Google Refuses to Take Down YouTube Videos of Police Brutality

For anyone who is interested in the topic of how Google deals with pressure from outside groups (individuals, companies, governments) to remove content they find troubling (videos on YouTube, posts on Blogger blogs, etc.), you might want to check out this story about the extent to which Google is willing to say no to requests to remove videos of policy brutality from YouTube.

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Google, Privacy, and Your Research Questions

I recognize that the issue of privacy and Google is a fascinating one, but I do hope that those of you who are developing your research question in this topic area will each find a way to distinguish your question from the others working in the same area. In your comments to each other on the blog, it’s clear that you are all aware of the need to focus your topics further, perhaps by settling on one narrow part of Google’s empire (Google Maps, YouTube, Google Apps, Gmail, etc.) I’d be delighted if those of you working on privacy topics would have each found a niche of your own like that.

I do hope as well that you’ll read some of the articles and websites you’re discovering and see that your topics are probably more complicated than you might have first imagined. For anyone working on privacy related topics, there is a LOT to be learned from an amazing series of articles that the Wall Street Journal did in the summer of 2010 titled “What They Know” that delved deep into the ways many websites and many technologies you use everyday are gathering your personal information (who you are, where you went online, and what you did there) and sharing pieces of that with other companies.

The series of articles includes one on Google that sets Google’s own internal discussions about privacy issues against the larger picture of what other companies are doing.

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Make Your Midterm Appointment

Use this calendar service on the web to schedule a time with me. Appointments should be 15 minutes long and take place between 9 am and 5 pm.

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Controlled Vocabulary Homework Due Date Moved to November 7

Originally, the controlled vocabulary homework (as described on the course website) was going to be due on Wednesday, November 2. I’ve pushed it back to Monday, November 7, to give us time to work on the subject of controlled vocabulary in class.

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Annotated Bibliography-Topic Development Homework Is Now Graded

I just finished grading everyone’s homework that asked for you to do the topic development worksheet and do an annotated bibliography of five sources. For those of you who submitted the homework as two separate documents, you’ll find the grade for the assignment on the topic development worksheet.

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What I’m Looking for When I Grade

Following Instructions

This seems obvious, but I am always surprised by how often basic instructions get overlooked. If you have questions about the assignment, contact me in advance of the due date; that way, I can not only answer your question but decide if I need to better explain the assignment to the rest of the class as well. As many of you can probably attest, I do check my email seven days a week and respond throughout much of the day and early evening, even on weekends.

Quality of the Writing

Unless I specifically tell you otherwise, I always expect your writing to be in complete sentences, grammatically correct, and to follow standardized spelling. Lots of typos and mistakes suggest to me an overall slapdash approach to the way the whole assignment was handled.

As a general rule, the more you write, the better your grade will be. The more evidence you can offer to me that you read a source or engaged with an idea, the easier my job is to assess what has been learned.

Citations

As we get deeper into the semester, I will expect your use of MLA style in citations to be more consistent and error free. If you are looking for guides to MLA style citations, a good place to begin is at the Online Writing Lab from Purdue University.

Engagement with the Reading

As we read sources for class discussions and as you start to locate sources for your Google-related topic, I expect to see evidence of that reading in all your work. As the semester goes on, we should all gaining expertise in all matters Google; I’ll be looking for an increasing sophistication in your work as it relates to Google.

Credit Given to the Writing of Others

If you borrow the language or phrasing of a source you read, you must cite that source and put quotation marks around the text you used. This is true even in annotated bibliography entries you write; if your annotation mimics the sentence structure of the source you are citing, you’ll need to go back and completely rewrite that sentence in your own words. If you can’t avoid using specific phrasing, then always use quotation marks to indicate that the language is not your own. If you have any questions about this, please ask for help, as unintentional plagiarism is nearly as serious a problem as intentional plagiarism.

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David Paradis: Research Question

To what extent can google distribute personal information and search quires to companies and marketing agencies, and is google trustworthy of deciding what to do with this information in a responsible manner?

Posted in Homework, Research Questions | 4 Comments

Mike Alberti: Research Question

To what extent should we trust google while using their services.

Posted in Homework, Research Questions | 7 Comments

Chris DiGrazia: Research Question

How does Google’s AdSense service affect business in the United States?

Posted in Homework, Research Questions | 4 Comments

Research Question: Sherif Elzanie

To what extent should Google’s database of books be publicized for Google users?

Posted in Homework, Research Questions | 3 Comments