Module 4 - Evaluating The WWW

Olin & Uris Library,
Cornell University, New York, USA
Retrieved January, 21^st, 2006 from http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webeval.html

This link will take you to a very informative website at the Cornell University Library in U.S.A. The website contains a comprehensive guide for evaluating Websites and the information there in, explaining to the reader the necessary criteria and tools to perform such an evaluation. Intermittently throughout the web page there are links that direct you to additional information and explanation. I feel that a beginner would find this site a little hard to understand, the site seems confusing in its layout, with the reader having to click/search for to much of the additional information away from the initial web page, which I think would be frustrating for the novice user. A person with intermediate to advanced skill though would find the website quite useful for there studies with what seems an abundance of information on the topic.

Module 4 - Searching the Web

Ron Miller, Internet Scouring Techniques That Go Beyond the Basics
September 2000 • Vol.6 Issue 9
Page(s) 36-43 in print issue
Retrieved January, 20th, 2007 from http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/archive/l0609/06l09/06l09.asp

This website has an excellent article by Ron Miller of Smart Computing magazine on advanced Internet search techniques. It explains in detail the inner workings of how the World Wide Web works and then proceeds to tell the reader just how to go about exploring the www in the most efficient manner. Throughout the article there are links for people who want to explore or experiment with the explanation/ instruction in the article. The article covers, with in text advice from various Internet professionals, many aspects of advanced searching techniques from different search engine types, Internet math (Boolean Logic), Nested Boolean query, and Truncation, just to name a few. I found this article well written and easy to understand, and have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone who is serious about advancing their Internet skills. A must read !

Module 3 - Blogs

WordPress (nd)
Retrieved January, 5th, 2007 from
http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging

This above link will take to a very good webpage from Word Press. WordPress started in 2003 and since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tools in the world, used on hundreds of thousands of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day. WordPress is an Open Source project, which means there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it. This also means you are free to use it for anything without paying a license fee. The site begins with a good explanation of what blogs actually are, to a comprehensive guide to blog terminology, layout, add-ons etc… which is easily accessed from the table of content menu down the right hand side of the page where you can jump to a particular section of the page. There are also links to other aspects of webpage/blog design.

The website is well set out with all of the jargon explained so that even a beginner would have no problems understanding the content. I found this site interesting and of considerable help with my studies and have no hesitation in recommending this site to anyone interested in blogging, be that the novice to professional. And the best thing about this page is that it’s FREE!!!!

Module 3 - HTML

Sizzling HTML Jalfrezi (nd)
Retrieved January, 9th, 2007 from
http://vzone.virgin.net/sizzling.jalfrezi/iniframe.htm

The above link will direct you to a comprehensive guide to writing web pages. The website is well designed and is said to be for the beginner (?) or professional designer alike. The author, Richard Rutter has been writing web pages since 1994 and is a member of the HTML Writers' Guild. The website is unique in that it has a system of examples that makes both a perfect learning tool as well as a web authoring reference guide. The website offers an abundance of information which is easily and quickly accessible via numerous menus throughout the site. It also has an A to Z of HTML, authoring Tutorials, design hints, HTML tips n' tricks, and DHTML & JavaScript. If you have a specific query about the site you can contact the author on the link supplied.
Even though the site states it is beginner friendly, I would be reluctant to recommend it to a beginner, as I feel a person with some experience with web design and html tags would find it of more use, having said that, there is a link to a beginners site ( Click onto the Who, Why, What section of the webpage ) that I would recommend the beginner seek out first.

Module 2 - Newsgroups

Internet Guide Co UK (nd)
Retrieved December, 12th, 2006, from
http://www.internet-guide.co.uk/newsgroups.html

This is a quite a good website with the aim to inform the beginner the technicalities of the Internet and the world wide web. The site has a section for the novice to learn all about newsgroups, the site is based in the United Kingdom, but all the content seems to be relevant for anyone in the world who logs onto this site. The website explains exactly what newsgroups are and what they can offer to a user who wishes to explore this type of medium further. There is a side menu with links for most commonly used terms, once the user clicks onto a particular term they will be taken to another window where a full explanation is given. The site also offers some basic tutorials on how to post and read newsgroups, types of newsgroups, newsgroup netiquette, and newsgroup spam. At the bottom of the page is a link to the homepage of Usenet which is the central location for newsgroup information. I feel that a beginner would feel comfortable reading this site, as it is well written site, easily understood with little or no jargon. I would highly recommend this site to anyone starting out on the Internet /Newsgroups as I found it very useful with my own studies.

Module 2 - Email

Kaitlin Sherwood, A Beginner's Guide to Effective Emails. (nd)
retrieved, December, 11th, 2006, from
http://webfoot.com/advice/email.top.html

This link will take you to a website with a good article by Kaitlin Sherwood. Sherwood has written three books on how to Overcome Email Overload with Edorora 5, Outlook 2000, and Outlook 2002. The site is essentially about effective email techniques for the beginner.
This site mainly deals with the guidelines of setting out/formatting emails messages. There is a side menu where you can choose and click to a particular subject in the article, and if you wish you are able contact the author, with any queries you may have, via a email address supplied at the bottom of the page . The site has also been translated into German, Indonesian , and Chinese for those people with English as a second language. I found the content useful as it covers some subjects which are often neglected by other HELP sites. I would recommend this site to a beginner, as I found it interesting, but they must keep in mind that these are the authors ideas only, there may be other users who may disagree with some of the content.

