Hello,

First, I appreciate your enthusiasm!

Next, I also believe the Internet can be quite useful with sharing all information, which includes engineering, scientific, medical, humanitarian, and other. Because of this sharing, I believe people in other cultures, who have little access to the outside world, which is most “poor” people, will begin their own discussions. In turn, the “poor”, who have an opportunity to gain access to a computer, will affect the poorest people in their society by educating mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, and friends on their experiences. Although beneficial, I worry about the “quality” of shared data.

There are so many wonderful commercial, educational, organizational, and government sites, but the information can be quite daunting! What I believe we, the citizens of the developed World, are facing is a problem with accurate information.

In many situations, the data, “information”, has not been verified by peers, and this will become extremely important in the future! Opinions are great, but opinions can cause problems as well. Although more than an “opinion”, I provide the media and their use of a published “journal article” as an example.

As many have seen on the news, there is often major “sways” in beliefs regarding health, which are caused by recent research results. When the media “gets ahold” of these “individual articles”, they, like many others, become excited and report the information. This or that is GOOD! Chocolate is good for you!! Later, they discover that a food or vitamin may not be so good and can cause cancer or another medical aliment. Why? Science works off the “shoulders of giants” and requires many people to perform research, investigate claims, reproduce data, and question another’s data and methods. In some cases, the person’s goals are questioned as well. It is not that the information is necessarily bad, it was just a “block” of information that was needed to increase scientific accuracy. As another example, I provide social and psychological sciences.

As I began researching “Child Marriage”, coerced sexual assault, rape, suicide, etc. I noticed the Confidence Intervals of some sociology and psychology data was very large. As a chemical engineer, who has worked in an industry that requires very tight process controls, I was somewhat surprised until I thought about the possibilities. When studying human beings, the “system” is quite complex, the ethical considerations are very significant, the “numbers” are small, and the data is affected.

In my opinion, the Internet provides good and bad “blocks” of information. Why? Because scientific journal articles are reviewed prior to submission, and there is a filtering process. Sadly, this filtering process can affect some credible journals, and some bad science does make it through the system, but that is another topic. On the other hand, much of the Internet’s information has not been peer reviewed, and this may negatively affect the life of another. In the worse-case scenario, it can cause the death of an individual, or the “Clash of the Civilizations”, which was described by Samuel P. Huntington. Although Dr. Huntington didn’t consider the internet during his original discussion, I’m sure he probably considers it as a possible mode in the future.

Some Information on “The Clash of Civilizations?”:

• Foreign Affairs: Summary;

• “Is There a Clash of Civilizations? Islam, Democracy, and US-Middle East and Central Asia Policy, 2006 “White House Foreign Affairs, §.

§Quote:“This is important because the recruitment of terrorists today tends to use appeals to individual responsibility for upholding Islam, and is ideally suited for the internet age where individuals not living in a Muslim land—perhaps sitting alone in their apartment in Hamburg or Rotterdam or Falls Church looking for meaning in their lives on the internet—make an individual decision to commit to suicidal jihad. This is important because the recruitment of terrorists today tends to use appeals to individual responsibility for upholding Islam, and is ideally suited for the internet age where individuals not living in a Muslim land—perhaps sitting alone in their apartment in Hamburg or Rotterdam or Falls Church looking for meaning in their lives on the internet—make an individual decision to commit to suicidal jihad.”

Although terrorism is a possible byproduct of the “bad” blocks of information, a similar situation can occur in healthcare as well. In certain societies, people may consider an Internet post as definitive when considering medical advice, while the advice could be “bad” blocks of information. As a side note, I am not suggesting all Muslims are terrorists. Rather, I have many Muslim friends, value their friendship and values, and know many strongly disagree with terrorism.

In summary, I agree the Internet could be a valuable tool for reducing poverty and increasing the average knowledge of the World’s population, but we need to properly review and educate newcomers to the dangers as well! As we know, we haven’t successfully accomplished this task ourselves, but many are trying! For example, the Food and Drug Administration is creating “Partnerships” with online health sites and providing valuable information for consumers.

Committee on International Relations Hearing. Is there a Clash of Civilizations? Islam, Democracy, and US-Middle East and Central Asia Policy. US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs[online]. 2006. Available from: From a Google Search.

Huntington, S. P. The Clash of Civilizations? Foreign Affairs[online]. 1993. Available from: Wikipedia.org.

@digitalstorylab: Thank you for writing a Danish post on Conversations for a Better World and my blog-post. Keep up the good work (digital storytelling). You are always welcome to send me an e-mail if you are working on some interesting projects related to poverty/development and digital storytelling.

What an interesting post– both your reflections and the summaries from Mr. Brown. Though rarely summed us as eloquently as above, this is a good reminder of the powerful, positive role of the internet.

Further, you remind us that we need to take the time to actively seek opinions that are outside of our zip code, mindset and daily exposure.

To one of your final questions: I think the internet is a growing necessity. Personally, I think it’s a secondary goal to say, universal literacy, but at the same time I think it has similar benefits toward overall access to education. And, yes, perhaps that it can play a helpful role in reducing poverty.