For practical 7 in week 12, there will be no lab as it is e-learning. The online activities which we are required to complete is to access UIR-Rawkz WiKi to post our individual comments on the Wiki which will contribute towards the group summary of the research findings. Afterwhich, update our personal blog.
Group Activity
Topic: Discuss the latest trends in the music industry for teenagers
Wiki Individual Participation:
Through my research, I have found out that more and more teenagers are easily influenced by the media these days. Once a latest pop song has been released, everyone starts playing it and even switching it to the new ring tone. Also, teenagers tend to follow the dressings or even hairstyles of famous celebrities and even to the extend of learning how they talk as well as their behaviour. A survey done by a particular website indicates that there has been an increasing rate of teenagers spending more and more time on music downloads as well as searching for music updates.
Well to me, I've been downloading music too. It's common to see teenagers spending most of their time listening to music. However, time management is important at the same time.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Practical 6B
For this week, there would be no lab as it's 1st of Jan which is a public holiday. Instead we would need to do e-learning where we would have to participate in OLE discussion forum. Activity 1 would require us to sign up to an Internet discussion forum related to my group’s topic and post a new discussion topic or respond to a discussion topic. After which for activity 2, evaluate one more resource which can be retrieved in Practical 6a using the attached template.
Activity 1
Chosen Discussion Forum: www.music-forum.org/
URL: http://www.music-forum.org/gforum.cgi?post=7628;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread
Activity 2
Title of Internet Resource: MP3.com
URL: http://www.mp3.com/artist/yon-teenagers/summary/
Purpose
The purpose of the website is to attract more customers to register and join its membership in order to access its facilities. It provides viewers with the latest music updates as well music videos for streaming.
Coverage
MP3.com basically focusing on the latest trends that is happening in the music industry. It features the latest up to date news from the entertainment network. The site allows viewers to search for music as well as artists. Videos are also available for streaming but only limited to registered members otherwise rejected. Links to other sources are also available from MP3.com especially in the news section so as to provide further details. The intended audiences are basically music lovers who are usually on the look out for latest music updates. Overall it has been an efficient site in providing services for music lovers.
Accuracy
The information is mostly reliable and up to date as all of it is based on the news. The contents found in the articles from the site are reliable and does contain any political or ideological biases. Sources are mostly abstract from another source and references are indicated clearly. Grammatical and spelling errors were not present in any of the contents.
Currency
The information provided are mostly up to date since they are news and happenings quoted from other sources. The information found on the site were continuously updating as the date was constantly changing to recent ones.
Accessibility
The speed of access is not that fast since it has to load images from the site. The language of source is simply using English and no other languages. However, downloading of music requires logging in of user name as well as password. Registering of membership is free and does not require and payment. The site also offers cookies to store usernames and passwords for its members who save time for users to re-enter their usernames and password. The information is mostly free and accessible unless users wanted to download files from the site which requires membership. Copyright ownership are listed on its site, if requesting permission to use any content from the site requester will need to review their permission and reprints page.
Presentation and Arrangement
The arrangement of information are well presented and easily found and understood by viewers. Navigational icons are also provided in the website which facilitates users with additional help functions. Such navigational icons which are available are “News and Features”, “Videos”, “Home” etc. Advertisements were also seen on the site and graphical images were not used.
Usability
The website was well managed and easy to use. Navigational icons were well understood, easily handled and the additional search facility was very useful if users wanted search for music related topics.
Overall
Overall, MP3.com was a very useful website that supports music and video streaming. The site is user-friendly and is easy to access and navigate around without following any steps or instructions.
Activity 1
Chosen Discussion Forum: www.music-forum.org/
URL: http://www.music-forum.org/gforum.cgi?post=7628;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread
Activity 2
Title of Internet Resource: MP3.com
URL: http://www.mp3.com/artist/yon-teenagers/summary/
Purpose
The purpose of the website is to attract more customers to register and join its membership in order to access its facilities. It provides viewers with the latest music updates as well music videos for streaming.
Coverage
MP3.com basically focusing on the latest trends that is happening in the music industry. It features the latest up to date news from the entertainment network. The site allows viewers to search for music as well as artists. Videos are also available for streaming but only limited to registered members otherwise rejected. Links to other sources are also available from MP3.com especially in the news section so as to provide further details. The intended audiences are basically music lovers who are usually on the look out for latest music updates. Overall it has been an efficient site in providing services for music lovers.
Accuracy
The information is mostly reliable and up to date as all of it is based on the news. The contents found in the articles from the site are reliable and does contain any political or ideological biases. Sources are mostly abstract from another source and references are indicated clearly. Grammatical and spelling errors were not present in any of the contents.
Currency
The information provided are mostly up to date since they are news and happenings quoted from other sources. The information found on the site were continuously updating as the date was constantly changing to recent ones.
