Week 2-11

/ #information system homework help, #Week 2-11


Week 2

Please respond to the following questions in ONE posting and NUMBER your responses:

Tip: Copy-and-paste these questions in your initial posting and respond to each one.

In this week’s readings by Alewin (2017); Bellinger, Castro, & Mills (2004); Wilson (2000); and Hearst (2009) AND the lecture on Information Behavior by Andrea Lorenz (2012), the authors discuss their views on epistemology (knowledge acquisition) and human information behavior (models of information seeking, theories, and myths).

Think of a topic in which you have a good degree of (or substantial) knowledge and respond to the questions below. Make reference to the readings and/or lecture to support your perspective.

 

  1. What topic/subject do you have a good degree of (or substantial) knowledge? (e.g., hobby, topic of personal interest, academic subject)?
  2. What information seeking behaviors (approaches or processes) do you recall using to gain knowledge about the topic/subject? For example, did you use any (or combination of) information seeking behavior models that were discussed in the Week 2 readings/lecture, such as Wilson’s Information Behavior model, Krikelas’s model (information gathering and information giving), Bates’ Berry Picking (Dynamic) model, Kuhlthau’s process of information seeking model, Zipf’s principle of least effort, and/or Dervin’s sense-making? Please make connections to specific aspects of the readings and/or lecture to explain your response (cite the article or lecture and author in your response).
  3. To get knowledgeable about your particular interest, how did you join the “information conversation?” How did you seek more information and converse with others about your topic?
  4. What tools do you recall using to locate information on the topic/subject (e.g., search engines, databases, online catalog) and what types of information sources did you use to acquire knowledge (e.g., print-based books and magazines/periodicals; electronic articles, blogs, news stories, etc., on websites; word-of-mouth from professors, friends and/or family members)? Please explain.

 

 

Entry 1: Muhammad

  1. What topic/subject do you have a good degree of (or substantial) knowledge? (e.g., hobby, topic of personal interest, academic subject)?

A topic/subject I have a good degree of knowledge is in Volleyball. I have watched my dad playing it since I was a little kid and that caused me to gain interest in it as well. During High School I became a part of the Volleyball team- later on becoming the captain of the team. Knowing what move to make at what time is crucially important since it can cause you to gain or lose a point.

  1. What information seeking behaviors (approaches or processes) do you recall using to gain knowledge about the topic/subject? For example, did you use any (or combination of) information seeking behavior models that were discussed in the Week 2 readings/lecture, such as Wilson’s Information Behavior model, Krikelas’s model (information gathering and information giving), Bates’ Berry Picking (Dynamic) model, Kuhlthau’s process of information seeking model, Zipf’s principle of least effort, and/or Dervin’s sense-making? Please make connections to specific aspects of the readings and/or lecture to explain your response (cite the article or lecture and author in your response).

“Information Seeking Behavior is the purposive seeking for information as a consequence of a need to satisfy some goal” (Wilson, 2000). When I started practicing and playing on the team, I had to be really focused on finding out what moves to make and how to work together with the team. I think the Bates’ Berry Picking (Dynamic) model can be used to relate to my topic because I started off wanting to learn about volleyball, but then I started developing interest in the different types of positions. Later on choosing the spiker/blocker position as my favorite.

  1. To get knowledgeable about your particular interest, how did you join the “information conversation?” How did you seek more information and converse with others about your topic?

Our team used a lot of communication because communication was the key to success. That communication could have been mostly in person or group chat. When we would be practicing or playing on the court we would use a lot of verbal communication. When off court or home we would message in the group chat. I started off as a regular teammate and later on became the captain of the team; therefore the knowledge I gained during the beginning, I spread during my years as the captain.

  1. What tools do you recall using to locate information on the topic/subject (e.g., search engines, databases, online catalog) and what types of information sources did you use to acquire knowledge (e.g., print-based books and magazines/periodicals; electronic articles, blogs, news stories, etc., on websites; word-of-mouth from professors, friends and/or family members)? Please explain. 

The tools I used to learn more about this topic was the information and guidance the coaches provided us. We used to see videos of professional volleyball players playing. Therefore we would try to copy the form they make while serving, spiking or blocking the ball.

 

Entry 2: Ian

  1. A topic or subject I think I have a good degree of knowledge in is Japanese culture because I’ve done a lot of research both for personal interest but also academically. I remember I first started out learning about Japan’s traditional music scene such askabukiand noh theatre because I was supposed to write a research paper on it and it’s what got me interested in their culture. I also studied in Japan and was lucky to learn from Japanese locals and teachers about the history of several Japanese practices and traditions.

