New Web site-Tom's Lawns

For project three I am creating a web site for Tom's Lawns, a lawn service company in Spring, Texas. I chose Tom's Lawns because I know Tom very well and it seems like a good choice for a project.

Project 3

My website for project three is devoted to my love for movies. I have one page that includes my own movie review, one page that is a collection of a positive and negative review of the movie I reviewed, and the last page lists the movie times in the area.

Project 3

My idea for project 3 is to create a website for the Communication Studies Graduate Association. This is a new club on campus and they need help getting started. The website will be completed in time for our first leadership meeting, so it will have the bare bones, but will be missing most of the content. It will added as a Texas State Club website as soon as I am finished adding the additional content.

Project 3: Simple Baking Babe

I really love baking and I like keeping it simple. Baking can be intimidating to someone who is starting out; especially if they want to make their things look like Cake Boss or Cupcake Wars stuff. I want to show people that baking is simple and yes decorating is fun, but taste is what it's all about. I picked the name Simple Baking Babe because it sounds cute :D

Enjoy!

Chocolate Almond Cakeballs with White Chocolate Frosting (and some naked) with Cocoa Dust

Project 3 Topic

For project 3 I am going to make a website on "Staying Fit in Austin" this site will be directed towards people who are looking to make new connections through staying active. This is for people who may be new to the city or who have been in Austin awhile but just looking for organizations to be apart of to be social while getting in shape.

The site will feature a "Home" page along with "Places", "Fitness Organizations and Clubs" and  "Healthy Restaurants"

Project 3: Band Site

For my project, I am going to make a band website. My boyfriend, Shawn, is in an awesome San Marcos band called Firewater Sermon. Shawn has wanted to get them on the web for a while. He has been talking to me lately about making a website, so now seems like a good time!

Kimmons topic

My topic will revolve around Mark Simmons, a capital murder suspect currently detained at Hays County Jail. On April 17, 2010, he shot and killed a longtime friend in his Buda home. Simmons claims it was an accidental discharge while the district attorney says it was an execution.

Project 3: Student Organizations Council

My project will be a website about the Texas State University Student Organizations Council.

Project 3

My project 3 will consist of creating a site of the Care Communities, a nonprofit organization that offers compassionate and practical support to people with AIDS or cancer in the Austin area. I decided to do my project on the Care Communities because I believe that this organization is the perfect example of a helping hand. As a previous intern, I saw all of the hard work and dedication that this organization goes through to help the sick. For this reason, I have decided to create a website of the organization in hopes of it being used for their actual site.

Credibility Assignment

The website authored by someone named Chuck Anesi is a good example of the primitive websites published by regular amateurs with some coding skills in the mid 90's when this website was published. It's amazing to look at what was pretty common for a homemade website at the time and how far websites have come.

Judging by the date when "The Titanic Casualty Figures" was last updated in 1997 I'm guessing that this site is not still under construction. Anesi created this site as an argument to people that he felt were misrepresenting the true casualty statistics of the Titanic disaster. Most of the links are external links except for the internal link he has to a page on his website that contains the full text of the court's recommendation for greater safety at sea. The one link that doesn't work is one at the end for the telegraph office website.

Chuck Anesi is the creator of this website and the information published on it. I can't find any credentials for Chuck or what qualifies him as a reliable source of information. I've only found the quote on his website that he is, "bringing strange information to the web since 1995." There is an email address listed to contact him, but, "If it's to tell [him] that Martin Bormann really died in Nebraska or some such nonsense, please don't bother." The site is a .com address with his name as the url which indicates that it's a personal website with no other affiliations that he uses to publish his own articles about various subjects. There are references to outside sources of information including the Titanic movie and the Encyclopedia Britannica, and there is no print version of this information.

The site is not professional looking at all by 2011 standards, or even by 1997 standards. It is mostly free of grammar issues with the exception of one or two minor issues. The formatting is adequate, but not ideal for usability. There are a few headings and page breaks, but for the most part the text at the beginning appears to run together. The primary images used on the site are charts and graphs that Chuck inserted to help support the statistics he uses in his argument. They are effective, but the layout is clunky and overbearing.

If Chuck is a knowledgeable person on the subject and has credibility, then the argument he makes is a strong point of view that makes a good point, but the problem is I don't know enough about him. With the comments he has on his website that I quoted earlier he comes off a little bit like a crack-pot. Also the website layout and design doesn't help him appear professional.

The True Story of the Internet

Although it was a little cheesy at times with the host and use of aggressive music, I did learn a lot from the two videos that I didn't know before. It was also fun watching them talk about some of the start-up companies like Napster that don't really exist anymore, but I remember in my lifetime. I have a cousin that's a freshman in high school who has probably never heard of Napster, of if she has then she's only read about it. I remember all my friends having Napster accounts and I still know every song that was on the first CD I burned on my computer through peer-to-peer file sharing.

The new information I learned that surprised me was the story of Google and the struggles they had to get support for it. The most surprising thing was how Excite had a chance to purchase their search formula for a million dollars and decided to pass. Out of curiosity I looked up if Excite is even still around, and I'm probably equally surprised that their search engine still exists.

I also gained a new perspective on search engines from watching these videos with my 19-year-old younger brother. He told me that he had no idea that Yahoo started off as a search engine. They've become so diversified that he thought they were originally an email client or news service before adding search functions.

The theme that I saw with most of these successful companies was a higher goal not just to make money, but to fundamentally change either how computers are used or how the internet is thought of. They were inventors first before they were businessmen and they saw filling a need in society and affecting how people operate as the paramount step before their financial success.

Evaluating Web Resources

So it turns out my dad’s advice is true. “You can’t believe everything you read,” he said to me when I was a child. Although he made this statement long before the World Wide Web was around, this is an especially true concept now that the Internet is such a big part of most peoples’ daily lives.

In the previous assignment, I stated that Internet users must learn to take the good with the bad. In the process, however, Web surfers can take precautions to protect themselves from all of the negative aspects the online world has to offer.

