Evaluating the credibility of web resources

[Nick Arnett]

I think there is more of an issue with Web resources for at least two
reasons.  The broad problem, which won't go away, is that publishing on the
Web has very low barriers to entry -- far, far lower than the cost of
printing and distributing printed material.  The result is that there is
simply much more to review for credibility.

The second problem I see is one that may start to go away.  There is
virtually zero accountability for Internet publishing.  Anyone can register
a domain under a false name and address, buy a connection to the net and
publish.  You could have a terribly hard time figuring out who is truly
behind the facade.  I don't think many people realize that there is
absolutely no verification of the data received when a domain name is
registered (this is true for .com, .org and .edu -- I suspect .mil is
different!).  If you wanted to prove that you are who you say you are,
that's problematic on the net.

You can't even trust familiar names used as domains on the Web because the
domain registering authority is under no obligation to screen out
trademarks, nor is there any requirement for those who register to swear
that they have the rights to the name.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts
sued Network Solutions for allowing someone else to register oscar.com, but
they lost.  The court decided that it isn't Network Solutions' job to
police trademarks.

Obviously these are not at issue for the really well-known companies on the
Web -- I'm quite sure that ibm.com is International Business Machines,
a/k/a Big Blue.  But what if some joker registers a fictitious hospital
name and dispenses medical advice that sounds legitimate?

The Internet needs some sort of system for -- dare I say it? -- *filtering*
information sources by the authorities that we choose.  This is the good
side in the filtering debate.  The bad side is censorship, which means that
we don't get to choose the authorities who filter our sources.  It can be
literally the same technology and this is where the W3C is heading in its
meta-data initiatives.  Technologically, there is no difference in the
system that would rate sources by authority or by community acceptability.
I believe this means that filtering is inevitable; the question is who gets
to pick the filterers.  I would hope that every adult is able to choose
their own filters and every parent can choose their childrens' filters.

Nick
--
    Senior Product Manager, Knowledge Applications
        Verity Inc.  (http://www.verity.com/)
        "Connecting People with Information"
  Phone: (408) 542-2164  E-mail: narnett at verity.com