Comments on: The Tipping Point in the Political Underground http://nsdl.library.cornell.edu/websites/expertvoices/info2040/archives/2209 This is a supplemental blog for a course which will cover how the social, technological, and natural worlds are connected, and how the study of networks sheds light on these connections. Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:26:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: speeker http://nsdl.library.cornell.edu/websites/expertvoices/info2040/archives/2209#comment-1397 speeker Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:49:19 +0000 http://nsdl.library.cornell.edu/websites/expertvoices/info2040/archives/2209#comment-1397 This is true IF behavioral norms don't exist in a community that tell people to check their facts carefully. Of course one of the effects of this kind of cascade is that it gets difficult very quickly to find primary sources. But its easier to understand that the veracity of something is questioned when just a couple others start writing about reasons they have discovered to doubt. That this is possible now doesn't mean that blogs aren't to be trusted - it means that we haven't finished learning how to use the medium. This kind of prank is one way to rustle up a little healthy skepticism. This is true IF behavioral norms don’t exist in a community that tell people to check their facts carefully. Of course one of the effects of this kind of cascade is that it gets difficult very quickly to find primary sources. But its easier to understand that the veracity of something is questioned when just a couple others start writing about reasons they have discovered to doubt.

That this is possible now doesn’t mean that blogs aren’t to be trusted - it means that we haven’t finished learning how to use the medium. This kind of prank is one way to rustle up a little healthy skepticism.

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