Intel making it easier to argue online

Jake Widman
Friday, 01 May 2009 23:42

Business IT - Technology

Intel's research department is working on a browser extension that enables users to highlight disputed information on the Web and provide links to opposing viewpoints.

The extension, called Think Link , is the result of Intel's Confrontational Computing project, which "aims to understand how people argue on the web, and to develop tools that make it easier for people to do so."

The project team envisions Think Link being used in two ways:

First would be by someone who cared about an issue and was motivated to correct what they saw as misinformation on the web. That user would mark snippets of text and tag them with the disputed claims they were making.

The second scenario involves what the team calls the "Sceptical Reader." For this user, the browser extension would highlight the disputed text on the page.

The reader could then hover the cursor over the highlighted text to read the disputed claim it is making, and click on the text to bring up evidence for and against the claim.

If the reader already knows as much as they want to about the claim, they can se the extension to ignore that claim in the future.

CONTINUED Page 2.