This week's quote comes from Robert Zoellick, former president of the World Bank: "All of us make mistakes. The key is to acknowledge them, learn, and move on. The real sin is ignoring mistakes, or worse, seeking to hide them." I bring this up because this week I heard about one of the most deviously brilliant Web 2.0 tools ever developed: Echochamber.js.
This Dailydot article goes into the details, but Echochamber.js is basically a piece of code that can be added to any Javascript formula. It allows a blog's readers to comment on an article... except that the comments have not actually been enabled. As a result, the comment stays visible on the computer of the commenter, but the writer of the blog sees nothing at all. This was developed as a tool against trolls and bullies to keep their harmful content away from bloggers without having to publicly disable comment sections. It's also a very useful anti-spam tool as spambots will be able to post all over a blog to their delight without making said blog look unprofessional in the process.
I'll be honest: I don't think Echochamber.js has any particular application in the field of Web 2.0 learning. It is, however, a sign of the degradation of modern Internet culture that such a piece of code was created.
No comments:
Post a Comment