Research Journal, Part 9

Research Journal, Part 9: Finding Information on the Open Web

    for any readers other than my CTEC 115 instructor that do not know what the elements of ASPECT are. 

   Finding information on the open web is one of my favorite things to do. I look up some kind of information daily and on some days looking up multiple subjects for both personal and academic purposes. 

half of everything I learned about fixing cars is from the web, the other half I learned from my father. When ever I fix my cars and if there is something I don't know how to do I usually visit the same site now. Before I found that site I did a little research so that I could find the site that gives the best information and suites my needs. Other personal research I frequently use the web for is recipes, building and fixing things around home  and finding new places to take my kids hiking.  I am always looking for new and exciting places to take them hiking.  How do you trust the sites you use for personal and/or academic reasons? Use the ASPECT system to evaluate them. ASPECT is an acronym for Authority, Sources, Purpose, Evenness, Coverage, and Timeliness. This system is especially important to keep in mind when conducting searches for academic research and sources. 

      I recently conducted four searches through the Alta Vista search engine where I could make four separate searches filtering the search by domain. They are .com, .org.,.edu, and .gov.

  .org search:

   while conducting the .org search two sites that show up frequently and near the top of the list searching the keywords artificial intelligence and robotics are Wikipedia and spectrum.ieee.org. They are not one's I looked at for this search since I have seen them before. The one site I looked into was Swissnex.

swissnexsanfrancisco.org  

 swissnex is a group of scientists from switzerland and the United states dedicated to Science, education, art, and innovation. They have some interesting links to artificial intelligence. To evaluate they have an "about us"

link and a contacts link. There they have pics of some of the members with info about them. What there education, experience, background and other credentials are as well as a mission statement link stating their purpose. This covers both the Authority and the purpose elements of ASPECT. 

.edu search:

   While conducting the .edu search on artificial intelligence and robotics I found the Stanford school of Engineering site.  http://see.stanford.edu/see/courseinfo.aspx?coll=86cc8662-f6e4-43c3-a1be-b30d1d179743. This site is one for the introduction to robotics course at Stanford. The main page states its purpose with "The purpose of this course is to introduce you to basics of modeling, design, planning, and control of robot systems". The main page also shows a pic and info of the professor with background information on experience and education. Again this info covers both Authority and Purpose. 

.com search:

  my .com search brought me to the robotics technology center - robotics for developers site. 

This site seems to be aimed at educating and informing with news on the subject. It is also used as a discussion forum. Although it is a very large and interesting site I would not use it for academic research in sources. It would be a good place to start research though to find subtopics and possibly other sources. The main page has news articles on the subjects of artificial intelligence and robotics and the author of them is John. ????? John What?

Thats the author just John with no contact information, sources or no about us page with members showing any credentials on the subject. In using ASPECT there are no sources and no authority here. 

.gov search: (the easiest)

 My .gov search brought me to nasa.gov. Who hasn't heard of NASA? I think that when conducting searches .gov sites are usually a safe bet for information especially since there are more strict web standards today that companies must follow when launching web sites. The authority element is in the domain itself  .gov (which is the domain for government organizations.)  

Research Journal, Part 8

 Research Journal, Part 8: Types of Information: Focus on Search Engines and Web Sites


Search tool : Alta Vista
 I have heard of Alta Vista before and I know it is very popular that is why I chose to use this search tool for this project. Alta Vista has many advanced searching features. It allows Boolean searching, and sorting by keywords or date. Other search options available are site/domain searching, file format searching and a search filter which allows you the options to include or filter out adult content search results. With Alta Vista you can also search for a web site by country origin or by language. You can select one or more languages or use the search with all languages option. This would come in particularly useful to people here that speak a different language or research with a class in a foreign language. I played around with this search tool using different keywords from my previous subject of artificial intelligence. A search using artificial intelligence and projects to search for past, current, and future projects retrieved 33,100,000 results. 


Meta Search Tool: Monster Crawler 
    I have never heard of monster crawler before this project. The main page has categorized subject links with links to images, video, weather, stocks, maps and more. Monster does not support as many advance features as Alta vista however, it does support Boolean,truncating, and  keyword searching. You can also search by language here also and use the option to include or exclude domain searching. Using the keywords artificial intelligence and ethic* gave 11,700,000 results.

Subject Directories: Digital Librarian
    The Digital librarian subject directory main page has categorized subjects. It seems to support Boolean searching but I did not find any other advanced search features. Digital librarian did accept using the ~ tilde before words when searching also.  Using the same keywords artificial intelligence and ethic* gave 332 search results.

