Evaluating & Authentication, week 8, 18th September 2007

LECTURE Information quality

• definition multi-dimensional concept (Klein 2007)

quality information is commonly described as information 'fit for use' this implies that the information has:

• relevance depending on its context of use
• accuracy
• authority
• objectivity
• currency
• coverage

there are negatives of the WWW information,

• no enforceable quality control
• non-enforced classification and meta tagging system
• anyone can publish information on the WWW

positives of information on the WWW

• easily exchange information
• usually free
• quality information can be found
• current

WORKSHOP

task

1 BIAS There is a clear motive Website has advertising Website has sponsors Website point of view

CREDIBILITY Author has credentials There are no spelling or grammar errors The website includes references Sponsors (if any) reputable CURRENCY Website has been updated recently All links provided are still active The page is dated AUTHORITY The website has an author The website is signed Contact details are listed COVERAGE Subject is covered in depth Offers information specific to the topic

2

http://www.hippy.com/php/sitetopics.php?topic=1

accuracy: information is recently updated

authorship: written by lots of different poeple

purpose: history

detail and design basic

overall worth basic information but seems to be correct.

http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Scholar.html accuracy: scholars, contact information is listed. authorship: scholars and journal information. purpose: to discuss a number of sources specifically for scholars. detail and design: basic but to the point. overall worth the website provides quite valuable information about the sixties history. journals are provided which shows that the information should be peer reviewed and therefore accurate.