WEEK TWELVE

23.05.08

SOCIAL & ETHICAL ISSUES

Lecture

Today's lecture was all about protecting yourself and your PC on the Worldwide Web.
First we watched a short film that was about identity theft and about putting personal information on sites such as My Space and Facebook.
It should a lady that had her personal detail hacked into, just by having her date of birth on her personal My Space account, the man then showed her how easy it was to access her details, such as her tax file number.

We then learnt about the characteristic of the Internet. These are:

• Open Protocols
• No Enforceable stand
• Anyone can publish
• No control over Bias and unethical information
• A lot of smart and dumb people use the Internet

We also learnt about the problems of the Internet. These included:

• Intellectual Property - includes music, movies, ideas
• Copyright - Which means "The right to copy"
• Plagiarism - Using others information without acknowledging the original source
• Security - Multiple computers used to translate data, interception can occur
• Privacy - Freedom V's Protection & Industries V's Organisation
• Freedom of Speech

Last Helen went through all the ways to protect yourself when using the Interent.
These were:

• Install Firewall
• Install an Anti Virus Software
• Beware of attachments
• Be aware of spyware
• DO NOT GIVE OUT PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF
• DO NOT reply to SPAM
• Set programs such as MSN Messanger and Internet browsers to maximum security settings
• Use Peer to Peer
• ALWAYS scan documents

Tutorial

Task 1b.

The following screen captures and information is from the 5 different information fact sheets. I believe that the 5 I have chosen are relevant to University studies.

RESEARCH OR STUDY INFORMATION SHEET

The information from the above information sheet if for people who want to know what they can copy for research or study, without the permission from the copyright owner.

Key points

• You will not infringe copyright if you use material for the purposes of research or study, provided that your use is fair.


• You do not need to be enrolled in a course – you could be researching or studying something for yourself.


• In some cases, specific provisions in the Copyright Act allow people working in libraries to copy material for you if you need it for research or study.
  

PROTECTING YOUR COPYRIGHT INFORMATION SHEET

The information on the above information sheet discusses how people who have created copyright material can protect it.

Key points

• Certain material is automatically protected by copyright under Australian law. There is no registration of copyright in Australia, and no formal procedures to go through.


• Copyright gives its owner the legal right to take action in certain circumstances if someone else uses their material. Sometimes, criminal proceedings can be brought.


• There are many myths about how you can prove copyright ownership, which are unhelpful. There are, though, some things you can do that might help you to have relevant evidence for court.


• In some circumstances, copyright owners can rely on presumptions that they own copyright, rather than having to prove ownership.


• In addition to copyright, both technological protection measures and contractual terms can be used to limit other people’s ability to have access to or use copyright material.
  
  
  OWNERSHIP OF COPYRIGHT

The above information sheet is for people who want to know who owns copyright when a work is first created. It is mainly for people who are involved in the creation of new material, and want to know who owns copyright.

Key points

• The creator of copyright material is not necessarily the copyright owner.


• Ownership of copyright is separate from ownership of the physical item: if you buy a picture, book, photograph or CD this does not give you rights to copy it.


• Creators of copyright works have moral rights in relation to what they create, although they may not be the copyright owner.
  
  
  LIBRARIES INFORMATION SHEET
  

The above information sheet briefly sets out the special provisions in the Copyright Act for libraries and archives, including public libraries, libraries in government and libraries in commercial organisations.


Key points

• Libraries can copy certain types and amounts of copyright material for their clients, for their own collections
  and for other libraries.


• A number of amendments affecting libraries came into effect in December 2006.


• To be entitled to copy and supply to clients and to other libraries, a library’s collection (or part of it) must now be accessible to members of the public directly or through inter library loans. It is no longer necessary that the library be non-profit.


• There is a new exception allowing libraries to use copyright material for the purpose of maintaining or operating a library or archives, provided certain conditions are met.


• Libraries can now make replacement copies of editions in certain circumstances.


• Libraries which are “key cultural institutions” can now make three preservation copies of certain original material and editions.


• Libraries can minimise their risk of “authorising” infringement by using warning notices near copying
  equipment.
  
  

INTERNET: COPYING & DOWNLOADING MATERIAL INFORMATION SHEET

The above information sheet is for people who want to copy or download material from the Internet or “swap” files over the Internet using P2P software and networks.

Key points

• Material on the Internet may be protected by copyright, as may emails.


