30-06-2003, 12:44 AM
|
|
|
Looks like we're being listened to
In article ,
says...
The message
from "JennyC" contains these words:
"Janet Baraclough" wrote
Imho trawling usenet archives for unverifiable soundbites hardly
counts as research...or even, professional journalism :~}
Janet.
So what counts as serious research Janet ?
Surely the web is just as reliable or not as other sources ........?
I referred to archives of usenet discussion groups, where misguided
advice or opinion from an inexperienced ignoramus is recorded together
with the careful observations of those who have learned from experience.
A "researcher" with no personal knowledge of a particular field,would
have the greatest difficulty in sorting the wheat from the chaff, and
any conclusions he drew would therefore be suspect.
Going back to the original article though. The vast concensus of this
group over many threads through the last few years is that the software
isn't up to it yet. The article pointed out that some in this group held
that opinion. As far as research goes that is limited, maybe the
journalist looked at the posting profiles and selected posts of those he
chose to quote maybe not.
A couple of years ago I received an email from the FTC (Federal Trade
Comission) and was able to verify that it was indeed from a US
government server and likely to be a US government employee this was due
to them researching posts on browser hijacking and pop=up/unders by a
prolific registrant of tyop domains (such as e.g. gogle.com).
Since I'm a cynic, I did all of the research necessary to confirm the
lady was who she claimed to be (failed to give her my phone number until
I'd ignored the number she gave me and dialled the FTC head office in
Washington to check that this was a DDI number for an employee by that
name.
Although she only quoted the one post I'd made in one group, she had a
full file of all the posts I'd ever made and pointed out that the entire
lot ensured that although my one post (and the written statement I was
to provide) were the only things to be submitted to the courts, that
there was nothing in the file that showed I was anything but a dedicated
and fair minded network professional of impeccable character (ie they
couldn't find anything on me that the defence lawyer would look for to
discredit me).
The article in the Indy failed to give the names of the posters (bad
journalist not giving credit for copyright material), but did reflect
the general opinion of the majority of the group correctly. That the
internet in general is a minefield of opinion I won't argue with, but in
this case, whether by accident or design, the journalist accurately
reported a fragment of information in that fragment of the article.
Recently I've been doing much research into home births and hire of
birthing pools. I've taken all reviews with a healthy dose of scepticism
and the finalists on my shortlist all got phonecalls as well, but I
doubt that if I didn't have such a resource at my fingertips, that we'd
even have considered something so out of the normal scheme of things.
OB Gardening After the healthy dose of rain on Friday night I'd not
watered the hanging baskets or the greenhouse on Saturday.. A brief look
around the garden at 2pm had the hosepipe out to some slightly soory
looking plants
Warwick --
|