Reflections: EIR Closure

Throughout this one whole month learning Effective Internet Research, I found that the learning journey of EIR is like driving a plane in an open-wide blue sky. Ms Farida, the captain of the plane, whereby she teaches us how to evaluate search facilities, evaluate websites and proper usage of internet. This is because without a proper guidance and training, we are like flying a direction-less plane that is going nowhere. Therefore I think she deserves the honour of being the best captain throughout the flight….LOL.

First, we learnt the basic of internet search facilities and differentiate search engine, Meta search engine and subject directory. After all the basics training, we learnt to apply them through in class activities and research topic. Here I’d learnt new things and their proper function, even though I might have used them before, but not in a correct way of usage.

Landing on the SecondLife platform is our first virtual travelling destination. Exposure to SecondLife is another great activity as well as we learnt how to use our own created simulation character in virtual world to chat and learn more new things. For instance, virtual shopping in SecondLife shops, I met with different people in SecondLife world and actually did window shopping there.

Last but not least, to my fellow classmates, contribution from all of them in the group work shows that group spirit from our class should not be under-estimated. At first we met some obstruction, where no one wants to volunteer to be the head editor of the wiki.  I can tell that “The Captain” was quite frustrated at that time, but luckily in the end we still managed to choose 3 group leaders from all of us. The wiki collaborative work was a very awesome experience because every one of us has provided their own opinion and information in order to make this complete wiki. Hence, credits to the wiki group work editors, who spend their time on editing and compiling all the information to make up such a decent and useful wiki.   

Reflections: Virtual Youths Meeting on SecondLife

I pay a visit to the HKPolyU campus. While I teleported to the HKPolyU campus, I took a screenshot of the bird eye view of the campus.

LOL...probably too far away...cannot see the details of campus

Then I started to walk around the campus while I landed on the campus.

The learning hub allow visitors to give their comments

HKPU group welcome message popped up after I landed on the island

After that, I started to look for the fellow HKPoly classmates that are supposed to be met. But in the end only few of them turns up. Therefore, everyone of us have to take turn to ask them.  But some of them logged off and exit the game even before I asked them questions. Luckily in the end I still managed to ask one of the HKPolyU student which is really cooperative during the whole chatting session.

Student name: Shek Blogger

Course undertaking: Modern Software Technology

Then I start to ask him about the questions from the assignment.

He said that he would turn off any strange invitations, using internet filters.  Besides that, he recommended me to visit Ocean Park if I come to visit Hong Kong for holiday. He recommend me to try out the Hong Kong dim sums, he said he knows that Singapore have dim sum too. Most likely he tried Singapore dim sum before, but don’t know what he feels about it…LOL  

Other students sitting on couch

And after a short chat, other students asked him questions at the same time, therefore, I walk around and explore the campus myself.

The HKPolyU library

Reflections: My Dream Holiday

Part 1: Evaluate Tourism Website

I chose Australia as my dream holiday location. After visited the official Australia.com webpage, I found that most of the information is all available on the website. I did a quick analysis on the homepage of Australia.com.

Purposes: This website provides all the information and events in Australia. From the website, users can links media site, track events and search for travel destination from Tourism Australia.

Coverage: Whenever visitor wants to visit different cities and territories in Australia, they can find out more on this website. The website display information range from famous Australia travel destination to popular events being held in Australia. Besides that, user can use the guide provided on the website to plan their holiday before they visit Australia.

Authority: The website was released by authoritative source, Tourism Australia. Although no specific author of the website was stated, but I believe that the information on website is true and facts.

Accuracy: The information on this website is accurate and precise. The information on this website is presented in good faith and on the basis that Tourism Australia, nor their agents or employees, are liable (whether by reason of error, omission, negligence, lack of care or otherwise) to any person for any damage or loss whatsoever which has occurred or may occur in relation to that person taking or not taking (as the case may be) action in respect of any statement, information or advice given in this website. Tourism Australia wishes to advise people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent that this website may contain images of persons now deceased.

Currency: All the information is under the property of Tourism Australia made 2010. This is because most likely the author(s) of the website only upload the information once per year.

Accessibility: Generally the accessibility for the webpage is easy and simple. No registration is required while browsing the webpage. All links are available in one click. The information on the webpage are all free for readers to access.

Presentations and arrangement: The presentation of the website is nice and attractive. Changing wallpaper was the main point of the website, whereby users can view different screenshot of the best tourist attraction in Australia. The overall layout of the website is also quite decent and nice. This is because the information and tabs are clearly separated and properly arranged in a grid format.

