Web+Research+13



=**Web Research 13: Working and Learning Together by Sharing Information**=


 * Aim:**

What are some ways that people share information and collaborate on the Internet?


 * Common Core State Standards:**


 * CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.7** Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.


 * CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.8** Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.


 * Objectives:**

Students will learn some ways to share information on the Internet. Students will learn what tools they can use to collaborate with one another. Students will learn what the Open Access movement is. Students will learn how to share documents on the Web. Students will learn about copyright, fair use, and Creative Commons.


 * Vocabulary:**


 * cloud computing
 * copyright
 * Creative Commons
 * fair use
 * mashup
 * microblogging
 * open access
 * social networking
 * wiki


 * Introduction:**

In order to discuss how the Web enables people to work and learn together, we must understand the phenomenon of what is called Web 2.0.

We've gone from merely consuming information to publishing it, editing it, and collaborating about it.

This is what some of the Internet used to look like: [], in which you could not interact with pages other than to point and click.


 * Discussion:**


 * Collaborative Web Sites**

When we speak of collaborative Web sites we are referring to sites that are written and edited by everyone who can access them.

The most popular type of collaborative Web site is a **Wiki**.


 * Wiki Software Features**


 * Most wikis allow you to set up RSS feeds that will alert you when changes have been made to particular pages or sections.
 * Most wikis allow you to see the history of page changes. This is useful when you'd like to go back and see what a page looked like before. The page history shows the name of the person who edited the page if they have a login name attached to the content update. It's also a way for people to republish information that may have been deleted inappropriately or incorrectly.
 * Some wiki software is WYSIWYG (what you see if what you get) enabled. This means that a person can add information easily without knowing any special markup language. Other wiki software has markup language that one has to learn. Usually if there is markup language the wiki will provide a user guide to help people.
 * Some wiki software allows you to tag the wiki pages with subject keywords.


 * Choosing Wiki Software**

You can find many types of wiki software at WikiMatrix at http://www.wikimatrix.org.

Some are hosted, while some require a download to your computer.

Wikimatrix provides a "Wiki Choice Wizard" that helps you pick and compare software packages that have features that you need.


 * Searching for Wikis**

There are several ways to search for publicly accessible wikis. You could do a search in a global search engine such as Google by adding the word **wiki** to the subject of the wiki you're looking for.

Most of the wiki-hosting sites, such as Wikia at http://www.wikia.com and Wetpaint at http://www.wetpaint.com, allow you to search them by keyword.

There is also a search engine called Wiki.com at http://www.wiki.com that indexes wikis from many platforms.


 * Editing and Contributing to a Wiki**

You can contribute to Wikipedia. Wikipedia has created a Sandbox. The Sandbox is a place where people can practice editing a wiki.

Wikipedia also has a tutorial on this subject.


 * Web Site Collaboration Using Google Sites**

Google Sites at http://www.google.com/sites, is a program that allows you to create a Web site.

The site is hosted by Google and it is free.

You can make your Web site private or public, you can set it up to be a site you you alone create and update, or you can assign many people to collaborate on it and other features.

You have to sign up for a Google account in order to create a Web site using Google Sites.


 * Google Sites Features**


 * Provides a version history
 * Easy to add tables, images, links, and so forth
 * Can be private or public
 * No cost up to 100Mb/site; unlimited pages per site
 * Can subscribe to page changes
 * Dan insert logo and modify layout
 * Is keyword searchable


 * Document Sharing**

The major difference between collaborating on a wiki or other collaborative Web sites and using file sharing and collaborative editing/writing sites is that the wiki (or site using Google sites) is a Web-based product, whereas file sharing sites allow you to work on files in several different formats, including spreadsheets, text documents, and slide presentations.

For example, let's say you want a colleague to help you edit a MS Word document, but your colleague doesn't have MS Word on his computer. You could share the document in a collaborative editing site such as Google Docs, give the person access to it, and you can work on the document together. You can also save the document into many different formats, including OpenDocument Text (.odt), Rich Text Format (.rtf), or even Portable Document Format (.pdf).

In Google Docs, and other sharing sites, the only two requirements for writing and sharing documents are that you have a browser with a connection to the Internet.

The phenomenon of using software that exists outside of your own computer is referred to as **cloud computing**.

