Evaluating Wikipedia

Wikipedia, I never really knew much about it before the lecture last week, although from what I gathered it seems to be one of the most often used resources around the world. After reading a few of the links Adam posted I became a little weary of Wikipedia and using it as a resource. The idea that anyone can just go and change another persons work or even delete the entire thing seems very odd. I guess it's good that others able to correct information or add it but how do we know if its correct? The task today was to pick two articles that I am an expert one which is quite difficult as I dont really believe myself to be an expert on anything.

The first article I chose was about the greyhound. Owning a greyhound myself was what promted me to choose this topic as I know quite alot about them. I found the information in the article to be very true and relevant to the topic. It covered all the general facts you would need or want to know about greyhounds from their size, appearance and personality. It stuck to the Wikipedia guidelines fairly well, referenceing all the statements, breaking up the information into seperate pages, the grammar was correct and well punctuated and it avoided the not-to-do content. I would have to say that it seemed to be a very informative and correct article.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyhounds)

The second article that I decided to look up was about bi-polar disorder which I chose because a member of my family suffers from it. After reading the article I learnt some new fact myself and found everything I knew on the subject was in the article. Again it was a very accurate article using relevant facts and references. It covered all the basic facts needed to understand the topic also adding extra indepth information. I believe it followed the Wikipedia guidelines I mentioned in the above paragrpah. The article was not really debating an issue but rather explaining it so it was not really biased in anyway but it did seem fair and accurate.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-polar_disorder)

Perhaps I was just lucky to choose two articles that were factual. I also found this task a little hard not knowing enough about the articles I chose. I agree that there is probably many articles out there in Wikipedia that are incorrect or not entirely true. I don't think I will be using in the future for any assignments but it does seem to have some reliable information.

Well, I think thats all I've got for today now I'm off to fill up my 4 hour gap with much procrastination about the two paragrpahs I have due in tomorrow!

Farewell bloggers :)

Searching without Wikipeda or Google

Here I am back from my short but memorable easter break. 9am starts are beggining to get old. None the less I am here attempting to answer the questions set out with out using wikipedia or google. The search engine used was yahoo.

• The infamous creater of the 'love bug' virus was Onel de Guzman, a twenty four year old computer school student. He wrote the password stealing program as a school project.(http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/06/29/philippines.lovebug.02/index.html)
• The first paper clip was invented in 1867 by Samuel Fay.(
• The Ebola virus got it's name from the Ebola river in Zaire, Africa where it was first discovered.(http://www.lycos.com/info/ebola--ebola-river.html)
• America ia the country with the largest earthquake recorded.It was located on the eastern Pacific Ocean about 100 miles off the west coast of Chile, South America on May 22, 1960There is one terabyte (Tb) = 1000 gigabytes (Gb) = 1000 000 megabytes (Mb) = 1000 000 000 kilobytes (kb) = 1 000 000 000 000 bytes or one thousand billion bytes of information.(http://www.riverland.net.au/text/look_first/gloss2.html)
• E-mail actually pre-dates the widespread use of the Internet. It was invented by Ray Tomlimson in 1971.(http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/lookup/encyclopedia/e-/E-mail.html_
• The spread of the "storm worm" started via e-mails purporting to provide information on some dangerous storms in Europe at the close of January. Users who fell for it were directed to a web site containing malicious code aimed at turning Windows PCs into spam bots. Just how many computers are part of the botnet is anyone's guess, but estimates from some security firms are reaching as high as 10 million.( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070902-storm-worm-adds-millions-of-computers-to-botnet.html)
• Community Cabinet meetings are part of the Prime Minister’s commitment to ensure close consultation with the Australian people on the things that concern them, whether they are national or local matters.These meetings give people in the community an opportunity to meet with Cabinet members in person and ask questions directly about issues which are important to them.phone the Community Cabinet Secretariat at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on 1800 088 323.(http://www.pm.gov.au/community_cabinet/index.cfm)
• Steve Stockwell was in the band The Black Assassins. They were a vital part of the Brisbane Punk scene which developed in the late 1970's and early 1980's. They played at every major venue at one time or another. Sometimes they got banned for outrageous behaviour.(http://members.optusnet.com.au/~toxicoh/blackas.htm)
• Web 2.0 is the elovution over time of the web and how everyday people can post and put information out there, a platform we can all contribute to.(http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;430415830;fp;2;fpid;1)

Thats all for now so I'm off to have at go at the 'Guess the Google' game online.

THE SECOND WEEK

Well hello again bloggers,

Im back...This week I was directed to write a blog on how I use New Communication Techniques to communicate with my friends and family. Well I guess my main source of online communication to my friends and family would be msn messenger or myspace. I rarely chat to family online as most of my relatives are computer illiterate and would barely manage to find the power switch on a computer so I'll just stick to friends.

Of my msn contacts I only know about 20% as I used to add anyone and everyone when I first was intoduced to the amazing chat program at 13 years of age. Now I just can be bothered to go through the hundred and something contacts and delete the ones I dont chat to. I believe it is very different chatting to someone you have never met in real life compared to a friend you have known for years as you have so many things to ask or tell that they dont know where as chatting to someone you already know usually entails deciding what to do on the weekend or telling them anything exciting that happened during the day.

My most common use of communicating through the internet would be myspace which is made up from people that I was friends with from school or work along with the occasional band. Myspace was sort of a phenomenon at high school and was something to do between cramming for tests or finishing assignments at 1 in the morning. Posting photos and recieveing comments or messages was exciting.

My main use for msn or myspace is only social and is generally something I do when im bored at home or am procrastinating about assignments. I was influenced to join them mainly because it was considered "cool" at the time. These days I see it as more of a convenient way to communicate to my friends and share photos.

I think thats enough writing for now hopefully I have answered the required questions somewhere in those paragraphs.

Goodbye for now :)

About Me

Grettings Fellow Bloggers,

My name is Jess and this is my firt time blogging. Well here I am in my first tutorial of new communication technologies at griffith university. I missed last weeks tutorial because I assumed they weren't on in the first week, i was wrong although most of the first week tutes I went to involved reading the course outline so I dont think I have missed too much.

I am enrolled in a bachelor of communications and chose this subject because I hope to better my internet and computer skills, also because my second year friend said it was a simple subject. Well thats all I can think to write for now I'm not sure that anyone out there will find this particularly interesting but at least I have met my requirements for the tutorial.

Watch out for more exciting blogs next week.