Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Net 11 - Over and out!

Well all the modules are done, all the assignments are submitted, all the work is done..... now it's time to play the wait and see how I have gone game. And it feels great!

I have gained a lot from this unit, a few more technical skills, but even more importantly a more rounded appreciaiton of the Internet and in particular the human side to being online. I already had an appreciation of my own perspective of the Internet and the technology that drives it, however I often overlooked the differences of other end users, as well as the other human aspects of the Internet.

Until next semester when Net 12 starts.... this is over and out.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Future Shock!

I think in the future at some stage the net will be so ingrained in daily life that it is totally taken for granted, in much the same way as electricity is taken for granted at the moment in developed countries. People will eventually have easily portable Internet access that can be utilised at any time. This will lead to a more global education system that is individually tailored to each student, and a classroom for the teacher will be kids from different countries and ages, who all have the prerequisite abilities for the course on offer. Access to various forms of media will be instant and totally personalised. Social networking will be taken further so that all planning for social interaction will take place online, and indeed many social interactions in themselves will also happen online in virtual environments.... this is all obviously a long way off in the future, though some of the technologies to enable this are probably not that far away.

For this fort of environment to occur, there needs to be developments in hardware and software. Hardware needs to become even more portable, this is sort of happening, for example look at mobile/phone/organiser type devises, though in the future this will go even further. Software developments in the form of improved interfacing and multi purpose software will need to occur and also bandwidth and other networking aspects would need to be improves.

Development will be continuous and incremental, rather than overnight dramatic changes - based on historical changes in online environments. As such, keeping up with new developments should not be an issue for anyone that trials and tests out new applications and devices as the become available. However for those that don't try and keep up, the day will happen when they find themselves unable to participate in aspects of society without first facing an extremely steep learning curve!

P2P

I had never considered applicaitons such as SETI at home to be P2P, even though I was already aware of them. I had always previously considered P2P to be just file sharing, but have now widened my view to include any shared use of comuting resources (even prosessing power!).

Further to this reading the Mark Pesce discussion that claims piracy is good, really got me think about where P2P is heading and how it will change and impact a lot of non-computer aspects of society. I just wish I had read this prior to compleating the concepts assignment, as some of this would have been really useful when writing the concepts assignment!! Afterall the model of broadcast media discussed here shows a clear connection between the financial economy and the less quatifiable attention economy.

Reading the article by Henry Jenkins rang very true with me. I also find I'm buying more CD's when I am able to conncect (online or in real life) to others with similar tastes in music and have the opportunity to listen to some of their music. When this doen't happen, I don't tend to buy may CD's, as my taste in music is not usually played on commercial radio. Fortunately I have came across an online station, with an Australian version as well that plays some of what I like, so I'm now purchasing a lot more CD's again!

Overall I am now a lot more appreciateive of the wide varitey of P2P, along with the social and legal effects of file sharing. Mush of this I already had an awareness of, though the above readings along with others I have also viewed have widened my perceptions a lot in regards to P2P.

Information Ecologies

I have just finished reading two articles on Information ecologies, one by Felix Stalder and the other by Rafael Capurro. On finishing reading these I have reflected on some questions we have been asked and concluded:

1. I really don't thing the metaphor of an ecology will impact on the way I use the net. While it has certainly widened the perspecitve with which I can look at the internet, it will not change the way I use the net.

2. You can't have communication without information, just as you can't have new informaiton without communicaiton. Communicaiton is the process of sharing information, while the information is what is shared.... so without information there is nothining to communicate, and withougt communicaiton no new information can be shared.

3. We don't talk of a ‘communication ecology’ because..... we'll really I can't agree with this statement as I have just finished reading the words 'communicaiton ecology' in one of the above articles! So we do talk about an communicaiton ecology! I would say though that we talk about an information ecology more though, as an ecology is the whole system and the relationships withing that system, so information what is related, and communicaiton is how it is related.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Debrief Blog Style

Finally my concepts assignment is submitted and I can breath a big sigh of relief. As I look at my blog I realise I have totally neglected it while working on my concepts assignment.... seemingly sleeping, breathing and eathing concepts for the last 4 weeks to the detriment of everything else!

Given that this is the first major assignment I have done in many years it took a bit to get into the swing of things... only to find myself writing a series of mini-essays. Boy was that hard work, breaking from the essay structure that has become ingrained in my writting over the last two degrees I have completed! But I think I have made it and while it still sounds esayish in places it is a huge improvement on the earlier drafts!