Cloud computing is a growing trend that may impact how we use software in the future.

There are several services that allow you to create or upload documents for sharing with others.


 * Google Docs at http://docs.google.com
 * Microsoft Office Live Workspace at http://workspace.officelive.com
 * SlideShare at http://www.slideshare.net
 * Zoho at http://www.zoho.com


 * Searching File Collaboration Sites**

Many document collaboration sites, including Zoho, allow you to publish your file to the public.

In Zoho, you have that choice when you choose the menu under **Share**.

If you share your files with the world, then there is a way for folks to search for your file and learn from it.

One popular and useful file-collaboration site is SlideShare.

Many people, including conference presenters and teachers, routinely download their slide presnetations to SlideShare rather than sending these huge files to others as email attachments.


 * Knowledge-sharing and Discussion Tools**

There are several types of knowledge-sharing and discussion tools. We will categorize these tools into the following categories:


 * Blogs
 * Microblogging Tools
 * Social Bookmarking
 * Discussion Groups and Forums


 * Blogs**

Blogs can be great tools to facilitate conversations, brainstorming, and topical discussions.

Blogs are usually authored by one person or a team of people.

The public can usually insert comments, which makes them excellent interactive tools.

There are several free blog services. Here's a few:


 * Blogger at http://www.blogger.com
 * LiveJournal at http://www.livejournal.com
 * WordPress at http://wordpress.com


 * Microblogging Tools**


 * Microblogging is a type of blogging that allows you to publish brief updates that are viewed by anyone or by people that you choose.

These messages can be submitted and received by others via their cell phones, on the Web, email, and more.

While a microblog post is different from a traditional blog post in that is is much smaller (typically 140-200 characters), its purpose is similar to that of a regular blog.

Microbloggers post comments on topics that can range from very simple, such as what you are doing at a particular time, to purposeful topics such as commenting on a professional conference session, or a book you have read or a product that you have used.

Microblogs can be useful when you want to report on a fast-breaking local news story that may help others make decisions.

For example. if you just viewed an accident or experienced a train breakdown, you can blog about it so others could perhaps avoid that area of town or route in their travels.

Many libraries use microblogging to announce new books or upcoming programs.

The goal of microblogging is to gain a group of followers who read your updates.

Here is a list of the most popular microblogging sites:


 * Jaiku at http://www.jaiku.com
 * identi.ca at http://identi.ca
 * Twitter at http://www.twitter.com


 * Social bookmarking**

Social bookmarking is a method for people to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of Web pages on the Internet by using subject headings, or tags, to help manage them.

To contribute your sites to the rest of the Internet community, you would follow the same instructions outlined here but make your account public instead of private.

You can share your sites with everyone, or you can share them with specified people or groups.

Searching social bookmarking sites such as Delicious at http://www.delicious.com can be a very good way to find important Web sites that others have found useful.

If someone has gone to the trouble of bookmarking a site, you can be pretty sure that the site is particularly relevant, especially if others that have similar research interests as you retrieved the sites.

For example, you can search delicious quite easily.

Let's say we are looking for information on the Open Access movement.

By searching Delicious, we can find Web sites that other have found particularly useful.

There are many social bookmarking sites other than Delicious:


 * Connotea at http://www.connotea.org
 * Digg at http://digg.com
 * Diigo at http://www.diigo.com
 * StumpleUpon at http://www.stumbleupon.com


 * Discussion Groups and Forums**

There are tens of thousands of discussion groups and forums on the Web.

For example, if you search on **discussion groups forums** on Goolge, you'll retrieve over 50 million Web pages.

There are discussion boards discusing health issues, consumer products, science, politics.

There are several ways to find discussions.

If you were interested in reading discussion on arthritis or another health issue, for example, you could do a general search in a search engine using the keywords **health discussion board** or **health discussion group**.

There are other ways to find group discussions, message boards, and forums.


 * Google Groups at http://groups.google.com
 * Omgili at http://www.omgili.com
 * BoardReader at http://www.boardreader.com


 * Social Networking**


 * Social networking** has encourage new ways to communicate and share information.

Social networking is an extremely popular way for people to build online communities to share interests and activities.

Millions of people around the world participate in these networks.

The most popular social networking site in the Unite States is Facebook. Another is MySpace.

