The unequal web

I'm a great fan of the web. I think it has great possibilities for the future and is enhancing our world today. I've been using the web almost since it's first days and I can't seem to get enough of it. Yet there is something that bothers me. Every since it first came into being it has been billed as the great leveller - the place where the ordinary person can get their voice heard and is not subject to the 'old boy network' or what a Journalists latest interest is (or isn't). But like many Eutopian claims it seems to me that reality doesn't match the hype.

The web has always been for the technologically minded

I think it's interesting that the very people who claim the 'level playing field' are usually the geeks who have finally managed to get someone to notice them. Now I have nothing against geeks myself (I guess I probably qualify as one in some company) but the web is predominately a geek domain. Or at least it is the geeks who get to determine much of the content and how it gets online.

Now, I know that many system developers will want to claim that they spend much of their time trying to make it possible for your average person to be able to get their message across online. I agree that this is what is wanted (I've spent months of my life doing this very thing) but I also know that no matter how hard you try there is still a fair number of people who struggle. Web designers will know, also, how hard it is to get any words out of a customer even when it is their businesses web site. Trying then to get someone to use a CMS to edit their pages is near to impossible - unless they are technologically minded and like to play around with gadgets.

Also, although there is a percentage of people who are willing to put in the time to learn how to do something a fair number of these like to learn how to use some bits of software that they need to know to do their jobs but are not interested in learning anything more than this. Again, if you have ever tried to explain to someone what hosting is (and this includes young people, although they do have more of the language you need to understand it) and then tried to guide them through setting up an email account you will know how hard this can be. I'm not saying that such people are ignorant or stupid but just that they are not interested in learning anything beyond how the few bits of technology that they have to use works.

So my point is that feeding the web (e.g. putting up the content and developing the apps to drive it) is mainly something for those who are interested in technology and don't mind investing the time to learn about it.

The web is easier for the rich than the poor

It is true that someone with no money can find enough free sofware and free hosting that they could build a web site (or perhaps a blog) and use that to get their message out. However, the chances of such a person succeeding are pretty slim.

Any web designer will tell you that a well designed web site hosted on good servers and with lots of Web 2.0 tools will do a much better job for a business than using free services and a mate down the pub to do the design. People trust something that looks professionally produced over something that looks amatuer. If they didn't then there would be no such profession as web designer or web developer, etc. So then the best web sites are generally costly (there is an exception to this rule from time to time and this is always exciting to see but they are not normal) and some are very costly and require lots of full time employees to keep them lively and interesting.

Perhaps some will argue that there are web sites that have come from nothing. After all didn't Google, Facebook, etc all come from nowhere. Well, in some sense they did but the nowhere they came from was University.  Forgive me for stating the obvious but don't Universities cost a lot of money to run (and a fair bit to go to in the first place). Don't Universities have very expensive IT infrastructure and access to some very smart people? It is true that the people who began the projects did it for nothing to begin with but they were all very clever people backed up by University facilities.

So money plays a significant role in the building of the vast majority of successful web sites. The last time I looked at my credit card bills I was under the impression that not everyone in the world is rich and a fair few struggle to break even. I'm not saying this because I'm jealous of those who have wealth but because it is a basic truth on the web - as in the world - that success is a lot easier if you have some money to back it up. The world does not operate on a fair basis - the rich always have an advantage over the poor - and the web works in the same way.

The web requires a great deal of time

Anyone who has managed to get somewhere will tell you just how much of an investment of time is involved in building a successful web presence. Different people have different amounts of time available to them. This may seem an obvious point so I'm not going to say much about it but I hope you see the point. Here is a short list of things that take time on the web:

• Adding content to web sites
• Encouraging people to visit your web site
• Finding and adding new images to a web site
• Responding to emails
• Reading and responding to comments on blogs, etc

Without time these things don't get done and if they don't get done then you don't succeed.

The web is not about who is best but is about who is most popular

Of course we would all like to think that the best is going to be the most popular but the world and the web just doesn't work that way. If you are a techno addict you will know this truth only too well as you cringe at having to listen and watch people telling you just how brilliant their latest, well advertised, gadget is (I'm not going to mention any products here). And anyone who has ever watched a T.V. reality show will know the pain of having to watch the weird participants succeeding while the more talented fall by the wayside. Popular does not equate to best very often.

However, the web operates mostly on the basis that the best is the most popular (I guess this may be something that geeks have always longed for in the world - that someone would finally realise that being great at something you do with you brain does in fact make you popular). The vast majority of search engines work on this basis - the more quality links you have to your site the better your site is.

This, of course, means that for a site to be successful requires a lot of time and perhaps a lot of money to make your site more popular and so get you up the search rankings. With so many web sites and no way yet of getting a computer to look at a web site and tell you if it actually is a good one there seems to be little chance of changing the popular = best formulae.

The web is not an equal playing field

But perhaps it is more equal than most other forms of expression. The lack of sensorship and the ability for anyone to build a web site for the world to see does offer the lone voice the chance to be heard. It is certainly true that the world has been able to see and hear things through the web that they would otherwise not have. Some of these things have been of great importance and have allowed people to say things when an oppressive governement or oganisation would normally have stopped them. It is also true that people who have felt that there was no one else who thought like they did have found others who actually do through the web. It is also true that people who have attempted to cover their misdeeds up have been unable to get away with because of the web. I see all these things as a very positive thing - we live in an age of freedom of information and this should not be underestimated.

However, we decieve ourselves if we believe that the web makes everyone equal. Simple economics, available time and technical ability are all factors that limit people using the web.

What can be done?

I hate this kind of question but I think it needs answering. Short of overturning every money based system in the world I don't think there is a way of doing it (I'm not advocating this by the way). While we need money to employ people to help us, or to buy some time for ourselves, or to buy some popularity the web will not be equal. All we can do is to try and ignore the differences created by wealth and perhaps do our best to work within the contraints.

I believe that Christians who run web sites, for instance, should do all they can to make sure that other good quality Christian web sites look popular to search engines. We can't change the way the system works but we can do everything in our power to ethically work within the systems that exist.

I also believe that Christian organisations should understand that having a good web presence will require money and time. This may involve employing designers/developers and web masters/servants (or whatever) for a web site. A labourer is worth his wages.

I also think that Christian web designers/developers/etc should think hard about volunteering some time to use their talents to help churches and Christian organisations that can't afford to pay someone for web help. There is a problem in the church in that many Christians feel that they don't want to do what they normally do at work in the church - I understand this feeling -  but it does mean that sometimes gifts that people have been given by God are not being used for the church (the very reason that the bible says these gifts were given in the first place). I don't believe that this means they shouldn't be paid (in fact I think the opposite) but sometimes there just isn't funds to pay.

So instead of getting upset about the unequal web we should do our part to try and encourage equality.