Anyway off to catch up on the discussion board and then reward myself with an early night for the first time this week :)

Conceptual Research and Reflection Project

Concept 1: The Invisibility of Difference
“There are many differences between computers and computer users, but we tend to forget them when, positioned in front of our own computers, we are able to communicate rapidly and – apparently – effectively across time and distance” (Allen, n.d.)

I think there is certainly a lot of difference between online users with a major difference being access to technology. This is backed up by looking at Hargittai and Shafer (2006), who state Internet use has not spread evenly so there is a potential divide that could serve to increase existing gaps between advantageous and disadvantaged positions creating a digital divide. The ‘digital divide’ is where unequal access to the Internet and other technologies is compounding disadvantages for some (McLaren and Zappalà, 2002). How big is this divide though?

In Australian “there has been significant growth in…access to/use of the Internet between 2001 and 2006. In 2001, 35% of Australian dwellings had access to the Internet in the week prior to the Census date. In 2006, 63% of dwellings had access to the Internet” (ABS, 2007). I see this as confirmation that a digital divide exists in Australia.

The digital divide exists for various income, race, gender, age and geography groups (Mossberger, Tolbert & Stansbury, 2003). This divide creates issues in the areas of job seeking, employment opportunities, education, access to services, banking, political participation and social inclusion (McLaren & Zappalà, 2002). This divide can occur both within countries and between countries (Norris, 2001). I agree with this, particularly for education. As a secondary ICT teacher I often witness vast differences in confidence, ability and progress between students with home Internet versus those without.

I know the digital divide is not just an Australian issue. The digital divide is now considered an international issue with high income OCED countries having over three quarters of the world’s Internet users (Sevron, 2002). A bigger issue is some countries don’t even have access to telephone lines (Norris, 2001), and the types of technology available impact on the sort of communication that can take place (Farmer, 2004). Unequal infrastructure investment means that individuals are disadvantaged by lower bandwidth or no possible connection (Sevron, 2002). I see this as a major barrier to creating much needed equality in Internet access.
I consider cultural differences as a major factor in effective online communication. Harasim (1993) confirms the biggest difficulty in communicating online can be the cultural differences. These are differences that are not always apparent when on the Internet.

Another issue is that a lack of literacy acts as a barrier to Internet access as much of the content on the Internet is text based (Gibbs & Krause, 2006; Best, n.d.). From observing my students, I know those with lower literacy levels definitely have greater difficulty accessing technology.

Another area of potential divide is between the genders (Hargittai & Shafer, 2006). Men have been shown to be initially more connected, though this gap has disappeared in more recent years (Herring, 2001; Hargittai & Shafer, 2006). Additionally the way the genders utilise the Internet is different with women focusing more on communication (Hargittai & Shafer, 2006). I disagree with this as I find from teaching people how to use various forms of technology, males on the whole do not show any greater technical competence.

In conclusion there are numerous differences between people online in a range of areas. While individuals can’t see the differences they do exist and still need to be taken into account for effective online communication.

Site 1: The 'Digital Divide' Among Financially Disadvantaged Families in Australia
This site provides evidence for a ‘digital divide’ within one country, demonstrating that there are differences in both abilities and technology available between different internet users. While this is not the sole focus of the above discussion, the discussion on the digital divide sets the scene that there are differences with the network and computer access of various Internet users. This article also considers the difference in user abilities within different socio-economic, gender, age, education level and cultural groupings. The article is placed in a peer reviewed journal and appears to be well researched with most of the research also coming from credible places.

Site 2: Global Networks: Computers and International Communication
This is an e-book dedicated to looking at the various social and cultural aspects of gloablisation on online communication. The book demonstrates how cultural factors are really one of the biggest factors in online communication. The book covers all aspects of online communication, not just those covered in this paper, making it a useful starting place for those wishing to consider this topic more widely. It looks at everything from the technology behind networks through to societal and cultural issues. The book is written by a collective of 21 collaborators, with each writing one or two chapters that come together cohesively and while credible, it is not current.


Concept 2: Active Communication Generates Identity Awareness
“ The common term for people who belong to lists (or other internet communities of discussion) and who do not actively participate is ‘lurkers’. Lurkers, obviously, are real people who exist in many ways. Yet, within the context of a particular list, if they are not posting, then they appear invisible and, indeed, can lack identity completely.

