1. Order and Chaos in Global Information Space
Carl Logoze, David Fielding · 2009
The World Wide Web provides unprecedented access to globally distributed content. The success of the Web, both in terms of number of resources and use of those resources, is largely due to three defining characteristics of the Web. Because of its universality, anyone can participate in the Web, as author, publisher, or consumer, with a minimal investment of hardware and expertise. Because of its uniformity, resources, services, and users participate on the Web as equals in a common information space. Finally, because of decentralization, the Web is fundamentally anarchistic beyond basic agreement at the technical level on protocols and transport mechanisms. These principles that are fundamental to the Web's success are also the root of the problems that frequently confound its users. As many have found, universality often translates to quantity without quality, where content from Nobel Prize winners co-exists with content from prize winners from a local first-grade writing contest. Uniformity frequently means that specialized and domain-specific tools, technologies, and guidance essential for using many classes of information (e.g., geo-spatial, statistical, scientific) are difficult or impossible to find. Decentralization frequently means that it is difficult to impose the organizational structures necessary, ensuring information integrity -- i.e., reliability and accessibility, security and privacy for content and users, and survivability (preservation) of information. This apparent paradox in the utility of the Web, in fact, reflects the highly variable manner in which people seek out and use information in their daily lives. At times their motivations may resemble those of shoppers in a busy commercial district hoping to stumble upon the perfect gift. Such serendipitous browsing is often served by the lack of organization in Web space. In contrast, there are other times, when people wish to undertake more focused, discipline-specific information tasks or when they wish to purposely screen out certain genre of information (e.g., protect their children from inappropriate content). In these situations greater levels of organization, selection, and specialization than are currently available on the Web are more appropriate.