CPSC 547 Project #1
Internet as a Research Tool
(5%) Due Jan 29


In CPSC 547 you will have the oportunity to explore in detail a topic and discuss it in a lecture format with the entire class. This assignment is intended to serve the dual purpose of aiding your research efforts for the class presentation as well as introducing you to the various areas of the Internet that can help in this and other research and explorative endeavors.

Several reference documents exist which can aid you in navigating the Internet and this document is not intended to replace or supercede these excellent reference works.

It is hoped that as you attempt this assignment, you will consult these and other documents. You should use as many tools as possible including electronic mail, news, list servers, Internet Relay Chat, MUDs, ftp, archie, gophers, the World-Wide Web, and any others that you deem appropriate.

You can use Netscape or Mosaic browsers for searching out and downloading documents from the Internet. These allow you to FTP documents, browse FTP sites, and generally interact with the Internet in an extremely user-friendly manner. Finding the FTP and WWW sites is usually the trickiest part. You should use the various search tools to aid you.

Your task for project 1 is to utilize the WWW and the Internet to research your class discussion topic. You are free to research a different topic, but since you have been given a topic to present in class, you can use this project to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. You should keep a log (or diary) of the the methods used and the sites visited in your search, as well as a list of all of the files and useful pieces of information found. You are encouraged to use as many of the tools available on the net as you can. The research methods used as well as the sites visited should be written up in a 5-7 page report. The report should also comment on the Internet and WWW as a research tool - strengths, weaknesses.

One report is to be submitted for each group. Note however that since you will be submitting a group report (instead of individual reports), I expect that the quality of the reports will be higher. It is also assumed that everyone in the group has used all the tools that are described.

Since we are attempting to go paperless in this course, the reports should be written in html format. You can email me the URL, and I'll link it to the projects page.