Com 125 Assignment 8- Web Application Review: RefDesk

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it." - Samuel Johnson


The above passage is the main focus of a web application that I am a supporter of called Refdesk or refdesk.com. The website is devoted to assisting you in finding information that you do not yet know by showing you the places where you can go to find it. Refdesk started in 1995 by Robert Drudge whose mission was to bring order into the chaos of the Internet, with his end goal of achieving simplicity for the user. Drudge says, "Simplicity is the natural result of profound thought.” Profound thought goes into Drudge’s website as, "Refdesk aims to index, review, and publish quality, credible information-based Web sites and to assist readers in navigating and extracting needed data from these sites (Refdesk.com)."


Visually, when you sign on to the site, you may be a little overwhelmed by the various things that Refdesk has to offer. First, there's a daily calendar with links to updated gasoline prices, the value of the dollar, the price of crude oil, and stock prices for the day. Another thing you will find is a section called "search resources" which has all of the major search engines built into it including Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Wikipedia. The page also displays a “site of the day” (today -10/16/2008-the site is World Subway Maps). There are also sections for a “thought of the day” ("Men are more often bribed by their loyalties and ambitions than by money." - Robert H. Jackson), “this day in history” ("Chinese Communist Army Begins the Long March" (1934)), an “article of the day” ("Deja Vu"), “today's birthday” (David Ben-Gurion(1886)), and a “word of the day” (today's word is "dissonance"). Other features of the site that are especially useful for students are updated news headlines from every news source imaginable and periodical and literature searches to find relevant articles. Other of the website’s top features include a business search, a people search, weather, driving directions, a language translator, and a facts search desk. There are numerous other resources you can find on Refdesk, far too many to name, so you should check it out for yourself.


To sum it up in their own words, "Refdesk's database is on three levels: quick, studied and deep. For thumbnail snapshots: Fast Facts, Quick Reference / Research, and Facts Subject Index. For a more studied approach: Newspapers - USA & Worldwide, Search Engine Resources, Internet Help, and Writing Web Documents. For an in-depth exploration: Facts Encyclopedia with over seventy volumes of indexed subjects and Facts Subject Index with twenty-four subject categories (refdesk.com)."


Much like I have been doing in this blog, Refdesk functions through the placement of hyperlinks all over its website. The site is social in nature because it utilizes internet users that surf the web and tell Refdesk the best websites to find various pieces of information. The site then analyzes these websites on the basis of authority of the source, accuracy/comprehensiveness of information, its organization and clarity, and several other criteria listed here. If they fit the criteria, a hyperlink to articles and other things from the site is put on Refdesk.


Refdesk keeps advertisements to a minimum and does not charge to access any of their site's content. Instead, they claim, "the spirit of the original, non-commercial Internet guides Refdesk. This spirit envisions a living encyclopedia of information in the public domain, maintained by people who freely share their knowledge of where to find things on the Internet." RefDesk is a website that stays online simply by donations. Many of its users don't mind paying the site because of all of the services it provides to them free of charge. The site receives approximately $50,000 a year in donations, enough for it to pay for its web hosting services, programming, hardware, software, and bandwidth. That's not a whole lot of money you’re your consider the site averages over one million views a day. Refdesk is in now in trouble because as its traffic grows, so does its publishing costs. The future of the site depends on people's donations.


I think that Refdesk needs to remain online because in an age of increasing commoditization, it stays true to the internet's roots of being a gift economy. Refdesk provides its services for free and in exchange, its users contribute their collective knowledge to keep the site up-to-date to the ever changing internet. I think that it speaks volumes in this day in age to not "sell-out” by running a website that’s not for profit, but for the good of the people.



Source:
Drudge, R. (2008). Retrived October 16, 2008, from Refdesk Web site: http://www.refdesk.com/