Reliable Websites

Many websites are unreliable as a resource and offer false or irrelevant information and therefore are not suitable for use in secondary research. To make sure that websites are reliable and relevant in terms of being solid fact and being fresh, new information to relate to your research;

Who? - finding out who is responsible for the source is a way of understanding how reliable the information is. Blogs and websites such as Wikipedia offer some useful information yet, in terms of blogs, they can be very opinionated and in many cases, inaccurate. Making sure that the source comes from a reliable source is essential.

What? - finding out what the website is actually telling you. Many websites don't actually give a large amount of factual information, and rely heavily on inaccurate information and biased points of view from random blogs. Reading over the information carefully and relating in directly to your research will help ensure you only use reliable information.


Why? - finding out why the specific information is relevant to your research. Many sites offer varied facts that are sometimes to general for a channelled area of research. Finding an expert website which features your research topic heavily would be beneficial to keep your research fresh and relevant.

Where? - finding out where the sources were taken from is very important as it makes your research reliable. By finding out where information is taken from you can decide whether the information is relevant to your research.

Research log   Date	Activities	Sources found	How found?
24.9.10	Assignment was set. Topic decided on and discussed. List of sub-questions created. Initial web searches- secondary research – Wikipedia…etc Also began searching for good sources.	http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/library/iconverse1.pdf -Reliability - Tim Rochford Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder iConverse Inc. March 2001 Future - http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Mobile_Phone_Technology_-_Future_Development (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_and_society)	Googled the topic – lots of sources found. Checked Wikipedia and followed links at bottom of page.
29.9.10	Began Planning Gathering Research	-          Teenagers and mobile technology – relationship, effects http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/7612663/Teenagers-prefer-texting-to-talking.html  -Reliability – Telegraph website- Article - Published: 8:30AM BST 21 Apr 2010 -          Social effects of mobile technology (http://www.itu.int/telecom-wt99/press_service/information_for_the_press/press_kit/backgrounders/backgrounders/social_impact_mobile.html) -          Disadvantages of mobile technology -          Parents view on mobile technology amongst teens -          Who is using it? – Demographic/ psychographic impacts -          Distraction or motivation? (http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTg5NTY) (http://www.passioncomputing.com.au/Articles/The-Social-Impact-of-Technology.aspx) (http://family.wikinut.com/Teenagers-and-Mobile-Phones/1bpn15k./)	Googled the topic – lots of sources found. Checked Wikipedia and followed links at bottom of page.
01.10.10	Gathered more sources	http://www.academy.rpi.edu/1.overview/index.html -Reliability –     Academy of Electronic Media – New York http://www.filmobile.net/ http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/09/10/237643/Technology-addiction-disrupts-teenagers39-learning.htm	Googled the topic – lots of sources found. Checked Wikipedia and followed links at bottom of page.
03.10.10	Gathered more sources – used book sources	(http://mishy79.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/social-implications-of-mobile-technology-in-developing-worlds/) Reliability – I would usually label this as a bad source because it is a blog entry and blogs are commonly biased and opinionated – however, this blog has referenced several internet, book and article sources which I myself have also researched and found useful. New Media - A Critical Introduction – Second Edition Martin Lister, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings, Iain Grant and Kieran Kelly Published in 2009 Pages 252 – 254 Case Study 4.1 : The Mobile Phone: Gadgets and play http://www.bristol.ac.uk/aquatest/about-device/ Relates to future development and future uses of mobile technology - Updated 20 July 2010 by Aquatest | Feedback University of Bristol, Water and Health Research Centre http://www.vitalwaveconsulting.com/pdf/10FactsMobile.pdf Reliability  - 10 Facts about Mobile Markets in Developing Countries 4 Copyright 2008 http://www.unfoundation.org/our-solutions/mobile-technology/ Reliability -  2010 UN Foundation	Googled the topic – lots of sources found. Checked Wikipedia and followed links at bottom of page.
05.10.10	Gathered some bad/unreliable sources	( http://www.funsms.net/sms_facts.htm) -Reliability - Copyright © 2010 funSMS.NET All rights reserved. (http://www.brighthub.com/computing/windows-platform/articles/15230.aspx) -Reliability -  Blog - Article by Baby Rani  Edited & published by Rebecca Scudder on Dec 31, 2008 The impact of mobile technology in developing nations http://www.open2.net/blogs/scitechnature/index.php/2010/02/08/ict-for-development?blog=7 Reliability - Posted on 08/02/10 by David Chapman	I found this source through Yahoo search engine.