Usability: The website is user friendly and uses colourful and attractive images for the background. The fonts used are also easily readable and not causing any distraction to readers. The information bar on top also allows users to navigate around different page of Australia.com easily. Language bar on the top right corner enables user to switch to the major language being used world widely. Search feature allows user to search for places, events, etc that is related to Australia.

Overall: From a perspective of a website user, I think this website is very attractive and nice. Nice layout and colour schemes used, allows users to have enjoyable feeling and relax while browsing the website. The option of “Plan your holiday” also is a big mention as the function allow tourists to check out the places and destination virtually before they visit them. Other special functions and events also help visitor to find out more other than travel destination.

Part 2: Travelling Experience In Second life

While in SecondLife, I decided to travel to Las Vegas, the city of gambling. This is not because I like to gamble (I don’t like gambling actually), but wanted to find out how the Linden Lab create the virtual map of Las Vegas. Other than visiting the city, I would like to see and explore more on SecondLife. For instance, the costumes and the way the people behave over there. Attractive lightings and buildings in real life is another reason why I wanted to visit the virtual Las Vegas in SecondLife.

Teleported to Las Vegas

Walking around Las Vegas USA

The main island on Las Vegas USA

Last visitor will be recorder on this screen

Different screenshot of the gambling machine on Las Vegas USA

Japanese hut style resorts on the other side of island

In SecondLife, no attractive lightings, no casino-like buildings, the virtual life is totally different from what I expected from real life. The Las Vegas USA is located on an island whereby users have to teleport to the exact location.  I didn’t saw any users playing on the island by the time I visits the island. But different types of gambling machines are all available for users to play around. Countless gambling machines allow different users to use them at one go. Another great mention is the Japanese hut style resorts. The resorts are nicely build and a great place to walk around. The overall experience is awesome and great. 

Reflections: Twitter and Blogger

This is my first time using Twitter, although it has been introduced long time ago. Before that, I thought Twitter was some kind of e-journal, whereby users and readers can share opinions and chat. But after today lesson, I realized that Twitter is a quite useful tools no matter at school, work or at home. You can just tweet about anything that you feel like to.

Twitter logo

According to TheFreeDictionary.com, Twitter means:

1. To utter a succession of light chirping or tremulous sounds; chirrup

2.a. To speak rapidly and in a tremulous manner: twittering over office gossip.

   b. To giggle nervously; titter.

3. To tremble with nervous agitation or excitement.

During EIR, Twitter has helped to bring close the relationship between classmates and lecturers. This is because through tweeting, students can discuss about school work and meanwhile chit chat among each others. Besides that, Twitter also used as a communication tools between students and lecturers, especially during off day and after school. For instance, students can ask questions and consult lecturers regarding school works through Twitter. Other than that, following celebrities and artists allows users to keep up-to-date with them, from fashion to their daily lives activity.

Below is a quick comparison between Twitter and Blogger:

Internet Facilities	Twitter	Blogger
Input Options	Text only	Text, images, videos, links
Information shared	Limited, only viewable by followers only	Unlimited, viewable by every one
Text limit	140 words only per tweet	No limit
Tweet /Post options	Instant short tweet, similar to SMS	Detailed post with advanced post options
Notification	All followers will be notified the next second	Only site feeders will be notified
Template Editor	Quick template editor under Profile page	Quick template editor under Design bar
Interface	Simple and fixed layout	Customisable layout with gadgets
Privacy	Only Followers able to view the tweets	All readers able to view the post

I think Blogger will be more useful tools when come to research. This is because through Blogger, users can share their findings and link photos and videos, whereby in Twitter, user can only post text. Besides that, in Twitter, text limit on type box was another disadvantage, as compared to Blogger. Users cannot include whole excerpt from websites through Twitter.

On the other hands, Twitter has a good point which is better than Blogger, the Following and Unfollow features. For instance, after Tom follow Harry’s page on Twitter, whatever tweets from Harry will be display on Tom’s Twitter homepage in the next few minutes. Therefore, the Followers still be updated with the latest tweets from whom their Following.

As a conclusion, I think Blogger can be used as a research tools, with proper language used and reliable resources. This is because some of the blog are purely made of personal justification or statements, therefore, if one include information form external websites, then that piece of information would be useful as we can know and link to the original websites. As for Twitter, I think it would be more suitable if used as a discussion board for class activity and gather feedbacks from students and lecturers. The instant tweet short messages will be passed around and everyone will be notified on the spot.    

