CPL 2.0 Week 6

RSS feeds: I was successful in setting one up.

I can see how this would be very handy for people doing ongoing research into a particular topic or needing prompt updates about a particular news story. On the other hand, I'm more of a browser when it comes to online news, and I do research on a case-by-case basis, so I'm not sure how much I will use this. It's also a case of information overload sometimes... I only have so much time to spend online, and I'm not sure how much I'd like to add to that.

CPL 2.0 Week 5

Google News - this product searches for news-story results for a keyword search.

Pros: * very fast
* better than a general search: since it is searching published news stories, this provides better information faster than doing a general Google search on many topics; you eliminate results that aren't already published information
* there is an archive--you can input search terms/places and then limit by timeline; this may be useful for finding "big" local news stories years after the fact when exact dates/details are fuzzy
* provides multiple perspectives quickly on various current news stories without needing access to a subscribed database
* no subscription needed to get a quick overview of published news stories about a topic

Cons: * many, if not most, of the archival results I turned up were "Pay-per-view" access, although the abstract could be viewed for free
* the results lists do not provide enough information to assess the relevance of each result, in contrast to a ProQuest or Ebsco search

Verdict: a good tool to use in lieu of general Google searching if you want to be a bit pickier about the source of information found (i.e. published articles) although not as well organized as subscribed databases. I like that you can use simple keyword searching as a "one-stop" first step to see what published articles are available on a topic, even if you will have to turn to an E-Library database to see full text on some of the older articles.

I would use this again and recommend it to others.

CPL 2.0 Week 4

Facebook... For me, it's still a time-waster. I keep in touch with my friends the "old-fashioned" way: phonecalls, letters, and email! Today I spent 1 hour so far on creating the account and editing privacy settings... Maybe it will grow on me.

CPL 2.0 Week 3

Wikipedia: After looking at about 6 articles, I haven't found any mistakes yet to edit... still looking. Now my count is up to 11 or 12 articles; I finally found a mistake to edit. All I did was add a space after a comma, so I guess that counts as a typo I fixed. I can see how the ease with which people can edit could lead to constant problems in articles on controversial subjects, and I have in the past seen disclaimers and warnings about articles in which the facts were possibly wrong or had been disputed.

From the articles I looked at, it seems there are not many obvious mistakes. With the editing open to anyone, perhaps factual errors and obvious spelling or grammar errors are corrected quickly.