 

  1. I’d say Bates’ Berry Picking model perfectly describes how I tried to find more information on Japanese culture, especially when it came to their musical history. When I first started researching kabukiand nohtheatre, I came across the different instruments and then ended up finding myself learning about other traditional instruments that are rooted in Japanese history such as taiko. As most research papers go, I start off with a general topic and do some surface-level surfing before finding a more interesting topic which then takes priority before finding subsequent evidence and information that go deeper and more in-depth. The reason why I believe the berry-picking model is more appropriate is because it adjusts to the needs of the searcher especially because “the searchers’ information needs, and consequently their queries, continually shift” (Hearst). I believe my needs for information weren’t static contrary to what the Krikelas’s model assumes and I needed different information and had to perform a variety of search queries to find the relevant information I needed at the time. However, I’d say that I definitely made use of the citations and references in most of the academic/scholarly articles I read, also known as information structure tactics. Though, outside of whatever I needed to research for class I definitely did a lot of searching/learning on Google, YouTube, and maybe surprisingly TikTok (with a grain of salt). I also have many friends and my host family that I still have contact with and I ask them a lot of questions that I’m curious about so I definitely do rely on Zipf’s principle of least effort. But I feel like this principle is applicable to almost everything because I always end up asking my friends or family about most things because it’s convenient.

 

  1. As I mentioned before, I was part of a study abroad program in Japan and so the opportunity presented itself. I was able to connect with a bunch of classmates, Japanese locals, Japanese high school students and university students, my host family, and teachers who I was able to talk to and learn/experience their culture together with. Before that I was already learning how to speak Japanese through self-study and I had a group of friends to study together with so we ended up sharing most of what we learned with each other. There were also a ton of resources online and groups you could join full of like-minded students and people who share the same interest.

 

  1. For my research paper I definitely used the Rutgers online catalog/databases for most of my research. I also mentioned above that for more casual things that I had a general curiosity about I just surfed the web and ended up learning a lot through YouTube, blogs, and plain ol’ Google. I was preaching Zipf’s principle of least effort without even realizing it was a thing because every time I had a question, I’d just end up asking my teachers and host family about most of my questions because they’re studying Japanese (the language and the culture) or are Japanese themselves.

 

 

 

Week 3

Please respond to the following questions in ONE posting and NUMBER your responses:

Tip: Copy-and-paste these questions in your initial posting and respond to each one.

  1. What two search engines did you use to conduct the “Vanity Search”?
  2. Based on your knowledge of the world, is your name a common one? How do you know this? Based only on the results of your search, is your name a common one? Did your search results produce any information (or ‘hits’) about yourself? If yes, what search queries produced the best results? Did you make any changes in your search queries using Boolean operators, keywords, and/or phrasing to your name to try to return at least one result about you (or more results about you) within the first 30 results? If yes, did your results improve? Please explain.
  3. Did you see any difference between the the first set and second set of search results when conducted on different days? What might account for any differences that you observed? Make reference to the reading(s), lecture, and/or video in your response to support your view, as appropriate.
  4. What do you think accounts for any changes in the search results between the two search engines you used? What is the value, if any, in using two search engines to conduct a search? Make reference to the reading(s), lecture, and/or video in your response to support your view, as appropriate.
  5. What have you learned about using different search engines thus far in terms of their functionality (similarities and differences) and their ability to retrieve information to satisfy a user’s (i.e., your) search needs (i.e., the original intent of the queries – to find information about yourself on the Internet)? Please make connections to the readings, lecture, and/or video to explain your response (cite the article or lecture and author in your response)and support your views.

 

 

 

 

Entry 1: Jay

1. What two search engines did you use to conduct the “Vanity Search”?

  • The two different search engines I used was Google and Yahoo.

 

  1. Based on your knowledge of the world, is your name a common one? How do you know this? Based only on the results of your search, is your name a common one? Did your search results produce any information (or ‘hits’) about yourself? If yes, what search queries produced the best results? Did you make any changes in your search queries using Boolean operators, keywords, and/or phrasing to your name to try to return at least one result about you (or more results about you) within the first 30 results? If yes, did your results improve? Please explain.
  • I would like to say that my name is a common one, at least amongst the Hindu religion, there are quite a bit of people named “Jay Patel.” Patel is also a very common Indian last name, especially amongst the Gujurati population.
  • Based off the results, my name is a common name. I would say that Google provided the best results.
  • The only changes I’ve made to the search queries was using the booleans AND & OR. The results did change alot, in the sense the amount of hits on the page did increase.

 

  1. Did you see any difference between the the first set and second set of search results when conducted on different days? What might account for any differences that you observed? Make reference to the reading(s), lecture, and/or video in your response to support your view, as appropriate.
  • The only difference between the first and second searches was mainly the number of hits on the page. The only differences I can account for is most likely the popularity of that certain “Jay Patel” or “Jay”, etc. “…automatically add either the AND or the OR conjunction to link your search terms together. This could radically alter your search in unexpected ways.” (Creating a search strategy, retrieved fromhttp://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/lesson6.shtml Links to an external site.)

