Archive for September, 2008

When someone says that the information on the Internet is mostly rubbish, we tend to agree but does that mean we want, or for that matter need, some form of regulation?

Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, believes that disinformation is one of the major flaws in the Internet and that some system should be developed, he said “…I’d be interested in different organisations labelling websites in different ways”.

On the 14th of September 2008, Tim Berners-Lee gave a speech before the Knight Foundation. He talked about the beginnings of the web and where it was heading. He also outlined a new organisation, The World Wide Web Foundation, which would seek:

• to advance One Web that is free and open,
• to expand the Web’s capability and robustness,
• and to extend the Web’s benefits to all people on the planet.

The next day he was interviewed by the BBC’s Pallab Ghosh where he discussed the use of the Internet to spread disinformation. “On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable,” he said.

This is quite true, information spreads like wildfire these days, so how can we be sure what we read is the truth?

The simple answer is we can’t.

That is to say that we want someone else to tell us what is true instead of finding the answers for ourselves. We would rather have some “all-seeing, all-knowing” entity to make sure that everything we see and read on the Internet is true. But… Yes there is always a but. Whose version of the truth do we want? Do we want the Creationists or the Evolutionists deciding what is true? Or perhaps some impartial body of scientists and philosophers? Then again we could just leave it up to the community to decide what is right… I mean its not like the community is ever wrong.

All of these options have an inherent problem, they rely on other people to make up your mind for you. The best way to find truth on the Internet is to question. Never take anything you read as gospel. You have to weigh up a lot of different factors; who is giving you the information, what do they have to gain from this point of view, what are other people saying, etc.

If we put the onus back onto the individual instead of calling for the regulators to step in, we might finally end up with population that is able to think critically.