Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 13, No. 407.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
[1] From: Einat Amitay <einat@ics.mq.edu.au> (19)
Subject: Search results -- online experiment
[2] From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk> (33)
Subject: portraits of the Web
[3] From: "Norman D. Hinton" <hinton@springnet1.com> (28)
Subject: Re: Chaucer and Valentine's Day
[4] From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni- (103)
dortmund.de>
Subject: Lectures ON The Internet and Its Impacts on Society
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 19:37:48 +0000
From: Einat Amitay <einat@ics.mq.edu.au>
Subject: Search results -- online experiment
Hi,
I would like to invite you to participate in an experiment I am
conducting as part of my PhD research on users' interaction with search
results. The experiment is conducted online and should take less then 10
minutes to complete. After analysing the data, I will make the results
available through my web page.
In order to participate, your browser should allow JavaScript to run
(JavaScript enabled in your browser options). It is best to view the
pages with commercial browsers like Netscape or IE (other browsers may
lose or distort some of the information).
The URL for the experiment is:
http://www.ics.mq.edu.au/~einat/experiment3/
Thanks for agreeing to participate!
+:o)
einat
-- Einat Amitay einat@ics.mq.edu.au http://www.ics.mq.edu.au/~einat--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 19:38:24 +0000 From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk> Subject: portraits of the Web
I suspect that many of us have favourite examples of how useful the Web can in fact be. I offer the following in order to provoke others.
A while ago I was in conversation with a learned and interesting professor of philosophy, who it seems had to give a public lecture on any topic that would entertainingly illustrate the widespread influence of ancient Greek culture on subsequent arts and letters. His idea was to talk about the story of King Candaules, his bodyguard Gyges and Candaules' wife. The story occurs in two major versions, one told by Plato, in the Republic, the other by Herodotus. (Those of you who know the story will grasp the appeal of both versions immediately; if you don't know it, go to e.g. www.google.com and search first for "candaules" and then for "gyges", and enjoy.)
The philosopher wondered out loud to me if perhaps the Web might turn up an example or two of how the story had been used, but he doubted the value of making an effort. This stirred my curiosity, I used google.com as recommended and lo! what a wealth of examples tumbled out -- Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, Vargas Llosa's In Praise of Older Women and Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head among them. He knew some of them already, being widely read, but many were new to him.
I do wonder if the value of the results, even for such a limited query (less than 1,000 hits total), would be obvious to the sceptical user? How many of our colleagues are apt to understand the necessity and usefulness of sampling? How tolerant are they to the irrelevant bits? Could they see the individual trees for the forest?
Ah but then just a few moments ago I went looking via google.com for a precise definition of "adumbrate", being temporarily parted from my e-OED. And what did I first get but a page asking me if I knew my "sex IQ"?
Yours, WM
----- Dr Willard McCarty / Centre for Computing in the Humanities / King's College London / Strand / London WC2R 2LS U.K. / voice: +44 (0)171 848-2784 / fax: +44 (0)171 848-2980 / ilex.cc.kcl.ac.uk/wlm/ maui gratia
--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 19:40:52 +0000 From: "Norman D. Hinton" <hinton@springnet1.com> Subject: Re: Chaucer and Valentine's Day
I noted yesterday that I was unable to connect to the In Parentheses site, which I had bookmarked as
www.inPar.dhs.org/inPar.html
Today I went to "www.dhs.org" and used its search function for "In Parentheses:: Papers in Medieval Studies". The dhs search engine reported no such folder anywhere at the dhs.org site.
This may suggest a problem in on-line publishing: sites can go away without notice. I wonder what rights Jean and others have to the articles they published there? I'd like to see them re-printed someplace, or somehow made available. (Being made available on-line doesn't sound very helpful in light of what happened.)
I have been very much in favor of on-line publishing and am on the Editorial Board of _Heroic Age_ about to have its 2nd issue. We feel fairly secure and the publisher has promised to keep it available on her site. This still raises questions as to what happens to the material in the long run Not exactly the same as having the volumes securely bound in a University library.
I noticed the other day that the British Library is about to start an on-line journal of Celtic studies, but I see no promise rom the BL that archives will be kept....
Note: I am going to forward this to Humanist and to the Heroic Age editors.
Jean Jost wrote:
> You might look at "Chaucer's *Parlement of Foules* as a Subversive > Valentine Fable: The Poetics of Feminine Desire" published on the web in > *In Parentheses: Papers in Medieval Studies 1 (1999), 52-81. I am sorry I > do not know the web address. > > Jean Jost.