 

  1. What do you think accounts for any changes in the search results between the two search engines you used? What is the value, if any, in using two search engines to conduct a search? Make reference to the reading(s), lecture, and/or video in your response to support your view, as appropriate.
  • I believe that the changes in the search results is the way the search engines are being used. I believe that if a ceratin query is searched more on one engine it’ll show up more often on that engine than another one. Hence the difference in the number of hits from the different search engines. “…information retrieval researchers have explored many techniques, but modern document retrieval systems still tend to be blunt instruments, retrieving many nonrelevant documents (errors in precision) and missing many relevant documents (errors in recall). The user is left with a significant task of reading or scanning the retrieved results to determine whether they actually have the information sought and to figure out whether and how to rephrase a request to see if any relevant documents were missed.” (Woods, W. A. (2004).  Searching vs. finding. Queue, 2, 26-36.)

 

  1. What have you learned about using different search engines thus far in terms of their functionality (similarities and differences) and their ability to retrieve information to satisfy a user’s (i.e., your) search needs (i.e., the original intent of the queries – to find information about yourself on the Internet)? Refer to the reading(s), lecture, and/or video to support your views in your response, as appropriate.
  • I’ve learnt that most search engines can vary the results you would like to see. For example Yahoo gave me a repeat of the same results on more than one occasion while Google gave me a variety of results but only had a few where they were the same. I came to the conclusion that Google provided more of a variety of results mainly that more people use google than any other search engine.

 

 

Entry 2: Ethan

I used Google and Bing to complete the assignment.

  1. While my name is not one of the most common names, it is fairly common, and has been one of the most popular baby names for a few decades. Based on my search results, it is common, since the only query that returned results about me was the one with added Rutgers to the end of it. Even with this addition, both search engines only returned one result about me, my LinkedIn page.
  2. I did see a slight increase in the number of results returned on 9/18, as well as an increase in the number of people I saw in the results. I believe this is because there were multiple news stories about a soccer player named Ethan Barr on this day.
  3. Bing seemed to be more focused on news stories than Google was, so the news about the soccer player may have had more of an impact on their search results. There does appear to be value in using both search engines, because I was able to find people who only appeared on one and not the other.
  4. While Bing was able to provide me with a greater number of results for most of my queries, the relevance of Google’s generally seemed to be more valuable. It is hard to come to any conclusions based on this data alone, but circumstantially it appears to me that Google may be better if you are trying to find an individual person, whereas Bing may be more useful if you want to cast a wide net.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 4

Please respond to the following questions in ONE posting and NUMBER your responses:

Discussion of Exercise #2: Boolean Search Strategies/Results

  1. Briefly assess your search experience: Did you find useful information for the (5) query questions/statements that were given to you? How did you change your search strategies to improve/maximize your results? Which “tricks” and/or specific options worked (e.g., Boolean operators, keywords, ordering, phrasing with quotes, parentheses) and which didn’t?Did you use Google’s Advanced Search page with enhanced search options? If so, did this improve your results?
  2. Overall Observations: Why do you think you received the results you did based on the search queries you submitted? Specifically, what “inner workings” (such as crawling, indexing, querying/retrieving, and/or ranking) of search engines (in this case, Google) affected your search results? Make reference to the lecture(s), readings, and/or media in this unit to support your perspective(cite the lecture, reading, or media with the author) to support your observations.  Note: In your overall observations, it’s important to make connections to the inner workings of search engines to become an informed, skilled user of IR systems to retrieve information that will best meet your needs in the quickest way possible when you conduct research, which you’ll be doing in the Information Consultant Project AND the IT Market Sector Analysis Project!

 

 

Entry 1: Sidney

I did not find the information valuable for two of the queries (anchorman and spouses), but I found the rest very useful. I used multiple strategies involving booleans such as “AND” or “NOT” functions as well as using “”” to search for exact phrases or words. I tried to maximize relevant results by searching for the exact words or a collection of terms while “NOT” searching for others. The best methods involved quotes and the “AND” function; the worst was the “NOT,” but that could be due to ineffective use. I did not use Google’s Advanced search because I wanted to see how far I could go in my results with using the standard engine and not rely on a more “advanced” one.

 

  1. I think the most likely reason my results came about as they did is due to the ranking and crawling methods of search engines. As discussed in class and in the text, crawling is when engines extract pages and links to add greater discoverability to a topic, and then ranking is just the overall popularity of that item or webpage, so if you type in Facebook, you’re more likely to get the “official” website due to its popularity than a domain like “facebok”.

