Over the year of 2005, the MacArthur Foundation funded the American Library Association’s Office of Information & Technology Policy and the Information School at the University of Washington to investigate the issues of credibility of Internet information. The purpose of this exploration was to determine the scope of the problem, determine the existing state of knowledge in the area, and develop practical next steps in addressing issues of the credibility of Internet information. These activities included: writing a series of white papers on tools, skills and institutions; a symposium of experts in the area; tool development; and a series of follow-up meetings. Major findings of this work include:

• The issue of credibility on Internet information is a tractable problem that can be addressed through research, tool development and education.
• While there is a body of literature in the credibility of information it tends to be in media choice (newspapers versus television) and persuasion (how can companies make people believe that information is credible).
• Current check-list based credibility aids (checklists of web characteristics a user can look for in determining if a site is credible) are a “fragile” solution: they are easily manipulated by designers that deliberately seek to deceive, and they are rarely implemented by users in actual information seeking circumstances.
• There is a lack of concrete solutions (tools and educational materials) available on the Internet.
• Users rarely have the motivation or skills to fully explore the credibility of Internet information, though design of Internet tools can be designed to improve this situation.

The overall conclusion of the initial work was that the credibility of Internet information is a tractable problem given an ongoing effort between industry, government, nonprofits, and education.

A Proposed Solution

Based on the above, our researchers proposed the creation of a “Credibility Commons” to address these findings, and further an agenda of addressing the credibility of Internet information. Read more about the Commons on our overview page.