Because the Internet is a place where anyone can publish information, it is important for Internet users to have the capacity to sift out the unreliable stuff. People should make it a habit to use certain criteria when viewing Web pages in order to determine if the information is trustworthy or not. When viewing content on the Web, people should take into consideration the content, authority and presentation of the site.

CONTENT:

Chuck Anesi’s website titled "The Titanic Casualty Figures" appears to be complete and thoroughly researched. It was created in 1997, but this kind of information does not change with time. The site was last updated in 2006. Anesi cites relative and legitimate sources, such as The Encyclopedia Titanica, along with external links that work properly. It seems that the intended audience for this site would be for anyone interested in the history of the Titanic. The site presents what seems to be accurate information about who survived the disaster, and pushes the idea that the lower-class passengers on the ship were more likely to survive. It also stresses how men were much less likely to survive than women, obviously because women and children were allowed to escape on the lifeboats first.

AUTHORITY:

Chuck Anesi created this page. As far as I can tell from browsing around on his website, he is just a person who “puts strange information” on his website. There is an e-mail address that he can be reached at as well as three different blogs, but I question how often he checks his e-mail considering his page hasn’t been updated in several years. The site does not state that it is affiliated with any other organization. This seems to be a personal web page that a history buff created.

PRESENTATION:

The design of the site is outdated, but it looks professional for something that was created 10 or more years ago. The spelling, grammar and punctuation are pretty good, although I did notice a couple of typos. The over-all writing style is comprehensive and topic-appropriate. The navigation is pretty simple and easy to use, and the headings on the different pages are appropriate. The graphs on the site are very informative, and he cites the source where they came from.

If I were searching for information on the Internet about Titanic casualty rates, I would probably trust the information on this site. Although the presentation is less than impressive, the content seems legitimate.  Chuck Anesi doesn’t claim to be an expert of any kind, but he appears to have done adequate research on this topic and cites where his research came from. 

Web Credibility Assignment

Upon entering the website, I feel that one can immediately create a bias about the page before the upload is even finished. The page visited, "Titanic Disaster: Official Casualty Figures and Commentary," created by Chuck Anesi appears to be complete. The copyright on the page, however, dates back to 1997 which leads me to believe that is has not been updated since then. If it has, the changes have not been recorded on the page itself. The audience of the page would be anyone who is trying to acquire information about the death percentages and ratios from the sinking of the Titanic. As far as the other sources on his site, I feel that his charts and graphs are very outdated, especially considering the page dates back to 1997. That is like the stone ages in the Internet world, practically. Lots of improvements and updates have been created since then. A majority of the external links on his page no longer work. The link that was supposed to send you to a movie trailer for Titanic sends you to a different movie. Another link sends you to a website that just provides additional facts about Titanic. The outside sources he included did not add much to the website, in my opinion, and would not have even if they would have been working properly.

The authority of the website is unclear to me as well. At the bottom of the page, it does give credit to Chuck Anesi, yet even upon visiting his actual homepage, there was still no direct answer regarding his credentials. There is an e-mail you can use to contact him, however, I'm not sure how up-to-date that e-mail may be or if it's even still an active account. The copyright date on his actual homepage is dated to 2008 but that still leaves 3 years between the information and now. The website ends in .com, but the page still seems to be a personal web page/blog that he used to just put "strange information on the web since 1995." Nothing about his credibility, association, credentials, nothing is found. There is a link on the bottom of the page of the Titanic casualty article that sends you back to his homepage, but even when you visit other links on his homepage they are poorly put together, too, and no credibility is given to where he found his information.

The presentation of the site is extremely outdated. The text, charts, graphs, pictures, and content seemed very outdated and plain. The text is extremely tiny and hard to read, too. I don't feel that the site is very professional looking at all, and honestly, if I used a search engine and was brought to this website I would probably press the back arrow in a heartbeat. If I was looking at this website back in 1997, though, my opinion may be different. The site is easy to navigate, for the links that are still working that is. The images and text should probably be updated to get with the current times. He does have his news and editorial information separate, but no advertising seems to have been done on the site.

All in all, I was not impressed with this website. Maybe if I had searched this website back in 1997 my thoughts may be different. Internet and website building has come a long way. The content was informational but, honestly I probably would not consider his credibility, authority, or presentation very good at all. Hopefully I'm not being too harsh but there is much room for improvement of this website or maybe it's just due to the fact that it is outdated.

Web Credibility

Web credibility is certainly an important factor when looking at internet data. While looking at data we want to make sure the source is accurate in their findings. Credibility is the capacity for belief; therefore, if we know the information is factual, then we are in belief that the source of information is credible. We will look at the website, Titanic Disaster, to determine its credibility. The site issues data about the RMS Titanic crash and its casualty figures, so in order to use the information and cite the source, we have to find out the accuracy. By doing so, we will go through three different categories, content, authority and presentation.

Content
Content is the information the site/page has on it, and whether or not it's "good." This particular site, titled The Titanic Casualty Figures, contains lots of information, and it seems that the page has been completed. Although the page looks to be completed, the page does not have a date on it, the only date associated with this page is the copyright date of 1997. Since this page was copyrighted in 1997, it appears that the target audience is anyone in search of the Titanic history with the bias that men should have been the first to load the boats. The information on this page contains links to numerous sites, but the sites never come up, or if they do, they are incorrect. For example, when clicking on the like "Titanic," you get redirected to a movie trailer for Captain America, also, the link "The Telegraphy Office," is clearly outdated since it takes you to an open DNS guide. The site acts as more of a blog than an actual internet source for data, due to the fact that there is only one "source" (Lord Mersey's Report) cited.