Accessibility
The speed of access is not that fast since it has to load images from the site. The language of source is simply using English and no other languages. However, downloading of music requires logging in of user name as well as password. Registering of membership is free and does not require and payment. The site also offers cookies to store usernames and passwords for its members who save time for users to re-enter their usernames and password. The information is mostly free and accessible unless users wanted to download files from the site which requires membership. Copyright ownership are listed on its site, if requesting permission to use any content from the site requester will need to review their permission and reprints page.
Presentation and Arrangement
The arrangement of information are well presented and easily found and understood by viewers. Navigational icons are also provided in the website which facilitates users with additional help functions. Such navigational icons which are available are “News and Features”, “Videos”, “Home” etc. Advertisements were also seen on the site and graphical images were not used.
Usability
The website was well managed and easy to use. Navigational icons were well understood, easily handled and the additional search facility was very useful if users wanted search for music related topics.
Overall
Overall, MP3.com was a very useful website that supports music and video streaming. The site is user-friendly and is easy to access and navigate around without following any steps or instructions.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Practical 6A
In this week's practical, our task is to first complete the class test 1 which is supposed to be a close book test that constitutes to 6% of UIR coursework. After which we are supposed to form our groups for assignment 2 and decide on a topic for our assignment. For individual activity, I am tasked to search for two resources using any search facility and thereby evaluate one of them using criteria discussed in lecture 7.
Group Activity
Group Chosen Topic : "Discuss the latest trends in the music industry for teenagers"
Keywords: “Latest Trends”, “Music”, “Teenagers”
Individual Activity
Evaluation Of Resource
Title of Internet Resource: Chinese Music Forum
URL: http://forums.digitaltrends.com/showthread.php?t=10623
Purpose
The purpose of the site is to allow users to engage in a discussion on a sub-topic by a member. Viewers can post their comments back to the forum to allow others to view and continue the discussion. The intended audiences are basically teenagers which have who would like to share their views on the latest trends in music industry.
Coverage
The coverage of the site is simply focusing on the topic being posted, in this case “Latest trends in the music industry for teenagers”. There is no limited time period for responding to the posted topic as usually a discussion usually goes on for 1 or two weeks. However if another subject is being posted, the previous post would be ignored which marks the end of the discussion for the particular issue. The site includes links to other sources such as hyperlinks indicated by viewers to encourage others to view their personal blog etc.
Authority
The copyright trade mark and it's terms of use are clearly stated by the company which is powered by PunBB. Sources of information are comments and opinions posted by viewers in the forum. Hence, the reputation is relatively acceptable as the site is a forum discussion board and comments were acceptable and no complains were present.
Accuracy
The facts shown on the site are inaccurate as it does not use research as a basis. It is not a factual site as it is a forum discussion board which contains a discussion topic with comments and opinions that are given by viewers. There are no political, ideological or biasness in the source and cited references are also unavailable. The site does not include references as it only contains personal opinions indicated by viewers and it is free from grammatical as well as spelling errors.
Currency
The information were not up to date as it was posted months ago and the comments were made based on personal opinion.
Accessibility
The site requires registration as well as log-ins in order to post comments. Only members are allowed to post an issue and respond to the topic. However, viewers are no required to login unless they are posting their opinions. Membership is free and does not require payment. The site includes copyright ownership and the end of the page, hence citation is required when referencing to this site.
Presentation and Arrangement
Information is well presented and could be read at ease. The comments posted by each registered users are indicated clearly. The join date of the users as well as the date of each post is indicated on the top including the time of each post. Navigational icons are well implemented on each page including “Home”, “News”, and “Reviews” etc. The text size is appropriate and easy to read. The headings were clear and the advertisements were displayed on the appropriately and not all around the corner.
Usability
The navigation menus were well designed and easy to handle around. In terms of user-friendliness the website is definitely there. It is easy for viewers to navigate around the source to locate information as well as an additional search facility to search for information.
Overall
The quality of the website is not really outstanding and rather simple as compared to other sites. As a whole, it is user friendly and well understood.
Group Activity
Group Chosen Topic : "Discuss the latest trends in the music industry for teenagers"
Keywords: “Latest Trends”, “Music”, “Teenagers”
Individual Activity
Evaluation Of Resource
Title of Internet Resource: Chinese Music Forum
URL: http://forums.digitaltrends.com/showthread.php?t=10623
Purpose
The purpose of the site is to allow users to engage in a discussion on a sub-topic by a member. Viewers can post their comments back to the forum to allow others to view and continue the discussion. The intended audiences are basically teenagers which have who would like to share their views on the latest trends in music industry.
Coverage
The coverage of the site is simply focusing on the topic being posted, in this case “Latest trends in the music industry for teenagers”. There is no limited time period for responding to the posted topic as usually a discussion usually goes on for 1 or two weeks. However if another subject is being posted, the previous post would be ignored which marks the end of the discussion for the particular issue. The site includes links to other sources such as hyperlinks indicated by viewers to encourage others to view their personal blog etc.
Authority
The copyright trade mark and it's terms of use are clearly stated by the company which is powered by PunBB. Sources of information are comments and opinions posted by viewers in the forum. Hence, the reputation is relatively acceptable as the site is a forum discussion board and comments were acceptable and no complains were present.