Research Journal, Part 7: Finding Articles in Periodical Indexes

Research Journal, Part 7: Finding Articles in Periodical Indexes

question research with ProQuest data base:
What ethics are involved in using artificial intelligence?

 My first search was conducted by using my original keywords Artificial intelligence and ethics which gave me 4530 results. My second was by using AI instead. keywords AI and ethics gave me15,116 results.
 using my instructors suggested keywords and tips: Artificial intelligence and ethic* gave me  6,800 results.

I found three articles which look good for research on the subject.
scholarly journal: Vickery, Bob. "Social Implications of Artificial Intelligence." Search 28.10 (1997): 316-. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 25 July 2012.


newspaper article: 
REVIEWED BY, HOWARD,RHEINGOLD. "The Confused State of Artificial Intelligence." 
San Francisco Chronicle (pre-1997 Fulltext): 8. Western Newsstand. Nov 23 1986. Web. 25 July 2012 .

 magazine article:

Caton, Hiram. "The Future of Humanity." Issues 2009: 4-7. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 25 July 2012 .

 Although this whole article is not just about artificial intelligence I chose it because the end of the article raises some other questions that I had not thought of for the topic. The article describes IBM's deep blue self thinking computer and its abilities. The article also gives another suggested piece of reading material in an essay for further research. 

research journal, part 6: Database feature and searching techniques

 Research journal, part 6: Database Feature and Searching Techniques

   1) How much more can a college graduate expect to earn over someone with a high school diploma?

      search: "college graduate" and "high school diploma" and earnings

  2) What breeds of dogs make good therapy pets?

   search: breeds and dogs and "therapy pets"

  3) Debate the pros and cons of fish farming

      search: pros and cons and "fish farming"

  4) Is a vegetarian diet healthier than a meat-based diet?

     search:  "vegetarian diet" and "meat-based diet" and health*

  5) What are the similarities between the great depression of the 1930's and the current economic problems?

     search: "Great Depression" and "current economic problems" and similar*

my research question on my topic

What ethics are involved in using artificial intelligence?

 search: "artificial intelligence and ethics 

research journal 5 summary

 Research journal 5 summary: using IT pro, Google books, Summit catalog, Clark College Canell library catalog. 
The IT pro, Google books, summit catalog, and the Clark Canell library catalog are all pretty similar to use when conducting searches. The search tips given in our tutorials work on all databases the same way. You can achieve different results by adding "and" in your search with other keywords. The main difference in using these tools is the screens and how the information is presented. I think that out of the four the Google books gives the most aesthetically pleasing screen to use. If the interfaces of the tools changes I think that it would be easy to adjust having previously used them. The tutorial give a good start in using these tools but there is no substitute for practice. I think the more you use certain search tools and databases the better you will get at conducting searches on them and finding more relevant information to your subject.

IT pro search

for research in artificial intelligence I conducted a search on IT pro using keywords "artificial intelligence and neural networks"
title: Artificial Intelligence in the 21st century: A living introduction
author: Stephen Lucci and Danny Kopec
published: Mercury learning 2012
print
there is no doubt that this is a credible source. The authors Stephen Lucci and Danny Kopec are professors at the Brooklyn College (the City University of New York)
This book is used in college courses in the subject of Ai.
There are useful chapters titled: Expert systems, neural networks, advanced computer games, Uncertainty in AI, automated planning and logic in artificial intelligence.

Google books

 The book I found with a search in Google books using the keywords "artificial intelligence and neural networks" is....
title: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
author: Wolfgang Ertel
editor: Ian Mackie
published: Springer-Vertag, London 2011
Print
this looks to be a credible source as the author Wolfgang Ertel is a professor of the Universtiy of Applied Sciences of Weingarten Germany and there are member of the advisory board for this book from the university of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and Cornell University.

Summit Catalog

a book I found using the summit catalog is one titled "Artificial intelligence"
using the keywords "artificial intelligence and neural networks" in the search
author: National research council (U.S.) Transportation research board
call number: TE7. H5 no 1399
this book can give some insight as to how transportation is making use of neural networks.

Cannell Library Catalog

 One book that looks interesting for my topic of Artificial Intelligence in the Clark Cannell Library catalog is a book titled Apocalyptic AI: visions of heaven in robotics,artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.
I found this book using the keywords : Artificial intelligence

author: Roboert M. Geraci
published by: Oxford University press, 2010
Publish date: April, 29, 2010
call number: 201.6006
 with the book being written by ph.D Robert M Gerachi  an associate professor of religious studies at Manhattan College and the book being published by the Oxford University press it seems like a credible source.

