assignment eight

An Internet user has near instant access to vast amounts of information that would have taken much more time and effort to retrieve before the World Wide Web was introduced in 1992.

“I love Google” said Catherine Kessler,a 55 year old nutritionist living in Oakland CA. As a nutritionist it is part of Catherine's job to constantly investigate new medical research. She appreciates the way information seems to flow from Google, letting her read up on one topic and then quickly link it to a related topic.

“Wikipedia is good for the easy, breezy quick overview of a topic.” Kessler said. The online encyclopedia's database is made entirely of contributions from its users and only references other online content. Wikipedia is the 7th most popular website in the world.

Compare to the worlds most popular pre-internet encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia Britannica, which contains 65,000 articles and is the 3,053th most popular website in the world.

“My parents are really big on books and magazines. They used to have an Encyclopedia Britannica at home,” said Ronald Adan, a 38 year old student at San Jose State University. “If I wanted to look for something I would ask mom or dad or look in the encyclopedia.”

There are some questions that are not so easy to just Google. For instance, if you wanted to find out if civilian salary is greater than salary in the army after all the benefits added up, it would take some research.

Actually, a quick Google search does turn up some results on websites devoted to plagiarizing students essays, but to get a factual answer, one would need to look at current, up to date information, or ask someone who knows.

On the Internet, there are many ways to ask real people questions about any topic. The website allexperts.com claims to connect Internet users to 'experts' with an “...above-average knowledge of the subject...”

When asked about civilian and army salary, the 'experts' on allexperts.com gave an in depth answer about different pay scales in the army complete with links to pay scale charts updated in January 2009. While the information was useful it was not straightforward and did not answer the basic question: will a civilian or a person enlisted in the army make more money.

There are many alternatives to allexperts.com. A Google search for “army forums” returns many websites dedicated to the discussion of army and millitary related topics between enlisted people and civilian Internet users. The millitary.com discussion boards and the official army.com forums were two of many such sites.

When the question was posted on these use forums, there were more responses in less time but with much less information.

Michael Young, the 56 year old Director of Information Systems for the Center for Social Services Research at U.C. Berkeley said, thirty years ago, that question would have taken allot more effort and time to answer than today.

“I Think I would have been more self reliant then than today.” Said Young. “Before there was a website, there were publications by the Department of Labor Statistics.” Young said he would have done the research himself instead of asking some one else.

Kessler says that if she were to research the same question 30 years ago should would start at a library but eventually turn to real people for information.

“I would go and ask around. I would ask an army recruiter and then ask blue collar workers.” Kessler said. “I used to think of the phone book as a really good source of information.”

The Internet has consolidated the information contained in the phone book, encyclopedias, libraries and even communities of people into one resource. The big difference between researching a topic thirty years ago and today is how easily and immediately questions can be answered.