Internet Module

Food for Thought

If you are interested in challenging your mind regarding the Internet, computers, and more, with an eye toward the history of technology, read one or more of the following:

• Crandall, Richard, and Levich, Marvin. 1998. A Network Orange: Logic and Responsibility in the Computer Age. Copernicus Books.
• Cringeley, Robert X. 1992. Accidental Empires, How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date. Harper Business, New York. (the basis for Public TV's “Triumph of the Nerds” series)
• Gilster, Paul. 1997. Digital Literacy. Wiley Computer Publishing, New York.
• Segaller, Stephen, 1999. Nerds 2.0.1, A Brief History of the Internet. TV Books, New York. (the companion book to Public TV's series of the same name)
• Stoll, Clifford. 1995. Silicon Snake Oil, Second Thoughts on the Information Highway. Doubleday, New York.
• The paradigm shift of information
  • “Teachers and a New Educational Technology: A Fable of Sorts” by Kenneth W. Umbach, Ph.D. This article is one of many that can be found at Ken's web site. I recommend that you take some time to review his site especially the links Education(1), Education(2), and My Papers.

Three More Things

• You should review Dr. Edward F. Gehringer's web site, Ethics in Computing.

• You may wish to consult the Road Map to the Web for Educators published by T.H.E. Journal. The web site list many links organized by category and by subject within category. On the web site there is a link from which you can print an order form. The “map” costs $3 per copy for 50 or fewer copies; $2 per copy for more than 50.

Overview

• what is “the Internet”?
  • “A multinational collection of computer networks and gateways that use TCP/IP protocol”
    Parsons, June Jamrich, Dan Oja, and Stephanie Low. 1999. Computers, Technology, and Society, 2e. Course Technology)
  • “An enormous and rapidly growing system of linked computer networks, worldwide in scope, that facilitates data communication services such as remote logon, file transfer, electronic mail, the World Wide Web, and newsgroups. Relying on TCP/IP, the Internet assigns every connected computer a unique Internet address (called an IP address) so that any two connected computers can locate each other on the network and exchange data.”
    Meyer, Marilyn, Roberta Baber, and Bryan Pfaffenberger. 1999. Computers in Your Future, 3e. Que Education and Training.
  • I prefer a much simpler definition. The Internet is the “mother of all networks” that provides connections for millions of computers around the world. The consequence of this is that the Internet offers a multitude of services such as email, the World Wide Web, file transfer, data archive, and more. More importantly, as a mass medium it offers (compare this to other mass media such a television and radio) truly interactive information exchange where the users can not only consumer information but create it as well. There is no doubt that the Internet is transforming almost everything that we do and it is safe to say that knowledge of its use is becoming indispensable.
  • The World Wide Web (the “Web”) is part of the Internet. However, because of its growing popularity, most users equate the Web and the Internet. This is understandable. 
• A Little History
  • There Internet evolved from many things including:
    • The efforts of a Pentagon bureaucrat, Bob Taylor, to save money in the 1960s. He was looking for a way to avoid buying many more computers for academic research and figured the government could save money by creating a network.
    • A government-funded experiment for the Department of Defense called the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was first funded in 1958. ARPAnet, which evolved from this, began in 1969.
    • The efforts of several colleges and universities looking for a better way to exchange information with each other in the 1950s and 1960s.
    • The development of Unix
  • The Internet was largely a text-based tool for communication and file exchange until the concept of the World Wide Web was developed as a consequence of
    • A desire to facilitate communication between scientists at the CERN in Switzerland (CERN is an acronym for Conseil European pour Recherche Nucleaire).
      • Tim Berners-Lee of the European Particle Physics Laboratory is generally considered the “Father of the Web”. He developed the concept for the web and the first HTML in 1989 while working at the CERN
    • A government and institutional investment in making difficult, technical research easier and less expensive to do, and to overcome the incompatibility between different systems.
  • When did the first web page in the U.S. go on the 'Net?
    • The first U.S. web site was launched on December 12, 1991 by Paul Kunz of SLAC (the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center). Check out the following articles:
      • USA Today article, December 11, 2001
      • The Web Lecture Archive Project
      • The SLAC Web Anniversary Exhibit
  • Students at the University of Illinois developed the first graphical Web browser in 1992; it was called Mosaic. It was initially written to work only on Unix-based computers but PC and Macintosh versions quickly followed. Mosaic “grew up” to become Netscape. 

