Thursday July 10, 2025; 10:21 AM EDT
- The World Wide Web was created for scientists to share information. While the act of sharing is a social function, I think there ought to be an emphasis on the information portion of that mission statement. Information cannot be conveyed well, if at all, in the limit of 500 characters or less. While social networks use the technology of the web, for me their timeline format and size constraints make them something other than the web. Further, I think the social and information constructs are very different. Consequently, I have a hard time thinking of the "social web" as a thing. #
- I get that the now accepted format of what most once called the world wide web is the timeline but the ephemeral nature of timelines make them useful only for a moment. The perceived lack of permanence of a timeline is contributing to a world without facts and because we need facts I think we need fewer timelines. The right view of the web is a garden, ideally one with good soil and well tended within which perennial flowers of information thrive. #