One can only generate awareness of one’s membership of an email list by posting messages; others’ awareness of your identity will enable them to include you in their discussion and enable you to play part in the community that is the list.” (Allen, n.d.)


From my personal experiences I agree that active participation is needed before others are aware of individual identities. I am a member on several forums, yet it was not until I had a go at managing a forum that I realised the actual number of members that were actively logging on, far more than I had ever noticed previously.

So what is identity? Calvert & Huffaker (2005) define it as interpersonal characteristics, such as self-definition, personality traits, roles and relationships taken on in various interactions, and personal values or moral beliefs. All things that I agree can’t be known about a person without having interacted with them.

Given that people utilize forums without posting I became curious as to the types on users. Kock (2007) categorises them as leaders, participants and lurkers. “Online group leaders shape the group context, including psychological safety, which encourages or discourages participation (Johnson, 2008, p1).

A participant contributes to the discussion where they help add value (Arinze et al, 2006, p7). People participate to gain something e.g. sharing a marginalized aspect of ones own identity in appropriate settings can help an individual feel as if that aspect of their identity is more socially acceptable (Levine & Moreland, 2006).

“Lurkers are defined as members who visit and use the community but who do not post messages” (Arinze et al, 2006, p4). For someone to be a lurker they need to visit frequently (Arinze et al 2006 & Johnson, 2008), though lurkers will spend less time within the virtual community (Arinze, 2006).

Lurkers can often form a strong proportion of the users within a community (Arinze, Gefen & Ridings 2006, p4). It is speculated that lurkers “make up to over 90% of online groups” (Nonnecke & Preece, 2000; Nonnecke et al., 2004 in Arinze et al 2006, p5). I would agree from my own experience administering a forum that lurkers are a large proportion of the users, though probably not as high as 90%. This would obviously also be effected by the purpose of the forum. But why do people lurk?

According to Arinze et al (2006) lurkers have less trust in the abilities and integrity of others than participants. Lurkers “are uncomfortable with the tone and hostility of some public forums, and believe that…they are alone in their opinions” (Katz, 1998 in Andrews, Nonnecke, Preece & Voutour, 2004). Other reasons for lurking include a desire to remain anonymous, work constraints, messages quantity, poor quality messages, shyness and limited time (Andrews et al, 2004). I know when I have been on forums where I have ‘lurked’, it has usually been due to either time limits or feeling alone in my opinion, so I definitely agree with these reasons.

I also agree with Agarwal & Ma, (2007) who state one reason for a reluctance to participate online is that “individuals experience tension and psychological discomfort when their self-view, even if it is a negative self-view, disagrees with others’ appraisals”. Inversely people will increase there online participation when they receive acknowledgement from other group members and when they believe that others understand and will confirm their self view.

Site 1: Psychological Barriers: Lurker and Poster Motivation and Behavior in Online Communities
This article examines all of the types of online users, not just the lurker that is predominately considered in this paper. This more comprehensive overview gives a better insight into how lurkers fit into the scheme of things in online environments. This article evaluates the reasons behind why people choose to post, or perhaps more relevant to this current paper, to be a lurker in online environments. The article is written by three university professors that work within the Information Systems field and is published in reputable journal, ensuring it is a well researched and credible article.

Site 2: Impact of Leadership on Continued Participation in Online Groups
As the title implies this site delves into how leadership in online communities affects the continued participation of members to that group. Effective leadership of a site encourages active participation of site users rather than just lurking. This article looks at the strategies both emergent leaders and official administrators can use to encourage contribution. The site is excellent for anyone in a leadership or administration roles online wishing for more active participation on there site. The paper is a current (2008) dissertation so while it lacks some of the credibility that passing a peer review process can bring; it still holds a lot of high quality research.


Concept 3: Etiquette
“Netiquette describes ‘good’ and ‘bad’ conduct in online communication (amongst other forms of Internet use). But what is important about Netiquette is the concept that there are ‘agreed’ rules of what is good and bad.