Email

How addresses are constructed

• All email addresses consist of four parts, the username, the domain name, the top-domain name, and then the zone.
  • The “username” is a series of letters and/or numbers that form your unique identity as an Internet citizen.
  • The @ sign follows the username and it separates the username from the rest of the email address. Periods (called “dot” in Internet jargon) separate the parts to the right of the @ symbol.
  • The “domain name” is the name of the Internet service provider (aka an “ISP”) to which your account belongs.
  • The “top-domain name” describes the type of service provider.
  • The “zone” indicates the country of origin for the Internet address.
• Not all of the parts after the @ symbol may be present in an Internet email address. Consider the following examples:
  • When I was a user of American Online, my address was:

    wsrafaill@aol.com

    The username is wsrafaill, the domain name is aol (America Online is the service provider), and the “top-domain name” is com indicating that America Online is commercial service.

  • When I had an email address at the University of Kentucky it was:

    wsrafa0@pop.uky.edu

    Here the username is wsrafa0, the domain name is pop.uky (the service provider is the University of Kentucky and the mail system resides on the “pop” server at UK, that is, the post office protocol server), and the top-domain name is edu indicating an educational institution as the service provider.

    Note that neither of these addresses indicates a “zone ”.

  • My Georgetown College email address is:

    wrafail0@georgetowncollege.edu

    Here the username is wrafail0, the domain name is georgetowncollege, and the top-domain name is the edu. Again, no zone is indicated.

Conventions in address construction

• The usernames as configured at UK and Georgetown College indicate what is becoming a convention at large institutions with many email accounts. The username is the person's first initial and some number of letters of their last name followed by a number. At Georgetown, the maximum number of letters for the username is 7 followed by a number. The first letter of the username is the first letter of your first name. The rest of the username is the first six letters of your last name (if your last name has fewer than six letters, then all of your last name will be used). The number is used to help distinguish between two or more persons with the same first initial and (the beginning letters of the) last name. For example, if John Summers and Julie Summersby both were at Georgetown College, and John was assigned an email address before Julie, then their email addresses would be jsummer0 and jsummer1, respectively.

When do I need to use the full address?

• Generally speaking, when you are sending email to someone who is on the same system as you, in other words “internal ” email, you need only use the username. This is true on America Online and on the Georgetown College system. It may not be true on all systems. When you are sending email to someone outside your system, you must use the full email address for proper routing of the mail.
  
  For example, consider John Summers and Julie Summersby above. If John were to send email to Julie from his Georgetown College account, then he need only use her username for the address, that is, <jsummer1>. On the other hand, if John were to send email to my UK account, he must use the full address, that is, <wsrafa0@pop.uky.edu>.

When addresses are included in text …

• Did you notice how I referred to email addresses in the previous paragraph? I have followed two conventions.
  • In text, all Internet addresses (email, web, etc.) are always written in lowercase to avoid confusion between zeros (0) and Ohs (O). However, most systems (email, web, etc.) are NOT case sensitive, that is the address may be typed either way when addressing email (see the next section, “the parts of an email message”) or when typing a web address in the location bar of your browser (see “the Browser Toolbars” below).
  • Furthermore, all Internet addresses (email, web, etc.) should always be enclosed in angle brackets when included in text. This is done to avoid confusion between punctuation which is part of a sentence and the dots that are part of the address. Review the last two sentences of the previous paragraph. 