LinkedIn is another popular network which provides professional people advantages such as new job leads, networking on work issues, and more.

There are also social networking platforms used within the workplace, on company's intranets, for example Yammer.

All of these networking sites are similar in that the individual joining creates a profile.

This profile can include varying information, depending on the service.

In order to be linked to other people, or to be connected as "friends" the person must verify that the person requesting the connection is truly a "friend".

Most social networks allow users to create special groups focusing on special interests.

These sites also allow the user to create privacy settings that control who is able to see the user's profile.


 * Special Interest Social Networking Sites**


 * LibraryThing at http://www.librarything.com
 * Graduate Junction at http://www.graduatejunction.net
 * Ravelry at http://www.ravelry.com
 * ResearchGate at http://www.researchgate.net


 * Mashups**

A **mashup** is a Web page or application that combines information from two or more sources.

It combines one set of data with other data to make the original data more meaningful.

Mashups are considered an example of Web 2.0 technology because they are the result of people participating and manipulating free Web information and making the information richer and more meaningful to others.

Examples of mashup sites are:


 * HousingMaps at http://www.housingmaps.com
 * GovTrack.us: Tracking the U.S. Congress at http://govtrack.us
 * Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For at http://www.mibazaar.com/fortune/fortune100.html


 * Open Access Movement**


 * open access** can be defined as information that is freely available on the public Internet.

A growing number of academic researchers, scientists, librarians, and other are involved in this movement of making research freely available on the Internet.

In the past, most peer-reviewed academic research was solely published in journals that required purchase.

Now there are thousands of peer-reviewd academic journals freely available.

Digital repositories are another type of information that is rapidly becoming available to the public.

These repositories are most often from universities, foundations, research institutes, and other types of organizations.

They consist of historical archives, including photographs, datasets, unpublished research, and so forth.

As more of thse formerly print-only resources are digitized, they are becoming freely available to the public on the Internet.

Luckily, there are directories and portals that make it easier for researchers to find these resources.


 * Open Access Journals**


 * African Journals Online at http://www.ajol.info
 * Directory of Open Access Journals at http://www.doaj.org
 * Electronic Journals Library at http://rzblx.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/index.phtml?lang=en
 * Highwire Press at http://highwire.stanford.edu/lists/freeart.dtl
 * Public Library of Science at http://www.plos.org


 * Open Access Repositories**


 * Directory of Open Access Repositories**


 * Directory of Open Access Repositories at http://www.opendoar.org
 * AIster at http://www.oaister.org
 * Registry of Open Access Repositories at http://roar.eprints.org


 * Open Courseware**

The growth of increased access to academic research has coincided with the trend, starting with MIT's Open Courseware program in 2002, of universities posting their course materials for free use by the public. These programs provide free, searchable access to course materials for educators, students, and self-directed learners. The following are some open courseware programs:


 * Columbia University at http://ci.columbia.edu/ci
 * MIT at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
 * Carnegie Mellon at http://www.cmu.edu/oli/index.shtml

For more open courseware, a list is provided by the Online Education Database at http://oedb.org/library/features/236-open-courseware-collections#OCC


 * Copyright in a Web 2.0 Environment**

Much of what you find on the Internet can be saved in a file on your computer, which makes it easy to share and distribute information to others.

Exchanging information was one of the main reasons the Internet began, and it is a desirable activity, but there is a drawback.

Free access to information makes it difficult to control unauthorized distribution of anything that's available.

Anyone with a Web browswer can make an exact digital copy of information.

This is sometimes illegal.

Only the owners of information can grant the right to copy or duplicate materials.

This is called **copyright**.

Some documents on the Internet contain a statement asserting the copyright and giving permission for distributing the document in an electronic form, provided it isn't sold or made part of some commercial product.

Regardless of whether a Web page is accompanied by a statement asserting copyright, it is still protected by the copyright laws of the United States, the Universal Copyright Convention, or the Berne Union.

Most copyright conventions or statuses include a provision that makes it possible for individuals to copy portions of a document for short-term use.

This is known as **fair use**.

If information is obtainable on the Internet and there is no charge to access the information, it often can be shared in an electronic form.

That certainly doesn't mean you can copy images or documents and make them available on the Internet, make copies and share them in a printed form, or distribute them to several people using email attachments.

