Group research project - the process ahead

1.
Finish finding information on your company and filling in your form.

2.
Print your form. You name and the name of the compayn must be on it.

3.
Consult with your partners about comparing the three companies to determine which is best to invest in.

4.
Create the comparison chart.

5.
Decide what each person is going to say during the oral presentation. You must do more than simply read the name of your company and several numbers.

correction to Group Project requirements

As you are working on the form that you fill out for the company you've chosen to research, you may omit #18 (Profit/Loss Growth ..."). You may also omit "Section 4 Estimates." The TMX no longer provides this information.

Researching a Business, Part 3 -- information on company websites

This third exercise helps you become familiar with the information you can find on a company's own website. You will look at the site of a Toronto company named GuestLogix to determine the following:
• whether the information on the company website is the same as information obtained on other websites, such as the TMX and SEDAR.
• what information is available on the company website that is not available elsewhere

The exercise is in a Word file named BusinessSearching_ex03.doc available in the Pickup Folder (Jarvis / Pickup / Schreiber / BTA3O1)

Save the file in your BTA folder on your home drive named after yourself as follows: HannahM_research_ex03_GuestLogix.doc.

When you have completed the assignment copy it to Dropoff / Schreiber / your class folder.

Researching a Business, Part 2 -- S.E.D.A.R.

This second exercise helps you become familiar with the S.E.D.A.R website and the kind of information it offers. The exercise is in a Word file named BusinessSearching_ex02.doc available in the Pickup Folder (Jarvis / Pickup / Schreiber / BTA3O1)

Save the file in your BTA folder on your home drive named after yourself as follows: HannahM_research_ex02.doc.

When you have completed the assignment copy it to Dropoff / Schreiber / PerC_BTA.

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Public Company Information (SEDAR)

The System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR), is the system that public companies and investment funds use to file public securities documents and information with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA). The website, www.sedar.com is the official site that provides public access to public company and investment fund profiles and SEDAR public securities filings, together with the latest news about SEDAR.

The objective for making this information public is to enhance investor awareness of the business and affairs of public companies and investment funds and to promote confidence in the transparent operation of capital markets in Canada. Achieving this objective relies heavily on the provision of accurate information on market participants.

CDS INC. has operated this website on behalf of the CSA since 1997. SEDAR’s purpose is to:

1. facilitate the electronic filing of securities information as required by the securities regulatory agencies in Canada;
2. allow for the public dissemination of Canadian securities information collected in the securities filing process; and
3. provide electronic communication between electronic filers, agents and the Canadian securities regulatory agencies

Researching a business , Part 1 --- The TMX

 
We begin a unit on finding information on publicly traded companies. At the end of the unit you will work with two partners to research a company, prepare a report and give an oral presentation to the class.

Later exercises will show you how to find additional information on a business using resources other than the TMX.

The first exercise helps you become familiar with the TMX website and the kind of information it offers. The exercise is in a Word file named BusinessSearching_ex01.doc available in two places:
- the Pickup Folder (Jarvis / Pickup / Schreiber / BTA3O1)
- http://bta.posterous.com/.

Save the file in your BTA folder on your home drive named after your self as follows: HannahM_research_ex01.doc.

When you have completed the assignment copy it to Dropoff / Schreiber / PerC_BTA.

The Invisible Web or Deep Web, Part 8 - a selection of databases

Take a few minutes to browse through some of these databases below to see what they offer. They will give you an idea of what databases you might look for when you want detailed information from the Invisible Web. Can you find other useful or interesting online databases?

• Internet Hockey Database
• Cricket Database
• http://www.aucc.ca/can_uni/search/index_e.html.  Search for programs at Canadian universities.
• Organized Crime and Corruption Database
• Aviation Accident Database
• Internet Movie Database
• Chinese Movie Database (in English)
• Internet Broadway Database
• World Database of Happiness
• World Population Database (United Nations)
• Geographical Names of Canada
• Deep Sky Database (astronomy)
•   English Verse Drama
• Celtic Coin Index
• British Library
• Chemical Database
• European Patent Office
• National Parliaments Database
• Civil Engineering Database
• Household Products Database (health & safety)
• USDA National Nutrient Database
• Plant Database (U.S. Department of Agriculture)
• Human Genome Database
  

The Invisible Web or Deep Web, Part 7 - a taste of high-quality, "hidden" information

These exercises give you an introduction to the kind of free information available on the Invisible Web. (Even more information is available when you are willing to for it.)

The aim is to give you a hint of
- the vast variety of information and
- the vast amount of information.

Find answers to at least 4 of the following databases, choosing whichever look most interesting to you.

1. Legislative Library of Ontario
   How many titles are there on Jarvis Collegiate?
2. 
   Are Canadian politicians honest? Who is giving them money to run their election campaigns?
   How many individual citizens donated to Olivia Chow's (New Democratic Party  candidate for Trinity-Spadina) campaign for the 39th General Election and what was their total donations? What was the most from a single individual? How much did she spend on mailing (Canada Post)?
3.  Google health canada adverse drug reaction database .
   Follow several links - search Allegra, Antihistamine used to prevent sneezing, runny nose, itching and watering of the eyes, and other allergic symptoms. Has anyone ever died in Canada from taking aspirin?
   