The parts of an email message

• Email messages follow the form of the standard “To: From: Subject: Date:” memo. What follows is a brief description of each part of an email message.
• the To: line

  The email address(es) listed here represent the intended recipient(s) of your email. In others words, you are writing the letter to this person(s). If you are writing to more than one person, most email systems allow you to separate the addresses by commas or by pressing the <Return/Enter> key between addresses.

• the From: line

  This is you! Your address will automatically be entered here by your email system.

• the CC: line

  The address(es) listed here represent the person(s) to which you have sent a “courtesy copy” of the email. In other words, even though the email was not sent to this person(s), you wish him/her/them to have a copy of the email. Again, separate the addresses by commas or by pressing the <Return/Enter> key between addresses.

  If the email is important enough that you wish to have a “file copy”, then include your own address in the CC: line. This is preferred over simply printing a copy of the email before you send it. By having the email sent to yourself, you will receive an exact copy of what has been sent to your addressee(s) including the date and time stamp headers of the email.

• the BCC: line

  The address(es) listed here represent the person(s) to which you have sent a “blind courtesy copy” of the email. In other words, even though the email was not sent to this person(s), you wish him/her/them to have a copy of the email. Again, separate the addresses by commas or by pressing the <Return/Enter> key between addresses.

  What is the difference between a “courtesy copy” and a “blind courtesy copy”? Any address listed in the “cc” address section of email is known to all recipients of that email, that is, anyone receiving the email will see every email address listed in both the To: and CC: lines. No address listed in the “bcc” address section of email is known to any other recipient of that email (why do you think it is referred to as a “blind courtesy copy”? The “bcc” recipient only knows that he/she has received an email as a blind copy. Of course, any recipient listed in the “To” or “From” address sections of email is known to all recipients of that email

   

• subject
  This is a brief statement summarizing the topic of your email. It should always be included but never be longer than a short phrase!
  • Subjects beginning with Re: indicate that this email is a reply to a previous email (most email systems, when you reply, automatically take the subject line of the email that you are replying to and add Re: to the beginning).
  • Subjects beginning with Fwd: indicate that this email has been forwarded. 

Email attachments

• what is an attachment?
  • use this option when you wish to append (“attach”) a computer file to your email message; when the email is sent, a copy of the file is also sent
• receiving or “downloading” attachments
  • The process
    • The process for downloading or accessing attachments varies from one email system to another. In short, any email system will give you some type of indicator (see Indicators that You Have an Attachment below) that you have an attachment. Further, attachments will be placed somewhere on your computer; where that is depends on how you set up the email. In other words, “downloading” in most cases for email is really automatic; the email program will place the attachment on your hard drive for you. The key is knowing your email system and knowing how it tells you that you have an attachment.
  • About File Types
    • In order to access an attachment, that is to be able to open it and edit it, you must have the program that created the attachment or another program that can read that file type. For example, if the attachment is a Microsoft Word document, then you must have Word or another word processor that can read Word files. Or, if the attachment is a Microsoft Excel file then you must have Excel or another spreadsheet program that can read Excel files. The version of the program is also important. The rule regarding program versions is this: later versions of programs can always read files created by earlier versions while earlier versions of programs can rarely if ever read files created by later versions.
  • Indicators that You Have an Attachment
    • So what are the “indicators” that you have an attachment? Some email systems, for example Eudora, include a line in the email simply stating that an attachment is included; often that line is a hyperlink so that when you click on it you open the attachment (see About File Types above). Other email systems, for example Outlook, will display a paper clip icon on the bar with the header (To, From, Date, etc.) info for the email. Click on that paper clip icon and a pop-up menu appears with the list of attached files. Choose the file and it will open (see About File Types above). Other email systems, such as AOL, display a floppy disk icon. If I remember correctly (I do not use AOL regularly anymore), that icon appears next to the email in the In Box view as well as at the top of the screen when you open that email. AOL works a little differently than the others that I have described, however, at least with the last version that I have used. I do not believe that clicking on the disk icon does anything other than telling you the name of the file that is attached. To access attached files in AOL, you must navigate to the “Online Downloads” folder/directory on your hard drive. That folder/directory will be in the AOL folder/directory. All attachments are automatically placed in the “Online Downloads” folder/directory. Open that folder/directory, and then open the file you wish to work with (see About File Types above).
  • In all cases, once an attachment is open, then you simply follow standard SAVE or SAVE AS procedures to save the file where you want it on your computer.
• conventions to follow when you send an attachment
  • you should always provide the following information to describe the attachment you are including
    • the filename of the attachment
    • the file type, that is the program used to create the attachment
    • the version number of the program used to create the attachment
    • the computer platform  used to create the attachment
  • for example you might include the following statement in your email when you send an attachment