Research Journal,part 4: Types of information

Research Journal Part 4: Types of Information

1) Is a vegetarian diet healthier that a meat-based diet?
   for this I would use Statistics reference books and online statistical sources from web pages.
   when it comes to health reports there are different studies being conducted constantly so I would research as many of these up to date findings from the above mentioned sources as well as scholarly medical journals. 

2)Target often forces musicians to alter lyrics in order to have their CD's sold in Target stores. Is this censorship?  - I believe that is censorship. In order to research that subject I would look into the world wide web for sites on the subject as well as books for historical finding on what censorship is and what is considered censorship.


3) How much more can a college graduate expect to earn over someone with a high school diploma?
    a pretty straight forward question that requires statistics to give solid feedback. I would resort to researching the latest information given as these statistics have changed over time. I would first look into web sites to get started in looking for other sources such as scholarly academic journals online as well as reference books. I have seen magazines with these studies also so I definitely would not overlook those. 

4) Should educators use commercial services to combat plagiarism?
   Use world wide web, broadcast media, news clips and editorials through the web and newspapers.

5) Is the current lack of sunspot activity affecting global warming?
    This one would probably require the most research as there are scientist and climatologists out there printing or stating different views on such a subject. Look into official web sites with government and scientific organizations and books and journals from scholarly/academic publishers. 

             How I would research Journal 3 questions

1. How does AI make our life easier?

2. What ethics are involved in using AI?

3. What does the future hold in using AI?

1) How does AI artificial intelligence make our life easier?

  this is an exciting subject that is being used for many new technological innovations being created today. 

  answering this question would be best research by the latest articles on the subject in periodical magazines such as time or popular science. 

 2) What ethics are involved in using AI?

    find contemporary views with online organization web sites, blogs, and interviews with online news clips on the subject. 

 3) What does the future hold in using AI?

    This would be another question best answered through recent periodicals such as time or popular science. I would also use web sites to find links to credible sources or organizations that have the credentials to answer such a question. 

Journal 3 Exploring topics summary

 This project was very time consuming yet very worth while to me. In the past when I research or start a report my biggest road block was in researching the topic more specifically just coming up with a topic or subtopic to start with. This exercise has introduced me to some new tools such as the GVRL in our library database and has showed me how to use Wikipedia in ways that I have not done before such as how to view the source page and edit. I have always been told that Wikipedia is not a very good source. That depends on how you use it though. I have found that Wikipedia is not a credible source to cite on your final sources but I found that it is actually quite effective when looking for other keywords or subtopics.  It can be easy to get sidetracked when conducting research online. There are many links and paths you can take that can easily get you sidetracked or distract you especially when it is an interesting topic and you enjoy researching online. This project has given me tips on how to reduce my research time and use that time more effectively.
 three search questions to focus, or narrow the topic of AI
1. How does AI make our life easier?
2. What ethics are involved in using AI?
3. What does the future hold in using AI?

Using Wikipedia

Using the subtopic that I found on the GVRL I entered AI (artificial intelligence) for a subject in Wikipedia.org. The information on Wikipedia given was similar to the article that I read in the GVRL and I was able to come up with many keywords for subtopics even faster on Wikipedia. I know that Wikipedia is not a very reliable/credible source to cite in research but I have found that using it to search for keywords and other subtopics it can be quit effective especially since the keywords that I found there have direct links to them. Some interesting keywords here I came up with are: Robotics, Navigation, mapping, Cybernetics, hybrid intelligent systems, multi-agent systems, intelligence systems integration, artificial neural networks, control theory, robot rights, video games, entertainment, learning, neural networks. On the AI page of Wikipedia I was interested to go to the robotics link which was very interesting also. The robotics source page was very long. It has been edited many times from many different authors some having author names that have been logged in and some having only the IP addresses for authors who were not logged in. I was curious to view this page since our library tutorials covered this.

