Supervised Group Projects During this lab session students will spend their time working on their final projects. Also, resource lists are provided for students to explore issues concerning online copyright and fair use, web design and access to web tools. Specifically, this week students are encouraged to: Log-on to the Social Science Mac Lab Computers At your leasure, learn about Online Copyright & Fair Use At your leasure, access resources on Web Design At your leasure, try-out some online Web Tools Finally, don't forget to Log-out! Online Copyright & Fair Use Nowadays, there's a lot more information available on the Internet than ever before -- some of it "good" and some of it "not so good." How do you navigate through this vast sea of data, or determine if the information you do find is relevant or even accurate? The key is to search efficiently and remain a savvy, critical consumer of information! In a word, THINK! Whereas the above admonition works well for consumers of information, what should be said for providers of information? Of critical importance in this instance are issues of privacy, fairness and accuracy -- especially since the reach and harm are far greater via the Web than compared with other, more traditional, means of information desemination. Obviously, many of the legal and ethical dilemmas that are emerging due to online content creation and desemination are new and unique to networked multimedia. Still, the foundations of ethical reasoning developed for other media can be applied to Website creation. Netscape and Internet Explorer make it very easy to copy Webpage content and graphics [not to mention JavaScript source code!]. This makes it very tempting to do so whenever we find "groovy" stuff elsewhere on the Web. However, if you copy a Webpage or a graphic file and claim it as your own, or post it in your Website -- even if for educational &/or non-profit purposes -- you could be in violation of the "Fair Use Guidelines" under the U.S. Copyright Act. It is much better to provide a link to such a site or ask permission [& give credit!] for use of a graphic image and save yourself a lot of trouble. In general, it's much safer to provide links &/or to ask permission to use another's work than risk violating the intellectual property rights of others. On the other hand, if you create a resource Webpage consisting of a large compilation of links to many different [but somehow related -- one would hope!] Websites, the individual links are not considered copyrighted even though the whole page would be. What you have created is a directory. Thus, it's "OK" to copy a link, but not the whole resource page. However, even linking can be litigious! [Especially of you mess up in coding your target frames!] Again, it is generally considered a good idea to ask permission FIRST before linking to another Website -- besides, it's the courteous thing to do! Below are a few online resources exploring some of the legal and ethical issues surrounding online content provision. Cyberspace Law for non-lawyers [a complete course in easy terms] Libel and defamation [definitions for non-lawyers] Cyberspace Law Center The Copyright Website U.S. Copyright Office FAQ Copyright Basics Intellectual Property in the Information Age Georgia Harper's Copyright Crash Course [office of the General Counsel, University of Texas System] Stanford University's Copyright & Fair Use Website The Ethics Web: Ethics on the Net[a very good resource page!] Paul Lester's Ethics on the WWW [University of California, Fullerton] Web Design According to Mario Garcia, a highly respected media design consultant, "You have 20 seconds to make an impression with your Web site. That's all the time you will get before visitors to your site deside to stay or leave" [cited in Carole Rich (1999), Creating Online Media, McGraw-Hill, pg. 230]. The design elements of your Website should immediately inform the visitor whether the site is "news," "entertainment," "educational" or whether the site is "fun for children," or has an "adult" orientation. Therefore, every design decision you make should be a conscious one, from the colors you choose to the images and typefaces employed. Keep in mind that almost all of the principles of good multimedia design discussed thus far in class will most likely out-last whatever the current "fads" and "styles" are that presently exist on the Web. To help you keep focused on "good design," below is a short list of online resources that you can visit along with the other topic specific sites previously mentioned in earlier exercises. Hotwired Webmonkey HTML Teaching Tool HTML Primer Bare Bones Guide to HTML Beginner's Guide to HTML The Web Developer's Virtual Library Elements of Web Design and Secrets of Web masters Yahoo's "Computers and Internet" Graphics list-o-links Barry's Clip Art Server Randy D. Ralph's Icon Bazaar Cut-N-Paste JavaScript Features hundreds of free JavaScripts! Web pages that Suck Learn good design by looking at bad design Sucky to Savvy Make your Web Site more pleasant for your visitors Web Tools Although many online multimedia producers say that coding skills in HTML are not really necessary given the sophistication of today's Web editors, I still believe that some knowledge of HTML is important. After all, if you are going to be involved in Website design and construction, it helps a lot if you understand how HTML works. Learn the fundamentals, then use a Web editor. If you cultivate an understanding of HTML, you will be able to fix the inevitable "bug" in your Web documents -- even the best Web authoring tools create errors! Likewise, it is a good idea to use the best Web construction "tools" at your disposal -- commercial or shareware. Below are a few links to some valuable tools &/or HTML verifiers that make the task a little easier. COM 337 Web Toolkit [for Macintosh] Graphic Construction Set for Windows [shareware] CNet's Designing Graphic Software Website Garage Get a free analysis of your Web site Doctor HTML Another checkup for your site, links and design   [ Syllabus ][ Lab Assignments ][ Downloadable Resources ][ Back to Home ]   Copyright © 1999-2000   By: M. R. Ogden -- ogden@hawaii.edu   (Rev. 21 June 2000)