    A copy of the file for the report we have been discussing is included. The filename is <report99.doc>, it was created in Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh.

     

  • why is this important?
    • immediately the person reading the email knows the name of file to look for and if he/she does not have the same program you used to created the file, he/she knows what translator to use to open the file

Want to learn more? 

• read more about Internet 101 below and the other tutorial links below

Netiquette

• Nothing is more annoying than rudeness. In the real world, everyone learns certain rules to help make life easier and kinder (unfortunately, some people forget these rules!). Since the Internet is in some aspects relatively blind to the identity of the user, and because that blindness makes rudeness tempting at times, 'Net regulars adhere to a basic set of manners as well. Those in the know refer to these rules as Netiquette.
  • You might also want to visit
    • the 'Netiquette home page
    • If you visit this site, be sure to press the BACK button in your web browser to return to the course page.
•  Emoticons and Smileys

  You have just been told that electronic communication is a form of written communication, it is all black and white. No one can see your face, no one can hear your voice. Without the facial expressions and voice inflections of spoken communication, it is sometimes difficult for the reader to determine what you really mean. To alleviate this dilemma, creative humans have developed their own set of TLAs (“three letter acronyms”), emoticons (“emotional icons”) and smileys just for email and Internet use.

  TLAs

  emoticons and smileys

Browsing the Web

Getting Started

• Internet 101

  Try this link. It “was created for those who want to know just the basics“. There are several links to the parts of this tutorial just under the date at the top. Try them all!

• You might also want to explore 
  • Beginners Central!
  • “The Internet Learning Center” by Walt Howe. 
  • The WebTeacher
  • Another source you may wish to explore is WebNovice
    • this is a very comprehensive site
    • suggest you start by clicking on “Tutorials” in the navigation frame on the left
  • Internet Tutorials by the University of Albany Libraries
• error messages on the Web

Terms and other tidbits

The Internet is no different, it has its own terminology. So you may want to check out

• terms
• or the online Net Dictionary
• or you may wish to try the #1 online encyclopedia and search engine dedicated to computer technology, Webopedia. At this site you can enter a search term or browse through the categories, and sail the Web!
• or you may wish to consult HyperDictionary (originally created by Chris Knight as part of the “Ghostwheel Information Project”)

The Toolbars in Your Favorite Browser

Search Engines, Getting Started

• What is a search engine? and how do they work?
• using Boolean operators, keywords and search strings

  • Operation	Interpretation	Examples
    And	specify precisely what you want since both words must be found	cleveland AND indians +cleveland +indians
    Or	broaden your search since either word or both must be found	cleveland OR indians cleveland indians cleveland/indians
    Not	narrow your search to eliminate unwanted combinations; the word following not must not be found	cleveland AND indians NOT native cleveland AND indians -native
    Exact phrase	another way to narrow your search as you are specifying that you want to find the words as a phrase, that is, in the order as typed	"cleveland indians" Cleveland Indians
    Complex Searching	check the advanced search directions for the search engine	"Cleveland Indians" AND baseball NOT "native american"
    Wild card	allows search of variants of a keyword check the advanced search directions for the search engine	wom*n m*n
    Proximity	allows some flexibility not found in exact phrase searches depending upon the search engine, the words listed will be separated by as few as 10 words to as many as 100 words check the advanced search directions for the search engine	cleveland~indians [cleveland indians] cleveland NEAR indians