Quite naturally, many people who create or provide material available on the Internet expect to get credit and/or be paid for their work.

Remember that anything available in electronic form on the Internet or WWW is a copyrighted work, and you need to treat it in the same way as a book, journal article, artwork, play, video, or a piece of recorded music.

Just because something is available on the Web doesn't mean that you can copy it.

You are allowed to copy the material for personal use, but in almost every case, you cannot use it for commercial purposes without written permission from the copyright holder.


 * Creative Commons**

One alternative to traditional copyright is **Creative Commons**.

Creative Commons was developed by a non-profit organization of the same name.

As already stated, most works are protected by copyright, which grants specific rights regarding its use.

Creative Commons allows for the copyright owner to license his or her work with varying levels of rights.

Authors, artists, scientists, and other creators can mark their work with the freedoms they want it to have.

For example, a copyright owner can decide to allow the public to copy and distribute the work and create derivative works, as long as the user cites the work properly and doesn't use it for commercial purposes.

The way it works is that the copyright owner consults the Creative Commons Web site, http://creativecommons.org and answers questions regarding what level of rights he or she wants to give to others.

The copyright owner can insert a hyperlink on his work, which will take the user to the copyright guidelines for that particular work.

You can also search Creative Commons for works that authors have agreed can be used for commercial purposes or for works that can be modified or adapted into new creations.

The following are two examples of Web sites using Creative Commons licenses.

The first is from TEDTalks, a collection of videos provided by TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), http://www.ted.com/talks.

The second is from the White House Web site, http://www.whitehouse.gov.

Clicking on **Creative Commons ((CC) license** takes you to the Creative Commons Web site.

This is where the details of the TED.com license are available.

TEDcom has given permission to share the works only if it is attributed and is for noncommercial purposes. You may not alter or transform the work.

The second example is from the White House Web site.

If you click on the CC (Creative Commons) logo, you will find the details of copyright license chosen by Whitehouse.gov.

If you click on the **CC** icon, you'll be taken to the Creative Commons license information for this site.

Note that the Whitehouse.gov has given permission to share and adapt the work but you must attribute the work properly.


 * Summary:**

These lessons focused on Web tools that make it easier for people to share information, collaborate on its discovery, edit this information in group environments, transform it into richer forms, and how to protect authors' creative expression.

Web 2.0 tools such as wikis, blogs, social bookmarking and networking, and mashups have all made the Web a more dynamic and rapidly changing environment.

The open access movement has revolutionized the way many academic researchers publish their research.

As the Web moves to become more collaborative and open, we're sure to see many new tools that facilitate sharing and collaboration.


 * In-Class Activity:**


 * Activity 1:**

1) Go to the Wikipedia tutorial and do the activities asked of you.

2) To begin, go to the Sandbox and click the **Edit this page** link.

3) Add some words of your choosing and then click on **Save page** at the bottom of the page.

4) Continue to read through the tutorial and learn about the ways you can add information to a wiki. Remember to save your changes!


 * Activity 2:**

1) Go to Zoho at http://www.zoho.com and set up an account.

2) Once you have your account set up, click on Zoho Writer.

3) Zoho will return with a document workspace that looks much like a typical word processing document. You have several choices at this point. If you'd like to upload a document from your computer to your workspace, simply click on **Import**.

4) You will be instructed to find the file on your computer to import. Note that you can also upload documents from the Web, or if you also use Google Docs you can import a document from that service as well.

5) You must name your document. Once you do this, the file will appear in your workspace for you to work on and share.

6) Zoho Writer allows you to create a new document. To do this, click on **New**. Simply start typing your document in the workspace provided.

7) To save the document, click on the Save icon.

8) Name the file. Now you can share it with others.

9) Click on **Share**. You will now enter the email addresses of the people you want to share your document with. Note that you can choose whether people can have read-only privileges or read/write privileges. Zoho also gives you the opportunity to formulate an invitation message that will be sent to the people you invite.

10) Once you click on **Share**, your message will be sent, and the person will be able to access the document. Please note that the person will have to sign up for a Zoho account in order to work on the document.


 * Activity 3:**

1) Sign up for a SlideShare account.

