An explosion of innovation in the knowledge realm has driven us closer than at any point in history to a world where everyone has access to the information they need to be effective, change-making citizens. But it also has seeded growing dysfunction.
Ashoka’s News & Knowledge program director wonders: How do we accommodate technology and advance user needs while preserving freedom, access, quality, and privacy?
➡️ Even as technology has dramatically expanded the supply of information, it also has provided new weapons to people and institutions that oppose freedom of expression and the press. It is easy to author and distribute news and commentary – and it is equally easy to monitor and censor that information. What emerges is an escalating, high-stakes cat-and-mouse game with (so far) no clear winners, as individuals, corporations, and governments vie for power in a chaotic information realm.
➡️ Today, more people than ever can get more information than ever at lower cost than ever. Broadband Internet and new social and mobile communications technologies are expanding access to historically disconnected or marginalized groups and disrupting longstanding hierarchical institutions and industries. But we also know that, historically, periods of decentralized innovation in industry have tended to yield to institutional consolidation – which would threaten access.
➡️ Information can only drive change to the extent that it is accurate, relevant, and trustworthy. In an everyone- a-content-creator world, access to information has expanded – but quality has suffered. More and more, the news and knowledge we engage with depends on the editorial mechanisms, explicit or implicit, of our networks. But those mechanisms are inconsistent and often suspect, leaving us hard-pressed to decide which information to trust.
➡️ Citizens must know that their participation in information systems will not compromise their right to privacy or security. Globalization, mobile phones, social media sites, technological entrepreneurship, and emerging markets have increased the flow of information – but have hit up against antiquated privacy law and a patchwork of local cultural preferences. How will our understanding of the right to privacy change? What is the appropriate balance between that individual right and the use of personal data to enhance society?