? If many of the links no longer

work, the site may be too dated for your purposes.

Excerpt from Hacker’s A Pocket Manual of Style (2008)

Pitfalls of the ChecklistAuthorship Is there an author? You may need to… Can you tell whether the author is

knowledgeable and credible? If the author's qualifications aren't listed…

Sponsorship What does the URL tell you? The URL

ending often specifies the type of group hosting the site: commercial (.com), educational (.edu), nonprofit (.org)…

Currency How current is the site? How current are the site's links? If many

of the links no longer work, the site may be too dated for your purposes.

INACCURATE: .org has never been restricted to only nonprofits







Not all domains are regulated

Domains reflect only general purposes and not specific pages







Ignores complexity of web authorship

Encourages the usage of titles, degrees, and symbols of authority to determine credibility

Pitfalls of the Checklist

Authorship Is there an author? You may need to… Can you tell whether the author is






Suggests recent data as being more reliable

Update frequency will vary by the type of site

You need the population of Seattle, WA, in 1998. Where do you look up this information?


A. WikipediaB. 2012 World's AlmanacC. 1998 World's AlmanacD. 1999 World's AlmanacE. A 1962 encyclopedia

Criticisms of the Checklist

Inherent problems Emphasis on surface features over content

Simplistic yes/no questions with no guidance

Erroneous indicators of credibility Students fail to develop information

literacy skills and critical practices Need for better evaluative methods to

develop sustained, transferable skills

A Different Approach

Determining usefulness and credibility is a process

Readers should engage in repeated dialogues with the document

The questions of usefulness and credibility vary by discipline


Question

Q6C: The Evaluation Process

Categorize

Contextualize

Corroborate

Conclude

Characterize Authorship

Critique Rhetorically

Repeat as necessary

Developed by K. Deibel, S. Read, and T. Wright

Q6C: Question

Maintain a skeptical frame of mind Ask questions relevant to your

research


Q6C: Categorize

In the context of your research, is this a primary, secondary, or tertiary source?

What type of site is it (website, blog, wiki, database, etc.)?


Q6C: Critique Rhetorically

What do the authors’ choice of words, tone, font, display format, images, genre, and argumentative strategies tell you about the intended audience and the credibility and reliability of this site? (‘Read’ the site.)


Q6C: Characterize Authorship

Identify who created the content, when they created it, and for what purpose.

Single or multiple authors? Committee? Institution? Critic? Expert? Unknown? Other?


Q6C: Contextualize

Place the information collected in conversation with your existing experience and body of knowledge.

Does it fit? How?


Q6C: Corroborate

Assess how the content compares to other sources.

Is the content consistent, complementary, or contradictory?


Q6C: Conclude

How credible is the source? Is the source useful for your research

goals? If unsure, ask more questions. If the source is not credible or not

useful, find a new source and repeat the Q6C process


Parting Thoughts on Chapter 6

Example of the fun of research and exploration of knowledge

Side quests are surprising What I learned from my dissertation

The popularity of eyeglasses in a Renaissance European nation

Ghoti is pronounced as 'fish'


Always ask these questions

When working on a task involving researching information, ask yourself How useful is this information for my

current purposes? How credible is this information for

me to rely on and to pass on to others (i.e., cite)?


How many patents did Buckminster Fuller file and hold?

A. 10B. 28C. 88D. 2000+E. Over 9000


How did we find out that Buckminster Fuller didn't hold 2000 patents?

A. We checked at the patent office. B. We accepted the claims made by

encyclopedia.com as credible.C. We checked the rules for patents and found

that no one can be issued more than 100 patents in a lifetime.

D. All of these answers


Announcements

Keep working on Project 1A Keep up GoPost discussions There will be a WebQ quiz for

Thursday/Friday labs Only get one shot at submitting!


Documents

Fluency with Information Technology 2012-01-25Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 1 INFO100 and CSE100 Katherine Deibel