Over the past few days as I've looked at various online content generating initiatives - both professionally generated and that created by the every day users - it's really sunk in how little, if any, governance is applied to content being posted as factual information.
Historically we've trusted our various media institutions to govern what we consume and believe to be factual statements. After all, the big media companies aren't biased and they would only provide us facts - right?
Fast forward to 2008 - Due to the ubiquity of easy to use publisher platforms we are faced with a growing number of consumer publishers - those everyday people that look for and consume information and then turn around and publisher their own views on what they've consumed. These people (obviously I am one of them) are creating more content than is realistically being consumed.
It is an all out explosion of content - but is it any good?
While I do have some ideas on how to self govern ourselves (i.e. Wikipedia & Knol), it is a large problem as this explosion of content is influencing real people's positions by feeding them opinionated at best or false at worse information and then it spread to others.
I've come to the conclusion that despite my ideas or others to self govern ourselves, what is ultimately going to happen is the market will get BIG, full of self proclaimed experts just as it is doing now and then shrink as people realize/decipher between good resources and those blowhards that are really witting Editorials and gossip gab.
But unfortunately it is going to take many years.
If there is a point to this entry it is merely an effort to call to one's attention that you should proceed with caution as you read information online and try to find multiple references before "buying what they are selling".
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