  • You may wish to also review Ian R. Winship's useful and regularly updated comparative chart which shows some of the features and techniques for AllTheWeb, Alta Vista, Excite, Google, HotBot, Lycos
  • The InfoPeople Project Site University of California-Berkeley) offers two useful search tools
    • Search Tools Chart is a table with features of search engines, meta search engines, and subject directories. It can also can be downloaded as a 2-page pdf document.
    • Search Engines Quick Guide is a second table with additional features and information about Google, AllTheWeb, AltaVista, and HotBot. It can also can be downloaded as a 1-page pdf document.
  • And another good reference is the “Internet Search Tools Quick Reference Guide” from SEIR-TEC. On this page, you can view an handy reference guide online. You can also download and print a 2-page pdf document.
• what are “meta” search engines and how do they work?
  • it is possible for different search engines to find completely different sets of materials for similar searches, this has been demonstrated by simultaneously asking multiple search engines to search for the same keywords
  • this can make Internet research very frustrating because a query that has little effect using one engine may turn up a plethora of information on another
  • further, there are subtle differences between the search engines especially regarding the support of Boolean operators; this, of course, can affect the results of queries
  • the answer, at least currently, to this dilemma is the meta search engine
    • meta search engines forward search queries to many regular search engines at once; the results of these multiple searches are then reformatted onto a single page with the site addresses, descriptions, and the name(s) of the search engine that found that sites (duplicate finds by more than one search engine are usually collated) 
• always use at least two different engines to search for information
  • Recent studies have shown that Internet search services cannot keep up with the rapidly expanding web. See “What is a Search Engine?”
  • The conclusion: use a combination of two or three regular search engines and/or a meta search engine and/or an academic/professional subject directory

Try These Search Engines

If you are a Netscape user, a good place to start is the Search button

• this is a special search page maintained by Netscape (for Netscape Communicator) or Microsoft (for Internet Explorer) that gives your quick access to several search engines
• be advised that the search engines you have access to today may not be there tomorrow, so be sure to bookmark your favorite search engines for direct access to their sites

Or, try any of these tools. Be sure to click on the “Back” button to return to this page after exploring these sites.

Search Engines	Meta Search Engines	Need Help?	Subject Directories
Use Google (rated #1!)	Use Dogpile	Use Search Engine Watch	Use Ask Jeeves
Use AllTheWeb	Use iTools	Use Skworm	Use Beaucoup
Use Alta Vista	Use ixquick		Use Excite
Use Fast	Use MetaCrawler	Looking for Pictures?	Use INFOMINE
Use HotBot	Use Mamma	Use Ditto	Use Lycos
Use Infoseek	Use Search.com		Use Searchable Databases
Use Northern Light		Something Different	Use Yahoo!
Use Teoma		Use Karnak

Relevance Ranking

Most, if not all search engines will offer a “relevance ranking” (aka relevancy) as part of the results of any search. This is generally expressed as a percentage and is an indication of how well a particular search result matches your request. Unfortunately, the formulas for calculating relevancy are constantly changing, and there is no guarantee that the way one search engine calculates its relevance ranking is the same as another.

Here is how the HyperDictionary defines this term:

A measure of how closely a given file or web page matches a user's search for information.

The relevance used in most search engines today is based on fairly simple word-occurrence measurement: if the word “daffodil” occurs on a given page, then that page is considered relevant to search on the word “daffodil”; and its relevance is quantified as a factor of the number of times the word occurs in the page, on whether “daffodil” occurs in title of the page or in its META keywords, in the first {N} words of the page, in a heading, and so on; and similarly for words that re based on “daffodil” such as “daffodils”.