• In many cases, permission to download material from a website is given on the site itself, but the fact that material is available to be viewed on a website, or is accessible using P2P software or networks over the Internet, or is contained in an email, does not, by itself, mean that you can use it as you wish.


• Do not assume that everything on the Internet or in an email was put there or copied with the permission of the copyright owner: if the material was pirated, or the person hosting the site or sending the email was not in a position to give a permission on behalf of the copyright owner, you will infringe copyright if, for example,
  you download or copy it.

Task 2.

For task 2 I went to the following website: http://www.apra.com.au/music-users/online_mobile/online_mobile.asp
and read up on online music, downloading and music copyright.

This is a screen capture of the above URL

This its the information from what I learnt from reading this site.
There is a misconception that music downloads are free. However if people download music from the Internet the song writer's and artists don't get paid.
Any use of copyright music requires the appropriate clearances to be obtained.
Creater's of music have a number of rights, including the right to reproduce their music and the right to communicate their work to the public.

To give a brief overview of music copyright in this context, whenever music is downloaded or streamed over the Internet, there are a number of rights which are exploited. These include:

• the reproduction of a musical work; and
• the communication to the public of a musical work.

Task 3.

For task 3 I went to the following web sites:
http://netsecurity.about.com/
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/virus6.htm http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2100282,00.asp

From these sites I wrote up a plan for protect myself from online attacks.

The following are tips on how to protect myself from viruses and online hackers:

• Install Virus protection to all Microsoft applications
• Never double click on an attachment that has extra files attached - such as .DOC . XLS .GIF
• Back-up and restore in Windows Vista
• Never publish personal information over the Internet (eg. on personal account such as My Space.
• Beware of Phishing scams
  
  

Reading.
This weeks reading was all about tips on how to protect you privacy on the Internet. Some exaples given were:

• Do not reveal personal information inadvertently.
• Turn on cookie notices in your Web browser, and/or use cookie management software or infomediaries.
• Keep a "clean" e-mail address.
• Don't reveal personal details to strangers or just-met "friends".
• Realize you may be monitored at work, avoid sending highly personal e-mail to mailing lists, and keep sensitive files on your home computer.
• Be conscious of Web security.
• Examine privacy policies and seals.

WEEK ELEVEN

16.05.08

BUILDING KNOWLEDGE: STRATEGIES

Lecture
Today's Lecture was all about the relationships between the terms DATA, INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE.

First we took a POP QUIZ which I learnt will be similar to the exam. The question asked were summing up form what we've learnt over the past few weeks.







In the lecture slides were the definitions of the terms Data, Information and Knowledge. I learnt how i can use the relationship of these words to better my learning at University.
I also learnt the characteristics of each term. These are:

Data:

• Factual
• Non-judgmental
• Non-inferential
• Transient
• Has no intrinsic "meaning"
• Has no intrinsic "value"

Information:

• Summative
• Relational
• Dimensional
• Permanent
• Has meaning
• Uncertain Value

Knowledge:

• Inferential
• Experiential
• Judgmental
• Subjective
• Very valuable
  
  

Tutorial

Today's tutorial class is an extension from what we learnt in the Lecture. It was all about the links between Data, Information and Knowledge.

Task 1.
First i browsed the following website and read up about Data, Knowledge, and information.

This a screen capture of the website: http://www.success.co.il/is/dik.html

I then looked up on the Internet for other definition for Information, Data, Knowledge and Wisdom. I used Google to find them and came across the below definitions.
All the definition's of the following are from this website: http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Data: A collection of facts form which conclusions may be drawn; "statistical data".

Information: A message received and understood. A collection of facts.

Knowledge: Acquired through study or experience or instruction.

Wisdom: The quality of being prudent and sensible.

Task 1a.
From the definitions i found on the Internet I then wrote up my own definitions in my own words for better understanding these are:

• Data: is any fact that leads to a conclusion, it may be a figure or a number.
• Information: Is a collection of material or facts that can be used and understood for later use.
• Knowledge: is the conclusion of a study done or facts collected
• Wisdom: is the ability to be smart or have knowledge that you have collected over time.

Task 2.
I then made my own representation of the terms data, information, knowledge and wisdom in Microsoft Word. I inserted arrows to show how one leads to the other.

This is a screen capture of my representation of the terms.

