Author Archives: Stephen Francoeur

Posts: 41 (archived below)
Comments: 42

Defining Privacy

For those of you whose research topics are connected with the issue of privacy, you will definitely want to read up a bit on differing definitions of privacy. The concept of privacy is one that has been much debated among scholars, in courts, and among legislators, especially as it relates to our lives online. Here are some resources to consult:

  • “Privacy.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 8 Oct. 2011. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. link
  • Gavison, R. “Privacy: Legal Aspects.” International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Ed. Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes. 2nd ed. Vol. 18. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2001. 12067-12070. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. link
  • Gurau, Calin. “Privacy and Online Data Collection.” Encyclopedia of Information Ethics and Security. Ed. Marian Quigley. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2008. 542-548. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. link

You should also take a look at the work on privacy that these two advocacy groups have done:

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Homework Assignment on Background Info Is Graded

I’ve now graded the homework from the October 3 assignment where you were asked to find sources of background information on the subject of peer review. Please check your document in Google Docs to see my comments and your grade.

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Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Thanks to all who actively participated in class (and after class today) during our debate over Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” If you didn’t get a chance to speak up in class today, please do so on the blog this week. Do you you think Carr was convincing? What do you think is the weakest part of his argument? What is the strongest part of his argument?

Here are your awesome concept maps created for the debate today:

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Googlebombing and Senator Rick Santorum

A recent episode of the weekly radio show, “On the Media,” featured a segment looking at the topic of Googlebombing, which can be defined as an effort to juice the Google search ranking system so that particular websites are at the top of the list of search results for certain words or phrases. In this episode, the host of the show interviewed a Google executive to talk about an old Googlebomb for “santorum” that is in the news again now that Senator Santorum is running as a GOP primary candidate for the presidency.

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Weekly Class Schedule

As Prof. Garral and I try to plan actitivies for this learning community, we will need to have a good idea about what hours of the week you’re in class. Please help complete this weekly class schedule grid. Thanks!

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AND vs OR Assignment Is Graded

If you check your Google Docs account, you should see that I’ve graded your homework on AND vs OR and have added a comment with your grade.

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Homework Worksheet for October 3 is Ready

This afternoon, I updated the homework assignment that is due on October 3. You can check it out on the course website.

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A Note about Readings

From this point forward, I will expect to you to print out any required reading and to bring it to class on the day that we will be discussing and using it. It is absolutely essential that you do the reading carefully and completely; if you haven’t read the material for the day, there is little reason to come to class, as you won’t be prepared to participate in a meaningful and constructive way.

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Using Parentheses and AND and OR Correctly

Looking at your homework for today about AND and OR searches with parentheses, I saw a common mistake in the way you failed to use parentheses or misused the search boxes (which work the same way as a set of parentheses).

Say, for example, you want to find articles that talk about novels or fiction that take place in Asia or are about Asia in some way. Using novels, fiction, and Asia as your keywords, there are two ways to enter your searches correctly and more than a few ways to do it wrongly.

Using Parenthesis with AND and OR Searches - Google Docs.png by sfrancoeur on AviaryUsing Parenthesis with AND and OR Searches – Google Docs.png

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Why We Read the Article by Weaver and Bimber

I don’t think I finished explaining why the article by Weaver and Bimber about Google News and LexisNexis connects up with the learning goals for this class:

  • It’s partly about Google. The more you know about Google and its many services the better you’ll be able to design a research question about Google for your final project in this class.
  • The article exposes some of the inner workings of databases (specifically, LexisNexis) and search engines (Google), which will strengthen your overall understanding of the tools you use to find sources.
  • The article is a nice model of a scholarly journal article, a genre of writing that is probably new to most of you but is one that you’ll need to become familiar with as college students working on research assignments throughout your years here at Baruch.
  • The authors offer on page 519 three nicely crafted research questions that model what I expect of you for your final projects.

Weaver, David A., and Bruce Bimber. “Finding News Stories: A Comparison of Searches Using LexisNexis and Google News.” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 85.3 (2008): 515-530. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 Aug. 2011.

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