What a nervous nellie. Sounds like more utopian thinking - advocating more control and restriction to force people into some vision of perfectability - in Berners-Lee's case, his fantasy that truth can be somehow enforced, or legislated.
Never mind the people - it's the elites that are revolting!!
"The next generation of the internet needs to be able to reassure users that they can establish the original source of the information they digest."
I don't know if he's calling for greater regulation, more transparency or both.
The bottomfeeders of the internet are always hard at work. The recent increased use of botnets for spam has resulted in a ~140% increase in volume seen almost across the board since... wait for it... June 11 2006.
The idea that someone would hijack computing power to promote Viagra sales is nothing new. The problem is that a well conceived propaganda botnet could mass syndicate an article AND references and sources to so many sites in such a short period of time that you could establish a "credible" story out of nothing. With the right know-how, you could even make it a top hit on google for your desired keywords.
It's a losing battle since any measures to regulate information will likely be defeated before they're fully deployed. Just keep doubting everything you read and you'll be ok.
That article is thick with unintentional irony, in view of the particularly mendacious and anti-Semitic character of the Guardian.
Posted at 2006-11-03 17:37:34 [PermaLink]Undoubtedly the good sir knight has some sharply honed ideas as to who the guardians of truth should be, and what sort of truth they should promulgate.
No thank you.
Thanks, Dara; I hadn't been following the latest permutations of malware, just assuming my firewall and anti-virus updates were 100% effective. Now I'm not so sure. In the last month or so the spammers have found me...
Posted at 2006-11-03 18:11:24 [PermaLink]"[T]he internet is in danger of being corrupted by fraudsters, liars and cheats."
Same can be said about printing and broadcast technology.
The spam, like the bomber, will always get through.
Posted at 2006-11-03 22:38:18 [PermaLink]"[T]he internet is in danger of being corrupted by fraudsters, liars and cheats."
Sounds like pages on The Guardian & the Independent to me. I think he is being wheeled out as a "trial balloon" for increased government regulation of the internet in the UK. Not a week goes by here in the UK without some "careing und shareing type" calls for the internet to be regulated. The nannying kind can not help themselves the free nature of the internet drives them mad.
"The recent increased use of botnets for spam has resulted in a ~140% increase in volume seen almost across the board since... wait for it... June 11 2006."
Ain't that the truth. I've noticed an incredible amount of spam in the last six months or so.
You'd think the ISP tech people would notice a large increase in traffic coming from specific addresses, and investigate...or not.
Posted at 2006-11-04 09:50:59 [PermaLink]Dan, that's the point of them using botnets, large groups of "zombie" computers with different locations. It makes it near impossible to crack down.
Posted at 2006-11-06 12:39:23 [PermaLink]