Up Front

Credibility is having the characteristic to be believed and trusted.  A user has confidence in an internet resource if it has credibility.  Therefore, credibility should be important to both those resources as well as the users who utilize those resources.  After all, developers don’t produce internet resources (and by resources I mean all types of websites, blogs, social media, articles, academia, etc.) to be perceived by internet users as not trustworthy or believable.  What would be the point?

There are so many people (try hundreds of millions) that use the internet and nearly as many who produce resources of some sort.  As you can imagine, along with such diversity comes copious amounts of misinformation, propaganda, and outright criminal activity.  Even those that that don’t necessarily have mischievous intentions may not be the most trustworthy source. 

So how does the average internet user looking for specific information evaluate the trustworthiness and credibility of these resources to accurately find the information he or she is looking for?  Well, there is a lot involved in the subconscious of the seasoned internet user who knows that there are many intricacies involved in finding reliable information in our digital world.

Being able to accurately assess the credibility of internet resources enables users to avoid the aforementioned misinformation, propaganda and scams that are highly prevalent on our open global internet.  But open credibility of internet resources can do so much more for the average internet user.

Removing barriers to the evaluation of credibility can have profound effects on not only the internet’s ease of use, productivity and efficiency, but also the evolution of the internet itself.  When users can easily tell where the information they consume originates, and whether the originator of that information has a reputation for being credible, then they open themselves up to being more trusting and able to find information in a more productive and efficient manner not having to worry about whether or not they can trust the source.  With this enlightenment, users can avoid the money making commerce driven initiatives on the internet –if they so choose- and cause the internet to evolve in more open, efficient and trusting manner. 

Credibility is already a very important aspect of our digital lives and the internet.  The purpose of our community is to discuss this importance, and how to make it more prevalent to users and easier to understand and evaluate.  As always, I look forward to your feedback.