My Dream Holiday(:

This time we were asked to find information on our dream holiday. I've always known how my dream holiday will be like and it is to go to Egypt and to visit all the magnificent pyramids. I’ve always been intrigued by the marvelous architecture of these pyramid-shaped structure.  A quick history about pyramids is that they were built mostly as tombs for the country’s Pharaohs. As there are many pyramids found in Egypt, I would like to specifically visit the pyramids in Giza. This is because not only will I be able to view the pyramids, I will also be able to see the Sphinx.

To find out more information on Egypt, I visited Egypt’s travel website. Below are screenshots of the website.

 The picture may be a little small but if you were to look closely, you can see small black dots. When one scrolls over the black dots, more information about that particular structure will be shown. I think this is a really unique feature as it allows visitors to the site to learn more about the structures before choosing the structures they wish to visit.

This website also allows the users to book for their holiday package now and also to learn basic Arabic phrases that may be useful for them. 

 Besides the pyramids, one can also view the other activities tourists can do such as visiting the desert, beaches and shopping establishments. This provides the user with more information other than its popular pyramids.  

I had made use of 2 different evaluation criteria to evaluate this website. 

1.       Presentation & Usability

The website I visited is visually appealing as it uses graphics that were appropriate to the purpose of the website. The graphic made it a more interesting site as compared to the other sites I visited. The headings were clear and the content was also well-written.

2.       Usability

The website is easy to extremely user-friendly.

Practical 7- What I've Learnt

During week 6, we were taught on the various criteria when evaluating internet resources. The main purpose of evaluating internet resources is to determine its quality. This is crucial to ensure that the information obtained from the internet resources is accurate and reliable. There are many evaluation criteria, mainly: Purpose, Coverage, Authority, Accuracy, Currency, Accessibility, Presentation and Arrangement, Usability and Overall quality. One important thing that users should take note is that different internet resources require different evaluation criteria.

For this week, we were asked to evaluate Straits Times Online Mobile Print (STOMP) which is a web portal by Singapore Press Holdings. In order to ensure its credibility, I have decided to use 4 different evaluation criteria. The 4 different criteria are purpose, coverage, accuracy and currency. 

1.       Purpose

From the About Us page, I was able to determine STOMP’s purpose which is to “connect, engage and interact with Singaporeans in a style and approach that is different from conventional news website”. By displaying its purpose clearly, users are able to easily determine if they are using the appropriate site. This means that a user who is searching for credible information for his research should find another site whereas a user who wishes to provide interesting news stories will choose to stay on this site.

2.       Coverage

STOMP covers a variety of areas mainly citizen journalism platform, discussion forums on various subjects, news stories and entertainment. Its intended audience can be inferred from the purpose to be layman Singaporeans as it wants to connect, engage and interact with Singaporeans. By evaluating the coverage, I am able to determine if the subject I am searching for can be found on this site or should I search for another website.

3.       Accuracy

Apart from the news stories section, most of the other areas covered by STOMP are user-generated. This means that the content found are contributed by the public and not from an expert or from a research. As such, one should be cautious when quoting information from STOMP as the information may be bias or inaccurate. However, interesting stories sent in by the public may be accurate as they are often accompanied by images or videos. By using accuracy as an evaluation criterion, I will be able to determine if the information I retrieve from STOMP is reliable and accurate enough to be used for my research.

4.       Currency

As mentioned above, a large part of the content found on STOMP is contributed by the public. These are usually contributed when a person witnesses an interesting incident. The person will likely capture a photo or video of the incident before uploading it onto STOMP. With the technological advancement in Singapore, the person is able to do so almost immediately upon witnessing it. This means that the news is likely to be current. This is an important evaluation criterion especially if one is dealing with issues such as current affairs.

From this activity, I have learned the importance of evaluating the internet resource that I am using. Although it may seem troublesome and time-consuming, I feel that it is worth the effort as it will help ensure the information I obtain is reliable and accurate. This will then ensure the reliability and accuracy of my research. One is also able to save time when searching for information if he evaluates the website before using it. This will allow the user to determine if the information or subject he is searching is found on that website. This is definitely better than searching for information aimlessly.

If I were to create my own version of STOMP, I don’t think I will apply citizen journalism differently from how STOMP applies it. In STOMP, the public is allowed to post their thoughts on a particular subject. In my own version, I will allow users to post their opinions on the consumption of genetically modified food. By doing so, other users will be able to read a more balanced view of the issue. Also, users will be allowed to provide information on the recent trends and developments of the genetically modified food industry. This will help create awareness on this issue which has been relatively unknown.

What I've Learnt-Practical 6

The week before the break, we were introduced to invisible web which is also known as database or deep web or dark matter. Databases are basically test pages, files or other high quality authorative information available via the World Wide Web that general purpose search engines(that is, Google or Yahoo)will not add to their web pages. It works just like the normal search engines which means that one is able to use Boolean operators. One unique feature of a databsae is that the user is able determine which year he wants the data to be from. Some examples of databases are TP's Digital Library Portal Site and TP's E-books database ITPRO.

This week, we were told to evaluate the effectiveness of databases.

After looking through two different databases, i feel that it is more effective to search on the databases rather than on search engines, meta search engines or subject directories. This is mainly due to the nature of my research topic and how the search results from the database differ from those found on the other three internet search facility. Because of the nature of my research topic, information from journals and articles are more relevant and reliable as compared to information from blogs and etc.

Information from EbscoHost were mainly from journals and they were comprehensive and detailed. As I had access to EbscoHost database, i was able to view the full text document. This provided me with more information than i had gathered from searching the different search engines, meta search engines and subject directories.

Another database that i have used for my research is Newslink. Newslink provided me with newspaper articles from The Straits Times or The Business Times on my reasearch topic. It was interesting to read how genetically modified food is impacting the world and the views of journalists and people around the world about it.

Overall, i think that databases are really great as i don't have to worry about the reliability of the information. This is because the journals and articles were from respectable sources which would probably provide information that is accurate. Also, most of the journals and articles found were relevent and i did not have to waste time sorting throught the search results looking for information that is relevant. This managed to shorten the time i spend searching for information.

Although databases are really useful and effective, i think that i will not be using them for research for my diploma. This is because my diploma project rarely require the use of the internet search facilities. Also, the inforomation that i need for them would probably not be found on these databases. As such, i don't think it is appropriate and necessary for me to make use of databases for my projects.