Authority
This site was created by Charles "Chuck" Anesi. On his homepage there is a place to the bottom left to contact him at charlesanesi@cox.net. The domain name is a .com personal site. With that being said, the site is open to the public and anyone can look at it without a password. This site does make it possible to backtrack to get more information about the author, now the only site information available is the quote from the homepage, "Bringing strange information to the web since 1995." Anesi.com does not come across as being accurate. There are little to no references to outside sources for the material on this site.

Presentation
Presentation is everything when it comes to looking at a good page, this page along with other pages on the site (excluding the homepage) do not look professional by any means. Although the pages are unprofessional looking, the spelling, grammar and punctuation are well capitalized. There are a few pages that have slang terms and style, but it is appropriate for the opinionated topics. Formatting for this site is difficult, once you click on a page from the homepage, you can only use your "back" button from your web browser to get back to where you came from. The site has no navigation and no headings. When you open the source code for this page, it's interesting to find the meta tag for movie, especially when the link doesn't even work.

To conclude, Titanic Disaster is a good content, yet unprofessional site that is not credible and should not be used for citing. All internet data should have more than one outside referenced source and should not have biased information if published for "research" purposes. For content, make sure the page has a title and has a date at the bottom (or anywhere for that matter). Always check for a contact page or link, this gives you the authority to contact the person if need be. The presentation of the site is key. Professionalism is best; therefore, always look for accurate grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Titanic in black and white: http://www.starway.org/Titanic

The Internet: Observations and Trends

Download: The True Story of the Internet series offers a complete grasp of how the Internet evolved from its beginning to the present day.

I find it interesting that Yahoo and Google, the two most popular Internet search engines, originated in Silicon Valley and were developed by ambitious college students. I also find it amazing that these students had no idea how big search engines would become. Their stories prove that you never know to what extent an idea or dream can evolve.

One trend I believe will continue is that people will always have the desire to create and compete, especially when it comes to the Internet. Since the beginning of the Internet and search engines, makers have looked for ways to refine technology in order to make their products the most efficient. Although one would have to be very ambitious to compete with Google’s success, there will always be innovative people looking to make a better, more popular product. And some day, someone might succeed.

Even in the music industry, people doubted the success of using the Internet to share songs. After Napster was developed, they realized they were wrong. Although Napster violated copyright laws and caused controversy, the revolutionary program pioneered online music sharing and ultimately changed the way millions of people listen to music. If it wasn’t for Napster, iTunes may not exist today. It also made a permanent impact on the record industry.

The development of the Internet has brought success and convenience to millions of people, and it has evoked many emotions in the process. The Internet is a vehicle for new opportunities, and there is not an industry its impact hasn’t touched. But along with the exciting possibilities of the online world comes concerns about safety and security. Internet users everywhere have to take the good with the bad.

The most obvious trend not likely to change in the online world is that if you fail to embrace new ideas, technology will leave you behind.

The page serves as a house for Chuck’s comments and opinions coupled with factual data regarding the last seconds and aftermath of the RMS Titanic. The page contains statistical data and graphs of the members onboard the Titanic. The data is categorized according to class, gender, sex ect., which illustrates the survival rates of the passengers in the dull graphs.

The Titanic Disaster: Official Casualty Figures and Commentary page was created in 1997, it’s complete but it shows no sign of being updated since its creation. Chuck has updated his home page (2008) and one or two of the internal links listed within the Titanic page however. More specifically, one internal link- full text of the court's recommendations with a view to promoting the safety of vessels and persons at sea works and was last updated in 1998. An external link for The Telegraph Office produces an error message and redirects the user to another non-relevant site. Although, the Encyclopaedia Titanica link works and lends somewhat to his credibility. The encyclopedia titanica and the Lord Mersey's Report support his views and provide evidence for the facts and figures he lists. Chuck disputes but includes the location information for John Updike’s related article published in The New Yorker as a (working) external link.

Charles Anesi AKA Chuck is the creator of the page, which is one of several pages located on his personal web site. The Titanic page has no contact information listed; it only has a navigation link to his home page accompanied by the copyright information. The url can’t be backtracked either. He only provides an e-mail CharlesAnesi@cox.net and a link to The Lodge of Shingebiss (Chuck's Obsolete Blog). The text provided under contact us makes it seem like he has received sexist/prejudiced comments from a skeptic audience in the past. Although the main web site lists “contact US,” he does not seem to be affiliated or sponsored by anyone. The Titanic page has non-interactive, basic and lists no affiliated members or sponsors. The only time I noticed an affilication or sponsor being mentioned was when I was on Chuck’s home page. He has the MyMeat link that claims the site is not affiliated with “Our signature Meats, whatever that is,” which makes me think the other pages he has linked to his home page (including the assigned “Titanic” page) should not be taken seriously. The Meat Raffle on the MyMeat page is odd and is not certified. Profound language is displayed on navigation link for his home page, which says” waste time at chucks home page.” Also, the inappropriate text representing the link only loads the home page a third of the way.

The lackluster page is technically user friendly, non-interactive and some of its contents can be verified. Some of the things I believe reduce his credibility include the fact that he uses several different types of font, massive amounts of text, few graphs and he bolds full paragraphs religiously. On the other hand there are no distracting advertisements, which are most likely one of the reasons why the site overall is an eyesore-no budget? Chuck’s writing style is very opinionated but the majority of the commentary is approperate for the viewers. One exception is the MyMeat page. For example, the first sentence ends in “shit” so no I don’t think this page is appropriate. Moreover, the meat raffle probability calculator is unique and definitely out there, it does work but the randomness makes me doubt the accurateness of the data it computes. There is no sound on the assigned page but Chuck’s favorite sound bytes link on his home page provide sounds and video in the Sun/NeXT .au format and utilized QuickTime. The single clip art-like image on the assigned page was saved as “titanic.gif” and while viewing the page in html, it allows you to click on it and reloads the image in another window. While I was viewing the page in html, I noticed it uses meta tags. Also, during my research I searched: Google, Ask.com, Answers.com and Yahoo and asked what was "the Titanic's last distress signal sent in Intercontinental Morse Code?” to verify the page’s credibility and found that his web site popped up on the first page of every search engine and that the answer was consistent with other site options.

