Internet in the news 1
I like to use an Internet in the News feature to my CO217 course but that isn't until next spring semester. So here are some notes to use in the future. These come from the Sunday NY Times Oct. 31, 2004.
Christian Porn sites - a way for ministry to reach out to people about this issue. xxxchurch.com is one example. What's interesting is that they have set up a system that does not use filters to screen out porn. Instead you can download something called x3watch that they call "accountability software." If you visit a porn site it sends a message to your "accountability partner." They say "Filters don't work. Kids are smarter than that. Filters don't bring up conversation. A filter avoids the topic. Accountability forces you and another person to talk about what you are looking at. That's hard. We would have more downloads if it was a filter."
Internet and politics (current election) - The internet has been a source of vicious and half-baked rumors. However it has also been an effective watchdog on mainstream media, a direct route to candidate's records and checking of facts - one good source = FactCheck.org from the Annenberg Center. On the other hand all this fact checking has reduced information to its smallest elements and reduced its value. Facts become subject to endless spin and truth becomes harder to tell. Wikipedia has been suffering from thousands of edits about wording of Kerry-Bush biographies with partisan tit-for-tat - called "edit wars." Despite this there seems to be some value for large collection of individuals to operate in a peer review way. For example, the exposure of CBS in using fraudulent documents for a story, or advertisements that are doctored. James Surowiecki suggest that online squads of opposition researchers is mostly a plus. He compares it to "open source" software - collective judgement is usually very good. The important thing to remember is that these systems work best when "people are diverse in information and attitude and opinion" and work independently of each other. Once they start taking cues from each other the benefits diminish because judgement becomes clouded by bias. By and large this online development is like the founders idea of marketplace of ideas where good ideas generally win out. Of course, there are online scams and shoddy goods - it's not a "perfect market" as EBay calls itself but we need a healthy dose of skepticism. The point is that we need to be savvy consumers in the marketplace of ideas.
Christian Porn sites - a way for ministry to reach out to people about this issue. xxxchurch.com is one example. What's interesting is that they have set up a system that does not use filters to screen out porn. Instead you can download something called x3watch that they call "accountability software." If you visit a porn site it sends a message to your "accountability partner." They say "Filters don't work. Kids are smarter than that. Filters don't bring up conversation. A filter avoids the topic. Accountability forces you and another person to talk about what you are looking at. That's hard. We would have more downloads if it was a filter."
Internet and politics (current election) - The internet has been a source of vicious and half-baked rumors. However it has also been an effective watchdog on mainstream media, a direct route to candidate's records and checking of facts - one good source = FactCheck.org from the Annenberg Center. On the other hand all this fact checking has reduced information to its smallest elements and reduced its value. Facts become subject to endless spin and truth becomes harder to tell. Wikipedia has been suffering from thousands of edits about wording of Kerry-Bush biographies with partisan tit-for-tat - called "edit wars." Despite this there seems to be some value for large collection of individuals to operate in a peer review way. For example, the exposure of CBS in using fraudulent documents for a story, or advertisements that are doctored. James Surowiecki suggest that online squads of opposition researchers is mostly a plus. He compares it to "open source" software - collective judgement is usually very good. The important thing to remember is that these systems work best when "people are diverse in information and attitude and opinion" and work independently of each other. Once they start taking cues from each other the benefits diminish because judgement becomes clouded by bias. By and large this online development is like the founders idea of marketplace of ideas where good ideas generally win out. Of course, there are online scams and shoddy goods - it's not a "perfect market" as EBay calls itself but we need a healthy dose of skepticism. The point is that we need to be savvy consumers in the marketplace of ideas.
posted by Geoff Burgess: Administrator at 10:59 AM
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