Spamdexing

One of the problems with relevance ranking and using it as a measure of how relevant a given search result is to your query is the practice of “spamdexing”. Web site developers simply load their sites with key words that have nothing to do with the site but mean that the site will be “found” by search engines. It is simply a way for sites to become noticed but does mean that oftentimes your search results could include many sites that have nothing to do with your query.

Library Web-Based Information Services

Georgetown College's Ensor Learning Resource Center offers a variety of electronic resources that are commonly referred to as Web-Based Information Services or simply Research Databases or Online Databases. Among those currently available from the LRC are:

If you follow the link to the LRC noted above, you will see “Research Databases” along the right edge of the main page for the LRC.

• click on the name of any of the databases listed to go directly to that database
• click on “Databases Information” to get a description of each database; this list also includes links to the database

Please note that since the College has licensed the use of these services some may not be accessible from off-campus.

What Are Research Databases?

Can you determine the kinds of information that may only be available from these kinds of information services and not from the usual Internet search engines? 

Online Databases give you electronic access to published “Peer-Reviewed” articles or related publications. “Peer-Reviewed” means that prior to actual publication the author(s) must submit his/her article to one or editors and/or reviewers. The review process ensures that the information that is eventually published is accurate. On the other hand, Search Engines, both meta and regular, give you access to web sites and articles that are largely not reviewed at all. Thus the only person that checks the veracity of the posted information is the author himself.

In general there are two types of Research Databases, Full-Text Databases and Citation Databases.

Full-Text Databases

Give you access to the full text of the published article, including any graphics or figures, as well as its abstract and citation information. Generally you can print this information, text only or including any graphics and figures, as well as email it to someone (including yourself).

Citation Databases

Give you access to the citation information of the published article and the abstract as well. You must get access to the printed publication to obtain the full text article.

Consequently, a good researcher will use both Internet-based search engines and subject directories as well as library web-based information services! Most importantly, serious research will generally mean that the research begins with the Online Databases and then proceeds to subject directories and Internet-based search engines as needed. Research Databases remain your best source of primary, research articles. 

Citing Electronic Sources

Research must be documented. What this means is that you, as a researcher, must explain your research techniques and present the results. In addition, it also means that you must show your readers how you arrived at your conclusions. To do that, you must provide correct bibliographic citations for the sources you employed. Furthermore, your readers should be able to understand how your sources support your arguments and/or interpretations. Your readers must be able to locate your sources so that they can judge their reliability and validity. To do this, you must document your sources.

Information Found on the 'Net

As the Internet is being recognized as a legitimate research tool, standards are being established for how information found at an Internet site is to be referenced in papers and other research documents in a manner similar to the more traditional sources. The APA, CBE, Chicago, and MLA styles no all include methods for citing electronic sources of information. For additional information, click on both of these:

• Guidelines (links to online versions of three handbooks for writers)
• Citing (prepared by the staff of the Ensor Learning Resource Center)

You should also refer to these books:

• Clark, Andy and Hayden Mead, Ph.D. 1997. The On-Line Research Handbook. Berkley Books, New York.
• Rodrigues, Dawn and Raymond J. Rodrigues. 1999. The Research Paper and the World Wide Web, 2e. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.

Information Found via a Library Web-Based Information Services

When you read an article and then use the author's words or ideas in your paper you must give the author credit in the form of a citation. This is true for online sources such as ProQuest or Lexis-Nexis, just as it is for printed sources. To do so, you follow the guidelines specified by APA,CBE, Chicago, or MLA for the type of reference you are using (book, journal article, article in book, etc.). In addition, when you are citing material found electronically, you must also include additional information that:

• specifies how you accessed this source (in other words, you need to tell your reader that you accessed an electronic version of this source as opposed to a paper version)
• specifies what information service you used to access this source (web site, subject directory, web-based information service)
• and you must include the date that you accessed this information electronically