Overall, I think the page is too basic, needs to be updated and needs to have some multimedia or some interactive content. I believe the statistics are accurate but like the title states-it's commentary. I think I would refer to a more credible site if I needed accurate information on this subject.

Credibility Through the Web

          Website credibility can be difficult to some of the most tech savvy people but even more difficult for those who do not use the internet on a day-to-day basis. Millions of websites are available to view yet many contain inaccurate information, viruses that could completely shut down your computer or store your important confidential information in the server's database. Charles Anesi is a man who is interested in historic events such as war and the Titanic. He has a site that has Titanic Casualty Figures. The purpose of his website is to compare the casualty figures of men, women and children and classes from the Titanic ship sinking. I chose to evaluate this site because it does have interesting and mostly accurate information but still could be questionable.
           Content
           The page is complete and Mr. Anesi last modified the site on Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 3:49:48 PM . The title of the page is: Titanic Disaster: Official Casualty Figures and Commentary. Although I am not sure when it was created, we could guess in 1997 when he got his copyright. The audience that is seeming to be reached is anyone interested in The Titanic. There does not seem to be a bias although he emphasizes women, children and survival rate based on classes to get his point across. Not all of the links work properly or go to the area that they are probably intended to, but I would say this is because the site is extremely outdated by five years and sites have changed. 
          Authority 
          It is not clear what Charles Anesi's profession is or if he is just a history enthusiast. Although when I searched "casualties for The Titanic" his site came up first which means that there are many people linked to him and that his site is viewed often. He probably did research and compiled a site together. I could not find much information on him except for his email address from his home page and a basically untouched Twitter handle. Being that the site is a ".com" domain it is quite possibly this is his own personal site that does not need to be associated with anyone or group except for himself. The site is about 98% accurate based on the charts and context. He has a reference page at the bottom of the page. 
       Presentation 

       The site to me was more difficult to follow and pay attention to. Now in 2011 we are used to websites being more spread out with navigation bars shows separate categories. On this site one page had everything and more that I wanted to know about the casualities of The Titanic. I felt it was crammed and lost my attention quickly. The tables helped me understand because truth is that I did not want to read a ton about who died.  There are grammar, spelling and puncuation mistakes and the page is just not fun to look at. There is no navigation, no sound anything that would keep my attention.        

        Overall, this is a credible site based on where he got his information, but Chuck Anesi does not hold a public figure role who we would think would be credible based on the information from his site. The site is useful but the presentation is not enticing. This shows us that anyone can make a website but that more than one site should be analyzed if we are going to reference or let people know something that we have found.

 

Credibility is extremely important to be aware of when searching the web. In this Web Credibility Assignment, the website www.anesi.com/titanic.htm is evaluated. This website provides theory and statistics of casualties who died on Titanic. Content, authority and presentation are evaluated here to determine the site's credibility.

Content
The webpage entitled "Titanic Casualty Figures" looks complete. The page was last updated and copyrighted in 1997 by Chuck Anesi. This website looks to be directed at someone looking for straight facts and content. There are no bells and whistles to entice the everyday web surfer. There are a few external links that work which verify the source's facts. The last link listed in the content however, "The Telegraph Office," does not. There is only one internal link leading back to the front page at the very bottom.

Authority
Chuck Anesi, author of the website, does not provide much about himself on his website. Only his email is listed. When his name is entered into a search engine, naturally his website is shown first. Other sites are very vague about his bio as well. Any outside associates, affiliations or sponsors are not made known.

Presentation
The website's overall appearance is very basic. There are few graphics and the small bold text makes reading long paragraphs challenging. The lack of navigation makes maneuvering around the content very difficult. Trying to find the site however via search engines was easy. Yahoo and Google both list the source at the top of the search results when searching for the terms "titanic casualty figures." News, editorials and advertisements are no where to be found. The only content is that of the publisher of this website. The source code is very basic HTML and misuses tables to format the layout. CSS, Javascript or any other coding languages are no present.

The website overall is reasonably credible. The content verifies the published statistics and information to widely known resources. The presentation unfortunately detracts from the usability and even likability of the page.

(source of picture)

Credibility: Titanic Disaster Website

The website, Titanic Disaster: Official Casualty Figures and Commentary, was under review as directed by the instructions of the course outline. The main page of reference is the Titanic Casualty Figures page.I'm evaluating it to gain an understanding of how credibility in web design is an essential feature to have in mind when building websites.

Content

The website overall seems complete, with no obvious construction going on. The title of the page is Titanic Casualty Figures. The website is copyrighted for 1997 with no date of mention of updates. An audience would most likely be people interested in learning a

bout the Titanic and perhaps history enthusiasts. Anesi cites authorities somewhat, but most links are out of

date.

Some are functional, others have become redirects. The links do not support his content, only provide areas of reference or offer new information not presented in his content. Others are commercial websites relevant to the topic.

Authority

The creator, Chuck Anesi, gives no mention of his credentials or authority on the matter. The only method of contact is the email address, charlesanesi@cox.net, listed on the home page. The website is void of any affiliations or associations. Additionally, no sponsorship is mentioned. The domain is listed as the creator's l

ast name and a .com ending, signifying commercial interests.

However, the page appears to be intended to be informative and claims it's an "official" reference for the topic. A user can reference the homepage at the bottom on almost every page. The author makes use of infographics and mentions some sources. He cites Lord Mercy's Report and details it as well as referencing the Telegraph Office website, which is non-functional.

Presentation

The website is overall unprofessional-looking and very "primitive" in the sense of the Internet e

volution. The page uses bold text throughout and has a very simple, poor layout. The author uses slang and there are a few spelling errors throughout the text. It seems too personal, as if it's mostly an interpretation of the facts he's come across.