If we take a look at the terms for the assignment, things like eggnog are a seasonal beverage in North America, diabetes affects hundreds of millions of people globally, and billions of people like football, and many more millions are likely to have an interest in the staffing of the German team. It’s not a surprise that the more esoteric things like an anchorman or the spouses of the heads of a specific company are much harder to find when thinking of them and their relationship to mechanisms such as crawling and ranking.

 

 

 

 

Entry 2: Matthew

  1. Briefly assess your search experience: Did you find useful information for the (5) query questions/statements that were given to you? How did you change your search strategies to improve/maximize your results? Which “tricks” and/or specific options worked (e.g., Boolean operators, keywords, ordering, phrasing with quotes, parentheses) and which didn’t?Did you use Google’s Advanced Search page with enhanced search options? If so, did this improve your results?
    I found helpful information in all of my query questions; I believe I had some excellent statements in order to conduct my search. In order to maximize my results, I used more keywords and Boolean operators. These definitely helped with my search to get more information. Definitely, all of them worked; the main point about using these tricks was that you needed to be specific with what your search was, definitely the use of parentheses and Boolean operators made it easier for me. I did not use Google’s Advanced Search page since all my searches on Google were useful and had great information.
  2. Overall Observations: Why do you think you received the results you did base on the search queries you submitted? Specifically, what “inner workings” (such as crawling, indexing, querying/retrieving, and/or ranking) of search engines (in this case, Google) affected your search results? Make reference to the lecture(s), readings, and/or media in this unit to support your perspective (cite the lecture, reading, or media with the author) to support your observations.  Note: In your overall observations, it’s important to make connections to the inner workings of search engines to become an informed, skilled user of IR systems to retrieve information that will best meet your needs in the quickest way possible when you conduct research, which you’ll be doing in the Information Consultant Project AND the IT Market Sector Analysis Project!

I believe most of the searches, especially on google, work with keywords that make them easier for the search to realize what the user is specifically asking for; as the professor said in one of his lectures, “the results after your search in the search engine are dependent upon several processes, crawling, indexing, querying, retrieving, ranking and display,” for this reason when I used Boolean operators or key words my search was easier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5

Please respond to the following questions in ONE posting and NUMBER your responses:

Discussion of Search Engine Processes and Search Engine Bias & Optimization

  1. Weeks 4 & 5 covered the inner workings of search engines (e.g., crawling, indexing, ranking, querying/retrieval, etc.). In your viewpoint, which of the main processes/components of Web search engines are most important for users to understand when conducting searches? And why?
  2. Based on the readings and videos in Week 5, what are TWO key ideas you have learned about search engine bias and optimization that you didn’t know before? Explain and mention specific readings and/or videos to support your response.
  3. Based on the readings and/or videos in Week 5, what are TWO recommended “white hat” practices that a webmaster or SEO professional might use to improve the ranking of a company’s website (or a start-up site) in search engine listings? Explain andmention a specific video or reading to support your response.
  4. Based on the readings in Week 5, what is ONE “black hat” optimization technique used to improve the ranking of a company’s website and who uses it? What are the problems/ramifications of using “black hat” techniques? Explain and mention a specific reading to support your response.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entry 1: Weihao

Weeks 4 & 5 covered the inner workings of search engines (e.g., crawling, indexing, ranking, querying/retrieval, etc.). In your viewpoint, which of the main processes/components of Web search engines are most important for users to understand when conducting searches? And why? 

In my opinion, crawling, indexing, ranking, and querying/retrieval play significant roles in different steps. Based on the work from last week, I feel like indexing and ranking play the most important role in the inner workings of search engines. Indexing marks the keywords that each people inserts into the search engine and locating those keywords from various documents. Ranking helps to show the frequency of each keyword. Therefore, people could find the closest result from that search engine. Like the practice work,  we did in class this week. We have indexed and ranked keywords from different documents. This process helps people with accurate information quickly and efficiently.

Moreover, I learned from the reading this week that Title Metadata could be helpful in the process of ranking. “Title metadata is responsible for the page titles displayed at the top of a browser window and as the headline within search engine results. It is the most important metadata on your page” (Michigan Tech). Such a way of manipulating data could make ranking and indexing more effective for displaying accurate results for people who use the search engine.

Based on the readings and videos in Week 5, what are TWO key ideas you have learned about search engine bias and optimization that you didn’t know before? Explain and mention specific readings and/or videos to support your response.