Reflections: EBSCOHost and Books24x7

Generally, EBSCOHost is an good example of invisible database, whereby users can search for journal articles and documents, which is normally cannot be retrieved by  using standard search engine. On the homepage of EBSCOHost, there are 4 categories with different functions. In my cases, I decided to use "Find Journal Articles" tab to search for related articles on the research topic. 

Homepage of EBSCOHost

In the search query, I typed in the search term using Boolean Operators. By the way, EBSCOHost provide full Boolean Operators support for search query. It's much more easier to type in the search term.

Search query on EBSCOHost, with full Boolean Operators support.

From the search results, I found that the keywords match are very little and not really relevance to my research topic. For example, article " Some simple economics of GM food", talks about the profits and economics side of GM food and how they affect the global economic.

Search results page, indicating the number of results matched.

Below is the chosen article. I think this article is relevant because it states that how to improve confidence of consumer through GM food labeling, allow consumers to have a piece of mind while consuming GM products. The article also aims to promote GM foods and further elaborate on the impact of GM food labeling impositions on the overall viability if GM foods.

Chosen article that is relevant to my research topic

On the other side, in Books24x7, which is a library targeted at IT stuff and technology related books, the search results was very disappointing. None of the results was found when I typed in the search term in search query. 

Homepage of Books24x7

No results found related to the search query......disappointing!!

Therefore, I conclude that not all internet facilities are useful and relevant when come to research, users have to define the topic and filter out the area that the topic belongs to. In order to have a more comprehensive research, users have to try out with different search facilities and analyse it before compiling them together. 

Reflections: Evaluation of STOMP

I think STOMP is a very good examples of citizen journalism, whereby readers can get info and watch local news, gossips and daily activities of people around us. The website have very comprehensive contents and different source of information are available for readers to read and enjoy.From the group activity, I found that the STOMP website has a lot of great feature which is worth to mention.

Homepage of STOMP

On the homepage of STOMP, there are different tabs on the top bar, with specified categories. For example, S'PORE SEEN showing recent top cases and news happened in Singapore; while DIY VIDEO contains video clips that was personally shot and then uploaded to STOMP.

Different tabs on homepage of STOMP

The most popular and 'must see' news was featured on the STOMP's Top 8. This is where the first article catch our attention during the group assignment.

STOMP's Top 8

Other main features of STOMP was:

Chinese support and What's the
BUZZ? : Hot topics being discussed
 in TalkBack was listed on homepage

The recent murdered case was featured
on STOMP and provide up-to-date news

Next, I will move on to the article that was chosen by our group. Our chosen article was the recent hot topic "Downtown East Murder: Victim's Friends Get Online Challenge To  A Fight". Attached below was the screenshots of the article featured on STOMP.

Article chosen for the group assignment.

A Mood Meter bar was included to allow
readers give ratings to the corresponding article.

Videos and pictures were included as well for
readers to have alternative option besides
read through the whole article.

 From the results shown, this article receive more than 88000 views,
which means that a lot of people had read this article.  Besides that ,
 readers can also leave down comments in response to the article.

Reflections: Discussion Forum - sgForums

For the discussion forum activity, I decided to join sgForums to post threads on the topic regarding GM foods.

Generally, sgForums is a poular forum based in Singapore. Users can comments, uploads or post topics about their daily life activities and any “unusual” thing that happens around them, that is potentially to  be a hot topic. Hosts forums such as Chit Chat, Bar, Aunt Agony, food, babes, politics and a marketplace. Users can havemore options and posts their comments or start a new topic on the correct category. sgForums was ranked 151 in Singapore worldwide network traffic, according to Alexa.com. The fraction of visits to Sgforums.com referred by search engines is approximately 34%, and it is based in the UK.

Although it wasn’t the first time I visits the forum ( it was way back to secondary school  I think!), but I still roughly remember the functions and tabs on the homepage of sgForums. On the homepage, different categories of forums are available for user to visits. Besides that, recent posts and top forums will also be available on the homepage of sgForums. A shoutbox is located on the top right hand corner for user to voice their feelings and thoughts over sgForums.In order to gain different perception and views, I have started 2 different threads name with similar meanings on 2 different categories, Foods and Speakers Corner. 

Homepage of sgForums

First I posted under Foods category because it was the primary category where it belongs to, but the views and replies are not very satisfying. Over 80 viewers has viewed the thread, but in the end only 4 replies altogether (2 reply were from the same person and the other 2 was from me).

