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CONTRIBUTIONS OF WEB 2.0 TOOLS TO INFORMATION DISSEMINATION ______________________________________ BY BRAINSTOMERS (GROUP C; WEB 2.0 FOR ZARIA, 16-20TH MAY, 2011): Stanley N., Awotunde O., Agatha A., Usman A., and Abdullahi A. Y.
INTRODUCTION
Many national and international research organizations, such as NAERLS, FOA, WHO and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), today are committed to prompt dissemination and democratization of information to an ever increasing national and global audience. These laudable objectives are concertedly achieved using the malleable WEB 2.0 tools on the world wide web. Web 2.0 is a term that refers to the second generation of advanced web tools including social networking sites, Wiki’s, Blogs, RSS feed, Google Alerts, Multilingual online search machine, Google blogs, Google docs, Facebook.etc.
Web 2.0 tools have so globalized knowledge today that the world has shrank to the so called global village, allowing us to communicate in real time in splits of a second. Web 2.0 has created a forum for sophisticated social interaction and collaboration online, and a complex Internet culture is emerging in which many adults, including college students participate. They communicate with many people in their lives via the Internet and they often use the Internet at work and at school. Some researchers have argued that new communications technologies help to facilitate communication and allow people to reach other people quickly and in multiple ways. However, it is an open question whether connections carried out through digital media including email, text messaging, instant messaging, and social networking sites are as intimate and satisfying as face-to-face interactions. It is important to note that these changes are not occurring in a linear way nor are they affecting all groups or institutions in the same ways. The question of the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on sociability, for example, needs to ask what kinds of sociability are being transformed in what ways for which groups of people. The changes are so immense and complex that simple answers are unlikely to do much for our understanding.
Web 2.0 tools have so globalized knowledge today that the world has shrank to the so called global village, allowing us to communicate in real time in splits of a second. Web 2.0 has created a forum for sophisticated social interaction and collaboration online, and a complex Internet culture is emerging in which many adults, including college students participate. They communicate with many people in their lives via the Internet and they often use the Internet at work and at school. Some researchers have argued that new communications technologies help to facilitate communication and allow people to reach other people quickly and in multiple ways. However, it is an open question whether connections carried out through digital media including email, text messaging, instant messaging, and social networking sites are as intimate and satisfying as face-to-face interactions. It is important to note that these changes are not occurring in a linear way nor are they affecting all groups or institutions in the same ways. The question of the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on sociability, for example, needs to ask what kinds of sociability are being transformed in what ways for which groups of people. The changes are so immense and complex that simple answers are unlikely to do much for our understanding.
This paper addresses the effect Web 2.0 tools in information communication in Agricultural Extension and whether the impact is positive or negative, or perhaps a combination of both.
RSS FEED
RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed's URI or by clicking a feed icon in a web browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds. RSS allows users to avoid manually inspecting all of the websites they are interested in, and instead subscribe to websites such that all new content is pushed onto their browsers when it becomes available.
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved from as early as March 1999, it was between 2005 and 2006 when RSS gained widespread use.
Google doc
Google Docs is a free, Web 2.0-based tool that enables individuals and remote collaborators to use word-processor (online equivalent of Microsoft Word), spreadsheet, presentation, form, and store information online.
Google docs allows users online to upload standalone document folders, and files on terrestrial computers to web based virtual storage devices with the google docs. These files and folders can then be viewed, edited on online from anywhere. This saves the google documents against viral attacks, and theft etc as commonly encountered with terrestrial computers.
BLOGS
Blog" is an abbreviated version of "weblog," which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog features diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites, usually presented as a list of entries in reverse chronological order. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.
A blog is basically a type of website, like a forum or a social bookmarking site. As such it is defined by the technical aspects and features around it, and not by the content published inside it.
The features that make blogs different from other websites are:
content is published in a chronological fashion, content is updated regularly, readers have the possibility to leave comments, other blog authors can interact via trackbacks and pingbacks, content is syndicated via RSS feeds.
It Keeps Students up to date, extend Course beyond class blending, make Course more inter Limitations
It can sometimes be difficult to find a blog that best fits your current need. For example, doing an internet search for a blog on a specific topic could bring up hundreds of sites.
Another limitation with blogs is the content. A blog is intended to be a forum for expressing yourself to the world. A blog is intended to be a forum for expressing yourself to the world. Unfortunately, too many people tend to use it as a chat room between friends.
In addition, there are often too many blogs out there that have just not been updated. It seems that people start them up but do not take the time to post after a while. It would be helpful if blog owners realized that people often want the information they can provide and would like to form a readership relationship with the writer. However, this means the writer has to hold up his end of the bargain and furnish valuable, educational content for the blog.
Another common problem with blogs is the commenting feature. It is virtually useless in many cases. A large number of blog owners have a place for comments available, but many do not bother to respond to the comments placed. It is difficult to create a readership if you leave them feeling insignificant or ignored.
