News Report #5

Kathryn Smith
LIB 103
11-20-08

BlackBerry Storm Could See Shortage at Launch
By: Eric Blair
url:
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_BlackBerry_Storm_Could_See_Shortage_at_Launch_29493.html


The long awaited Blackberry Storm is set to launch for tomorrow. The Storm is the first ever Blackberry model to feature touch screen. Not only is it made by Blackberry, which is very innovative with its phones, but it is said to be the only thing close to the iPhone. Many imitators of the iPhone have come out and failed but the storm is supposed to keep up with the popular iPhone.

A last minute flaw was discovered of the blackberry Storm and The Verizon retailers fear is may fall short in numbers. Also, RIM and Verizon were forced to update the firmware at last minute’s notice as well. I am exciting to how the new Blackberry Storm will be viewed by owners. I am currently an owner of the Blackberry curve myself and love my phone.

I love that I am constantly able to receive emails at hand, as well as access the Internet when on the go. I have only had my phone for about 6 months, but yet to have any big issues with the phone. I am interested to see what other features have been added to the blackberry with Blackberry Storm and curious to see what they will come up with next in the feature. The quick and easy touch screen is just one new feature i am aware of but believe this phone will be a big hit for many blackberry users, as well as cell hpone users. The vast growth in cell phone use and accessibility to Internet is just a small example of how the Internet is growing by the day.

Reading Assignment #5

Kathryn Smith
Thursday, November 13, 2008

“Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet”

After reading this article, “Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and other Spurious Information on the Internet,” I was shocked to realize how much misleading information is on the web, yet also shocked to find that many people in the media such as Fox News, ESPN.com, and even Wall Street journal online, fall in the trip of misinformation provided out there.

Although the topic about the live deer and a vest was a harmless distortion of information, it amazing me how quickly and easily people, such as news professionals, can fall under the trap of believing false information. If not even these professional news reporters fail to use critical evaluation of information provided, I cant begin to imagine how easily everyday people are probably fooled when searching for facts, and are unable to differentiate fact from fiction.

However, many web sites are easily pointed out as a hoax, some are not so easy to tell whether the information provided is false or not. This is way it is so important for people to search for an articles creditability and reliability when searching information on the web. To try and hinder these hoaxes, websites have began to detect and track for Internet Hoaxes to help regulate what kinds of information is provided to the public and how one can differentiate false from the truth.

Today, you can surf to web and find countless amounts of information provided about basically any topic, but when looking for creditable information it is important that we are aware of these “Hoax Web Sites” and continue to examine how reliable the bits of information we find is, and remember to search numerous sites with facts to back up the creditability of whatever fact or information on a topic one may be researching. I

t’s great to see the Internet rises to new and better things, and providing more and more information to the public, but also it’s important to remember with more information, there may be more and more chances of many of the facts we retrieve to be false, so always double check where you may be getting information from.

Reading Response #4:

Kathryn Smith

LIB103

11-6-08

“Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?”
By Brock Read

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia founded by Jimmy Wales who describes it as, “an effort to create and distribute a multilingual free encyclopedia of the highest quality to every single person on the planet in his or her own language.” Wikipedia has helped many who seek the knowledge it offers, and anyone can contribute and edit sources of information it may provide. From Chronicle of Higher Education, author Brock Read, “Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?” examines the articles accuracy of Wikipedia and the source of information it provides to the Internet. Because Wikipedia is offered to anyone, and anyone can contribute their input, exactly how accurate the contents are has raised questioning. Anyone can add material to the encyclopedia's entries without having to show any proof of expertise.

In the article, a professor by the name Alexander M.C. Halavais, an assistant professor of communications at Quinnipiac College, has turned to the open-source encyclopedia for information and has even contributed his own expertise to the site as well. While teaching at the State University of New York at Buffalo, he devised a plan to challenge the site’s authenticity. He then used a false name and credentials and entered numerous “errors” into Wikipedia’s various articles. He expected “some of his fabrications to languish online for some time,” because like many other academics he was also skeptical about this “mob-edited” publication that called itself an “authoritative encyclopedia.” But to his surprise, after less than 3 hours after posting these errors, all of his false facts were deleted from the site. This was due to the Wikipedia editors who regularly check the Web site that displays recently updated entries. Professor Halavais said he was much impressed with Wikipedia’s ability to root out his false information. Many supporters of this site often depict it “as a brave new world in which scholars can rub elbows with the general public.” On the other hand, there are many doubters who say, “Wikipedia devalues the notion of expertise itself.”

As a student myself, and often looking for quick and useful information on the Internet, I personally find that Wikipedia is a useful and fairly reliable source to gather information from. Honestly, before reading this article I was unaware that anyone was able to post information and facts to this site. But like many, when it comes to researching information I am sure to use numerous sites to be sure any information I may use if reliable and valid. This also helps to show the importance of citations and siting a source when researching information.