Eric, I think these are questions that go far beyond online services. My
public library carries books with descriptions such as: "Learn to
interpret and understand the cosmic language being spoken by the
crystals, and unlock your own mystical potential." This is crap, to put
it mildly, and shouldn't be in the library. If the shelves are filled
with pseudo-science and even pseudo-mysticism, we aren't doing our job.
This is the whole "neutrality" thread - it's not "neutral" to serve
documents without regard to their quality, especially since some of the
anti-science/medicine things stated in books can do actual harm. We
should at least do as much as Wikipedia does and label the fringe topics
as *fringe*, not file them alongside the proven science without comment.
(Yes, I know this has issues; I still think it's what we should do.)
As for "safe from surveillance" etc., libraries are not miracle workers.
Everything we do is in the real world. Given that the NSA captures every
byte conveyed from point A to point B, how *could* libraries do anything
about that? We've tried, we've honestly tried to shield our users from
overt surveillance, but our only hope is against inept vendors who can
be staved off with a simple proxy server.
kc
On 11/15/16 9:28 AM, Eric Hellman wrote:
I'm sure we've all read articles about the fake news that circulates in an
information environment anchored by social media, and the relation of that
information environment to the election.
Libraries are participants in this new information enviroment, so I have some
questions.
1. Do libraries understand the algorithms and metadata that guide search
results and suggestions in the services they provide? Do these algorithms
reproduce biases in our society?
2. Are libraries provide compelling enough services to be meaningful and
reliable participants in public discourse?
3. When libraries connect their services to social networks (for example with a Facebook
"Like" button) are they making user's the information environment better or
worse?
4. With many users fearing a more authoritarian state, are libraries providing
services that are safe from surveillance by commercial or government entities?
Eric Hellman
President, Free Ebook Foundation
Founder, Unglue.it https://unglue.it/
https://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/
twitter: @gluejar
--
Karen Coyle
kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
m: +1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet/+1-510-984-3600
