FEDERAL AND STATE CORRECTIVE FUNDING EDUCATION

• have a high Google PageRank (PR) - PR is how Google scores importance. It gives all sites a mark out of 10. Any site with a PR of 4 or above is generally considered fairly credible. More and more web-savvy people are using PR to assess site credibility and authority. (You can see the PR of every site you visit by downloading the Google Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com).); and/or. • are referred to us by a friend, colleague, or industry thought leader (which usually only happens if at least one of the first two conditions applies).

The result... We only trust the very people who were feeding us misinformation and disinformation for years before the emergence of the Internet.

And where does this leave average Jo on the street? Even if she has the education, time, and money to publish a website, an increasing state of e-information overload will likely result in the marginalization of her website anyway. At best, she’ll be seen as an uninformed minority; at worst, a muck-raking conspiracy theorist!

Conclusion – dare we hope?

Several generations have wondered what they could achieve if they could only get on TV. Television being what it is, that wish never came to fruition unless you were happy to appear on the Jerry Springer Show, Cops, or Judge Judy, or you have what it takes to star in American Idol, Big Brother, Amazing Race, or Survivor. Then along came the Internet. It claims to offer everything TV cannot. Unfortunately, as it stands, the Internet is no more true to its promise than TV. The vast majority of high ranking, highly trafficked websites are published by powerful, affluent corporations. There are a few anomalies, but they’re no more than that. Like the ‘everyday’ people on ‘reality TV’, the small-time stars of the Internet are the exceptions to the rule.

• But I haven’t given up hope. All previous comments notwithstanding, I’m inclined to see the cup as half full. After all, every now and then, when the master’s back is turned, someone manages to slip the beast a treat to get it to perform a trick or two (such as a folksonomy). I like to think that my early days of optimism were something more than idealism bolstered by naivety. I still believe the technology of the Internet offers great promise. I just hope that ‘the powers that be’ don’t have too great a head start, and that all of us small people won’t be pushed to the margins where we’ll have to content ourselves with a lifetime of chanting “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!”
• Maybe folksonomies are the answer – or the prelude to the answer – or a part of the prelude. Or maybe the Internet will turn out to be history’s greatest hoax after all. I don’t know. What I do know is that I’m looking forward to watching it unfold. For better or for worse, it will certainly be interesting...
• For a while there, the Internet and the World Wide Web showed great promise. They whispered sweet nothings in our ears, promising to be the voice of the marginalized, the new democracy, the great equalizer.

But it wasn’t to be, for the Internet has a new master. No, it’s not Google. No, it’s not Microsoft. And no, it’s not even good ole’ Uncle Sam. They’re just caretakers. The Internet’s new master is bigger than they’ll ever be, and far, far older.

• Meet the master.
• The Internet’s new master is the same master who holds the leash of all traditional commercial media.