The formatting of the text seems as if it was the most convenient thing for him at the time. There are no headlines, except the Lord Mersey's Report, and the divide separating it has an unclear purpose. No uniform navigation exists, unless the footer w

ith the homepage counts. The infographics are functional, serving solely as a point of reference to his content. I was directed to this website by a link on the course website. Searching by the name of the page brought it up instantly.

The main website is separated into different categories that have personalized names. They actually reduce the credibility of the page. Overall, the website is not uniform. Pages look differently, and there's no sense of unity that ties them together. The source code reveals some useful meta tags that indicate the purpose of the website. It's all written in plain HTML with little formatting and no CSS style sheet.

Conclusion

Overall, the website had poor credibility. It seems very premature, and the publisher probably hasn't updated it in a few years. The last copyright date was 2008. I think it would be best to provide some useful links that enhance the credibility of the author throughout the website. Also, some citing of his sources of information would be greatly useful to a reader who wants to use the website as a point of reference for any applied or basic research opportunities. A navigation would make his website appear more modern. This website has a lot of room for improvement, and I probably would not use this website upon first glance at it.

Web Credibility Assignment

Content

The purpose of this assignment was to critique a site by meticulously analyzing its content. The name of the website that I evaluated is titled, “The Titanic Casualty Figures,” a site created by Chuck Anesi in 1997 that overviews the number of casualties that occurred when the Titanic sank. Overall, the website appears to be finished, providing a fair amount of information in reference to the Titanic’s casualty figures; however, the website does not show when it was last updated. In regards to the site’s targeted audience, the content does not seem to be aimed at a certain audience, nevertheless the content does show some sort of bias in reference to the survival rate of the Titanic’s passengers.

As for the external links of the site, some of the them trouble shoot or send you to a general site where you can search for particular information (i.e. Encyclopedia Titanica). For instance, the hyperlink “Titanic,” does not show the preview of the Titanic movie; instead, it previews a video of “Captain America.” Additionally, the hyperlink “The Telegraph Office” appears to malfunction because it provides viewers with a blank page. Thus, the web creator should consider updating his external sites in an effort to provide accurate information.

Authority

In reference to the credentials of the web creator, little is known about him. The only information that is provided is his name and an additional hyperlink (i.e "Back to Chuck Anesi's Home Page”) that takes you to his main website where you can only obtain his e-mail. Furthermore, the website does not offer any form of information in relations to the web creator’s associations or affiliations. Additionally, no form of sponsorship is portrayed throughout the site. Also, the site’s domain name appears to be a .com page, which may derive from a personal site (i.e. http://www.anesi.com/chuck.htm). The site also appears to be non-traceable, the user is unable to find additional information in reference to the site’s information; however, the site does offer a hyperlink that takes you to the web creator’s contact information.

In general, the site appears to be coinciding with outside sources with the exception of the exact number of passengers and recommendations from the British inquiry. The Encyclopedia Titanica affirms that there were 2, 207 passengers, while Anesi indicates that there were 2, 224 passengers aboard the Titanic. Also, Anesi specifies that the British inquiry blames the Titanic’s speed for the disaster, while the document never links the Titanic’s accident to high speed, the only recommendation that the British inquiry give is to be prudent while navigating around ice.

Presentation

In regards to the aesthetics of the site, the web page does not look professional and lacks interest; instead it appears to portray an immense amount of information with graphs that are oversaturated with material and dated. As for the writing style, the site creator could be more proficient by eliminating the word “outta” and re-writing the majority of the paragraphs to sound less biased and more professional. Also, the web creator needs to spell check his information before placing it online, the word encyclopedia is continuously misspelled throughout the site. The site also lacks proper headings to adequately divide the information. The web creator should also consider adjusting the images of the site; the tables seem to be cluttered and provide more material than the information discussed in the content. Additionally, the site is accessible by using the keywords “Titanic casualties.” In reference to advertising, no advertisements are portrayed on the site.

All in all, the website is in need of an overhaul in terms of its layout design and content. The information provided by the author needs to be more professional, grammatically correct, and in conjunction with its references. Also, the graphics need to be updated and the site creator’s contact information needs to be provided. With these proposed changes, I believe that the site would be more credible; nonetheless, this site at its current state lacks credibility.

Web Credibility: Titanic Disaster

Credibility is the determining factor for the believability of a source by the receiver. Whether it is a teacher, a parent, a news reporter, a print newspaper, or a website; credibility is the difference between someone sharing our attitudes, beliefs, and values - or - thinking that we (or the newspaper's editors) are crazy or at least misinformed. Dr. James McCroskey, a credible communication scholar, created a scale for source credibility that measures items such as honesty, morality, and ethics. These same measures have been (and should be) applied to teachers, doctors, news reporters, and website developers. Today we will look at one website: Titanic Disaster, in order to determine whether or not it is credible.

Chuck Anesi's Titanic website was completed in 1997 (no other dates are given). The title of the page is "Titanic Disaster: Official Casualty Figures" and the first line of text adds the phrase "and what they mean." The website is written for someone interested in obtaining data about historical events. The author's personal bias and sarcasm can be seen here: "The more primitive approach -- taken by most writers on this subject..." The site includes one external link that works, one internal link that works, and two links that do not work. The charts and data referred to by Anesi are provided and cited internally. The Wikipedia article, Passengers of the RMS Titanic, comes to similar conclusions but gives different reasons for their existence (and uses less sarcasm). Anesi's data and statistics are included in the Wikipedia page, Timeline of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, but could have been added there by Anesi himself.

The credentials of Chuck Anesi are not given on the website or the referring page, but his e-mail address is listed with the following description: "If it's to tell me that Martin Bormann really died in Nebraska or some such nonsense, please don't bother. Otherwise feel free to email me." After a quick google search I also found that he is listed on twitter as @anesi but has not posted anything in more than a year. This is a personal website with no known associations or sponsorships.

