David Weinberger's Buzz Soup:
"INTERNET WHITE-OUT"
By David Weinberger
Editor, Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization
The Internet is full of misinformation, lies, statistics, and altered
photographs. The famous are slandered, the gorgeous are compromised, the
unknowns make up stuff just to be noticed. We all know that. But the Web
also has a mechanism so valuable that it founded Western civilization as we
know it.(Have I mentioned that the Internet -- and columns about it -- are
also full of exaggerations?)
The Web is self-correcting. This is the very same feature that makes the
scientific method so darn important. On the one hand, the scientific method
is supposed to ensure reliable results because it controls variables. On the
other hand, there's a social aspect to the method. Because it controls
variables, it abstracts the scientist from the process. Thus, the same
experiments can be repeated by other scientists and the results can be
compared. Science, therefore, is self-correcting: if the method goes wrong
for me, that will be noticed by you when you repeat the experiment.
Now, the Web's self-correcting nature isn't as rigorous. It consists
primarily of people who think they know more than me correcting my mistakes.
I post a message saying that the earth is 9.5 light-minutes away from the
sun and I'm sure to hear from a gaggle of self-proclaimed experts who will
correct me to the micro-second and expand on my remark in learned ways. Of
course, any or all of them could be wrong. But then they'll be corrected as
well. The truth is out there. The problem is recognizing it. (So what else
is new?)
There are some important benefits to recognizing the self-correcting nature
of the Web. It lets you lighten up. Not everything on your intranet has to
be right. It's often (usually? always?) better to allow the free flow of bad
ideas knowing that they'll be fixed spontaneously than to try to filter
everything through one tightly controlled orifice. You get the benefit of
conversation, creativity, spontaneity. You lose the disadvantage of looking
like you believe that the corporate orifice can be All Knowing. Oz would
have been better off if the Wizard had stepped from behind the curtain a
long time ago.
So, go ahead, risk letting people be wrong.
You'll all learn more in the raucous conversation that ensues than you
ever would have by being right.
Events
[
Home | Discussion Forum | How Do I... |
Lotus Notes Intranets |
Microsoft SharePoint |
Products |
Shopping
]
