Summative Blog Post: Module 3

Thank you for the response, Rights to animals.Wikipedia is helpful and it allows people to have a world of information at ones fingertips. Although the information is not considered credible it is still effective in accomplishing the task that it was meant to do. Wikipedia has become the world’s most dominate education resource, with over four million articles in English this website is accessible to anyone willing to read the information. Although I still believe that the old technology is best because everything is electronic there are several other ways to which we can reuse old technology like online books, newspapers, journals and academic articles. It is not as direct as Wikipedia but the information is credible and also useful. I find Wikipedia to easy to find information and that is not always correct causing a flow of misinformation and misunderstanding especially because anyone and there dog is allowed to write or edit on this website. Whereas Old technology items have been proofread and checked several times so this information is researched and correct.

Wikipedia I believe is useful to me as a university student because it provides me with a quick understanding of the topic I am attempting to write about. It provides me with a general understanding and direction when completing and assignment. I feel as if it points students in the right direction in the search for relevant information. 

I also agree with you Rightstoanimals about your comment that Wikipedia is more of a general blog or forum because certain information and be considered bias depending on the topic concerning the author of the article for example; I’m a Toronto Maple Leaf fan is I were to write an article concerning the team about an opposing team my tendencies would be biased towards Toronto and I would neglect certain aspects of information about the other team.  This is directly related to Wikipedia because everyone is allowed to post and speak their mind about what they choose to write about.

So in closing I believe that Wikipedia is still effective when researching general information but should never ever be considered as credible source of information because of the ability and accessibility to post information on the website , and if the information is able to post on this website it should be corrected based on the amount of views that the website receives on a daily basis and the information is consumed but a large audience.      

Initial Blog Post Module 3: Wikipedia

                                         

As technology advances it appears that people also continue to advance.  We now have available to us through the internet an endless amount of information that is accessible to anyone who has a connection and a computer.  People are now able to become more knowledgeable through the vast amount of information available on the internet about various subjects through the click of a button (Royal, 138).  Old technology like books, newspapers, and journals appear to be disappearing as a source for information and people are now using new technology like search engines in order to gain information (Brown, 1).  The internet unlike old technology allows people to search exactly what information they want at whatever time they want without having to wait and buy a newspaper, book, or journal about a specific subject.  The internet allows you to log onto your computer, type in what you are looking for, and be supplied with endless information from many people, both credible and non-credible on the subject of choice.  An extremely popular search engine available to internet users today is Wikipedia (Royal, 138).  It is so popular among its users because it is a “free encyclopedia”.  People no longer have to go looking for information on the internet because Wikipedia provides information that people are looking for, enough information to allow them to become knowledgeable on a specific subject.  It popularity is proven through the 38 million views that it receives each month (Brown, 139).

After reading the articles I do not believe that my opinion about Wikipedia has changed.  I am not an avid user of the online encyclopedia and would never use it for a university assignment. However I do believe that it is a good resource to gain basic knowledge about a topic.  I and also many others that are using Wikipedia are aware that the information can be illegitimate.  We have been taught for years in school that Wikipedia is not a credible source of information because any internet user is able to edit content that is available on its site (Giles, 900).  However if I am looking for an overview of information about a topic Wikipedia is my go to site.  Brown claimed in the article that old documents like encyclopedias, books, newspapers, and journals are no longer an accessible and practical for gaining information in today’s technological world.  We want information fast and when and where we want it.  Search engines like Wikipedia provide exactly that to its users.  I will continue using Wikipedia even after I have this information, however after knowing the amount of illegitimate information that is provided through its server I will not take the information too seriously.  If I want a quick summarization about a topic at a convenient time for me, that is when I will use Wikipedia, for assignments and important information related to work I will continue using online credible articles, journals and books.  

References

Brown, J. S. & P. Duguid. (1996). The Social Life of Documents. First Monday. 1, 1.

Giles. J. (2005). Special Report: Internet encyclopaedias go head to head. Nature. 438, pp 900-901.