Understanding why and how netiquette operates is more than just learning those rules (for, indeed, there are numerous differences and disagreements about the ‘rules’). Rather, one must gain form a reading of ‘netiquette’ a sense that users must themselves contribute to the proper functioning of the Internet as a communication system: that no-one is in ‘charge’ of the net and we all must exercise an ethic of maintenance, taking responsibility for doing it ‘right’, moreover, what defines ‘right’ most of all is: ‘how would I feel is this action I am about to take was done to me, instead of by me? And, as a test of whether you are implementing ‘right’ properly, ask yourself “if I assume the recipient of my messages is less experienced than me will they learn something ‘good’ of ‘bad’ from what I am doing?’(Allen, n.d.).


I had heard the term netiquette before, without a strong understanding of its meaning. Looking it up I found that “Netiquette is a specific type of etiquette. Etiquette is the framework of formal rules and customs governing how people behave” (Strawbridge, 2006, p1), the social morals that govern our interactions with others (Muir, 2006).

The need for netiquette used to be nonexistent in the early days of the internet as users were already a homogonous group. Rather the growing popularity of the Internet has created the need for Netiquette (Kamppuri, Kommers & Tedr, 2006 This seems reasonable as the early net users, by thinking in similar ways, would have communicated well by default, though the wide varieties of users now on the Internet certainly don’t think alike!

The development of netiquette rules mirrors the physical world (Jeffrey, Pankoke-Babatz, & Klöckner, 1999; Scheuermann, Taylor, 1997 in Muir, 2006). As these rules develop they need to strike a “balance between rights of individuals and the common good” (Etzioni, 1996 in Pregowski, 2006, p365). I agree that the needs of individuals and societies need to be balances, as too often I see people that focused in on there own needs that forget about the needs of others.

A discrepancy exists between newbies and experienced users in what is considered acceptable (Strawbridge, 2006). “Almost no newbie knows in advance how to do well online” (Pregowski, 2009, p366), though “a visitor to a virtual place soon becomes aware that there are both positive and negative norms of behaviour” (Robins, 2002). Rules of netiquette can protect newbies so that they are able to learn the rules without being put down by others. I have found this to be true on most online communities I have visited, though I have came across places that bag out the newbies.

I believe that even though newbies realise rules exist, determining and understanding these rules can be difficult. Part of this is due to ‘tone of voice’ and body language not existing in online discussion, so getting messages across clearly becomes more difficult (Strawbridge, 2006; Muir, 2006). A way around this is the use of emoticons which make joking possible in textual environments (Robins, 2002), and I agree they help a lot in making messages clear.

Several authors state that the rules of etiquette are not the important part, but rather the debate that they start on codes of conduct, social order and morals (Jeffery, 1999; Pregowski, 2009). I think both are of importance, the debate helps shape the rules and the rules help shape the debate.

Finally from a cultural perspective, when in “an unfamiliar society or culture, people are often told, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’, but what should one do when Rome is scattered all around the world” (Shea, 2004 in Kamppuri et al, 2006, p367)? Many of the rules of netiquette were formed by western societies and do not adequately consider cultures of other societies so we need a ‘global ettiquette’ (Kamppuri et al, 2006) dispite the degree to which rules of etiquette apply being environmentally specific (Jeffery (1999). I believe truly global rules of netiquette would be beneficial though difficult to achieve. Much debate and refining would be needed before this could happen, due to the huge global diversity of cultures.

Site 1: An Approach to Global Netiquette Research
This site is a conference paper that summarises some research that has been conducted to date on netiquette. Combining the research of several existing studies the authors have provided a concise overview on the topic of netiquette and the issues surrounding this topic, including cultural concerns. The usefulness of the site for this current paper was reduced by the fact it focuses a lot on the research around etiquette and problems with researching this topic, though as such it would be a particularly useful starting point for someone considering undertaking research into netiquette. The conference paper is credible due to the inherent credibility of its authors though lacks more rigorous validity checks.

Site 2: Netiquette: Internet Etiquette in the Age of the Blog
This book gives an excellent overview of the ins and outs of netiquette. It surmises netiquette as the rule ‘do unto others as you would have others do unto you’, and then goes on to give specifics for various forms of online communication. It covers everything from the more traditional email, through to blogs and other recent communication trends, making it very relevant to this current paper. Everything is put in a simplistic and easy to follow manner that would be useful to both inexperienced and experienced users alike. The book is very current and the information within is well researched from reputable sources, making it also credible.


