Chris Nolan

Chris Nolan gave a really interesting presentation today about how to find high quality information on the web. My favorite search engine is Google, and I wasn't surprised to find out that in a nationwide search, over 60% of the population uses Google (ComScore November 2008 Search Share). I also learned some interesting facts about Google, for example, there are people who work for Google that constantly index and change search results. Google sorts its results by popularity, meaning that if many other websites link to a specific site it has higher popularity. Popularity isn't based on how many times people view the site. Popularity is also based on the type of website that links to a site, for example, if CNN links a site, then it must be good and therefore has higher popularity. Google also sorts its results by how many search words appear in the document, so if all the search words appear in the title of the webpage, it will appear towards the top. One thing I didn't know was that Google doesn't search the word "and", so it is unnecessary to type it into the search bar. But, there are other search engines that will search for the exact phrase, so it would be necessary to include "and" in that particular search. Another interesting thing I learned about was the "cached" link. Google makes a copy of every webpage, so if that webpage's server is down you can click on the "cached" link and view the copy of the webpage. It is also useful because it highlights the search words, so it is easy to find the information you want. One thing Chris Nolan talked about a lot was the importance of finding scholarly sources, or at least finding reliable sources. He pointed out that the more advertisements a webpage has, the more popular and less scholarly the webpage probably is. He also said the sites that end in ".edu" and ".gov" tend to be more scholarly, but you need to watch out for bias, and also a student project or a university newspaper article may end in ".edu" and those aren't necessarily very scholarly. I learned that it is possible to narrow your search to include results that only end in ".gov" or ".edu" by doing a Google Advanced search. Another thing that I thought was really awesome was Google Desktop. It is free to download, and it will index everything on your computer, so you can search your own documents. Chris Nolan's presentation was packed with really great information, and I enjoyed it very much.

Copyright Issues

Diane Graves’ talk today was quite interesting and very informative. I learned a lot of new facts about copyrighting and how that can affect education. The part I found most interesting, though, was illegal music downloading and file-sharing. I knew that downloading free music was bad, but I had no idea that it was violating copyright laws. Actually, any student who copies and loads music, movies, images, or text from another source onto his or her computer is most likely violating copyright laws. Downloading free music is a serious issue, and so is file-sharing. Most people don’t know that the software they use to download free music automatically sets itself on “share mode,” meaning that your music is now out there for anyone to download. Students who make music files, movies, images, or text available via file-sharing are violating copyright laws, and most students don’t even know that they are doing this. Another surprising fact that I learned was that companies, like the Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA), have the ability to track down people who violate copyright laws. They can find out the file name, the date it was downloaded, the program used to download it, and the IP address of the violator. Illegal downloading and file-sharing become much much bigger issues in places of higher education because the university can be held accountable. If these companies find that students on the Trinity network are downloading illegally or file-sharing, Trinity can be sued and fined. As a student, I can understand the temptation of free music downloading. I will admit that before coming to Trinity, I downloaded free music through various programs. Young people tend to love music and not have very much money, so the only way they can get the songs they want is through programs like Gnutella and Limewire. But, it’s only right that the people involved in making the music should receive money for it. Programs like iTunes are doing their best to make music available to people for a low cost. Now, I only use iTunes when buying music. I feel that $.99 per song is very reasonable, considering I’m getting a legitimate song from a legitimate program, and I know that I’m not violating any copyright laws. This is a big issue, and it is going to be nearly impossible to eradicate illegal music downloading and file-sharing for good, but these free music download programs need to be eliminated. Recording artists and record labels are not getting the recognition and compensation they deserve. I hope that in the future illegal music downloading programs are completely done away with, but I also hope that programs like iTunes find a way to make songs cheaper.
--Jenni