Failure to properly cite your sources is considered PLAGIARISM. Each of these is considered an act of plagiarism: failing to cite quoted material using another person's idea without acknowledging that you are doing so failing to enclosed quoted language within quotation marks failing to acknowledge that the summarized or paraphrased information in your paper is really someone else's idea

Most online information services will offer examples of how to cite sources found via their service. Here are three examples

EBSCO databases

When you click on the “Online Help?” link after entering one of the EBSCO databases, you will be taken to the Help Information system in EBSCO. On that page, one of the choices along the left of the screen is Citing Sources. The help listed under Citing Sources will present information that describes, and offers examples, of how to cite sources found by using the EBSCO databases. Examples are given for the APA, MLA and Turabian citation styles. A list of suggested readings is also given.

1. Access EBSCO from the LRC page (you may be required to log in)
2. Click on either EBSCOhost Web or EBSCOhost Web No Frames
3. The “Help” link will now be on the top right edge of the screen, click on it
4. Use the “Styles of Citation” help item on the left to review the information on how to cite sources found using EBSCO

Lexis-Nexis

In Lexis-Nexis, if you click on the “Help” button at the top, you will be taken to “Outline of LEXIS®-NEXIS® Academic Universe Help” page. On this page, there is a link called “Citing References”. When you click on that link you will the page will scroll down and you will now see a link called “Citing References in LEXIS®-NEXIS® Academic Universe”. Clicking on that link will take you to a page explaining how to cite references found in Lexis-Nexis. Examples are given for both APA and MLA citations.

Click Here to go directly to that page. If for some reason that this link does not work, do this:

1. Access Lexis-Nexis from the LRC page (you may be required to log in)
2. Click on the “Help” button, top left of screen
3. Click on “Citing References”
4. Click on “Citing References in LEXIS®-NEXIS® Academic Universe”

Proquest

To find out how to cite articles obtained via Proquest

1. Click on the “Help” button at the top right; the Proquest window will open. 
2. Click on the “Contents” button at the top.
3. Scroll down until you see “Citing Articles” under “Reference & Examples”.
4. Click on “Citing Articles”.
5. Examples are given for both APA and MLA. You can print this page by clicking on the “Print” button at the top.

One last thing: When you are doing research, you must remember that a web site is not necessarily a research reference! Before you cite a web site, you must ask yourself for what purpose are you doing the research, who is the author of the web site and what are his/her qualifications as an "expert" on the topic you are researching. In addition, you must determine if anyone has checked the veracity of the web site. Articles that appear in professional journals are refereed meaning that prior to publication the article has been reviewed by professionals in the field. Under the guidance of the editor or editorial board, the author must then make any changes suggested by the reviewer. On the other hand, anyone can put up a web site.

Other Internet Tools

“People Searches” …

Finding someone using the 'Net (email address, phone, snail mail address, etc.)

• “People Searches” are done by using specialized search engines that represent phone books and more on the Web
  • bookmark your favorite “people search” engines
  • you may need to use more than one to find someone
  • of course, phone companies have also established their own “People Search Engines” at their sites to accomplish the same thing
  • now that the phone companies are charging for directory assistance, these can be used an a cost-free alternative
• Recommended “People Search” engines

  Try these sites. Be sure to click on the “Back” button to return to this page after exploring these sites.

Anywho AT&T service for people, businesses, toll-free numbers, and web sites. If you have the number and want to know whose it is, this site can help you find out.	Infospace The site provides listings for individuals and businesses. “Netscape People Finder” is run by Infospace.
InfoUSA You can search for individuals and businesses. A reverse number search lets you discover who belongs to a phone number.	Internet Address Finder Formerly the Internet White Pages.
Switchboard CBS' search engine for people and businesses. The site also provides maps and directions.	WhoWhere Lycos' search engine lets you look up an individual's phone number.
555-1212 This AT&T site has home and business listings and also let you look up area codes and country codes.	Yahoo! People Search Formerly known as Four11.

Do you want to “publish” yourself in these directories? To see what that means, explore each service and see what is offered. Search for someone you know.

