A lot of information on the web lacks contextual information we need in order to judge its truthiness. If someone says something to us, we know that person’s identity. Our knowledge of that person’s credibility and expertise on the subject is part of the context that helps us interpret what we hear. If document is printed and distributed, what we know about the distributor, and how the item was delivered, contributes to our understanding of the force of the information contained therein.
Unfortunately, a great deal of information that is published on the web has less contextual information, which leaves us less able to judge its validity with confidence.
Social features, such as community editing, commentary, social bookmarking, and usefulness ratings are beginning to address this but there is still further that we can go.
For example many (many!) blog posts are published without the name of the author or that date of publication. The latter is especially frustrating in the tech world, since information tends to decay so rapidly.
Orglines “agreements” are aimed at exactly this problem in two important ways: first, by structuring the process of negotiating certain kinds of statements, and second by exposing contextual information that others can use to judge the validity of those statements at any point in time.
How do you judge information on the web? What would you like to see?
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