The Folksonomic Revolution

After completing this week’s ISIS assignment, I am both excited and weary of the Folksonomic Revolution, in which anybody can upload information to the internet and consequently, spread it quickly to a large number of people. My first reaction was that such technology can have a transformative effect on the availability of information worldwide and that an increased availability of information will lead to higher rates of efficiency and better decision making. This seems only natural. But after thinking more critically about this assignment, I realize that there are significant costs associated with the ability to easily disseminate information- namely, the ease with which inaccurate or wrong information can be spread. To this end, I was disturbed by how quickly I could change a Wikipedia webpage and while the literature states that Wikipedia’s fact-checking oversight is effective, I am still skeptical. The volume of information is simply too large to be continually fact-checked. Furthermore, where I turn to a website like juicycampus.com where malicious intent, damaging rumors, and gossip of all sorts is on public display, I feel bad for the humanity of our campus and am outraged the type of electronic medium that facilitates this hurtful behavior. These types of websites are easily accessed, easily changed, and can have a profound impact.

On the other hand, there are innumerable benefits associated with the Folksonomic Revolution. The general public can quickly and easily access information of all sorts. And furthermore, people can share a variety of types of information. Photo-sharing or networking sites are ideal to keep in touch with others. Wikipedia is a wonderful starting source to use when it comes to conducting preliminary research on a topic. Flickr, blogs, and a multitude of other sites are tremendously helpful. All of these have truly changed the way I live my life by making it easier to stay in touch, find information, and be more efficient.

In the final tally, I am still very happy with the availability of such easily accessed and easily used sites, and I think that the Folksonomic Revolution will have an overall positive impact. But along the way there are costs to bear, and we, as a public, must be aware of this.