 

(Of course you may also click on the Search button in Netscape and have access to several different “people search” engines along with the topical search engines discussed previously on this Netscape-designed page. However, I always recommend that once you find the search engine(s) that you like, you should bookmark their sites.)

Mailing Lists, Maillists, Discussion Groups, and LISTSERVs

These are synonyms and represent special kinds of electronic mail addresses that automatically forward topic-specific email to you. You select a topic of your choice and subscribe to the list. Such lists afford you the opportunity to participate in a discussion on a topic that interests you. You may be a passive member of a list, reading messages but never replying, or you may be an active member, reading and replying. No one will really care.

Do not confuse this with a chat room. Lists are not interactive while chat rooms are interactive. With a list, once you become a member of a list (subscribe), you will receive all email that other members of the list post on the subject. If you have a comment, you may reply to the email by posting your comments to the list which means that all members of the list will receive your message. Only members (subscribers) to the list will receive postings to the list and only members can post messages to the list.

The lists are either moderated or unmoderated.

• moderated list
  All postings (email) are sent to the listserv computer. The editor(s) of the list review the messages to determine if the messages are relevant to the subject of the list. Relevant messages are sent to all subscribers while irrelevant messages are returned to the sender with a mild rebuke.
• unmoderated list
  All postings (email) are sent to the listserv computer. There is no editor(s). Consequently, any properly formatted messages to the list are immediately sent to all members of the list.

How do you subscribe to a list? The following is an example of one of the procedures. There are other methods, see the links immediately following this example.

 

Send an email message to the LISTSERV computer that administers the list you are interested in as follows:

• enter the full Internet address of the LISTSERV computer in the To box
• leave the Subject line blank (or if your email system requires this field to be filled in, simply enter a space or a period)
• your email message will be

  subscribe <the name of the list> <your full name>

  • for example

    subscribe EdTech William S. Rafaill

• delete or turn off any automatic signature

 

You will receive a confirmation of your subscription (usually within minutes) and (usually in a separate email) a “how to” message about the list. Save this so you know how to unsubscribe if/when necessary!

 

• Want to learn more about email discussion groups?
  • Visit Walt Howe's E-mail Discussion List Questions. Here you can review what mailing lists are all about and get an explanation of the commands that can be used.
  • You can also find mailing lists by browsing these sites:
    • TILE.NET
    • Topica

Be sure to click on the “Back” button to return to the course pages.

Gophers

A Gopher is a database and communications system that runs on Internet (gopher) servers. It is simply a repository of information such as articles, papers, data sets, etc. When the Internet was strictly a text-based system, gophers were extensively used. With the advent of the web, gophers are not used as much. However, it is still important to understand how to access and use a gopher site. You never know when one might be the only source of the information you need.

The term “gopher” is a double entendre. Gopher sites were first developed at the University of Minnesota where the mascot is the gopher. The term also refers to the fact that if you want information you must “go-for” it.

To learn more about gophers try Walt Howe's What is a Gopher?

Try these gopher sites. Be sure to click on the “Back” button to return to the course pages.

• University of Minnesota (the “mother of all gophers”)
• University of Tulsa
• United States Government

FTP

This is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol and defines a method for a set of protocols for sending and receiving files on the Internet. FTP sites are the main method for uploading and downloading files such as program upgrades, browser plug-ins, etc. When the Internet was strictly text-based, this was the only means to uploading and downloading files. With the development of browsers and the web, the process of ftp is often transparent to the user, that is, you often simply click on a link to initiate the ftp process. However, it is still important to understand how to access and use an ftp site. You never know when one might be the only source of the information you need.

To learn more about FTP try

• Walt Howe's Questions on Software, Files, and File Transfers (FTP)

 

Try the United States Department of Education FTP server or find an FTP site by browsing the Tile Net site. Be sure to click on the “Back” button to return to the course pages.

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last updated August 12, 2003