Accuracy
The facts shown on the site are inaccurate as it does not use research as a basis. It is not a factual site as it is a forum discussion board which contains a discussion topic with comments and opinions that are given by viewers. There are no political, ideological or biasness in the source and cited references are also unavailable. The site does not include references as it only contains personal opinions indicated by viewers and it is free from grammatical as well as spelling errors.
Currency
The information were not up to date as it was posted months ago and the comments were made based on personal opinion.
Accessibility
The site requires registration as well as log-ins in order to post comments. Only members are allowed to post an issue and respond to the topic. However, viewers are no required to login unless they are posting their opinions. Membership is free and does not require payment. The site includes copyright ownership and the end of the page, hence citation is required when referencing to this site.
Presentation and Arrangement
Information is well presented and could be read at ease. The comments posted by each registered users are indicated clearly. The join date of the users as well as the date of each post is indicated on the top including the time of each post. Navigational icons are well implemented on each page including “Home”, “News”, and “Reviews” etc. The text size is appropriate and easy to read. The headings were clear and the advertisements were displayed on the appropriately and not all around the corner.
Usability
The navigation menus were well designed and easy to handle around. In terms of user-friendliness the website is definitely there. It is easy for viewers to navigate around the source to locate information as well as an additional search facility to search for information.
Overall
The quality of the website is not really outstanding and rather simple as compared to other sites. As a whole, it is user friendly and well understood.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Practical 4 & 5
This week's practical would spread for two weeks, week 5 as well as 6. The activity for this week is to list the research topic based on the Assignment 1, after which choose relevant keywords to search for relevant 3 resources. We are required to use the following search facilities to search for the 3 resources.
· Search engine
· Meta search engine
· Subject directory
Search Engine: Google
URL: http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=37
Comments:
By using key words in my search, I am able to hit on my targeted search a higher rate compared to phrasing my search in the form of sentences. The results were displayed in a ranking order showing the websites that are closer to my findings situated on the top while those that are less relevant further down the pages. Contents likewise are more relevant and reliable when keywords are used in the search. Irrelevant information and websites are narrowed down and hence produces more efficient results.
Meta Search Engine: Metacrawler
URL: http://www.connectwithkids.com/teentrends/
Comments:
For advanced information search, meta-search engine would be a reliable search facility.After using metacrawler for my research, I find that the chances for me hitting on to my intended target are bigger as compared to normal search engines. This is because metacrawler actually uses many other search engines in one request. Rather than restricting and relying on just one search facility to do the job, it gathers all the information that the other search engines retrieved and displays it on its own. This simply means a five in one function. The contents displayed are some how more or less similar to that of the individual search engine just that it has a bigger picture from different perspectives.
However, meta-search engines do not rank their results in terms of web links that are closely related to the searched words/phrase on top and those that are less related further down. Instead, they categorize their search results together with those that are retrieved from the same search engine in the same section. Viewers can choose to view only searched results from a particular search engine or from meta crawler's search function.
Subject Directory: Yahoo Directory
URL: http://createdigitalmusic.com/
Comments:
Subject directories are human-edited and provides services much based on subjects or topics that users post and requests. The results retrieved are quite different from those of the meta search engines. Instead, it shows related directory categories on the top of the displayed results together with the relavant web links that are closely related to the searched key words/phrase.
· Search engine
· Meta search engine
· Subject directory
Search Engine: Google
URL: http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=37
Comments:
By using key words in my search, I am able to hit on my targeted search a higher rate compared to phrasing my search in the form of sentences. The results were displayed in a ranking order showing the websites that are closer to my findings situated on the top while those that are less relevant further down the pages. Contents likewise are more relevant and reliable when keywords are used in the search. Irrelevant information and websites are narrowed down and hence produces more efficient results.
Meta Search Engine: Metacrawler
URL: http://www.connectwithkids.com/teentrends/
Comments:
For advanced information search, meta-search engine would be a reliable search facility.After using metacrawler for my research, I find that the chances for me hitting on to my intended target are bigger as compared to normal search engines. This is because metacrawler actually uses many other search engines in one request. Rather than restricting and relying on just one search facility to do the job, it gathers all the information that the other search engines retrieved and displays it on its own. This simply means a five in one function. The contents displayed are some how more or less similar to that of the individual search engine just that it has a bigger picture from different perspectives.
However, meta-search engines do not rank their results in terms of web links that are closely related to the searched words/phrase on top and those that are less related further down. Instead, they categorize their search results together with those that are retrieved from the same search engine in the same section. Viewers can choose to view only searched results from a particular search engine or from meta crawler's search function.
Subject Directory: Yahoo Directory
URL: http://createdigitalmusic.com/
Comments:
Subject directories are human-edited and provides services much based on subjects or topics that users post and requests. The results retrieved are quite different from those of the meta search engines. Instead, it shows related directory categories on the top of the displayed results together with the relavant web links that are closely related to the searched key words/phrase.
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