A1 Brief Guidelines

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Information and Library Science

INLS 80: Data Communication Networks

BRIEF GUIDELINES FOR THE FIRST INTERNET EXPLORATION: ONLINE LITERATURE REPORT AND ANALYSIS

These notes are to supplement in-class discussions about the assigment. Overall goals:

To demonstrate your ability to construct a Web page
To demonstrate your ability to research a topic using multiple sources, including Internet search engines

From the syllabus:
"Beyond the review content, each review should include:

A title; good organization; effective use of English
Identification of the review's intended audience
Identification of the resource's intended audience"

General format
The details of how to author your page are up to you. It does not need to be fancy. Refer to Chapter 11 of the class text, as well as Appendix E, for HTML guidance.

Aim for 3 to 7 paragraphs, or about as much as a 1-2 page paper. This is NOT long. However, it does need to be organized: include a title, some introductory material, and a summary or concluding paragraph which should include 5 interesting facts or highpoints of your work. This will make the web page easier to view for "one time readers".

Include your name and email address (mailto: hyperlink), just like you would on a printed paper.

Resources and topics
Choose a topic of interest to you that relates in some way to the class theme (the Internet and related technologies). If you need some ideas: anything related to Data Communications, Networking, your major and how it relates to the Internet, how search engines work, browser wars, HTML editors, Internet2, different telnet or ftp clients, viruses, hacking, etc.

Research your topic using online resources, with a focus materials created by an "official" source (such as a publisher, media outlet, or company).

There are any number of good places to look. You can also start with something you heard about in the news (newspaper, TV, etc.) then do research on the Web. Well be discussing searching the web for the next several weeks.

Sample sources:

See the INLS80 Resource Links page for a listing of general search engines
Media online include Wired magazine, Ziff-Davis Network News, MS NBC, ABCNEWS.com , and many others (see a listing in Yahoo!'s media category).
Local media online include NANDO, WRAL and others.

Remember
The idea is NOT to prove you can research a topic. It's to prove you can research a topic related to the class, using Web-based resources, then write your own review and summary as an original Web page

Where to put the assignment on ISIS
In your public_html directory create a file name inls80.html. This file will have the links to your assignments.

Example:

http://isis.ils.unc.edu/~hona/inls80/literature.html