MOZART VERSUS MINSKY - INFORMATION BIAS ON THE INTERNET

Notes that until the advent of the Internet, major libraries and text repositories were considered by all as bastions of information, but th e Internet has opened up a treasure-trove of information for researche rs and seekers of knowledge throughout the world. It has become common practice by researchers of all kinds to turn to the Internet as a con venient source of information. Asks how effectively does the Internet really present these researchers with a representative picture of the state of human knowledge! Identifies the potential misuse of the Inter net as a source of biased information. Defines biased information as i nformation not representative of the state of human knowledge. In orde r to provide a basis for comparison, begins by defining the concept of a representative subset, which is used as a basis for comparing the n ature of different information resources. This is followed by a presen tation of the use of the knowledge-comparison function in evaluating d ifferent information resources. Then discusses the significance of inf ormation equivalence in the information age as a basis for setting con crete goals for Internet research policy. Concludes by presenting a nu mber of courses of action including a description of X-DEX, an Interne t indexing standard based on the US Library of Congress cross-referenc e system.