According to the reading, Stanford University has provided three different ideas that help people to understand search engine bias. Among them, there are two crucial points. “Search-engine technology is not neutral, but instead has embedded features in its design that favor some values over others. Major search engines systematically favor some sites (and some kind of sites) over others in the lists of results they return in response to user search queries” (Kessner 2013). Search engine bias can be viewed as the extension of public or societal bias or stereotypes. When those companies create websites to broadcast, they often create those with their view of a different incident. Such views could be personal and biased towards a specific group of people. Moreover, most search engines now are assisting with AI technology. AI has the potential to utilize the information that is favored by certain people. It means AI could learn from human bias, and use the bias against society.
On the other hand, Search optimization could be a process to prevent search engine bias. According to the reading, “According to Wikipedia,6 “Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a Web site in search engine listings…” These methods include manipulation of dozens or even hundreds of Web site elements” (Malaga 2008). SEO could be used to prevent biased information that targeted a specific group and rerank the websites to block the transmissions of such information. However, it could also be used to practice “hat” to a certain group through the optimized information. The reading indicates that “those that pursue SEO are up against an arsenal of black hat techniques. In addition, even those optimizers who try to stay on the white hat side may find that they have inadvertently crossed the line leading to penalties or even a ban” (Malaga 2008).

 

Based on the readings and/or videos in Week 5, what are TWO recommended “white hat” practices that a webmaster or SEO professional might use to improve the ranking of a company’s website (or a start-up site) in search engine listings? Explain and mention a specific video or reading to support your response. 

According to the reading by Malaga, Wikipedia has recorded practices to improve the ranking of the websites. “Zhang and Dimitroff have found that sites that make proper use of Meta tags achieve better search engine results. Zhang and Dimitroff also found that sites with keywords that appear in both the site title and throughout the site’s text achieve better search engine rankings than sites that only optimize the title” (Malaga 2008). With the Meta tags, People could find accurate information effectively. The methods of meta tags or metadata are also recorded on the website of Michigan Tech. “When designing your website, each page contains a space between the <head> tags to insert metadata or information about the contents of your page. If you have a CMS site originally produced by the UMC web team will have pre-populated this data for you” (Michigan Tech). The meta tags provide prior access to certain websites over others. On the other hand, Keywords contained in both titles and content would make rank the document in a higher place because through the indexing and ranking process of the Google search engine, the document with more keyword appearances could be ranked in a higher place.

 

Based on the readings in Week 5, what is ONE “black hat” optimization technique used to improve the ranking of a company’s website and who uses it? What are the problems/ramifications of using “black hat” techniques? Explain and mention a specific reading to support your response. 

 

According to the reading, Bowling the Competition is one “black hat” technique that has been used to improve the ranking of a company’s website. “If a black hat site is ranked third for a key term, the optimizer who can get the top two sites banned will be ranked first” (Malaga 2008). The ramification of such a method of optimizing information is severe. “For instance, a black hat might request links to the competitor’s site from link farms, gambling sites, or adult-oriented sites. Links from these bad neighborhoods result in penalties and bans” (Malaga 2008). As those websites have been marked as unsafe or unreliable websites to users’ devices, the websites would lose their reputation to the public. Less View means less profit. The result for the websites would be bank broke. People would potentially lose a way to reach for accurate information on the other hand.

 

 

 

 

Entry 2: David

  1. In my opinion, the most important process for users to understand when conducting searches is querying/retrieval. It is important to understand querying/retrieval because knowing how to effectively structure a search will make search results more accurate and relevant.
  2. Two key ideas that I have learned about search engine bias and optimization based on the Week 5 readings would be the fact that search engines are not neutral and the idea that small changes within a website can change the frequency that the website appears in search results. According to Kassner’s article on search engine bias, “Search enginesare value-laden and thus biased because of the kinds of features typically included in their design” (Kassner, 2013). Google’s search optimization guide states that small modifications to websites may seem insignificant at first but combined together with other techniques it can produce significant changes in search results.
  3. Based on the week 5 readings, two recommended white hat practices that a webmaster or SEO professional might use to improve the ranking of a company’s website in search engine listings would be to use metadata and alt tag images. Michigan Tech’s article on how to improve search engine optimization explains that metadata and alt tags create more opportunities for search engines to show the website in search results with by adding more keywords and terms that can be used to search for the website.
  4. One black hat optimization technique that can be used to improve the ranking of a company’s website would be to openly steal content from legitimate sites. The people who do this are search engine optimization consultants who are looking to make fast profit and undermine their competitors (Malaga, 2008). Black hat optimizers can even use their black hat techniques to try to get their competitors banned off of the search engines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 8

Please respond to the following questions in ONE posting and NUMBER your responses:

Discussion of Collaborative Information Seeking, Knowledge Creation, & Information Exchange

