"There exists a probability that the Web 2.0 phenomenon may ultimately lead to a mere augmentation of current cultural information exchanges that are bound by existing political and societal strictures." - criticisim about Web 2.0 on Wikipedia
Extending that thought, Web 2.0 hones a culture of not just openness and sharing, but also of open threats. The traditional problem faced by open-source was exactly this - it was also threatened in terms of security due to its 'laid-bare' technology. What could possibly happen in such a collaborative, open and democratic atmosphere is that too many people start playing 'god' , or on the other extreme, many haphazard social, political, economic and cultural threats and malpractices start appearing. The recent incident of kidnapping and murder of an individual whose primary contact point was through a social networking site, is just the tip of the iceberg. A system without controls ceases to be a system! It becomes fluid enough to take up any assuming shape within the bounds of merely time and space. Policies and structures laid out in any system are primarily to inculcate responsibility and actions taken against any violation. Imagine what would happen if the country's judicial system would turn to Web 2.0! Even in perfect democracy there is always some monocracy, else things would simply go haywire.
Web 2.0 is still in its infancy, though tech geeks might think I'm outdated to state that- the possible consequences of such techno-revolution can be fully understood only in course of time..
2 comments:
With all its "controls", kidnapping still happens in the real world. So how are controls and policies in Web 2.0 going to help?
Kidnapping happens in the real world only because proper controls are not established and implemented. Having controls doesn't simply exist on mere paper - it has to be implemented. Simply having blogging guidelines doesn't stop anybody from using abusive words in his blog, it's the actionizing of that policy that brings about discipline. The argument here is not about the real or virtual world, its got more to do with a movement.
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