Information Literacy UNL 205x

There was a fascinating article that appeared last fall in the New York Times that discusses Google's ability to track the outbreak of flu based on where people are who are searching on terms such as "flu symptoms." This data anticipates that provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by a week to ten days, because of the collection method. The article also discusses other trend-spotting that is possible using Google, Yahoo, and several websites, based on collective intelligence and patterns of behavior by the general public.

Google Flu Trends is a part of Google.org. To comment on this blog posting, please read the article, and then explore Google Flu Trends, other parts of Google.org, or one of the other sites mentioned in the New York Times article and report what you find. You may also address whether you think this innovative use of collective intelligence is beneficial or not (explain why!).

Posted by Trudi Jacobson at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Should the US military control what soldiers are posting on the Web? According to an article by James Dao in the New York Times (Sept 9), there is some debate about this. On the one hand, "at the highest echelons of the Pentagon, civilian officials and four-star generals are newly hailing the power of social networking to make members of the American military more empathetic, entice recruits and shape public opinion on the war." On the other hand, because some of the troops who blog, use Twitter, etc. do not agree with the Pentagon's stand, there are some efforts to police what is being written.

If you would like to respond to this item, read the full article, and then post your opinion. Is it possible for the military to stop this flow of information? Should they try? What might the consequences be of the stand that you favor?

Posted by Trudi Jacobson at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

One of the components of UUNL 205x is posting a response to at least one Information Literacy in the News item and one poll. Here is the first of several IL in the News items for you to select from. Should you wish to respond to more than one news item and poll, that is super! The first poll will appear soon.

This article appeared in September in the New York Times. China has been in the news a good deal recently in connection to their policies surrounding the Internet, which differ greatly from what you find here in the US. Please read the article and respond to this post with your thoughts about requiring an individual's real name. Is this appropriate, so that people are willing to take ownership of their comments, or will it actually hamper free speech? Think about some of the comments you might find posted on news sites you read. Are people thoughtful and civil in their comments? Would using their real names affect this? If you select this item to respond to, and if you aren't the first to comment, read through your fellow students' comments and respond as appropriate to one or more of them if it relates to your argument.

Posted by Trudi Jacobson at 01:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)