Internet Deception
The most interesting technology story to come out of the election is the leaking of preliminary exit poll data to a handful of websites. Hours before the mainline news services referred to the information, websites such as the Drudge report and Slate.com were publishing numbers that indicated trends in the polls.
The problem is the data was wrong. Or, more accurately, it was displayed out of context. The bare numbers seemed to indicate that Kerry would win in Florida and Ohio. However, in the context of the reports from the exit polling services (which was not available with the leaked info), it was clear tht the numbers were only partial, preliminary and not definitive. Out of that context they were perceived by millions of websurfers as predictive of the outcome of the election, leading to a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding. There are already websites claiming that vote fraud must have taken place because of the difference in the exit polls and the final result.
There in a nutshell is the promise and the peril of the unfettered flow of information. We desire to live in a transparent world where information is always accessible, and the internet makes that possible. Unfortunately, sometimes the data gets to us before it can be validated, or like an looted artifact, stripped of the context that gives it meaning. I’ve read that the Constitutional Convention only succeeded because the participants labored for months in total secrecy, so they could openly work through a wide range of approaches without having to deal with the political reactions of special interests outside the room. That probably wouldn’t be possible today. Heck, each member of the Convention would probably have their own weblog.