Task 3.
I believe that relationship between the terms data, information and knowledge will help me at university by:

• Giving me a outline where to start when researching
• Knowing you can have one term with out the other, you need the support of each when doing University studies.

I can use the following strategies for my assignment work:

• Data relates to the research part of assignments, I will use the important words,key terms and definitions to find the data.


• Information will be used for building my assignment. I will research the key terms and definitions to put data together.


• Knowledge will be used to make my own judgments about the topic of my assignment. I will base these upon the information found.

Task 4.
Companies that I think would use the relationship data-information-knowledge would be mainly retail companies that are trying to sell a product.

They will go out the the shops they sell their product to to, see how they are selling by finding out data. Then they would use this to collect information and compare other shops selling their product, and then make judgement on things that may need improving of changing from the information they have found.

Some retail companies that may use this method are:

• CocaCola: Selling their drink product.


• Target: Selling all items from clothes to manchester.


• Cadbury Chocolate: selling their different varieties of products in all types of shops.


• Cleo Magazine: Promoting and selling their magazine.


• Ikea: Promoting and selling their products world wide.

Readings.
http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm

The readings were also about the relationship about the terms from the lecture and the tutorial. The web site included definitions about Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom and also understanding. The definition of Understanding that was given was:

• Understanding: appreciation of "why"

It also gave examples where this relationship can be used, and also have a diagram of the relationship between terms, similar to the ones shown in the lecture.

WEEK TEN

09.05.08



INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Lecture

Today's lecture was all about Information Management. We firstly read an article given out by Helen called Warning of 'Internet Overload'.
After reading the article we were then asked the following questions in the below screen capture:





The 3 main points from the article were:

• That the Internet is going to collapse under the weight of the traffic. This means there is too much information on the Internet and not enough space for it all.


• The router can cause this collapse, it cannot carry the capacity of all the users on the Internet.


• Finally, the last thing that can cause this collapse is natural disasters that will cause a digital meltdown.

Question 2: The Internet does not have limits. It it becomes congested and people stop using it, but there is enough money in the Internet to keep it open and flowing.

Question 3 : Internet overload is were there is too much information and everything is not clear. This happens for example when a person receives a lot of unnecessary emails that can clog up their inbox and therefore cause and overload of information.

Question 4: Some technical sources of information include:

• Mobile phones
• Internet
• Radio
• Television

Question 5: Some strategies when managing information can include:

• Inserting information into different folders on your computer
• Different contact names on you mobile
• Having separate folders in your email / student web mail.

Lastly in the lecture we watched a short video all about the Internet, knowing whether the information on the web is true, ie. Wikapedia.
Some people believe that the Internet net is full of oppinuative rubbish that the audience can now produce. Therefore companies can make money from the people adding information.

In the lecture slides continued on with the topic of Information Management.
I learnt that information has gone from being atom-based which includes:

• Books
• Papers
• Reports

Now all the information is Bit-based.
The pros of this are:

• It is flexible- easy to move between formats
• Its cheap- resource implications are much less
• Easy to edit
• Easy to mass produce and broadcast

The Cons of bit based information are:

• Not much Privacy - Easy to copy
• Authenticity - Easy to fake and edit
• Unsolicited broadcast- SPAM
  

This is a screen capture some examples of files that you can save information into.







Tutorial

Today's tutorial class sort of continues on with Information Management, mainly focusing on managing the information you are using, by using favourites on the Internet.

Task 1.
In task one we were asked to go to the web site http://www.inette.com/aibtinette/favoritesI.html
and do the tutorial work from the site. This included all information on how to add web sites into your personal favourites collum.

This is a screen shot of the Favourites site we went to and later used for task 2.

Task 2.
In task 2 we were to use the information in the above web page to make 3 folders in our favourites and then add 2 different web sites to each. The instructions were very easy to follow.
The folders i made have the following web sites saved:

Folder #1:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/overview/
http://www.ecu.edu.au/

Folder #2:
http://www.blink182.com/
http://www.youtube.com/

Folder #3:

http://www.google.com.au/
http://www.facebook.com/

Task 3.
For task three we went to ta the web site:
http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/bdcont.htm
This online archive was written by a man called Nicholas Negroponte. I focused on the DNA of Information section which included information on bits and atoms.

This is a screen capture of the DNA Information section of the online archive.

After reading this I have to agree with was Negroponte is saying. Even though this was written 13 years ago the idea of an object become a bit is not going to happen anytime soon. I believe

that atom based information is the most reliable and still the most easiest way to send, read, receive and rely on hard copies of information.

