|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
You Are Here: Home - Newsletters - "Organized For A Living" - Article
Let's talk about what the Internet is not. It isn't a single ENTITY, for example. There's no central mainframe computer named the Internet. The World Wide Web has no physical location. No government, corporation, university or person "owns" or "runs" the Internet. It is largely unregulated, unorganized, uncontrolled -- and EVER-CHANGING.
PROS AND CONS
The Internet is UNIVERSAL -- anybody anywhere with a computer and a modem (or high-speed line, cable or wireless link) can access the World Wide Web. But, most of all, the Internet is an unimaginably vast and virtually unedited repository of knowledge networked in all sorts of idiosyncratic ways. There's no INDEX or table of contents. In ancient times, the sages sought to collect all of the world's wisdom in the library at Alexandria. They did -- and then the library burned to the ground. The Internet is the modern version of that quest, except that, unlike books, the web cannot be destroyed by fire or other disaster. It's everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and continuously expanding.
BEFORE WE BEGIN…
Recently I enrolled in a beginning web design class in the Computer and Information Science Department at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis. Before classes started, I thought I was pretty savvy about the Internet. After all, I'd been using a personal computer for more than a decade, and much of my research these days is done on the web. Was I in for a surprise! I'll share what I learned so you can make better use of this information resource that's just a mouse click away. If you don't understand one of the terms, check the GLOSSARY at the end of the column.
DON'T TRUST EVERYONE
Remember as you surf the web, RELIABILITY is not a given. Internet newbies often fall into the trap of assuming that something's true because it's on the web. Of course not! Anybody and her younger brother can put together a web page and post it on the net. Remember that the stuff is not screened by anybody, and doesn't have to have its facts checked. Just like that high school history teacher kept saying way back when: check your SOURCES. If the Civil War battle statistics are on the Pennsylvania State University website, they're more reliable than the first-person narrative typed up by a doting great-grandson. With that caveat, let's start!
GETTING ON THE NET
How do you access the web? You have to have a BROWSER. Fortunately, that's not a problem because (thanks to Bill Gates) if you have Windows, you also have Internet Explorer. Some people prefer Netscape Navigator -- or something else. Whatever! All that pesky programming to interface with protocols has been done by the geeks so you have an easy gateway to the Internet. Now that you've logged on with your Internet Service Provider and fired up your browser -- what next? There are two basic ways to search for information: PORTALS and SEARCH engines.
YOUR DOORWAY TO INFORMATION
Portals are ENTRY sites categorized by TOPICS, with branches usually chosen and organized by an actual human. Each topic breaks into subtopics, and each of those breaks down again, with everything arranged in a hierarchy "tree". Goto.com and Yahoo! are examples of portals.
LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE WALKING
If you're new to the Internet, they're a great way to become familiar with what's out there -- somebody else has done some EDITING and ARRANGING of the information. At a portal, you start with a major topic in a directory (for example, Science) and move down menus of subtopics and sub subtopics until you find what you want.
FOCUSING YOUR SEARCH
The second category is the search engine. Examples are AltaVista, Excite, Google and Lycos. Each is different, and each looks through a different subset of web pages. If you are looking for something specific (say, a picture of the flag of Ghana), a search engine is faster than a portal. With a search engine, you type KEYWORDS in the box and hit "go". The site looks for pages meeting your criteria, and RANKS the results by its own special formula. Some sites use Boolean operators. Those are terms that let you hone in on your target: "and" narrows a search, "or" broadens it and "not" excludes something. They confuse the heck out of me, so I like to use Google, which just assumes I mean "and" when I use more than one keyword in a search.
A GOOD PLACE TO START
Practice makes perfect when you're trolling the net for INFORMATION -- so get on line and hone your skills. Here are some portals and search engines to try:
SOME TERMS TO KNOW
Here’s a handy glossary of web search terms that you might run across in your wanderings on the net:
A FEW HANDY COMMANDS
These are actual buttons on your browser that you will use as you surf the web:
Susan McKee, M.A., M.S., is an independent writer living in the American heartland. She may be contacted at or visit her website at SusanMcKee.com. Would you like to reprint this article in your publication -- or distribute it to a wider audience? Click here for reprinting instructions. Want to receive these kind of articles via e-mail each month? Sign up for a free newsletter subscription. Click here to return to "Organized For A Living" -- January 2003... Add this page to your Bookmarks!
If you notice any problems with this site, please contact our webmaster. To see what people are saying about www.OnlineOrganizing.com, check out our visitor comments. Click here to view our privacy policy.
|
|
www.OnlineOrganizing.com is a service mark of Bradford, LLC.
