So here we are - the edge of the internet battle.
Should we allow and support the internet as a reliable information source? Or should the information we receive be determined by experts - such as journalists and editors?
The quest for truth has been here for ages, the problem was how to gather all that information.
Well, ironically, the corporate need for resources has given us a peaceful answer to quest for our need for knowledge - the internet revolution, specifically with the web 2.0 innovations.
But what about reliability?
Imho the different opinions and points of view now show us what the world is really like. It’s not that everything on the internet is reliable - true. But the mix of the many different point’s of view on a subject allows us to define our own answer. In the internet you are your own “gatekeeper”.
Let’s face it, there will always be opposites, but there is a reason to everything everyone says - may it be environmental, corporative, physical, a thought, a feeling, or even a stupid comment.
The gathering of all this controversial information gives you - for yourself - an answer.
Truth itself, as we get it, is environmental and never absolute.
And if knowledge is just an organized gathering of information - web 2.0 is knowledge.
Some may say “What about expert knowledge?”.
Expert knowledge usually has a problem - the expert.
If the expert manages to step aside his own ideology, his expert knowledge will truly be the reasoned combination of all points of view.
But let’s face it, i’ve never seen this happening - every information is controlled.
But if we clash this controlled information from it’s various counterparts, we might get a clearer view of the so called “truth”.
All we need is as many angles as possible - and on the internet, everyone can have and is free to post their experience.
Wikipedia for example, works very hard trying to combine all these point’s of view and keep itself away from the discussion, but a decision must always allow some content to be posted - their only error imho is not to empathize more on the related discussions for each article - still, they’re one of the best information sources in the world.
The so feared violence of an anarchic system is now shielded behind an anonymous computer and long distances and the perfect environment for a real peaceful anarchy now exists on the virtual world.
Of course this release of the “i” requires understanding by the “others”.
When you read something, take it as another’s concept, not as a truth.
Read many concepts and you’ll innerly find your own.
Google, read, blog, comment, and pass it along.