The Cons of bit based information is that is is not a hard material. This can be untrustworthy. For example, if you wish to send an important email containing a document, the computer you are sending it from has to use other connections (computers/networks) to send it to the recipient. This can cause problems, as you may send it to a few people, the other computer may not receive it, even though you did send it.

Although I believe hard copies are the most reliable and easiest way to send information, Bit based information can come in handing. Using the above example it is easy to send important information quickly and on time if you cannot make it there in person.

Overall I believe eventually in many years to come, there will be no atom based information left and everything will be sent, received, through computers and on the Internet.

Reading.

This weeks reading is all about how the Internet and technology can advance the classrooms for the better of students. The example given that students can access everything of the Internet with a click of a button may well become very true.

It also gives examples of "wires-schools" and how these can benefit students in the future.

WEEK NINE

02.05.08

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

Lecture
Today's lecture was all about Communications.
Helen explained how we communicate today is very different compared to 20 years ago because of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

There are different ways people can communicate between each other. There are:

• Between individuals
• Between individuals and organisations
• Within business's and organisations.

Communications take place within networks. These networks include:

• Chain networks
• Circle networks
• Wheel networks
• All Channel networks

This is a screen capture from the lecture slides. It indicates the four different types if communication which are:

• Synchronous
• Asynchronous
• Place Dependent
• Place Independent

Lastly in the lecture Helen discussed all the different types of Information and Communication Technology uses. These were:

• Mobile phones (3G Net) Mobile include the Internet
• Video Conferencing
• MSN- Instant messaging
• Bulletin Boards & Forums
• Internet Relay Chats (IRC)
• Pod casts (download these from the Internet or iTunes)
• Social Networking
• Wiki Webs
• Blogs & PhotoBlogs

Tutorial

In today's tutorial we were continuing work about Communications. We had to locate, access and evaluate data and information from a variety of sources including the Internet.

Task 1.
Our firsts task was to use Google and search a term using the GROUP Tab.
The term i search that interest me was 'dogs'.
The results a got form searching dogs were all different. Some examples of these title included:

• Owners Like Dogs
• American Indian Dog Owners Group
• Dogs may be designated as livestock
• We need some help with our dogs.

This is a screen capture of the search results using the search term 'dogs'.

Task 2.
For task 2 we had to look at one of the groups that was found when searching using the term that interested us. We had to look at the discussion on the bulletin boards and take not of what was being discussed and posted onto it.
I chose to look at the title 'We need help with our dogs'.
The URL for this website was http://groups.google.com.au/group/rec.pets.dogs.behavior/browse_thread/thread/d00c15ac70c66880/941323a7ff46d4e5?hl=en&lnk=st&q=dogs#941323a7ff46d4e5

There were a lot of topics on the bulletin, mainly about seeking help for dogs their dogs bad behavior. Some others included:

• My dogs has bad behavior
• How to walk a dog on a leash
• Seeking advise. Help?

Also added to the bulletin was people updates on how there dog is going after receiving help.
As well as links added to different web sites that may also be helpful.

This is a screen capture of the bulletin board and the topics discussed.

Task 3.

I then visited the web site http://podcasts.yahoo.com/ and types in "Mika" into the search engine to find a podcast. Mika is one of my favourite singers.

This is a screen capture of the Podcast. It is one of Mika's songs called Lollipop. After downloading this pod cast I would then be able to listen to it on my IPod.

Task 4.
I believe that Pod casts will be great for University studies. For example, if a student is unable to attend a lecture for important reasons, the student may then be able to download the podcast of the recorded lecture and not miss out on important information.

These podcast can also be email between teachers and students that they can refer to later and re-listen to points they may not have picked up on previously.

Reading.
This weeks reading is all about using emails. The first reading gives tips about the Do's and dont's of emails. An example of these are:

Do:

• Get to the point right away.
• When asking a question, be sure to ask the question.
• Specify who should respond.
• Don't forget the rules of grammar and punctuation.

Don't:

• Don't make any assumptions about the sender's emotional state.
• Don't escalate a conflict by sending an emotionally charged response.

The next reading was all about email etiquette. This includes:

• How to address recipients properly
• Select an Appropriate Tone
• Avoid Irony and Sarcasm
• Attachments- Don't send them to people you don't know without asking.
• Edit Your Message