Sofweb (nd)
Retrieved December , 11th, 2006, from
http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/internet/email.htm

This is a Victorian Government website, the website is primarily to teach novice users the Internet. But the section dedicated to email is concise and easily understood, it covers every feature of the email medium, from an explanation of what electronic mail is to the use of emoticons and acronyms, it has all the information for the absolute beginner to intermediate user. There are menu links to much more information about other types of communication media. This site seems to cover it all with the design and layout that is pleasing to the eye and easy to follow, with a well written content. I highly recommend this site to anyone starting out using this type of medium.

Module 2 - Email

WWW.LEARNTHENET.COM
Harness Email,(nd)
retrieved, December, 11th, 2006 from
http://www.learnthenet.com/english/section/email.html

The above link will direct you to an excellent website. Once again the site, as a whole, is primarily a teaching aid for Internet use, but I found that the section about email indispensable for my studies. The website is an absolute must see for the beginner to intermediate user alike, with information on how to do just about anything with emails . You are able to learn every aspect of sending and receiving email messages, from attaching files to email etiquette. There is a side menu where you can select "How To" tutorials for many other aspects of Internet use as well.
The sight is well set out, easily read and not at all confusing for the beginner, a very good starting point for anyone wanting to gain good basic information about this form of media. I would recommend this sight for the beginner to intermidiate user alike.

Module 1 - Internet tools

John December
www.december.com (nd)
retrieved December, 5th, 2006, from
http://www.december.com/net/tools/

This link will take you to a website run/edited by John December. December is an independent web Publisher who has had an interest in the Internet and Web design since it's infancy.
The website is primarily a comprehensive organised set of links to essential Internet sites about Internet based tools for information, interaction, and communication. It is a very useful website in that that has an abundance of various Internet tools, Utilities, Reference Material, Periodicals. I feel that most of the information on this website is purely for the intermediate to advanced Internet user, as a novice user would find it a little intimidating. but say that, the novice user who has a good basic understanding of the Internet, may find this site very interesting and informative. Of course like most websites you are able to email the author with any queries about the site via a contact link at the bottom of the page. I found of particular interest is the Graveyard section which has some now obsolete tools/software.
I would recommend this site for the intermediate/advanced user, and suggest a novice user to bookmark this site, as it may come in useful one day after they have developed some of their Internet based skills.

Module 1 - FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

FTPPlanet.com (nd)
retrieved December, 4th, 2006 from
http://www.ftpplanet.com/ftpresources/basics.htm

This link will take you to a very informative website that has some excellent information, with step by step tutorial guides for the absolute beginner to the advanced user wanting to learn about the best way of transfering files between systems (FTP). You are able to download a basic version of the popular file tranfer protocol software WSFTP by Ipswitch for a trial 30 day period. Tutorials are also avaliable to download which I found to be of great assisstance with my studies.
The website has Help and Discussion area where you can get help with a particular problemor queryyou may have, you can view the past and present forum, or post a question on the daily discussion board which has many subjects to choose from ranging from FTP new user, to advanced techniques for the professional user. As a novice I found this sight to be well designed and easy to use with all the information easily understood. I would highly recommend this website to anyone.

Tim McLellen, The Internet and FTP (1995)
Retrieved December, 4th, 2006 from
http://www.islandnet.com/~tmc/html/articles/ftp.htm

This link will take you to good artical from Tim McLellen on the Internet and FTP (File Transfer Protocol). In the artical you will find a brief history of FTP to explanations of ftp software ways of inplementing it between client and server machines. Included is a table of contents where you can click and go to a particular subject in the article. This artical is easy for the beginner to understand. I found it to be a useful even though some of the information does cross over from other websights/ articals I have read recently.

Module 1 - Telnet

Telnet

University of Indiana (nd)
Retrieved November, 29th, 2006 from
http://kb.iu.edu/data/aayd.html

This URL is from the University of Indiana (U.S.A.), This link will direct you to some excellent information on TELNET, it is well written and easily understood for people who are beginners on the subject. As this link is the Knowledge Base,there are a variety of subjects to choose from.
If you click the MENU tab at the top of the page a list of subjects will appear for you to choose from. (Be aware that some of the information is for students enrolled at that University of Indiana)
These menus organize only a small selection of the Knowledge Base, with links to about 1,400 introductory documents. You can select a topic from the menu to see questions and answers on that topic. To access all information in the Knowledge Base (over 12,500 documents), use the full-text search. There is also a Help tab for the Knowledge Base if you are having trouble. Iwould highly recommend this website to a new user of Telnet.

Rediff.com (nd)
Retrieved November, 29th, 2006 from
http://www.rediff.com/search/2001/sep/06know.htm

Rediff.com is a popular news, information, entertainment and shopping portal. The above link will direct you to more information on Telnet, with links at the bottom of the page to a variety of subjects concerning the Internet. If you still can’t find the answer your looking for you can ask the resident Rediff.com expert “DR Know”.