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Getting the Word Out: Sharing Information
One of the reasons I wrote the MAT, and this blog, is that I believe that the more we acknowledge and talk about issues in the technical community, the better the chance we have at fixing problems. The web has a tendency to reward "herd mentality", though, and we need to ask ourselves at times are we really trying to help, or just trash somebody?
Take, for instance, the case of the Dog Poop Lady. In a subway in South Korea, a woman allowed her dog to poop on the floor of the car. She made no effort to clean up after the dog. One of the watchers was so upset he took pictures of the incident with his cellphone. Within hours, a blog was set up. The lady was identified and people discussed every bit of information they could find out about her. Eventually, she lost her job. Story here
I'm not going to rave on about how great blogs are, or how they will change the world. There's too much of that already on the net -- silly self-congratulations. What I will point out is that people tend to clan with others who feel the same way they do. They also have a tendency to "pile on" people -- kick them when they are down. Neither of these are good trends. People always gaggle at car accidents. It's human nature. But we need to ask ourselves: are we celebrating the negative, the gossip, the criminal of the week? There's a difference between keeping knowledgeable and filling our heads full of garbage. But it's a fine line.
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