On this page are the assignments for Monday of Week Four. 

DEADLINES: You should have your assignments completed by Thursday at 7 p.m.

Specialized Tools -- and Ambush on the Internet

We are now indeed moving beyond Google. You have learned how do proper searches. You have learned how to critique and evaluate information. Now you will learn about other searching tools.

As you increase your understanding of Internet research, you will find that search engines sometimes are too broad and unwieldy for your research needs. You may simply want to check the credentials of a particular expert. You may need a mailing address. You may need a map.

Specialized tools might be better resources. These include people finders, yellow pages, mapping tools and document finders. You probably are familiar with a number of them.

1) I would like you to read another brief presentation I've prepared that gives you information about specialized tools. This presentation was constructed somewhat differently and may not work in browsers besides Explorer.

4-Specialized

If you have trouble with that presentation, try:

4-Specialized05

Please then send me an email that discusses what you learned from the presentation.

2) AMBUSH ON THE INTERNET

For our Discussion Board, I would like us to consider a very difficult issue taken from headlines of the past year. It involves an anti-abortion web site known as the Nuremberg Files. The web site has been embroiled in deep controversy. It shows pictures of aborted fetuses. More controversial: It posts names, home addresses and photographs of doctors who perform abortions. It gives the doctors' work schedules. It provides a checklist of doctors who have been injured or killed by anti-abortion activists.

Doctors and clinics said the site was an incitement and invitation to murder. Events came to a head when a Buffalo, N.Y. doctor was killed by a sniper. Within 15 minutes of the killing, the doctor's murder was checked off on the web site. Doctors and clinics sued the web site.

The case to close down the Nuremberg web site has been on trial for years. Other sites sprang up and now publish photos of women who visit abortion or family planning centers. The Nuremberg files site itself has been closed down by two different Internet providers. It opens and closes under different names. In one of the bizarre happenstances of life online, the URL www.nurembergfiles.com takes you to a pornography site.

The struggle between pro-choice and pro-life forces has been going on for years. What's of primary interest to this class is the influence of the Internet. Such global "publication" would not have been possible before the Internet. Should publication be allowed for such purposes?

3) Your job: Get up-to-date. Do a Google search on the Nuremberg Files. Visit some sites. See what sites have connected themselves to that name and for what reason. Be prepared for some disturbing images and language. I want you to send me an email message that discusses the sites you saw. Talk to me about at least three sites. This is your only outside reading for this day so let yourself wander far and wide on the Internet.

4) Then please go to our online discussion area at http://bb.lehigh.edu and talk about what you found. And let's talk about whether you think the Nuremberg Files should be permitted on the Web. Do the creators of the web site have the right to free expression? When is "hate speech" protected? When does it cross the line?

If you have any questions, just email me at jack.lule@lehigh.edu.

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