Thread: "Believe It or Not! GM Food cause cancer" under Food category

On the other hand, the second threads, which I posted under Speakers Corner category, was quite popular and has even featured on the homepage of sgForums.

Thread: "Sure anot!! Consume GM Food = Higher chances of cancer?"
                under Speakers Corner category

Below are some replies extracted from the thread:

No lah, GM food = General Manager's food ie rich people's food

Poor people in 3rd world countries eat organic food.

Actually, rich people in Singapore are afraid of dying now, so they now like to eat the poor people's food ie organic food only.

When they buy vegetables, chicken and drinks, they asked "Is it organic ?"

What an irony. – by Devil7030

Genetic modified food.

Yes, I came across such reports.

Mainly due to the uncertainty on how newly modified genes express themselves.

As much as molecular science has come so far, there is still little knowledge on how genes interact and communicate to switch one another on and off.  – by 4sg

this question has always been a debate...I've got no comments.

Most of the food that we consume have chemicals added during their growing process..

If you guys really wanna be safe, stick to organic food which is rather expensive.

Otherwise, be a vegetarian. – by dangerboi

Well, there are reasons why the food industry has resisted GM-labeling in most countries. In Singapore, it isn't practiced. Obviously, there are huge money interests at stake here and CASE is not doing their job.

While research on GM-food has not been widely publicised, they have been linked to birth defects, here and here, long-term sterility, are toxic to mammals. In fact, they have been found to have no effect on yields as most proponents like to assert. Most GM-foods have been engineered either to be resistant to certain herbicides/ pesticides, like Monsanto's Roundup-ready products, or engineered to last only 1 generation so that farmers cannot save their seeds and have to go back and buy seed from MNCs like Monsanto.

And it's obvious that such a tactic has only the company's profits in mind, not the food security of any country or the world in mind- profit maximisation through food monopoly. More often, getting involved in GM crops cost farmers more money in terms of the herbicides/ pesticides used, water usage, expensive, patented seeds that there is huge stress caused by the financial burden.

I think the west is going for transgenetic crop in a big way. Starting from the UN sponsored crops in Africa. – by freedomclub

From the replies, most readers agrees with that point and provide their point of view on this matter. Some of them have no comments while freedomclub has provided detailed information that how the progress of GM foods being develop.

As a conclusion, through forum discussion, we can have different perception and feedbacks from different readers, therefore provide more information and statistics on how well the acceptance of public on this topic. In this case, public acceptance is quite an important factor because the targeted consumer for GM foods is human. They need to gain trustworthy from user before they can proceed with developing the products.

Reflections: Meta Search Engine and Subject Directory

Today, I was introduced to 2 new search facilities, meta search engine and subject directory. This was a whole new experience for me as I had never used them before. I chose MetaCrawler as meta search engine and Google Directory as subject directory.

VS

For MetaCrawler, I found out that the homepage interface was quite clean and easy to use. All the search functions and tabs are clearly stated and properly arranged. The special function of this website is the Popular Searches tab, whereby user can just clicked on the most popular keywords being searched. This function is significant different because it was absent in Google Search and other search engines. From the search results on MetaCrawler, I found that the search results is not that useful for my topic. Other than that, the main drawback of MetaCrawler is the ads on the search results . From the search page, about half of the results was purely advertisements found on Google, Yahoo! And Bing. The results was quite disappointing. Another weakness of MetaCrawler is the limited amount of text on search bar. Actually I wanted to use Boolean Operators method for this search engine in order to compare the results retrieved more effectively. But due to the facts that there are text input limit, I have no choice but to use the research topic without any brackets and Boolean Operators.

On the other hand, the Google Directory was the new database that I found besides Google search engine. I realised that in the homepage of Google Directory, there are this extra colum below the search bar that shows different categories and topics. I think this feature is very nice because users and readers can just click on their desired category In one click or perform more precise searches within that category. Besides the search bar and the category column, there is a small green column at the bottom of the page. Web owners can submit their webpage to Google Directory in order to be featured in here. There are other function such as becoming an editor of Google Directory and learn more about the open directory project. On the search results, the results that matched the keywords was quite little and below hundreds. In my cases, most of the results are from official organisation and government related agencies.

As a conclusion, I think meta search engine can gives users more perception or information that cannot be found by using single search engine. Meta search engine can helps to generate more pages or results from different search engine and therefore contribute more information in research process. Whereby subject directory like Google Directory is for users who wants to look for exact information and statistics data. This is because through searches in Google Directory, I found that most of the websites are official organisation and government-related agencies, which means the original source of information.