Internet Inventor Worried about World Wide Web

I read this story yesterday at the Taipei Times which caught my attention:

The creator of the World Wide Web said on Thursday night that the Internet is in danger of being corrupted by fraudsters, liars and cheats. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the Briton who founded the Web in the early 1990s, says that if the Internet is left to develop unchecked, "bad phenomena" will erode its usefulness.

Berners-Lee's creation has transformed the way millions of people work, do business and entertain themselves.

But he warns that "there is a great danger that it becomes a place where untruths start to spread more than truths, or it becomes a place which becomes increasingly unfair in some way."

He singles out the rise of blogging as one of the most difficult areas for the continuing development of the Web, because of the risks associated with inaccurate, defamatory and uncheckable information.

Berners-Lee believes devotees of blogging sites take too much information on trust.

"The blogging world works by people reading blogs and linking to them. You're taking suggestions of what you read from people you trust. That, if you like, is a very simple system, but in fact the technology must help us express much more complicated feelings about who we'll trust with what," he said.

I both agree and disagree with this statement.

Yes, the web is fraught with people who create blogs and other sites to mislead and scam people, but I really believe the percentage of this is much lower than those of us posting information that is reliable and good.

I think that its also pretty realistic to say, once you start reading something, that your gut knows when your reading a bunch of bunk.

It all comes down to common sense. Does the information you're reading really help you or make sense? You can pretty much figure it out in the first paragraph. If it doesn't sound right you can always go to Google to research it or just move on. Its easy to click the close button on your browser. Easier than shutting off your Aunt Margaret who goes on and on about how you'll catch a cold if you go outside without a coat. (More bunk that has been proven by researchers to be untrue.)

However, the article goes on to say Sir. Berners-Lee is doing a study on protecting the WWW from these types of sites and blogs with bad information. I'm glad someone is stepping up to the plate. I just received a scam email this morning from a company that sent me what looked like a bill for search engine submission. Made me pretty mad and sad that more and more people are thinking up ways to get into our pockets.

I think the Internet as a whole is a good thing. I know its changed my life immensely and I can't wait to see what someone thinks of next. I'll keep you posted!