This site has some features that might have appeared professional and "tech-savvy" in 1997 but are sorely outdated now. The writing style is unprofessional, laced with misspellings, sarcasm and mockery of other writers in his field. The typeface is extremely small and difficult to read, and the images are not linked to anything else, such as source information. There is no navigation within the site; it is simply a long list of information. The source code is clean and typical of a website written at the time.

Knowing the credibility of the information we are reading will help us develop more accurate opinions of the world in which we live, and help stop the malicious lies spread almost everywhere we look today. Chuck Anesi's Titanic website meets a few of the criteria for credibility such as content and a lack of advertising or paid bias, but the outdated presentation and lack of information about the author reflect poorly on the website as an authority on this subject. If Mr. Anesi is such an authority he should update the website to current standards of html coding, and provide detailed background information verifying his credibility.

Download: The True Story of the Internet

Download: The True Story of the Internet is video collection giving the inside scoop of the web and the big names who founded it, fund it and use it. Host of the Discovery series, John Heilemann, puts it best when describing the development of the internet when saying, " follow the money."

While watching the "Search" video, it was interesting to see how search engines started and then later fell; giving rise to Google. Standford seems to always be sitting on the next genius goldmine, while big wig investors always seem to be initially turning them down.

The Power People video was very informative. The battle between the music industry and Napster set the stage for iTunes. I was shocked though that there was no agreement made with Napster though to purchase music; seeing how big of an audience was already there to listen.

Hopefully the future of the web will continue to build upon user interaction and communication. It has already led to so many voices being heard. It provides a collective knowledge. I expect many changes in not only the world wide web but the world. I feel lucky to be apart of it.

Web cred - Kimmons

My task was to discern the assigned web page www.anesi.com/titanic.htm, which is dedicated to the Titanic disaster of 1912. The page uses numerous paragraphs as well as charts and graphs to rely information and data revolving around the once touted “unsinkable” ship and its demise.

The title of the web page is “Titanic Disaster: Official Casualty Figures and Commentary” and was created without updates in 1997, an ancient time in the web design era. The audience for the page appears to be anyone who is interested in the Titanic tragedy, especially with the movie coming out at that time. The author of the site, Chuck Anesi, seems to be bias on the facts he displays on his site. In the reading, he tries to dismiss other reports about the Titanic in which he claims are follies as he urges other readers not to e-mail these “ridiculous observations.” The page has other links for more information, including sites to the Titanic movie, one to the encyclopedia-titanica.org site, a link to another Titanic page in his site and another site that didn’t open. However, figures on his site and the encyclopedia site differ. The encyclopedia says that 2,207 were on board and only 712 survived while his site says 2,224 on board and 711 survived.

Looking around Anesi’s site I could not find any credentials on him. He has links to other historical events, compositions and miscellaneous rants, all written by him. The site does have an e-mail address to contact Anesi but no phone or address. There is no discussion on the site but on his blog, The Lodge of Shingebiss, comments are allowed, although the only comments made in his latest post in 2007 appear to be spam in Chinese characters. I didn’t see any affiliations, associations or anybody sponsoring his site for that matter. All of the links on the home page take visitors to other pages designed by Anesi. His site appears to a personal web site tailored to his musings.

The appearance of the site is stuck in the late 1990s. The Titanic page uses a lone clip art icon and the graphs are in ugly color combinations. The text is way too long and entirely in bold face type. The text body should be broken into sections and not in bold since the headlines are small and look similar to the rest of the text. Besides numerous writing errors, the writing style is sometimes presented in a biased, authoritative speech that seems to say his site is right and everybody else is wrong. No advertisements can be found on the site. Page source can be accessed, though, where meta tags for description and keywords can be found. All in all, the page is in dire need of updated graphics, layout design and editing.

It took less than a second for me to grant this site no credibility, and just a few minutes of checking it out to realize that I was right. Not only is the appearance outdated but the style of the author’s writing is annoying and not credible. Just like its topic, this site sank to the bottom shortly after its inception.

The Internet: Constantly Changing

I have learned that "The Only Constant is Change" and with change being inevitable I have learned that one factor that has not changed to achieve success is- money. Money has dominated the American society and your potential to succeed in the American society greatly. 

"Download: The True Story of the Internet" helped me realize even more than this is true and even with Internet Explorer being able to be offered for free to its clients the bottom line was that Bill Gates and his company had enough money to be offering this browser and product for free. Where as Netscape went under because of their lack of money to be able to offer consumers something comparable for free or low price.

 

To me what everything boils down to is money, who has the most of it will succeed in any part or branch of the internet. A saying that comes to my mind often is: "It Takes Money to Make Money" and I truly believe that, you can always be poor and get investors and sponsors etc but money is a necessity to be the very best at anything. 

Search and Power People

Search:

When the first video started playing and it kept talking about Excite, I was a bit confused. I've never heard of it before, so I thought about Google-ing it. Found out the reason I never heard of it, is because it's pretty lame. And now even more lame to me because they thought they could be like Google, so they refused to buy them for $1 million. Probably the worst idea ever.

I liked how the video brought up the fact that Yahoo! and Excite forgot about being a "search" engine and just used their ways with ads. I think it was Google's calling to step in a show them what a true search engine is all about. (Sorry, I go googley over Google). I also enjoyed hearing how they (Google) said they would be BIG, big as in $10 billion in revenue and they have reached just that (well pretty close to that).

Power People:
I loved the part about the web "connecting individuals." Although, sometimes I feel like a private person, having social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+ makes me feel connected to the outside world.

This video took me back to high school days when it referred to Napster, it surprises me how extreme some artist took this, as we all know, people get free downloads ALL the time, and not just music!

Themes and Future:
Common theme throughout the videos were the guys (literally, all of them were dudes) and they were all from Stanford/Silicon Valley area, with the exception of Mark and Shawn.

For the future, it's almost predictable that Google will still be in the lead above all other search sites. Also, I can see Google+ taking over Facebook, if they play their cards right :D

The Internet's Evolution

I still remember when Yahoo!, Excite, and Netscape were all prominent names in Internet. It's so interesting to see the evolution of what has now become the Internet as we know it today.

