Download
1 / 33
330 likes | 423 Vues
Seeking:. A ccurate, truthful and relevant information to form useful arguments and positions. Why do grocery stores put milk in the back of the store?. Why are doggie treats often on lower shelves in a grocery store?. Why do Staples stores have low shelves and hanging signs?.
E N D
Seeking: Accurate, truthful and relevant information to form useful arguments and positions
Why are doggie treats often on lower shelves in a grocery store?
Why do books have indexes and tables of contents, but newspapers don’t?
Organizing physical space • Some things are closer than others • Physical objects can only be in one place at one time • Physical space is shared • Human physical abilities are limited • Shared physical spaces must be orderly and neat for people to find things
Organizing digital space • Everything is only a few clicks away • Everything can be personalized • Supply is nearly infinite • Things can be classified in multiple ways at the same time • Information can be stored in random ways and organized instantly when needed
Example: Finding music • From buying albums to buying songs • From DJs to iPods • From browsing in a record store to find artists to listening to Pandora etc.
Unbundled Information • From newspapers to separate sites for news, comics, weather, sports, crossword puzzles, food, classifieds, advertisements • From broadcast news programs to YouTube • From a handful of general interest magazines to millions of niche sites
The number of digital things is vastly greater than the number of physical thingsWe need new forms of organization, searching and finding:Everything is miscellaneous (book by David Weinberger)
A topic is just the beginning • Make a hypothesis or state an assumption about your topic: • We believe clean energy is the key to Nevada’s economic future • We believe that child abuse increases when the economy gets worse • We believe more people should use bicycles in Reno
2. Ask questions • What percentage of Nevada’s energy is currently provided by alternative energy? How has that changed over the past 20 years? • What is the incidence of reported child abuse in Nevada? How do we compare to other countries? OR, how are children treated? OR, what happens to abusers?
3. Translate those questions into Web search language • A search query starts with the words most likely to appear on the page you’re looking for • Nevada child abuse records • Child abuse worldwide • Children testify abuse
Tips • Nouns are better than adjectives, verbs and other parts of speech • Search engines ignore common words (the, it, she, etc.) • The more specific your term, the most specific the results • Keep revising to narrow or broaden your search until you have what you need
More advanced searching • Phrase search ("") • Search within a specific website (site:) • Terms you want to exclude (-)
Search engines:“There is no best” • Google (more than 72% of all searches: worth more than $150 billion) • Yahoo • Bing • Ask • AOL • (Phil Bradley’s Web site: Which search engine when?)
Keyword searches • Google is always a good bet, since it has the largest index • Yahoo Search is the second most popular keyword search engine • Bing may provide results if the other two don't work
Directory based search engines • These search engines arrange data in hierarchies from broad to narrow. Good if you need an overview of a subject or you're not entirely sure of what you want. • Yahoo Directory provides 14 main categories • Google Directory provides access to 16 main categories • The Open Directory Project provides access to 16 main categories
Meta search engines • These search engines are useful if you need to run a comprehensive search quickly across a number of different engines, to compare results or to suggest search engines that you may not have tried before. Browsys 18 search engine options. Formerly intelwaysFasteagle dozens of resourcesIxquick has a nunber of UK based engines in its collectionIzito 6+ standard free text search engines usedJoongel 10 engines in multiple categoriesKedrix GYMA search engineMamma been around for ever, good reputationNginer covers various types of search and engines. Framed resultsScour GYM search, + vote and comment on resultsSearch!o wide variety of different enginesSearchboth Compare 2 search engines at once, eight optionsSputtr has 9 different optionsSymbaloo visual and multi engine, add your own engines as well.Trovando is a first rate choice and a personal favourite. 33 optionsWhonu? Wide variety of resources, lots of options, impressiveZuula 11 different search engine options
The Deep Web • Search engines include far less than half of all the information on the total Web. The Deep Web includes information in databases that is only displayed when specifically searched, and information that is intentionally kept private. • Also remember that the Web doesn’t include vast amounts of historical data, information in libraries, government centers and corporations that has never been digitized
Searching on Google • Maps (food 89503) • Books (magazine archives) • Images (colors, shapes, faces) • Videos (Google owns YouTube) • Blogs • Scholarly work • Shopping
Google’s constant tweaking • New interface on left hand column • Enter location • Wonder Wheel • Googleinsights for searches
Search engine tips • Every word matters. • Search is always case insensitive. A search for [ new york times ] is the same as a search for [ New York Times ]. • Generally, punctuation is ignored, including @#$%^&*()=+[]\ and other special characters.
Sorting the answers • First, look at the category of the listing: Is it news, scholarly work, a commercial site, a non-profit or advocacy group? • Can often (not always) tell by the URL -- .edu,.com., gov., org., it., uk.
Choose the most credible • Use the credibility criteria we’ve talked about in class: Who authored the site? For what purpose? When? • How does this source of information compare with the others you’ve found? • Look for the sites that others are referencing. Find the most authoritative sources.
Use tags on Delicious • When you save a Web site to Delicious, write a short description and be sure to use the “tag” feature to identify what the site is about. • Use the key words from your initial questions to help categorize the information
Today, meet in your groups to: • Focus your topic by stating a set of hypotheses or assumptions. Post it on your Ning group page. • Develop a list of questions to test your hypotheses/assumptions • Identify key words and categories for searching • Assign each group member a focus
For Wednesday • Revise your group description as necessary: “We want to find out…” OR “We believe…” • Post a link to your delicious account and be sure to have a minimum 50 sites saved and tagged (more for larger groups) • Include a mix of news sites, government sites, commercial sites (if appropriate), non profits, geographically diverse (if appropriate). Use tags to sort by category as well as topic.
If you do not have a group • We will go through the groups one by one to identify which ones are full (four is the ideal size; five if you must). • Please join a group that is focused on a topic that you’re interested in
Groups • Teen pregnancy • Child abuse • Conspiracies • Medical marijuana (uses) • Children in Africa • Sex trafficking • Body image in media • Animal cruelty • Oppression in Tibet • Genocide and slavery • Obesity in America • The road unknown: biking • What is beauty UNR • Medical marijuana • Driving and texting (2) • Clean energy • Marijuana legalization • BCS ranking system
