The real-time Web, the veracity of data, and social graphs

ReadWriteWeb has published a very interesting article where they point out that the real-time Web is “a new form of communication” that has increased “the velocity of information within the Web data system by an order of magnitude.” This phenomenon, they point out, “is not unlike how stock and options trading has been conducted for years, where micro-seconds in receiving and processing data make a difference in gaining competitive advantage. The difference here is that, instead of real-time trading data, we have real-time social Web data: data from individuals and companies about events, theories, products, people, articles, videos, and other things and ideas, all getting passed around and publicly available.”

An unintended consequence of the real-time Web, as noted in the article, might reflect the uncertainty principle in that “the veracity of truthfulness of news might become less certain as the velocity of interest becomes more measurable.” This leads them to question; what events will occur with the integration of the real-time Web?

The article goes on to state that another characteristic of the real-time Web is that, “unlike other real-time communication streams such as instant messaging, email, and the telephone, it is largely public. Also unlike these other channels, conversations within the real-time stream carry with them an explicit social graph.” They point out that “these social graphs also contain a fair amount of information identifying each user within the graph.” These social graphs can be algorithmically monitored to determine the reputation and legitimacy of the players.