  1. Based on Chirag Shah’s (2014) article, what is an information-seeking situation in which collaboration is beneficial and when does it not pay off? Discuss both problem(s)/issue(s) and benefit(s) as discussed in the article (and cite the source with page number).
  2. Have you ever worked with others to “produce” content using collaborative technologies (e.g., Google Drive-Docs or Slides; PBworks, Wikispaces, or other wiki; Delicious, Diigo, or other knowledge management software; Blogger, WordPress, or other blog; etc.) either through Rutgers or external to Rutgers? If yes, what was the delivery medium/platform and describe your experience in collaborating and/or crowd-sourcing with others to produce content in an online/digital environment.
  3. Have you ever participated in an external (i.e., not at Rutgers in a course) Discussion Group, Forum, Newsgroup, or other online group (e.g., in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GroupMe) for group communication? If yes, what was the delivery medium/platform and describe your experience in sharing/exchanging/communicating information with others in an online/digital environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entry 1: Johnathan

 

  1. While reading the article, I found it really interesting to see how Shah discussed collaboration and the benefits and limitations that comes with it. I like working in a collaborative environment but reading through the article made me think about certain situations where collaboration actually hurt the work being done. Thinking about a situation where this comes into play, there could be a collaborative project where many different people are working on figuring out a solution to a problem. This can be any sort of problem such as trying to figure out the best way of doing something. Collaborative work can be helpful in this situation because so many people have different backgrounds and have different ways of thinking. It is rare in a collaborative environment where everyone thinks the same thing or has the same exact opinion. Shah words this exact situation perfectly, “The participants of a team come with different backgrounds and expertise” (p219). Because everyone in the environment thinks differently and comes from different backgrounds, it is good to hear all other options because someone in the collaboration might have a better way of solving the problem. Thinking about this situation, a collaboration environment can also hurt this type of thing. I have been in a collaboration where people just can’t figure out what to do and the work is hindered greatly. Shah discusses this perfectly stating, “Collaboration is meaningless without the power to implement final decisions” (p217). Because there are so many different opinions, it can sometimes cause a problem and things don’t get done and finding the best decision takes much longer.
  2. During my time at Rutgers, I used a lot of google drive and docs within google. The software itself is set up perfectly, making collaboration very easy. For school as well, it is perfect because there is a documents, slides, and excel where everyone has the same access to. It is the perfect way to get work done when collaborating. While using google drive software’s, my experience collaborating was very easy and nothing bad to complain about. One of my favorite features is that you can see what person edited the document so if someone isn’t doing work, the entire team knows who wasn’t working and who needs to step up and get more work done. During covid as well, since no one could meet in person and work on a project, it made it very easily to remotely work together on projects and documents. I also used google drive during my internship where everyone in the company had access to certain files and information where everyone collaborated together to make sure certain things were done on time.
  3. During my time at my internship, my company used google chat which I was not very familiar with before I started working there. Google chat was a great way for people in the company to communicate where there were many different groups in different fields. For example, there was a SOC team chat which I was apart of (Security Operations) and a marketing team and a company chat etc. It made it very easy to reach out to people in each department and get a situation figured out or talk to a team in particular. There was also the ability to talk to people individually which was great so you didn’t have to call them or take time away from their work. You could also send documents, pictures, websites, etc. which made it a great place to exchange information. Google chat was a great way for a company to be organized and efficiently discuss job related situations on a daily basis.

 

 

 

 

Entry 2: Urooj

 

 

  1. Based on Chirag Shah’s (2014) article, what is an information-seeking situation in which collaboration is beneficial and when does it not pay off? Discuss both problem(s)/issue(s) and benefit(s) as discussed in the article (and cite the source with page number).

– Based on Chirag Shah’s reading the information-seeking situation typical collaboration is mutually beneficial for those participating.  Collaboration should always be acknowledge as useful and desired to focus on where it is beneficial. the article highlights that some collaboration is not always beneficial and they do not pay off like others. There is a need to having a good understanding so there could be analysis done if the benefits will pay of or no (Chirag, 232). Some issues highlighted in the articles are regarding what is the promotion of collaboration, people understanding of collaboration, cost and benefit of collaboration, and how to expand synthesis (Chirag, 232). The article also talks about how collaborative information seeking could be harmful in some terms too. The article also makes a relevant relationship between collaboration and Information seeking. Collaboration, cooperation, coordination, contribution is all parts of communication. The article briefly go in detail about what are the limitation of each factor of communication.

  1. Have you ever worked with others to “produce” content using collaborative technologies (e.g., Google Drive-Docs or Slides; PBworks, Wikispaces, or other wiki; Delicious, Diigo, or other knowledge management software; Blogger, WordPress, or other blog; etc.) either through Rutgers or external to Rutgers? If yes, what was the delivery medium/platform and describe your experience in collaborating and/or crowd-sourcing with others to produce content in an online/digital environment.