Learning to Use the Gale Virtual Reference Library

                                Learning to Use The Gale Virtual Reference Library

With our recent assignment in my CTEC 115 class (Internet Research & Living Online) I have learned to make use of the Gale Virtual Reference Library within our Clark College Library database. While using the GVRL I choose the topic of the internet as the main subject. While browsing for encyclopedia and articles I came up with many keywords for subtopics: Digital revolution, careers, security, education, sports, movies, computer viruses/infection, computer ethics, cyberspace, cyberculture, communication, and AI (artificial intelligence). One article I found that was interesting was in the encyclopedia of Science ,Technology and Ethics. The article was titled "Artificial Intelligence" by author Ed. Carl Mitcham. Vol 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. P.110-113. The article talks about the uses of AI and history of AI which is a much older concept than I originally thought. I used this subtopic of AI to conduct a search on Wikipedia which I will discuss on my next post.

 Here is a copy of the plagiarism assignment with my comments, answers and examples of how I would fix them. 

Read over each of the following passages, and respond on your own or as a class as to whether or not it uses citations accurately. If it doesn't, what would you do to improve the passage so it's properly cited?

1. Last summer, my family and I traveled to Chicago, which was quite different from the rural area I grew up in. We saw the dinosaur Sue at the Field Museum, and ate pizza at Gino's East. There is nothing to cite here as the author is only speaking of personal experiences with no quoting, or use of any statistical data.

2. Americans want to create a more perfect union; they also want to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for everybody. Nothing needed here either as many American people may desire many of the same things listed here this could be considered common knowledge.

3. I find it ridiculous that 57% of high school students think their teachers assign too much homework. The statistic given of 57% of high school students needs to be cited. The author would have to indicate where this statistic came from.

At the end of the sentence given with the statistic a correct example using MLA style if this were a newspaper article would be to cite like this --  Reed,John. “High School Students and Homework” USA Today 2 Dec. 2010: A1. Print.

Numbers 4, 5, and 6 all refer to the following passage from Martin Luther King's "Letter from the Birmingham Jail":

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.

4. Martin Luther King was certain that nobody would want to be contented with a surfacy type of social analysis that concerns itself only with effects and doesn't deal with root causes. This would be considered paraphrasing and needs to be cited. The message is pretty much the same but the words have been changed.

5. Martin Luther King wrote that the city of Birmingham's "white power structure" left African-Americans there "no alternative" but to demonstrate ("Letter from the Birmingham Jail" para. 5). The source seems to be cited but does not seem to be in the correct format according to APA, MLA, Chicago manual of style, the ACS or the CSE. The Author needs to cite a letter according to where the edited copy was obtained from.

An MLA example would be King, Martin Luther. “My Dear Fellow Clergymen.” 16 APR. 1963. Letter From the Birmingham Jail. Ed. Ali B. Ali-Dinar, ph.D. African Studies Center-University of Pennsylvania

6. In "Letter from the Birmingham Jail," King writes to fellow clergy saying that although they "deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham, your statement fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations." Quotations not correctly used and is not properly cited. An example using MLA would be the same as number 5. King, Martin Luther. “My Dear Fellow Clergymen.” 16 APR. 1963. Letter From the Birmingham Jail. Ed. Ali B. Ali-Dinar, ph.D. African Studies Center-University of Pennsylvania

7. My friend Kara told me that she loves living so close to the ocean.

  There is nothing to cite here as the author is speaking of a friends ideas.

8. Americans are guaranteed the right to freely gather for peaceful meetings.

 This could be a tricky one as this information given can be cited as information taken from the first amendment of the constitution; however it could also be considered common knowledge and then would therefore not have to be cited. 
 When writing papers and using information from various sources you need to know when to acknowledge certain sources and there are sources that do not need to be acknowledged. sources that do not need to be acknowledged are your own ideas, discoveries, opinions and views, and facts that are common knowledge. Things that do need to be acknowledged are Quoting someone or another authors writings word for word "quoting", paraphrasing or an authors arguable assertions. Other information that must be acknowledged are Statistics, charts, tables and graphs and you must acknowledge graphics, photos and other visual material. This is done by following citation standards according to the styles of MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style, the ACS style guide, and the CSE from the Council of Science Editors. One good rule to follow when writing is to follow the citation COP. The citation cop is Collect,Organize, and Puncuation. This is an easy way to remember the three things you need to know in order to cite properly. 

 using the digital capabilities of blogging will be much easier than communicating through paper. It will be faster and more efficient to edit. this will allow me to add things such as updated pics much faster. coming up with the address while setting my blog was harder than I thought. I know there are millions of blogs out there so a lot of addresses are being used. It took me more than 30 minutes just to find one that was available.

first blog post

This is my first post on my first blog. I had a little trouble setting it up. I'm up and running now and kind of excited to start blogging. I am still learning how to navigate through this and how to use the tool bar.