These videos are very informative, but I must say the reporter is quite annoying. The common themes of both videos is that Stanford University was a source for the beginning of some of the most successful and even not-so successful start-ups. Col

lege students who have the desire to make the Internet useful is what has made it become the go-to avenue for getting information. One of the most common themes is that all these developments were made without any idea that it would become a lucrative business in the future.

Search

I found it funny that one of the first, if not the first, search engine was called Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web, later to be called Yahoo! It's also not surprising that advertising has fueled the development of the Internet as a viable medium for getting information and making money. After Yahoo! and other companies started, Google entered the arena and changed the search engine stagnatio

n that was putting search engines into money-hungry websites that would rather give you a sight that would sell you something rather than what you really wanted. Why did they think that would be sustainable? I don't think I even remember what Overture was, but app

arently it led to Google's new methods for being the top search engine tool in the world.

People Power

Wikipedia, Craigslist, blogging - where did it all come from?

Who's making money off of that? The creator of the web was created so that big business would never be able to control it. I love that idea. It's so common and prevalent. Advertising rears its ugly face everywhere you turn. But the big Internet start ups, even the failed

ones didn't start out with a business model and a hope for a billion-dollar company.

Digg started the idea that users could decide what was the best content. Facebook created a mechanism to visualize your own network of friends. Myspace and Facebook were the two biggest names in social networking for a long time. Now Google+ has joined the arena, all over the idea that the normal, everyday person is the master of the power of the Internet.

Napster created a music revolution that led to a series of law suits in defense of music artists and record companies who were losing money to peopl

e just helping other people out (a euphemism for file sharing). Copyright laws became the enemy of the way people liked to share what they enjoyed. YouTube became the enemy of broadcast television and traditional media.

All of this just goes to show how fast our world is changing. The major concerns now are how much privacy we have. What is this going to do to how much we can keep private with the Internet around? I "Google" myself all the time just to see what comes up. The Internet now has become a place to build a personal brand and is revolutionizing the way that we function in everyday life.

The Internet's foundation

The proliferation of the Internet and the World Wide Web changed the way people communicate, behave and how we see the world. The videos mention several unique opportunities the Internet has produced during its development that other media outlets have failed to ignore.

While watching the second video, I heard several interesting facts I was unaware of before viewing "Search". I like the attention getter--imagine a world without Google--and the fact that 10 years ago Google did not exist. Perhaps more interesting is the fact that five years ago most search engines like Yahoo! and excite were not being utilized either.
I enjoyed learning how Yahoo! emerged and became a successful company. For example, I found it fascinating that Jerry and David's inspiration for Yahoo! all started because of a fantasy basketball league. It makes me wonder if they would have been as successful if they never changed the name from Jerry & David's guide to the World Wide Web to Yahoo!.

The most interesting aspect of the video People Power, is exactly what the title implies. It's nice to know Mark Zuckerberg isn't taking him self too seriously--the video illustrates this by mentioning his casual wardrobe when boarding a jet accompanied by NYT staff.

One of the common themes I noticed across the development of the Internet is the demographics of its leaders. Most of the developers and founders were young, white, educated and males. California was portrayed as the popular location for these young entrepreneurs in the 1990s and early 2000. Another reoccurring theme is how advertising seems to be the driving force behind the success of the Internet, which is similar to other media outlets like T.V. and magazines.

I believe the Internet will continue to offer several opportunities in the future. I think it will become even more user friendly and a necessary form of communication. I believe people, but more specifically Americans, will become even more dependent on the Internet as its possibilities expand, even to an unhealthy level. However, I hope more sites like YouTube and digg emerge and transform the way we communicate and interact on the Internet. Another trend of the Internet is that it is helping bridge the digital divide in the US. While more Americans gain access, I believe they will become better informed and more media literate.

The Development of the Internet

Part II and Part IV of the documentary “Download: The True Story of the Internet” provides an insightful look at the emergence of search engines like Yahoo and Google as well as the rise of the Internet as a power tool. I was impressed to know that before Google, the Internet was difficult to navigate and middling in obtaining information. Luckily, as time progressed, search engines began to optimize their resources by becoming better sites than their predecessors. With time came improvements and companies like Yahoo and Excite paved the way for Google, the first search engine to not overly saturate their site with advertising. Thus, it is interesting to note how search engines have become a prominent tool for marketers and the general audience.

In addition to the emergence of search engines, the decline of old media and the rise of a new form of communication via the Internet paved the way for people to embrace their creativity and opinion with sights like YouTube, Blogger, Facebook, etc.

Interesting events marked a pivotal role in the development of the Internet as we know it today, some of which include: the revolutionary impact of Yahoo by being the first search engine site to successfully make revenue through advertisements; the development of Google through the linkage of sites by making content easily searchable and universal; the decline of traditional media and the up rise of a new form of media through sites like YouTube, MySpace, Blogger and Facebook; the invention of the MP3; and the creation of the fastest spreading software, Napster.

Some of the common themes that emerged from both videos were the creation of prominent sites like Yahoo and Google from “Internet Utopians”/young students at Stanford University (i.e. David Filo, Jerry Yang, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page) who saw the web as a blank canvas full of opportunities; the need to obtain financial investors for their emerging projects; and the adaptation of certain processes from other search engines (i.e. Google’s mimicking of GoTo’s keyword search). These commonalities not only made advances to the Internet but also created controversy.

All in all, these videos show the trajectory of the Internet and the outcome of various ingenious choices. Today, everyone is connected to the world via the web and the need to be the best search engine or social media site continues. Currently, the web offers a form of medium for people to express themselves and become an author in a click of a button. For this reason, it is reasonable to assume that stronger search engines and social media sites will continue to be developed in an effort to meet the need of consumers and be the first at the top of the list.

