The following is only a very small listing of potential resources you can access on-line that deal with communication technologies and issues.  Note that most sites have links to other sites, and so on. Many thanks to Professor Paul Soukup, Professor Chad Raphael, Professor Kay Vandergrift, and Professor Ron Rice for cataloging many of these sites.
 

Histories

The Media History Project  provides timelines, links, and other information concerning technologies ranging from oral cultures to computing.  

The invention process of the telephone is presented at Alexander Graham Bell's path to the telephone . You can find more information about telephony and telephone-related technologies at the AT&T labs site or the ADSL homepage.

An index to sites on theories of technology can be found at http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/tech_theory.html.

Technical Information on How Technologies Work:

Use these links to find information about technologies and how they work. These recommendations are from Helene LaFrance Librarian, Orradre Library:

Gale Encyclopedia of Science (online, accessible via OSCAR)
Computer Science (4 volume encyclopedia, online, available via OSCAR)
Visual English Dictionary Online (for graphics, online, available via OSCAR)
Britannica online (available from the library home page, database section)
McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (print, REF Q121.M3)

Policies

For federal regulations on technologies, go to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) homepage and follow a number of different links for specific technologies and legislation. For discussion on a broad range of policy issues, search through the archives of the Benton Foundation .

The Center for Democracy and Technology site considers the use and access of technology in democratic society. Information on internet civil liberties can be found at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) site, while advocates for free speech on the internet have a site at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) .

If your are looking for links to intellectual property issues, check the U.S. Patent Office site, and the Stanford University page on copyright and fair use page.  Get a more "hands-on" approach to copyright issues by visiting an interactive site known as Copyright Bay.

Internet Information

Look at varios aspects of technology and ethics provided by SCU's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/technology/.

Finding. Working and Evaluating  On-Line Resources

Yale Library provides an introduction on how to use Search Engines, as well as other guides to on-line information.

You will find more on HTML and help through NCSA, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - this site will take you to an index of 3 other HTML coding sites.

Realm Graphics is one of many sites that has icons, signs, symbols, and characters to consider. 

For some help with vocabulary, check out a hypertext version of Webster's Dictionary found at http://www.m-w.com/.

There is information on different web catalogs listed via SCU's Library at http://www.scu.edu/library/research/general/findingworthwhilewebpage.cfm.

An index to resources on web evaluation is at http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/webcritique.htm.

Test your knowledge of scholarly searches by taking SCU's tutorial at http://itrs.scu.edu/library_tutorials/periodicals/.

Public Domain

You can find all sorts graphics, images, photos, and other information on the Web that you can legally use in web pages and presentations. You can search/metasearch for sites that provide public domain information which is public domain. The following site is an index for other public domain images through http://mciunix.mciu.k12.pa.us/~spjvweb/cfimages.html.

For citations, check out a site from Purdue University which outlines how to write up all the various parts of a research paper using APA at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/apa/introduction.html. Another is hosted by the University of Wisconsin Writing Center at http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocAPA.html.

Browser Options

To download the Mozilla Firefox Browser for your computer, go to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ for the PC version, and
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/mozillafirefox.html for the MAC version. There are also add-ons for various functions and features at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/.

For web composing/editing, can also use Mozilla Sea Monkey - this is different from Mozilla Firefox, but includes this editing feature. You can download a free copy of Mozilla Sea Monkey for at http://www.seamonkey-project.org/.

Some Technical Stuff

For information on how various machines work, check out http://www.howstuffworks.com. You can also review also look at http://www.ehow.com for information on more generic processes. Also look at whatis.com for explanations of information technologies.

Some Why Stuff
Read why you should turn your devices off and how to use safely when you are on a plane at http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/14/1063478068468.html and http://www.carnegiemellontoday.com/article.asp?aid=334.

Some Fun Stuff

For a creative look and commentary on the art of cake baking, check out http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/.

last modified: 01/05/09