Concept 4: Information and Attention
“One of the newest and most significant ways of thinking about the Internet is termed the ‘attention economy’ (Goldhaber). In this kind of economy, the most valuable commodity is peoples attention (which can be, for example, bought and sold in the advertising industry): successful websites and other Internet publications / communications (says Goldhaber) ate those which capture and hold the increasingly distracted attention of Internet users amidst a swirling mass of informational options.” (Allen, n.d.)

Before I could develop my own opinions on this I needed to understand attention and the term attention economy. “Attention is focused mental engagement on a particular item of information” (Beck, 2001, p20). Each person has limited attention they can give out and increasing amounts of information vying for attention (Reilly (n.d.)) with this creating the ‘attention economy’ (Goldhaber, 1997a).

It is not surprising really that we are considered to be in an attention economy as “whenever we open our eyes, we are confronted with an overwhelming amount of visual information” (Carrasco & McElree, 2000). This information is always increasing and is now at saturation point. Quantities of communication are that vast that overload occurs, as we don’t have enough attention for the information received (Gorman, Morley, Reeves, & Roy, 2008). I agree that we are suffering information overload, though is this really a result of not enough attention to give out? I would think it is more due to excess unnecessary and rubbish information bombarding us!

I do however agree with Goldhaber (1997a) that attention “is an intrinsically scarce resource”. Beck (2001) states the attention economy is indeed a type of economy as we are all producers and consumers of information, with only a limited amount of attention to pay out to the information available.

“Studies in the mid-1990’s showed that families with Internet – capable computers were watching an average of nine hours less television per week” (Rushkoff, 2009, p6). We have a large amount of media and limited attention, so various forms of media compete for this attention. (Rushkoff, 2009; Aigrain, 1997). Individuals take a microsecond to decide where to spend that attention (Kaplan, Lanham & Meroski, 2008) and make more daily decisions on where to spend attention, than on where to spend money (Goldhaber 1997a). Of course if we have many forms of media vying for our attention we have to pick where to place it, though I believe we also shut out a lot of the attempts to grab our attention to stop ourselves becoming overwhelmed.

Aigrain (1997) attempts to introduce a way that we can measure online attention given by measuring time spent on each site. Aigrain (1997) highlights flaws with this, as time spent acquiring information is not always a reliable indicator of attention given. From my own observations of high school students accessing the Internet, they rarely focus on one site, instead several sites are open at once and flicked between, or their attention will be focused away from the computer completely. It can not be said then that time on a site is an indicator of the amount of attention that site receives.

I found the ongoing debate between Ghosh (1997) and Goldhaber (1997a; 1997b & 2006) quite entertaining to read. Ghosh (1997) argues against the notion of an attention economy stating that attention can not be an economy as attention can not be traded. Goldbaher (1997b) states that attention is indeed not something that can be traded. Rather Goldhaber (1997a) discusses how having lots of attention creates the power to be able to get what you want. I agree with the premise that attention can not be traded, as stated by both sides. I do believe in an attention economy, though I can’t see it ever becoming a major economy unless it develops a measureable value.

Site 1: The Attention Economy and the Net
The article that started it all! This is where Goldhaber first coined the term ‘attention economy’ and started debate on the existence of the attention economy. This article was written as a conference proceeding and reads much like a speech. Goldhaber overviews the reasons why we are headed into an ‘attention economy’, something he perceives as inevitable. A must read for anyone wishing to weigh in on this debate as it provides much of the underlying background information for many of the counter arguments that have also emerged. The paper is researched although thinly, however this otherwise dubious credibility is bolstered by the fact it has been peer reviewed.

Site 2: The attention economy
This e-book looks at the attention economy from a business perspective. It details the effects of an attention economy on business, the potentially negative ones as well as ways businesses can benefit from shifting to an attention economy. It considers the problems of not having enough attention for everything, the management of attention given out and strategies for optimizing attention directed towards meeting goals. As this book considers the effect of excess information on attention it is very relevant to the current paper as well as being a useful read for anyone struggling to mange there own attention resource. Overall this is a well written, understandable book from a credible source.


References
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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Searching....

Search Engine Task
Well those few days for the promised review on copernic turned into nearly a month! Unfortunately a few things beyond my control happened all at once and they have contributed to putting my studies about three weeks behind where I would like to be.... catch up time now!

To get on with it... this task was about comparing using a meta search (I used copernic to do this) with the results from using a traditional search engine, for which I used blackle.

