Internet Site Evaluations Essay Research Paper Introduction

Internet Site Evaluations Essay, Research Paper

Introduction

“Wow, will you look at this website I found, they claim that 9 out of 10 people in America are millionaires. What’s more, they claim to be the largest online wealth creation firm. Surprisingly, there is no information regarding the author or the origin of this site.” Internet dream or website scheme. If one is easily persuaded by this type of material, it may be time to reassess their knowledge of website criterion. Not all websites are created equal. When judging the validity and accuracy of websites, there are several factors which must be considered before finally ascertaining the veracity of a site. These factors, when reviewed on the whole will allow websurfers to become both more informed and aware of the Internet and websites in general.

Authorship

“How to perform open heart surgery: A Primer by Billy ‘cool kid’ Johnson.” If a member of ones family had a heart attack, would the above source help in saving their life if a hospital was inaccessible. This would depend on the authenticity and authorship of the source. In any case, using material from an unquestionable source is not a reliable idea. Why. Because the authorship of the source, probably the most important criterion one must use in evaluating the effectiveness of a website, is sometimes debatable. The author of a website can be anyone. It can be ones next door neighbour, someone whom was met last week at a bar or a world renowned open heart surgeon who was on television just three days ago. Before beginning to delve into a site, make sure that authorship meets one of two sub-criterion: if reviewing a site in ones own general area of expertise, be certain that the author is a trusted and well recognized name in the field; or, if visiting a site by an author one is unfamiliar with, make sure that there is either bibliographic information about either the author or the sources the author used. If this information is missing, make sure, at the very least, that the site from which one was redirected from was that of a dependable source. In addition, an author mentioned in a positive manner by another well recognized author or an author who has listed personal contact information about themselves may also be of valuable insight when researching. If the authorship of a site seems questionable, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the site lacks validity, it simply means that the site is not of an absolute scholarly background. Learning to pinpoint useful and noteworthy sources is a difficult task but usually, when one is able to recognize and relate with the authorship of a source, the rest of the criterion should all fall into place.

Publishing Body

Books are published every day around the world. It is the job of the publisher of these books to be certain that the books they distribute portray the type of message and image that the public would be intent on receiving. This is exactly the same reason publishers do not accept hate material from being published. Analogous to this book publishing illustration, the same is true regarding websites and the online publishing body, in this case, the server or domain under which a website is found. Take, for example, this brief situation: two possible research sources to comment on the recent decline in the value of the Asian economies are found on the web. The first, http://harvad.edu/prof/ mhodgkins/econ101.html, and the latter, http://members.geocities.com/imsmrt.htm. Which source would one consider more reliable in such circumstances. The choice in this case is fairly apparent, the first. However, in most cases, defining a sites integrity and usefulness is not as clear. This leads to the second factor used in evaluating a website, the publishing body. Although in many cases a publishing body is not listed on the site, the server or the location of the domain usually gives enough information regarding the publishing body of the website residing in the location. There are generally several questions which one must ask when reviewing the publishing body of a website. Firstly, one must take a look if any names (ie. organization, corporate), distinctive emblems or any other characteristic are identified on the site. This will usually help verify or debunk the authenticity and general objective of a site. After this, a look towards the webmaster of the site, any scholarly links and the server of the site is essential. Typically, for server locations and published info, services like dnslookup and whois may be of assistance. Finally, one must ask whether such an organization is recognized in the field and is able to address the issue which one is looking to research. For instance, it would be quite eccentric to find the Humane Society of Peel to report on the need for biological weapons in Canada. Finally, the last important piece of information one must look for is whether the website is an individual account or if it belongs to the official site as a whole. This is meaningful when reviewing personal sites on many of the free webspace services found on the web. Services such as Geocities, Angelfire or Hypermart, which offer free webspace, do not typically reflect the opinions expressed by sites on their server. On the whole, it is generally not exceedingly difficult to determine the publishing body of a website. Even if this task seems intimidating, there are always other mechanisms