> Interesting how it seems no one wishes to
> comment on this issue. I posted an earlier thread
> "On Credibility", no one responded.
> I guess as the culture deteriorates, people come to
> love deceit.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/09/how-to-measure-websites-iq.html...
> How to measure a website's IQ?
> Tom Simonite, online technology editor
> Monday, September 15, 2008
>
>
> The creator of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, has made an odd
> request: for
> a kind of rating system to help people distinguish sites that can be
> trusted to
> tell the truth, and those that can't.
>
> Berners-Lee was speaking at the launch of the World Wide Web Foundation,
> which
> aims to ensure that everyone in the world benefits as the web evolves.
>
> In his speech he referred to the way fears that the LHC could destroy the
> world
> spread like wildfire online. As the BBC puts it, he explained that "there
> needed
> to be new systems that would give websites a label for trustworthiness
> once they
> had been proved reliable sources."
>
> He went on to say that he didn't think "a simple number like an IQ rating"
> is a
> good idea: "I'd be interested in different organisations labelling
> websites in
> different ways". Whatever process is used to hand out the labels, it
> sounds like
> a bad idea to me.
>
> Berners-Lee himself directed us towards some of the its biggest problems:
>
> "On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a
> cult
> which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a
> formula
> which is very believable...A sort of conspiracy theory of sorts and which
> you
> can imagine spreading to thousands of people and being deeply damaging."
>
> There are plenty of arguments online already about whether Scientology is
> a
> cult. I find it unlikely anyone will be keen to step in and label sites on
> either side as not to be trusted. Others might reasonably argue that all
> religions - whether established or not - should come with a warning
> message.
>
> As for wading in to put a stop to conspiracy theories, I can't image
> anything
> their proponents could benefit from more.
>
> Berners-Lee also mentioned the system would help people find out the real
> science behind, for example, the LHC's risks. You might think handing out
> rating
> for sites about science would be easier, with publishers of peer-reviewed
> science, for example, receiving a top rating without problems.
>
> But there will be papers in the archives of any journal that have been
> entirely
> superseded. And a whole lot more that present results that are valid, but
> can be
> misleading to some readers. Web licences to ensure that people only read
> sites
> they can handle are the next logical step.
>
> Fortunately it's much more likely that the whole idea will quietly be
> forgotten,
> which will at least prevent Berners-Lee receiving one of the first
> "potentially
> misleading" badges for thinking it up in the first place.
>
> Let's hope the World Wide Web Foundation and its laudable goals have a
> rosier
> future.
>
> --
> Frederick Martin McNeill
> Poway, California, United States of America
> mmcneill@fuzzysys.com
> ******************************************
> "The institution of the family is decisive in determining not only if a
> person has the capacity to love another individual but in the larger
> social sense whether he is capable of loving his fellow men collectively.
> The whole of society rests on this foundation for stability, understanding
> and social peace."
> - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
> "Why is there something rather than nothing?"
> - Leibniz (1697 essay "On the Ultimate Origin of Things")
> ******************************************