Royal, C. & Kapila, D. (2009). What's on Wikipedia, and What's Not . . . ?: Assessing Completeness of Information. Social Science Computer Review. 27, 1. pp 138-148.

Module 2

Social media websites have attracted millions of user’s word wide and with this new technology constantly expanding it is becoming a very important part of our daily practices (Boyd & Elliscion, 210).  There are many social media websites available to the public of all ages, races, languages, and even some based on interests and practices (Boyd & Ellison, 210).  Within these social media websites as users we are able to construct an online profile that we can have open to the public’s view or blocked so that only people from our friends list can view our profile.  However the issue surrounding online public profiles is that people begin to develop online personas or identities on this virtual world.  I believe that Sherry Turkle is correct in claiming that the devices that we carry around with us not only are changing the world we live in but also how we live (Turkle, 1). 

The criteria that I use to share information about myself and how I present myself on social media sites is very tasteful and I try not to share to much of my personal information with the public.  Currently I am using Twitter and Facebook as my forms of social media and I use both social Medias to stay connected with friends and family.  I do not post any person information or un-tasteful images that would cause others to misjudge my character.  I am aware that there is constant surveillance on social media web sites that may come from new employers possibly in my futures that could make unfair judgments about myself because of things posted on my social networks.   Albrechtslund believes in his article that having the notion of constant surveillance can pose as a positive on social media websites because it restricts the amount of information that we share and also what we share like pictures, videos, and comments that may not be appropriate. 

The only websites that I use to share information about myself is on Twitter and Facebook.  The only information that I have available to the public (people that are not on my friend list) is my name, the city I live in and my profile picture.  On Twitter I also have my profile set as private and all that is available is my profile picture and my name.   Even people that are my friends and have access to my profile are not given any personal information that would potentially damage my reputation in any way.  I have pictures of myself and my family on Facebook and on Twitter I use it for following current events and being updated in sports.

References

Albrechtslund, A.  (2008)  “Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance.”  First Monday.  13,3.

Boyd, Danah M., and Nicole B. Ellison. "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13.1 (2008): 210-30.

Turkle, Sherry.  The Flight From Conversation.  New York Times Sunday Review.  April 21, 2012. 

                                 

The Earth, Our Planet

Hello everybody my name is Nicholas Lowery , I am currently a third year student and studying business and communications. I have enrolled in this course because the content being studied seems innovative and interesting. Also because of the growing rate in which social media’s affect the rate that we can receive and share information.    

 The purpose of my blog is to identify and discuss current issues involving the environment. I have chosen to blog about this topic because of the current environmental issues and concerns that are always relevant within the media and recently there have been concerns with gasoline consumption and the negative effects of carbon dioxide, and the pollution of our environment. I feel that is important to be informed of the environmental issues, because these issues affect everyone like, Clear cutting, Oil spills and the never ending argument of global warming. 

Blogs Supporting Environmental Issues 

TreeHugger; TreeHugger is the mother of all environmental blogs, ranking #17 on Technorati's top blogs list (which makes it at least one of the most referenced enviroblogs). It covers general environmental news, events and products. 
EcoGeek; Geek chic environmental is a good way to describe EcoGeek, which writes about gadgets that are earth friendly.
Environmental Law Prof Blog; From the always-good Law Professor Blog Network, this one deals with pressing concerns surrounding the issue of environmental law.
New Scientist Environment Blog; Excellent environmental commentary and analysis from New Scientist magazine
AutoblogGreen; A spin-off from Weblogs Inc.'s popular Autoblog, the green version deals with cars and the environment -- think hybrids, gas consumption, alternative fuels, etc.

Website Concerning Our Environment

 http://www.globalissues.org

http://www.ec.gc.ca

http://www.sciencedaily.com 

http://www.nrdc.org

http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca

Twitter Links

#savethetrees 
#Pollution
#GlobalWarming
#SavetheEnvironment
#StopPolluting