I used Duck Duck Go to do my searching because it is a direct competitor to Google. This way our group can see if Duck Duck Go is able to provide useful information for further research.
These were the search terms that I used: "impact of computers on the environment"
One of the best results that I got was from here: http://update.unu.edu/archive/issue31_5.htm. I feel that it is useful because it comes from a university, the United Nations University. It is an older article, and was written in 2004. This could still be useful because they talk a lot about the impact or CRT monitors on the environment. Since then the only monitors on the market are flat panel or LCD. This way we can see if this progress has been beneficial or detrimental to the environment.
- What individual or organization is responsible for the site and what is their purpose or mission?
- The organization is the United Nations University. Their mission is to educate and research. They were mainly funded to educate researchers at the graduate and post graduate level.
- How is the site funded?
- Voluntary contributions
- How current is the information?
- It was written in 2004, see above.
- What useful information about how your technology works is there on the site? Be sure to note any useful images and diagrams that would help explain and translate technical information for an audience of your peers.
- It gives some information on what is inside a computer that makes them environmentally unfriendly. It will offer comparison about progress from 2004 to present.
- Given your answers to the questions above, what kind of information might be missing or unreliable on the site? What other kinds of sites should you search for that might provide the missing information?
- The only thing about this site that could be unreliable is due to its age. I think that the source (UNU) is reliable. To get more current information we could search more recent news sources.
Another useful result I received was: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2660_128/ai_62590576/. This site seems to be a repository for many different magazine and newspaper articles. The particular one that I linked to came from USA Today.
- What individual or organization is responsible for the site and what is their purpose or mission?
- USA Today. It is a well respected newspaper. findarticles.com seems to be a part of bnet.com which is a part of CBS networks.
- How is the site funded?
- USA today is funded through people purchasing the newspaper. findarticles.com seems to be supported via advertisements.
- How current is the information?
- Not very current, it was written in 2000. However, the basic idea and message of the article remains true today.
- What useful information about how your technology works is there on the site? Be sure to note any useful images and diagrams that would help explain and translate technical information for an audience of your peers.
- This article discusses how tech companies could work to reduce their environmental impact by providing recycling options to consumers, etc. As far as I know most computer companies offer some sort of recycling programs to consumers. This article talks about the people who got that movement started.
- Given your answers to the questions above, what kind of information might be missing or unreliable on the site? What other kinds of sites should you search for that might provide the missing information?
- Again, this article is old but it could provide some insight on how the history of technologies impact on the environment has occurred.
Your first article provides great information about the older model computers which gives us an understanding of this issue has been changed or is it still occurring. I also like the fact that it it’s a short article making it very accessible and it can serve as a reference. It seems reliable and a good source for information. However, I must say that your second article is extremely relevant and useful. It provides facts, data, and stats. This one directly relates to my second article which talks about the e-waste and its effects. This article can definitely be useful to our project because it answers a few of the presentations. For example, the impact of PC Hardware in our environment and Toxic materials and since this article was written in 2000 so we can research the progression of the issue ever since. Great articles the only hard part I experience was finding recent information of these issues and we need information that’s fairly new in order to see if e-waste has improved, stayed the same, or got worse.
ReplyDeleteI really like your first article because it provides information on how computer boom effected the environment. I think the information provided in this article is bit old but i guess that will be good because we can do comparison between the measures taken today with the ones taken in your article. I think my second article also have some information which we can add in presentation.
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