Dependability of E-Information Sources

Abstract

The contemporary world is without any doubts based on using information from a plenty of information sources generally and E-based information sources especially. The Web can be considered a good representative of E-information source. Today, the Web is a medium which allows remote, fast and easy access to information. In general, the main aim of the Web is to allow people to share information. Information can be distributed over the whole world but users do not need to care about it. The architecture of the Web was proposed to be simple and undemanding. The Web is loosely coupled. It means minimum coordination between client and server is required. Their communication is based on a simple request and response transaction (Shirky, C., 2002) The Web focuses on information activities – like Information Needs, Seeking and Use (INSU) – on various professional and other everyday life settings. There are very few INSU studies that are based on individual tasks. Most studies, and especially those which relate INSU to task complexity, have considered the phenomenon studied on the basis of jobs (i.e., as a host of certain tasks) (e.g., Tiamiyu, 1992; Culnan, 1983, Hart & Rice, 1991; Van de Ven & Ferry, 1980). In this respect, the present study covers an area that has not previously been addressed within INSU research. Since no conceptual model concentrates sufficiently clearly on the aspects of tasks and INSU, one was created to serve the present work (Bystrom K., & Jarvelin, 1995; Bystrom K., 1996; Bystrom K., 1997, Bystrom K,, 1999). An illustrative pyramid diagram as per Bystrom, (Bystrom K.,1999) for the information activities is presented in Figure 1. Each corner of the pyramid represents one of the four main dimensions emphasised in information activities. One corner of the pyramid is occupied by the means of information seeking (e.g., information systems, information services, information seeking channels and information sources), another by information (e.g., type of information, content of information, usability of information), a third by individuals (e.g., cognitive styles, information seeking styles, information profiles, and demographic factors), and a fourth by contexts (e.g., aspects of work organizations, jobs, individual tasks, and everyday life situations). In the following sections we focus our attention on one corner of pyramid from Figure. 1, only. The selected corner is means of information seeking and from this problem point of view there are information sources represented by the Web. 19