What bloggers are saying about the latest in information technology
Last week, the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, gave a BBC interview on the future of his creation, and regrettably, much of the press, including the venerable Guardian, came to their own conclusions for the sake of a good story. The headline, "Creator of web warns of fraudsters and cheats," with the subhead "Blogging one of biggest perils, says innovator," misleads one to believe that good Sir Tim may be having second thoughts about his invention. Nothing could be further from the truth.
There is a kernel of truth however, and Berners-Lee is right in being concerned about misuse and fraud. The article quotes Berners-Lee in a discussion on blogging, noting that a key element of blogging is that readers take the information on trust alone. And that's true enough, anybody can start a blog and spout whatever outrageous propaganda and inaccurate information they like. They're like the supermarket tabloids of the web. But while Berners-Lee may have said some people take too much on faith (he's right) when it comes to reading blogs, he certainly wasn't marginalizing their usefulness, and in no way was attempting to imply that they pose any great peril. In Berners-Lee's own blog, his entry, "Blogging is great," he explains how his attempt to explain that blogs provide a "gently evolving network of pointers of interest" was turned upside down in the news article.
Berners-Lee is still one of the Web's biggest proponents. The Techdirt blog goes into a little more detail about the reasons behind the interview. Berners-Lee is setting up a research project to study web use and how it affects people, something that will be a legitimate and useful academic endeavor. No, Berners-Lee doesn't think that he's created a monster. To be sure, the technology can be used for annoying, anti-social and even criminal enterprise, and that's why studies like the one being planned are an especially good idea. NightHawk's blog summarized the project, called the Web Science Research Initiative, as proposing to understand the "scientific, technical and social challenges" that revolve around the Web's tremendous and rapid growth. Set up as a collaboration between MIT and the University of Southampton in the UK, the study will undoubtedly have some impact on the future of the Web. This is a subject dear to NightHawk's heart, and he links to several of his earlier posts on the subject.
People have gotten a sense of entitlement about the Web, and a sense of "how dare you even think about touching it" whenever anybody talks about change -- good or bad. I've seen a lot of people get self-righteous about the idea of using it for commerce and advertising, and take great exception whenever anybody discusses the idea of charging for information. They cry about free speech when schools install web filters to keep porn away from our kids. Yet, commercialization of the Internet has led to its tremendous growth. And no, not all information should be free, those of us who provide it for a living deserve to be compensated. And, Web filters are far more accurate than they used to be, and I believe they should be in every school. And yes, there is potential for "bad things" to happen online, as there are with any medium.
Berners-Lee talked about the potential of "bad things" happening, and suggested taking a look at where it's going, and how it could be made better. But any change is always going to be met with resistance, even if that change will give us a better, higher-quality and more productive Internet. And, there will be resistance even if that change is suggested by the one man who knows more about the Web than anybody else in the world.