4.  You've been offered a very good deal on a used car, a 1997 Honda Accord Sedan. You want to know its safety record. Was there ever a recall on that model? Go to the Transport Canada website, select Quick Links: Vehicle Recalls, then Search the Recalls On-Line Database. What was faulty with this car requiring a recall? What could have happened if the fault was not repaired?
   
5. 
   At Canada411.com find the telephone listing of someone with the same family name as yourself - in Toronto, if possible. Click on the name to get their address. Find a list of their neighbours.
6. 
   How easy is it for a person to find you if you give them your telephone number? At Canada411.com use Reverse Phone to look up your own telephone number. Next go to Yahoo Maps or Google Maps or MapQuest and find a map for your address. Find directions for getting to your place from another address, for example, 100 Weston Rd., Toronto, or 1 Mary St., Guelph.
7. 
   As a part of your job as researcher on a Toronto newspaper, you have been asked to do background research for an article on Toronto inventors. One assignment is to find how many patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office since 1976 have been granted to Toronto inventors or assignees. Carefully read the notes on the page indicating how to design a search correctly. What search syntax do you use? How many results do you get? Find the name  of the latest Toronto inventor to receive a U.S. patent.
   
8. 
   Do you love roller coasters? Did you know there is a Roller Coaster Database? Use Google to find it, then find information on the latest roller coaster at Canada's Wonderland. What is it called? How fast does it go? How much did it cost to build? When did it open?
   

The Invisible Web or Deep Web, Part 6 -- Toronto Public Library -Webpages created on-the-fly

When the present building of Jarvis Collegiate was built in the early 1920s, a booklet of thirty pages was published entitled Jarvis St. Collegiate Institute 1807-1922 : programme of the laying of the corner stone of the new building at Jarvis and Wellesley Street 



The Toronto Public Library has a copy of that booklet. Now, you know that you can go to the TPL website and look up book titles, so it should be there, right?

1. First let's try looking for it using Google. You have the title of the book, so do an ordinary Google search for it. Did you find it?
2. If you didn't find it, maybe you need to be more specific. Repeat the search at Google's Advanced Search page but this time in the box marked "Search within a site or domain" enter the TPL domain: http://catalogue.torontopubliclibrary.ca. Wouldn't it be odd if Google couldn't find the book? For a fact I know it is there.
3. Could we be wrong? Let's check the TPL site at http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/. Search for the title there.
   Did you find it?
   Which library branch is holding it?
   What was the exact date and time of the laying of the cornerstone of our school?
   
   But here's THE BIG QUESTION - If this webpage is on the Internet, why can't Google find it?
4. Go back to the Wikpedia article on the Invisible Web. Look at the section entitled Deep Resources. Which of the seven items in the list probably explains why Google couldn't find our TPL page?
5. As you study the list of seven Deep Resources, can you think of webpages you've seen that might fit any of those categories?
   

The Invisible Web or Deep Web, Part 5 -- Answer for Chasing Down a Low-Flying Aircraft

CHALLENGE -- What information can you find on the Internet about the Canadian small aircraft with the markings C- something something KH?

---

1. As a search expert, you an ordinary Google-type search (i.e. searching the Visible Web) is probably not going to find this kind of information. You need to find a specialized database.
   
2. How will you find the required database? Your first thought is to try Google, not to find the information, but to find the database that might have the information. At Google you search for database canadian aircraft.
   
3. Aha! You see something that looks promising, Canadian Civil Aircraft Register.
   
4. Going there, you click on Available Marks, then do a search for KH in the field Ending With.
   
5. Aha, SUCCESS! You have just used the Invisible Web to find your information.
   
6. Who is the owner? Where can you find them?

So what is the Invisible Web (sometimes known as Hidden Web, Deep Web or Deepnet)? Get a clearer idea by looking at the Wikipedia article.

Tuesday, April 6 - Putting your new search skills to practice

Put your Boolean and other searching skills to practice with the challenges below.

Start with The Invisible Web or Deep Web, Part 3 -- Two search challenges. The second part, PowerReporting, is designed for students of journalism,not high school students, but you can learn a lot about locating difficult-to-find information on the Internet. Notice how a good searcher is flexible and determined, willing to try a number of different approaches.

Continue with Part 4 -- The Invisible Web or Deep Web, Chasing Down a Low-Flying Aircraft. Hint: When the information you want is probably in the deep web, search for the database, not for the information - in other words, use the word "database" at Google along with terms you think might lead you to the correct database.

The Invisible Web or Deep Web, Part 4 -- Chasing Down a Low-Flying Aircraft

A small airplane frightened everyone in your family by flying very low over your building in downtown Toronto (not exactly like the picture above - which, by the way, is a real photo. See
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=873298
or
http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&sa=N&tab=li&q=airport+st+maarten).
You were looking out the window at the time and noticed some of the marking on the side of the fuselage. You saw C- something something KH. You want to contact the owner to complain.

As the computer expert in your family, you go to the Internet to find more information on the aircraft and its owner.

CHALLENGE -- What information can you find on the Internet about the Canadian small aircraft with those markings? Hint: See if you can find the answer on the visible web. If you aren't successful, try adding the word "database" in your search.
(Answer to come later.)