– I have worked with other to produce content using collaborative technology for many of the school related projects, These projects required the use of Google drive, Google docs, Google Slides. I have also used content management software like WordPress for school related project and Internship related purposes. Personally my experience with these media platform was really good and personally prefer these delivery medium platforms because of the feature they have. My experience in collaborating with other to produce content was much convenient. As it was easier to us to access these platforms on our own time instead of having everyone meet in person at the same time. We were able to use these digital platforms an work from home and there were no problem with productivity in any way. Crowd sourcing is basically a practice of obtaining information by large number of people for a project or task related purpose, paid or unpaid only through internet. Now a days it is very common  to use crowd sourcing for school related or even work related projects. Crowd-sourcing helps in many ways as it let people share their thought and work together without having the need to meet in person. I have always used these medium platforms to work or the group projects and they have always turn out to be a great source of use to work in a group

  1. Have you ever participated in an external (i.e., not at Rutgers in a course) Discussion Group, Forum, Newsgroup, or other online group (e.g., in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GroupMe) for group communication? If yes, what was the delivery medium/platform and describe your experience in sharing/exchanging/communicating information with others in an online/digital environment- Yes, I have participated in external Forum and other online groups through many social media platform including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, GroupMe, etc. for group communication. My experience using these platform for group communication as very effective in term of communicating. Everyone in the group is able to share their ideas effectively and communicate their thought about a certain topics in digital environment. These digital environment act as a very good platform to exchange idea with other members of the group especially when working in groups. I think the group communication on these platforms are very efficient in communicating especially in business and school related environment for many different reasons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 10

Debate 3: “Deplatforming” – Free Speech vs. Censorship of Hate Speech, False information and Controversial Topics
Do you support Tech Companies’ recent filtering of Alex Jones, Gab and similar sources, or do you feel these actions infringe on their ability to exercise free speech?

 

 

 

Important! When you make your arguments (For AND Against), you MUST make reference (using in-text citations) to one or more of the Readings (under “Legal Aspects”) to support your positions. Include the Author, Title of the article, and year of publication. Feel free to continue researching on the topic for further evidence, if desired.

Some things to consider when making your arguments:

  • On what grounds was the banning of personalities like Alex Jones, and the Deplatforming of Gab justified?
  • Does the public interest outweigh the rights of these people and organizations to speak their minds?
  • Did Apple, Facebook, Twitter, hosting companies, etc. technically deprive these sources of their rights?
  • Do these deplatforming actions protect the public good? How so?
  • Should personalities be allowed to use these platforms to speak their minds, no matter how controversial, hateful,  harmful or false their statements might be?  What about creating their own, separate platforms?
  • Looking at further implications: What fine lines are there between expressing an opinion, and inciting hate and violence? Would the situation be different if it was the government suppressing certain kinds of speech, instead of private companies?

 

 

Entry 1: Asad

Overall I do support the deplatforming of hate speech. One of the readings that made me really made me think this was the article about Gab losing hosting privileges after the mass shooting in Philadelphia. That was a horrible tragedy and can be traced back to the source which is Gab. And they should lose their hosting privileges. It is very justified in banning these people because of the atrocities they are causing. People like Alex Jones, Gab and Truth Social have huge platforms and they can do so many horrible things. Alex Jones himself spread the fact that Sandy Hook was a false flag attack and his followers went and harassed the families so much that a few of them had to change names and move. How can we as a scoiety let grieivng parents suffers from the actions of a crazy person. A few people may make arguments that deplatforming is violating their rights and such but in reality the First Amendment was made about the government. Not the private sites. These private sites can do what they want with whatever content is on their platform. Apple, Facebook and Twitter are not violating any of their rights. The problem to me is that if you do not deplatform these types of people and the way they scream hate speech you can run into many problems. In fact when Elon Musk bought Twitter nearly 5000 racist tweets popped up within the hour. Showing that if you even give them an inch of space they will take it a mile. The deplatforming helps protect the public from this evil gaining a foothold and making it mainstream.

 

 

 

 

Entry 2:Tridib

AGAINST CENSORSHIP

Censoring certain individuals does not mean that their voices will be taken away. There are other platforms that censored individuals could flock to. For example, after Twitter was permanently banned from Twitter, he initiated the platform “Truth Social,” which Johnson and Goldstein describe as “a vibrant right-wing ecosystem increasingly brimming with activity(New York Times 2022).” Thus, simply banning someone from one platform does not take away one’s voice entirely. Also, our legal system affords people the right to speak freely, with only a few specific restrictions. As Hillesheim points out, unless a person’s speech “crosses the line and becomes incitement, fighting words or a “true threat,” hate speech is protected by the First Amendment(REWIRE 2017).” When it’s impossible to censor someone from a legal standpoint, and companies censoring people only has a limited effect on a person’s ability to reach people, there’s no point in banning or de-platforming individuals from social media platforms.