2) Let's do a quick search. Type in **web 2.0 learning** in the search form. Note that the results are returned by relevance, but you can choose to have them displayed by how recent they are or how many people have viewed or downloaded them. You can view the presentations by clicking on the title.

3) Note that SlideShare tells us how many times a file has been viewed and downloaded. You can also sort using these parameters, in addition to files that have been recently added.


 * Activity 4:**

For this activity, we will create a blog using WordPress. This will be a brief overview outlining the major steps in getting started with blogging. There are many features of WordPress that we won't cover here. To learn more about WordPress and its features see The Features You'll Love at http://en.wordpress.com/features.

1) Go to WordPress at http://wordpress.com.

2) Click on **Sign up now**.

3) Create a username, password, and email address.

4) Note that your username will become the default title of your blog. You can change the title later.

5) Follow the prompts on the screen to complete the registration process. Upon submitting this information, WordPress.com will email you with a confirmation message. You must respond to the confirmation withing two days or your account will be cancelled. Once your blog is confirmed, you can access it, create the blog title, and begin to add content.

6) Create a title for your blog. After confirming your account by email, log back in to WordPress, then click on **My Dashboard** at the top of the screen. Scroll down and click on the **Settings** heading on the left side of the page. Click on **General**, then enter the title of your blog. Under the title, you can add a tagline.

7) Add a blog post. Click on **New Post**.

8) First you'll need to create a title for your post.

9) Add the content of your post in the space provided.

10) Notice that you can save this post as a draft or you can publish it immediately.

11) Assign tags and a category for your post. Assigning tags and putting your posts in categories will help you and others with navigating the content of your site as it grows.

12) In the **Categories** section, click on **+ Add New Category**. Give it a name.

13) To add a tag to your post, click on **Add**. Type in the tag that best describes the content of your post.

14) When you're ready to publish your post, click on **Publish**. Note that you can make your posting private if you wish.

15) To publish, click on **Update Post**.


 * Activity 5:**

1) Go to Twitter at http://www.twitter.com and sign up for an account.

2) Go to **Settings** and protect your updates if you wish. If you don;t protect your updates, anyone in the world can read what you write or "follow you" without getting your permission.

3) Finding people and organizations that you want to "follow" is realatively easy. Simply click on **Find People** and search for the name.

4) To create your own updates, you must first decide what you want to write. Let's say you found an interesting article that you want to share. One limiting factor of Twitter is your posting must be 140 characters or fewer. When your update contains a long URL, you could conceivably use up to half of your post with the URL. There are services that take URLs, shorten them, and give you a new, unique URL to use instead. One such service is TinyURL at http://www.tinyurl.com.

5) After you copy the URL that TinyURL created, simply paste it into the form in Twitter. Simply click on **update** and you've made your first "Tweet".


 * Homework:**

1. Go to Wikimatrix.org, use the Choice Wizard to locate wiki software with the following attributes: page history availability, WYSISYG (what you see is what you get) functionality, professional support availability, and English language. The wiki should be hosted by someone else. How many wikis meet these requirements?

2. Sign up for a Google account and create a small Web site using Google Sites. Invite a classmate to co-edit the site with you.

3. Sign up for an account with Zoho Writer. Create a new document and share it with a colleague.

4. Search for a recent article about the open access movement. Sign up for Twitter and post a tweet about the article, and include a link to the article's URL. If your tweet goes over 140 characters, use TinyURL.com to make the URL shorter.

5. Search Omgili for a forum on the topic of post-traumatic stress disorder.

6. Search LibraryThing for the book titled //Kartography// by Kamila Shamsie. How many people with LibraryThing accounts have this book in their personal libraries?

7. Go to OpenDOAR and see if any institutions in your state have a digital repository related to philosophy and religion. If there are none in your state, find another state that has one on this topic.


 * Summary Activity:**


 * Further Resources:**


 * Copyright and Fair Use at http://fairuse.stanford.edu
 * Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Copyright
 * Copyright Website at http://www.benedict.com/digital/Digital.aspx
 * Digital Copyright, by the Center for Democracy and Technology at http://www.cdt.org/copyright


 * Source:**

Hartman, K. and Ackerman, E. (2010). //Searching and researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web//. Sherwood, OR: Franklin, Beedle & Associates.