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DOI: 10.1145/1629175.1629182
David Roman
The corollary of
empowerment
The unfilteredness of the Internet, while largely considered a plus, is taking
some knocks. Abundant, easily accessible data sits side by side with “rumors,
lies, and errors,” and the victim is science, according to Michael Specter. “
Anyone can seem impressive with a good Web site and some decent graphics,” he
writes in Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the
Planet, and Threatens Our Lives, (Penguin Press, 2009) ( http://www.amazon.com/
Denialism-Irrational-Thinking-Scientific-Threatens/dp/1594202303).
The Internet contributes to a “dysfunctional relationship with science” because
its structure and evolution have created a place “where misinformation is likely to
thrive and good information has a harder and harder time competing,” says Chris
Mooney, co-author of
Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our
Future (Basic Books, 2009)
( http://www.amazon.com/
Unscientific-America-Scientific-lliteracy-Threat-
ens/dp/0465013058), in an
exchange with Specter
on Slate ( http://www.slate.
com/id/2234719/entry/
2234720/).
Science is difficult, and
“too many scientists don’t
know how to explain it,”
Mooney writes. That gives
quackery some footing.
“For every accurate science blogger, there is an extremely popular anti-science
blogger or Web site….As a consequence, real science is constantly abused, and
the most credible experts can barely keep up with all the nonsense, much less
refute it,” Mooney says.
Social networks can compound the abuse by spreading information deemed
“interesting” more quickly than information that is not so interesting, according
to researchers at IBM and Carlos III University of Madrid ( http://cacm.acm.org/
news/50689). Indeed, Spanish researchers say their data “corroborates the predominant role of heterogeneity in social networks where the spread of information is concerned.”
Misinformation is a corollary to Internet empowerment.
A silver lining may be the example of Wikipedia that questions the assumption that truth will prevail online. The online encyclopedia dropped its trademark egalitarianism and gave control of some of its content to editors (http://
meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_needs_editors). “Some more security,
some more procedure can make things more organized,” the site says, “[even]
if it sounds anti-wiki.”
Visions of comPu TeR
science confeRence
ACM and the British Computer
society will jointly host the
ACM-BCs 2010 Visions of
Computer science conference
to be held at the informatics
Forum, edinburgh University,
scotland, Apr. 13–16, 2010. this
flagship event aims to energize
the computing community by
presenting some positive and
inspiring visions of computer
science.
the keynote speakers are
Ross Anderson, University
of Cambridge; nicolo Cesa
Bianchi, University of Milan;
Jon Kleinberg, Cornell
University; and Barbara Liskov,
Massachusetts institute of
technology.
the conference will cover a
wide array of computing topics
and issues, including computer
architectures and digital
systems; theoretical computer
science; algorithms and
complexity; logic and semantics;
non-standard models of
computation; quantitative
evaluation of algorithms,
systems, and networks;
escience; and bioinformatics
and medical applications.
For more information, visit
http://www.bcs.org/server.
php?show=nav.11980.
DiGi TAl liBRARY
con Ten T PReseRVATion
ACM is providing its
institutional library customers
with advanced electronic
archiving services to preserve
their electronic resources. these
services, provided by portico and
CLoCKss, address the scholarly
community’s critical need for
long-term solutions that assure
reliable, secure, and deliverable
access to their burgeoning
digital collection of scholarly
works. this initiative is part of
ACM’s ongoing investment in
content, features, performance,
and the worldwide reach of its
Digital Library, with the aim of
making it easier for libraries to
accelerate their transition away
from print.
