for a good example of what the internet can be used for and how difficult is is to establish veracity and identity in an e-mail click on the link below:
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Love (The Bryan Winter of our Discontent)
i got a bit distracted today when a friend of mine mailed me a petition to sign, and i went and checked it out. i know this person's enthusiasm and passion, but i also have been using the internet professionally ever since it was created and before there were these little charms of convenience called browsers and mail programs. i am aware that not all that shines is gold. i did the due diligence bit and checked out what was behind that petition, a quick query at trendmicro reveled the petition to be an hoax. i informed my friend. then i went to urban legends just for a quick look, if there is such thing, got distracted and discovered the story of Bryan Winter, one of those whose veracity has not been established.
this is really old stuff, but then so is the bible, the kaaba, and the pyramids, still, they all have stood the test of time in one way or another. the issue is one that is core to my blogging, the demarcation of that fine dividing line between private and public, and the distinction between fact and fiction. in civil society we have the so called personality rights to deal with some of these issues when it comes to privacy, and these ought to be taught in elementary school in all nations with a civil society. in terms of intellectual property, there is also much which one ought to know, and most of those that need to know, do know, still the internet makes publishing accessible to anybody, not just those in the traditional publishing world. with the tools available today on the internet, anybody with a connection to the web is a potential publisher. on this subject i will be writing at length elsewhere, and because of issues of privacy, it will not even be linked to this blog.
i first became aware that not all people can distinguish between fiction and fact this summer during the issuing controversy and polemic over Dan Brown's "the da Vinci code" when i experienced at least one cold fact loving neurosurgeon totally engrossed in the story and me looking at him with big eyes.
in conclusion, two of the great challenges of the open source movement are veracity, and identity which will be needing some innovation in both the way they are established, but also in the way that we think about them.