Google alerts
Google alerts are automated email messages sent from Google to anyone who has registered for it, for a particular term or subject, informing them of a new Google result on that term or subject.
For example – If you register at Google alerts requesting them to send you email messages about “PhD Scholarship for Africa”, every time Google finds a page on the internet about “PhD Scholarship for Africa”, Google sends you an email with the website address and the information. Now, these are likely to be new web pages appearing on the web, like a news alert or a new story, whatever it is, whenever there is a mention of the keyword you suggested, you get an email. The beauty about this service is that there are a lot of customizations possible like sending you an alert as and when it happens or sending you an alert on a daily basis or weekly basis
Starting to set up a Google alert is very easy.
Step 1
Go to the Google Alerts homepage here (www.google.com/alerts) and type in your search term in the box in the right hand side that says “Create a Google Alert”
Step 2
After entering the search term, select the “Type of alert” form the second option.
There are six types of alerts
- A 'News' alert is an email aggregate of the latest news articles that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google News search.
- A 'Web' alert is an email aggregate of the latest web pages that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top twenty results of your Google Web search.
- A 'Blogs' alert is an email aggregate of the latest blog posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Blog search.
- A 'Comprehensive' alert is an aggregate of the latest results from multiple sources (News, Web and Blogs) into a single email to provide maximum coverage on the topic of your choice.
- A 'Video' alert is an email aggregate of the latest videos that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Video search.
- A 'Groups' alert is an email aggregate of new posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top fifty results of your Google Groups search.
Step 3
Now, select when and how frequently you want Google to check for results on the selected keyword and email them to you. There are three options available.
- Once a day – In this option, Google checks for news results on the selected keywords at a specific time of the day, and email them to you once a day.
- As it happens - As obvious, Google will check and email the results as and when they are spotted. This could result in more frequent alert emails sent to your inbox depending on how popular the keyword is. For example, if the keyword you selected is “Obama”, you are likely to get lot of alert emails everyday as many websites are writing about it.
- Once a week – If you set this option, no matter the results appear daily or not, you will get email updates delivered once every week.
Managing your alerts
Once an alert is set up, you will be taken to the “Alerts Manage” page where you can see your existing alert and manage them by editing/adding or even deleting them.
In the screenshot, you’ll see a sample alerts management page. To the left, listed are the terms for which the alert is setup, to the right the type of alert and how often they are set.
Clicking on the “edit” button to the right will give you the option to
· Edit the alert keyword
· Change the alert type
· Change how often you receive alerts
· General uses of Google alerts
Conclusions
Google alerts can be used for tracking news stories, see how popular a particular term is, finding movie reviews, track software release updates, tracking news announcements on a particular topic, or just about anything.
Advanced Multilingual Online Search
One of the web 2.0 tools for development is advanced multilingual online search. this tool enable search for content in different language and be served in your preferred language. it also provide with better search option, as content could be search for and the result restricted to preferred file type. there is better result for search made as the advanced option limit result strictly to selected words within the time-frame selected.
Principle
Advanced multilingual online search can be made on google search engine. in order to make use of this tool, user have to log unto google web page. the advanced search option should be chosen to enable better results. the option enable user to restrict result to the exact content within a time frame. the translator option on the left side enable search be made in any language and result displayed in preferred language.
Uses
1. This tool is good for researchers
2. The tool encourages learning from other culture and society
3. With this tool, better result are made for online searches
4. Information is not restricted to only primary language only.
Limitation
1. sometimes during translation, the exact meaning of some words could be lost
2.Graphic and video cannot be translated, which can be a form of limiation in the information available
3.books or large document cannot be translated inputed from external source cannot be translated.
Methodology
A questionnaire was designed and distributed to 22 persons via online.
Ten (10) respondents answered and submitted their questionnaires online too using Google doc.
The answers were analyzed using the Google doc and the result is presented in percentages, bar chart and pie chart.
RESULT
Gender | |||||||||
| |||||||||
How old are you? | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Are you a farmer | |||||||||
| |||||||||
What is your farm size | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Are you IT compliant | |||||||||
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. | |||||||||
Which of the IT facility do you use | |||||||||||||
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. | |||||||||||||
How much information do you access online | |||||||||||||||||
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. | |||||||||||||||||
Do you use web 2.0 tools | |||||||||
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. | |||||||||
What web 2.0 tool do you use | |||||||||||||||||||||
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. | |||||||||||||||||||||
How have you benefited from the web 2.0 tools | |||||||||||||||||
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. | |||||||||||||||||
Do you have any constraints using the web 2.0 tools? | |||||||||
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. | |||||||||
If yes what are the constraints | |||||||||||||||||
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. | |||||||||||||||||
DISCUSSION
From the above it can be observed that most of the respondents use the web 2.0 tools and the benefit they derive from it is very much irrespective of the problems encountered especially due to inadequate access to the internet.
Recommendation
As just a practical to the web 2.0 workshop, this serves as a stepping stone to the use of the web 2.0 tools in the in research in agricultural field
References
http://www.wikipedia.com
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