Friday discussion

Props to Hannah and Amber for Friday's discussion...probably the most enjoyable and informative one we've had all semester, even though we had two fairly random and mutually exclusive readings.

I think the best part was talking about emergency responses and how the web can make it easier for people to learn about emergencies. My general response to the Wired article about an online clearinghouse for emergency information that was automatically sent to places like malls and schools (it's undergoing a trial period in Portland, Ore.) was the same as a lot of other things we've talked about when it comes to using the web as a clearinghouse for information. The best comparison for this system, as Dr. Carroll pointed out, is it's basically a wiki for emergency information. As with wikis, I'm leery of a system where anybody can add information, as I have pointed out here on my blog before. It's a tradeoff...if anybody can submit emergency information, you're going to need a feedback loop wherein information can be verified by numerous people, thus affirming the power of a dumb network. However, in the time it would take for a feedback loop to work, it would defeat the purpose of alerting people to an emergency.

Thje other major problem with this system is the fact that there are still lots of people, even in America, who aren't connected to the internet. I have no data to back this up, but I have a hunch the majority of the people who were stranded in the poorest neighborhoods in New Orleans when Katrina hit weren't web-enabled.