First I searched for "attention economy" in blackle. This resulted a massive 955 hits with the first hit being a wikipedia site. The next 4 hits in order were a ReadWriteWeb article, a link to a book at Amazon on the attention economy, a shorter ReadWriteWeb article and a wired article by Michael Goldhaber.

I repeated this in copernic and surprisingly got far less results with 60 hits. The first hit in this instance was a Commonwealth Bank site, that in my opinion didn't discuss the attention economy and was irrelevant. The next hit surprised me as it was the same ReadWriteWeb article as the second hit for blackle! The third hit was the wikipedia site that came up first on blackle and the fifth site was the second shorter ReadWriteWeb article from the balckle search! One big difference though was the fourth hit for copernicus was a First Monday article that did not come up at all on the blackle search.

On first glance blackle actually appeared to give more promising results, well at least more results, though when I first started looking at them there were a lot of rubbish results. Copernicus only gave results that were relevant to the search term, so gave better quality results. Copernicus gave results that included peer reviewed journal and other higher quality data than blackle didn't produce, despite the far higher hit level.

Boolean Searches cchallenge 1 - the biggest number of hits relating to these key words.
While still searching for the term "attention economy" the number of hits can be increased by taking the parenthesis away or searching either of these words. In fact doing this increases hits to hundreds of pages of results in blackle. Unfortunately blackle does not give a total hit count, and scrolling through to the last page of results to get a total hit count yet again seemed tedious! So as blackle runs straight off google I did the search in google and got 66,500,000 hits!

Strangely when I put into Copernicus to search either word I only got 63 results, only 3 more than last time! This leads me to think that I am not using Copernicus right as I would have expected a lot more!

Search challenge 2 - information most relevant to what you ACTUALLY wanted to look for!
Well I would revert to the first searches I did that only looked for the exact phrase "attention economy" with the results of this above!

Search challenge 3 - information coming only from university sources.
In addition to the previous search I would add AND University to my search. I realise this might give some hit that talk about universities in addition to "attention economy", but most the hits should then be from a university.

Doing this in google resulted in 44,300 hits that when I went through some of them a lot were not from universities!

As for Copernicus, I am sure I'm doing something wrong there! No matter how I change my search, as long at the words attention and economy are in it I get between 58 and 63 hits! I can't seem to get more or less at all unless I do something irrelevant and silly - 70 hits for 'attention economy' AND spinach!!!

ARRGH!!! I'm now thinking I don't really know how to search well at all!! And after entering this task full of confidence that I know how to search effectively.... I'm off to stew on it a bit and work out where I went wrong!

Reviewing.....
... the final task in module 4! I've been asked to review one of the three best sites from the previous task. For this we saved the three sites we thought were the best (so they can go towards the concepts assignment). I saved mine in Microsoft word.... yes you read that right! I have used End Note before and though about ising it for this assignment, but I didn't like using it last time. So for now I will stick to word while I try and find another platform that actually suits me!

As for the site I am reviewing an article called "Attention Economy: All You Need To Know". The purpose of this site is clearly to give a brief overview of the attention economy. I emphasise the word brief here as the site deffinitely doesn't give a great deal of coverage on the topic!

The article itself initially appears to have no bias. On closer inspection though the article only gives a brief introduciton and then links at the bottom to 4 other articles all published by ReadWriteWeb. So the bias is to get you to read more articles from the same publication, given that the current article is written by Richard MacManus the founder of ReadWriteWeb!

The article is fairly current in itself as it is written in 2007, and although it is only building on other work, the articles it links to are all also 2007 articles.

In terms of recognition by others for this work, I was unable to find anyone else who had recognised this work..... maybe I didn't search enough or more likely the fact that it is just a summary of articles, within a non-peer revieded online magazine, makes it not credable enough that anyone will referece it.

While this is one of the better sources in the above searches, I probably won't use it for my assignment, at least no further than as a starting point for my own research.

Edit 24/5/09..... where I went wrongwith Copernicus!!
First thanks Kate, reading your post helped me work out where I went wrong! Looks like I was using the wrong version of Copernicus.... I should be using Copernicus Agent. Before I was using Copernicus Desktop, and when I clicked for a web search it was just taking me to their website - I was wondering where this supposed ability to select search engines used came in!

Anyway now that I have looked at the right version of Copernicus my first 5 hits were still the same!! In fact the searches I tried were all fairly close to identical.... so I am still not that impressed with Copernicus....