MarBlog

Below is a really interesting TED talk about how we imagine ourselves being very global on account of the internet. Yet at the same time, it turns out that we primarily read local pages, and talk to our local friends through the internet – so hardly the barrier breaking and culture levelling experience forecasted for the internet. Still – its a work in progress, and I’d recommend that you watch the video – it’s an interesting talk!

It also made me think in data contexts. We use and submit data to the systems we know, and they often tend to have strong regional foci. There are obvious reasons for pooling data from particular regions, and there are also much more global databases out there-  but it still require you to know about the sources. Like Ethan Zuckerman talks about for social media in the video, perhaps we also need bridge figures in scientific data online to open up our awareness of global data. Let’s all become those data xenophiles