For more information, please visit: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/download-true-story-internet/ew to view Parts II and IV of "Download: The True Story of the Internet.”

True story of the internet: Search & People Power

After being married to a sports nerd for the past 12 years, I am not at all surprised by the origins of web searches. Sports statistics and computer nerds often go hand in hand. =)

Advertising is one of the necessary evils of the web. If it were possible to use the internet without cost, then advertising would not be necessary, but everything about the internet has a cost associated with it - hardware, software, fiber optics, developers, overhead, etc. It took Google several months to figure out how to incorporate ideas from Overture, Excite, and still have the ad-free look they wanted, and I still use them today because of their clean design.

Stanford has been busy producing a googol of computer nerds. Yahoo!, Excite, and Google were all started by Stanford grad students.

These videos are relatively over-dramatic. They narrator is interesting, but difficult to watch because he moves around so much. The "Browser Wars" and "Bubble" videos are much worse than the two we watched. There were times I wasn't sure if I was watching a documentary or an episode of the X-files.

Videos post - Kimmons

From the videos, I was surprised to hear that the internet has 150 million websites with billions of web pages. To navigate through them, Yahoo created a search engine to break down the massive internet into categories after its creators found web searching troublesome while researching players for a fantasy basketball league. Yahoo also kicked off the gold rush of the web by incorporating advertising onto their search pages.

Later, Google emerged with an improved style of web searching that displayed web sites in descending order according to the number of its links. Google is now worth $200 billion and its founders are ranked in the top 30 richest people of the world. In Google's early days, the now dying Excite search engine could have bought it for just $1 million. Doh!

Following the creation of mp3 music files, Napster exploded onto the internet and started a music revolution. Napster is known as the fastest spreading software ever. Other sites followed, blossoming interaction among individuals rather than corporations.

A common theme among both videos was the Stanford University connections, where Yahoo, Google and mp3 software emerged. Another theme was that investors didn’t see much money potential with many of these web sites.

In the future, I foresee the internet to continue to drastically affect big media revenue as intellectual property becomes fair game. Also, the onslaught of web sites that store personal data will catapult privacy concerns.

Austin to Singapore

The cheapest flight from Austin to Singapore departs July 11^th at 7:35pm on Cathay Pacific Airlines and costs $1,213. I found this price by searching Travelocity.com. I compared it against Kayak.com, another travel search engine, and the price on Travelocity was the cheapest.

Question #3

According to accuweather.com, the high temperature in Anchorage, Alaska for next Sunday is 68 degrees.

Hi, my name is Rachel Nelson.

I'm a senior at Texas State, and this is the last class I will take here! I am originally from Amarillo, Texas, and I just turned 25. I am an electronic media major, and my minor is communication design. I took a web design course in the art department, and I am looking forward to reenforcing what I learned in that class here. I am thankful that this class is smaller, because it seems we will get more one-on-one attention. I am especially eager to learn how to use Dream Weaver. The other class I took did not touch on that program.


I am definitely a Mac user. I have always loved using them at school, but I just acquired my own MacBook about a month ago. I couldn't be happier! This is one of the best purchases I have ever made.


As far as hobbies go, I enjoy traveling, concerts, being outdoors and spending time with family and friends. I also have a shopping habit that keeps me pretty broke. I have a boyfriend named Shawn who I spend a lot of time with. I work at Spud Ranch, a local restaurant here in San Marcos. I've been working there for more than 2 years. Currently I am working to pursue a career in freelancing. I specialize in writing and graphic design.


If you'd like to find me on Twitter, my username is rachel.nelson.


Cheers!

Webpub

I'm Amanda O'Sullivan, a graduate student at TSU studying Mass Communication and Advertising. I'm from Spring, TX, which is a small town outside Houston. I graduated from TSU in May 2010 with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Communication Studies was my minor.

I'm the oldest of three and my siblings mean the world to me. After graduation, I bought myself the best graduation gift ever--I rescued my dog Kaiya from an animal shelter in Houston. It's hard to imagine looking back now how I ever survived college without her!

I thought the video was informative and interesting. I didn't know that packets and other related ideas were developed and being used as early as 1973. Also, I was surprised to hear that in 1983 the proliferation of the Internet began to change the way we communicate and who we communicate with.

Who led for stolen bases in National League in MLB 2002?

Who led? Luis Castillo with 48 in 2002.

I first began by opening my favorite web browser, Google Chrome. Since it's URL address bar automatically searches Google, I typed in "Who led for stolen bases in National League in Major League Baseball in 2002?

The closest match on Google's list was a Wikipedia's Stolen Bases database. I searched through it and did not find it much help.

So I went back to the original search results and then saw the Baseball Almanac's "Stolen Bases Year-by-Year Leaders" page and click on it. After using the Find tool on Chrome, I searched for the phrase "2002." And the two leaders that came up were Alfonso Sariano with 41 and Luis Castillo with 48.

Determining the Right Pet for You

Choosing the right pet, for some, is not an easy task! Depending on location, time, type of person, allergies...the list really can go on. Some people, however, are smart enough to do a little research before they just jump into becoming a pet owner.

First off, I went directly to the Google website. In the search engine box I entered "Books+on+finding+right+pet+for+you." After I searched, a multitude of websites with fun facts came up as well as a link that took me directly to the webpage for Amazon.

I quickly realized that there are lots of books to determine the right pet for you. Even after determining which pets suits you best, there are additional books based on animals types. If you realize that a dog is the animal for you, there are tons of books you can buy to decide which dog suits you best, as well, or for any other breed or type of animal for that matter.

I feel that people definitely do need to do some research before they become a pet owner. Being a pet owner takes lots of work and time (for some animals like puppies) or if you simply just don't have the time maybe an animal like a fish or something low maintenance is right for you. Either way, I strongly recommend doing your research before you decide to buy a pet. It may save you lots of time, stress, and money in the long run!

You can click the following link to find the book on Amazon: Are You the Pet for Me?