FOR CENSORSHIP
While free speech is a right, saying certain things can be harmful to large groups of people. Companies that help people engage in public discourse are responsible to their users for maintaining a platform that is safe and inclusive. Furthermore, Hillesheim in his article brings up a University of Kansas study that found that “explicit racial prejudice is a reliable predictor of the ‘free speech defense’ of racist expression(REWIRE 2017). If there are bad intentions when using free speech arguments, these arguments may be ignored for the greater good. There have been numerous instances of people spreading hateful messages and content online. There have been hateful echo chambers on platforms such as Gab and 8chan. If banning certain people from having a platform makes it harder for hatred and bigotry to spread, it should be done in order to promote a more inclusive and respectful online community.

 

 

 

Week 11

Please respond to the following questions in ONE posting and NUMBER your responses:

Discussion: Select ONE or more of the ‘future of search’ innovations (listed below) and describe/discuss the innovation(s), and make references to the reading(s) and/or video/lecture in this unit in your initial posting. Cite the source with the author (or presenter), title of the article (or video), site, and year of publication.

  • Further developments in “contextual” searching
  • Further developments in Mobile search and App indexing
  • Knowledge search
  • Optimizing the user’s experience
  • Machine learning
  • Google Hummingbird and Semantic search
  • The Semantic Web
  • Social search and social network integration
  • Natural language processing and artificial intelligence systems
  • Internet of things

In addition as part of your initial posting, discuss what the innovation(s) may mean to at least ONE of the following groups:

  • eCommerce and Businesses and their customers/consumers
  • SEOs/Webmasters
  • CTOs (Chief Technology Officers)
  • IT Developers
  • Marketers and Advertisers

Make reference to the reading(s) and/or video in your posting and cite the source with the author (or presenter), title of the article (or video), site, and year of publication.

 

 

 

 

 

Entry1: Lena

Future search is defined as a unique planning method that enables large, diverse groups to validate a common mission, take responsibility for action, and develop commitment to implementation. Google hummingbird is an updated version of googles search algorithm. Prior to creating hummingbird, google had a knowledge graph and that is a set of SERP features designed to provide quick answers about people places and things. Google does this through somatic search. Semantic search is defined as a core data searching technique that not only interprets keywords within the search bar but tries to also determine the intent and contextual meaning behind a search query. Google then tries to use semantic search to help improve with searches. Hummingbird takes disseminated searches and makes a “concept into reality”((What is google hummingbird? how to write for hummingbird 2022). Hummingbird was also essentially created to allow algorithms to understand voice searches as they became more popular in 2013. With having google hummingbird be able to look at contacts and concepts this also affects SEOs. SEO stands for search engine optimization. The way Google Humming bird effects SEO is by decreasing the about of words it focuses on while search. Hummingbird has  now effected 90% of searches. (How google hummingbird changed the future of Search 2021).

 

How google hummingbird changed the future of Search. (2021, November 22). Retrieved November 12, 2022, from https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/06/23/google-hummingbird

What is google hummingbird? how to write for hummingbird. Moz. (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2022, from https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-hummingbird

 

 

 

Entry 2: Urooj

For this discussion post, I have chose to talk about Machine Learning. Machine learning is a process that is devoted to understand how machine to improve the understanding of how to improve performance of machine. There are many machine learning innovation that are significance to the technological world these days. Some of the recent innovation of machine learning include the development in space of 5G adoption, network adoption, improved cybersecurity. These innovation in machine learning has been working towards making the job easy for professional working with huge variables. One of the reading article “How the Hummingbirds changes the future of search” the author states “Many experts speculate that developments in the field of natural language processing – the process by which machines can effectively parse and interpret human speech – will become a driving force in the advancement of semantic search.”  Machine learning is a driving force in future of technical innovations. In the article it also points out that later on research and development in natural processing language to sophisticated artificial intelligence system will be very beneficial. These machine innovation may be very beneficial to the SEO/Webmasters group . The article “How future of hummingbirds changed the future of search” talks about how a web can be made better by adding some of the graphic innovation to improve the SEO. The article includes ” In-depth long-form articles are an excellent way to explore complex topics and a range of ideas in a single post, but sometimes, people don’t want to read the marketing equivalent of Ulysses. In fact, sometimes they don’t want to read an article, of any length, at all. This is when visual content shines.”  This shows how these type of innovations could possibly help in a way to engage the audience.

How google hummingbird changed the future of Search. WordStream. (2021, November 22). Retrieved November 12, 2022, from https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/06/23/google-hummingbird Links to an external site.