Representation and Interpretation from the 'Expository'to the 'Declarative': interpreting the WWW

Starting Point

Citation: Finding the answers to questions asked by research students about citation, which leads to questions of authorship and authenticity.

Designing cultures: who is doing what 'out there' and why?

Accessibility and access: who wants this information? Are their needs met?

Precedents

Evaluation: readerly and writerly texts (Barthes 1974)

• 'readerly' texts - do not encourage the reader to play with meaning
• 'writerly' texts - where the reader is not the passive consumer of meaning but reworks the texts to his or her own end

Hypertext evaluation:

• 'expository' documents - continuous reading (two sides of closely spaced text is the equivalent to approximately eight screens)
• 'declarative' documents - shorts sections to be read in a number of orders

<http://www.man.ac.uk/MVC/SIMA/sbd/about.html>
 

Examples: Are they offering new ways of for 'reading'?

International digital Electronic Access Library
<www_europe_idealibrary_com.html>

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
<http://www.hbuk.co.uk/ap/ijhcs/webusability>

Ben Shneiderman
'Designing information-abundant web sites: issues and recommendations'

<http://www.hbuk.co.uk/ap/ijhcs/webusability/shneiderman/shneiderman.html>
 
A useful overview of Electronic Publication by Willard McCarty:

<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/ohc/overview.html>

Issues

• Suitability
• Freedom or control
• Loss of hierarchies and familiar signposts
• Learning objectives

• Content - Critical Evaluation
• Form - Usability, Design
• Technology
• Impact

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Usability

<http://validator.w3.org/>
 

David Siegel 'Killer Sites' Internet Magazine, March 1997, pp.36-47.
Mentions to avoid at all costs:

Page counters, under construction signs, the dreaded <blink>, law courts, Untitled pages.
 

Stephen Boyd Davis & Mimi Tessier, Authoring and Design for the WWW, SIMA Report Series, no 29, August 1996.

Summary of design issues for web pages.

• Overall structure of linked pages
• forms of information provision
• language style and voice
• information structure within pages
• visual style
• opportunities for interaction and other feedback

Glyn Moody 'VRML's Fall from Grace' Computer Weekly, 3 September 1998, p.41.
Mentions that VRML has passed out of fashion and will be replaced by XML
 

Can this site serve multiple audiences or is it highly specialised?

Does the site encourage active interest of the subject area?

Is this the best or one of the best sites that you know in this subject area?
 
 

Critical Evaluation

'This set of pages keeps track of online resources relevant for evaluation, development and administration of high quality
factual/scholarly networked information systems.'

Information Quality WWW Virtual Library

<http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-InfoQuality.html>

Readerly/Expository through to Writerly/Declarative

Esther Grassian, UCLA College Library

Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources

Critical Evaluation Information: Guide for Educators Pages
 
<http://www.capecod.net/schrockguide/eval.htm>

Evaluating Web Resources

Module Seven presents a strategy for teaching critical evaluation skills for World Wide Web Resources.

<http://www.science.widener.edu/~withers/wbstrbib.htm>

Memorial University, Canada

Faculty of Education, Education 6662

<http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/Curriculum/Validate/validate.html>

Gene L Wilkinson, Kevin M Oliver, Lisa T Bennett

125 indicators of resource quality. The 125 indicators were categorized under eleven major criteria.

Information Quality:

• Good organisational scheme?
• Curency of information?
• Errors or omissions?

• Good organisational scheme?
• Design detracts form content?
• Are readability and legibility guidelines followed?

<http://itech1.coe.uga.edu/Faculty/gwilkinson/AACE97.html>

ADAM

<http://adam.ac.uk>
 

Metadata - The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (15 elements)

title, creator, subject, description, publisher, contributor, date, type, format, identifier, source, language, relation, coverage, rights
 
Appreciation

• Simple and pleasing design
• Obvious and logical navigation
• A clear, not-too-technical, description of the project
• Pointers to related resources and services
• Pointers/reference to the project personnel and any other project partners
• Clear contact details

Provide for parents, teachers and students access to content-rich sites.Selected using the National Merit Review process developed by NEH.

• Intellectual Quality
• Web Site Design
• Web Site Impact

< http://edsitement.neh.gov/ > [link updated February 2013] and

<http://www.onlineclasses.org/2013/01/07/humanities-in-the-classroom-the-greatest-neh-sponsored-apps-2012/ > [link updated February 2013].

Evaluation of Internet Resource Lists

• Level of Resource Description
• Level of Resource Evaluation
• Guide Design
• Guide Organisational Schemes
• Guide Meta-Information

<http://www.clearinghouse.net/ratings.html>

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Observations

• Taking advantage of contributions from institutions internationally, not just locally
• Up to date contributions, including on-going research
• The medium allows and encourages different approaches and voices
• How to 'write' with Netscape Communicator?