--[4]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 19:41:55 +0000 From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni-dortmund.de> Subject: Lectures ON The Internet and Its Impacts on Society
Greetings Scholars,
The lectures were to promote interest and discussion about the Internet and its impact on society..
This free lecture series was designed to create an interdisciplinary community at the University of Maryland-College Park focussed on the Internet and its impacts on society on the following themes. I have tried to write a short abstract of each lectures with useful pointers, that might be interesting to you!
I) Universal Usability: A Research Agenda for Every Citizen Interfaces Ben Shneiderman, UMCP Dept of Computer Science Discussant: Robert Kolker, Dept of English Short Abstract: Even if information technology becomes low in cost or free, designers will still have to deal with the difficult question: How can web-based information and communications services to made usable for the citizen? His talk presented some agendas based on universal usability a) Technology variety, b) User diversity and c) Gaps in user Knowledge
Ben Schneidermann is the author of the book, "Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction". The home page of Ben Schneidermann is at <http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/ben/index.html>
II) Online Courses As Effective Learning Environments: The Importance of Collaborative Methods Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff, New Jersey Institute of Technology Discussant: Maryam Alavi, Robert H. Smith School of Business Discussant: Margaret Chambers, UM-University College Also sponsored by the Center for Engineered Learning Systems, Institute for Systems Research Short Abstract: Are there any differences in outcomes between traditional classroom-based university courses and courses delivered online? The presentation was a briefly review the attacks of critics on the 'Virtual University' and then describe the NJIT Virtual Classroom(tm) projects. Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff, both jointly authored the classic book "In the Network Nation: Human Communication via Computer"(1978, republished 1998)
The home page and publications of Murray Turoff is at <http://eies.njit.edu/~12932/mthome.html> and at <http://eies.njit.edu/~turoff>
The home page and publications of Starr Roxanne Hiltz is at <http://eies.njit.edu/~hiltz>
III) The Internet and Civil Society Peter Levine and Robert Wachbroit, School of Public Affairs Discussant: Harry Hochheiser, Dept of Computer Science Short Abstract: Although they disagree what defines "Civil Society" and what purposes it ought to serve, almost all theorists and activists believe that will be changed profoundly by the Internet. But it remains unclear whether the change will be good or ill, because the key definition and values are contested. Besides, much of the relevent empirical information about current Internet use is ambiguous or incomplete. Peter Levine and Robert Wachbroit have discussed concepts of civil society and the existing data.
IV) Evaluating a Consumer Health Website's Interface: Heuristic Evaluation and Usability Testing Keith Cogdill, College of Library and Information Services Discussant: James Reggia, Department of Computer Science Short Abstract: In this lecture, Developed and maintained at the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINEplus <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus> provide users with access to sources of authorative health information on the Web.
V) Online Communities: Sociability and Usability Jennifer Preece, UMBC - Dept of Information Systems Short Abstract: In this lecture, they tried to answer the question on Develop a software with good usability! They also think that, half the answer lies in -if community starts life with suitable social policies. Jennifer Preece is the lead author of the book, "Human-Computer Interaction" and her latest book is "Thriving Online Communities: Usability and Sociability", to be published ny John Wiley & Sons. His site is at <http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/~preece/>
VI) World-Wide Web Surveys: A Tower of Babble? John Robinson, UMCP Dept of Sociology Short Abstract: Several different survey organizations are attempting to track the evolution of the Internet in terms of access and usage. In his lecture, he tried to answer some questions like, Do survey organizations reach different conclusions about the inequality of usage of and benefits from the usage of this new "democratizing" medium of the information superhighway?
VII) Patterns of Internet Diffusion in Developing Countries Ernest J. Wilson III, UMCP Director, Center for International Development and Conflict Management The home page and publications of Dr. Ernest J. Wilson III is at <http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/wilson/>
VIII) The Internet, Electronic Media, Trust, and Civil Society Eric Uslaner, Dept of Government and Politics November 30, 1999 Tuesday 3:00* Reckord Armory Rm.0117 The Home page of and publications Eric M. Uslaner is at <http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/uslaner/>
The home page of "Human-Computer Interaction Lab" is at <http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil>
The list of publication of books by "Human-Computer Interaction" Lab is available at <http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/pubs/books>
Reference:-
"Internet and its Impacts on Society" <http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/f99-lectures.html>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sincerely Arun Kumar Tripathi
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