Business Consulting

WWW Issues

Ronak S Aswaney
ID:0710229

Canadian University of Dubai

Aug, 9th 2010
Contents
 When would it be appropriate to use web sources?

 When would it be better to use on-line or web data bases?

 Discuss the harm that inadequate or erroneous information

could have for a business.

 Can we insure that accurate, complete, current information

is available and used?

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Web database & Web source?
 According to me, they are relatively the same thing
because they are both found on the WWW. Only
difference could be, the reliablity of each source or
database.

 A Web Source is anything you get off the web. Any data
or information you use from the internet is counted as a
web source.

 An Online Database is a database accessible from a

network, including from the Internet.eg IMDB, Wikipedia

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Talking about reliablity: Web Source
 Web Sources contain a lot of unreliable soures as well as some
authorized sources which is still not entirely reliable because the
original website can be phished or faked.

 Firstly, you should not use the unauthorized websites such as

blogs & temporary websites such as geocities for research or
information for your business or whatever.

 We should always make sure, the information we do take off the

web is from an authorized website, even though there are
chances of those also being inaccurate.
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Evaluating the Website
 There are secure websites using https, such as Anti
Phishing Site Authentication Internet Fraud Protection,
which verifies the website you want to use for information
retrieval & also checks for its verification certificates.
http://www.vengine.com/
 Therefore these secure websites can at least give you a
clear indication if the website is original or phished.

 Even if the website is original, you cannot entirely trust

the information in it.

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Some guidelines to evaluate a
Web Source
 Firstly avoid website with a lot of advertisements or Pop
ups. These kind of websites are usually made for
advertising purposes only. Also these sort of catchy
websites contain a lot of viruses and bugs.
 Also its very important to see how new the information is
and when was it last updated. Make sure the information
you use is relatively new.
 Use only websites that are called by webmasters as
“authority websites”. We need to keep an eye on the
author or the institution.

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Some guidelines to evaluate a
Web Source
 The URL also gives us an indication of the type of website
we get information:

 As mentioned before, do not trust websites that are hosted

for free by free web hosting services like netfirms &
geocities.
 Expect citation & references of data. Also Appearance.

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Talking about reliablity: Online
Database
 A database is a collection of information organized in a standard
format to allow for easy retrieval.
 Databases cover many topics including literature, biography,
health, business, history, and science and technology.
 Databases will help you because they can give you quick access
to authoritative information only if the information is
authoritative when it comes from experts and professionals and
has been reviewed for accuracy.
 But there are also free and open online database such as
Wikipedia where the information cannot be trusted.
 Therefore everything depends on the authorization.
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Examples
 Now I will give you few real life
examples that have affected companies
due to inaccurate data & phished
websites:

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Example 1
 The Most Notorious Fake Twitter Accounts
 Users are impersonating everything and everyone
from BP to Angelina Jolie.
 The snarky, unknown account holder has more than 180,000 followers--almost
10 times the number of BP's actual Twitter PR account, @BP_America. From
@BPGlobalPR: "If we had a dollar for every complaint about this oil spill, it
wouldn't compare to our current fortune. Oil is a lucrative industry!”

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Example 2
 “Yes Men Fix the world”
 The two pose as executives from Exxon,
Dow Chemical, Halliburton and the H.U.D.
They give faux corporate interviews
pretending to be DOW executives in which
they supposedly announce setting up a $12
billion fund for the victims of the 1984
Bhopal disaster that killed 1,773 people.
The BBC fell for this prank and aired the
faux interview. This caused DOW's stock
plummet. Our mindless heroes celebrate
their power, but fail to realize that most of
DOW's stock is held by pension funds; in
other words, regular working class retirees.
The dynamic duo conveniently found a few
such victims who claimed to enjoy the hoax
and its impact on DOW's stock.

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Example 3
 NOT ONLY DISADVANTAGES !
 Fake sex tapes of celebrities.
 Eg. Paris Hilton.
 After the fake sex tape was released long ago there was a
large rise in the Profits of Hilton Hotels.

 …..
 Then that motivated her to make an actual real video ! 
 BOOOST in sales.

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Conclusion
 So basically, we cannot entirely assure the
accuracy and reliability of data on the WWW,
either being a normal source or a database.
 We can always try our best find out if the
information is accurate but there is always an
uncertainty.
 If BBC news can be a victim of such threats, so
can we.

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References
 http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=25075
 http://www.vuw.ac.nz/staff/alastair_smith/evaln/evaln.htm
 http://www.llrx.com/features/evaluating2.htm
 http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2001/E/200
115182.html
 http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/02/bp-angelina-jolie-
technology-twitter.html

 THANK YOU !!

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