The second topic of discussion is the author, or authority of the web sites. This aspect is very important to the validity of the site because the character of the person or organization putting out the information is almost as important as the information itself. The federation itself authors The South Carolina Wildlife Federation site. This organizations goal is to improve the quality of habitat for the wildlife of South Carolina. It is a donation-funded organization, which does not hurt their credibility but does not really help it either. They rely on the citizens and businesses of the state to keep their programs going. This could present a question as to their motives some of the time. On the other hand, the Great Lakes Programs Office of the Environmental Protection Agency runs the Green Landscaping with Native Plants site. This agency is well known in their efforts to control harmful effects on the environment, which naturally includes your landscape. Both sites present very good information on various topics involving landscape and wilderness, which leads me to believe both are more than qualified to be distributing this sort of information. However, the site that is run by the EPA seem to be the forerunner in this category simply based upon their credentials as a federal government agency with little or no ulterior motives.
The third aspect that will be examined is that of Objectivity. This area is extremely important in deciding the quality of a web site. Objectivity covers several different things. First is the purpose or the mission of the site as well as the viewpoint of the author. It also includes any bias or conversion tactics. To be objective about a topic simply means to present all the facts, even if they do not support your viewpoint. On the topic on landscape and habitats, it is a little more complicated to determine if something is being objective. This fact is easily determined in the case of the Green Landscape with Native Plants site because they are simply giving people advice on what plants will grow best and how to establish the plants so that they will flourish in times to come. This is not hard to determine because, there really is nothing to sway a person to or from. It is simply putting out the information to the people so that they may have better success with their planting projects. They go even further by stating their objectivity in their disclaimer where they say "does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the US Government"(Green Landscaping with Native Plants). It is hard for The South Carolina Wildlife Federation to compete with that level of objectivity that comes with being a government agency. However, they do a pretty good job of it. The purpose of their site is to raise people awareness of how easy it is to help with the habitats of wildlife in this rapidly expanding and growing state that suffers from habitat erosion due to construction rate in the state. This organization gives direction to people on establishing a habitat for small wildlife in their own back yard. There was however a bias in this site. It is not the sort of bias people normally think of. They are not trying to get you to buy their product over the competitors, what they are trying to sell you is conservation. They are in fact trying to sway the reader to their ideas, although they are ideas that every person on earth should already hold in the very fiber of their soul, the site is still representing bias. The statement “one way that you can help enhance wildlife habitat”(The South Carolina Wildlife Federation) is a very bias and swaying statement. That is the reason that the Green Landscape with Native Plants site gets the check in the objectivity category.
The fourth attribute of a good website to be discussed is currency. It is vital for a good site to ensure that the information they provide is not only accurate, but also current and up to date as well. The most effective way to achieve this goal is through an automated tool at the bottom of each screen that shows the time that the page was last updated. This method is by far the most effective since it allows the person that is visiting the site to know when the specific information that they are looking at was last updated. This is the method used on the Green Landscape with Native Plants site. Another method of conveying the currency of a site is through postings on the site being for current events. For example, on the South Carolina Wildlife Federation site, there are advertisements for upcoming fund-raising and federation-sponsored events. This is a much more indirect method to show currency of a site. It is also far less informative. This method merely tells you that the site is being updated. It does not tell you when the site was updated or what material was updated. The Green Landscape with Native Plants site does a much better job of openly displaying the currency of their information.
The final category to evaluate these sites on is coverage. This is by far the most important category of all because if the information being given to the reader does not go into enough detail or is not presented in a easy to read and navigate through manner, either the information will not meet the needs of the reader or they will not try to locate it. Both web sites evaluated presented their information in a well formatted, easy to navigate manner. One thing that could very well turn away potential readers from The South Carolina Wildlife Federation website goes back to the fact that they rely on public donations. On the home page of their website is the listings of current fundraising events that are upcoming as well as an advertisement for a ball cap that can be purchased. These two things could very well dissuade some people from continuing to search their site for the desired information. This fact is especially true in today’s era of pop-ups and spy ware plaguing many individual’s computers. For that sole reason, Green landscape with Native Plants site is the better site in this category.
So as you can see by using the five evaluation categories, it makes the difficult task of deciding which websites are good and which are not into a seemingly simple process. Even when faced with two overall outstanding sites such as The South Carolina Wildlife Federation and the Green Landscape with Native Plants websites, it was quite apparent that the later better satisfied the evaluation criteria for a good website, making it the superior choice for obtaining the desired information.
Works Cited
Green Landscape with Native Plants. 16 May 2005. Environmental Protection Agency.
15 July 2005
Learning Resource Centers; Trident Technical College Libraries. Trident Technical
College. 15 July 2005
The South Carolina Wildlife Federation. South Carolina Wildlife Federation. 15 July
2005 .
