Secrets of the Web
A New Children’s Book Explaining How to Navigate the Web
We all know that something isn’t right with the web right now. The early optimism has evaporated leaving an overstimulated, under nourished and scared humanity in the experimental petri dish that is the Web 2021. As professor and author of the book Adam Wierzbicki notes, “this is the time of criticism, we’ve discovered a lot of potential for harm on the web”. In steps Secrets of the Web. A publication that looks at web technology from a practical point of view, teaching strategies and methods of searching the web and the critical evaluation of its sources.
Adam Wierzbicki is a professor of informatics who has worked for twenty years at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw. He specialises in web technology, artificial intelligence and helping people recognise digital disinformation. And as you can imagine he is also the author of a host of scientific publications. So it can seem surprising that he’s changed tack and turned his attention to the world of children’s books.
Or maybe not, seeing as he is a father and has been watching how his son and his friends navigate the internet.
“I also have the hobby of teaching programming in primary school where my son is learning. I’ve been watching how he’s been growing up and working at school from eight to twelve years old, and I’ve been watching his buddies too. I’ve noticed that while some of them like himself, who is like a computer whiz, are involved with technology and very interested. But others are not so keen on it nor very good with it. It sounds unbelievable with kids of that age but some of them need remedial lessons on using computers. I’ve seen that there is a big diversity in kids and how they are able to use technology…Of course they love playing games, but that somehow doesn’t translate into being really fluent with technology in general…so that’s one point. The other point is the trouble kids have evaluating the credibility of information on the web.”
So it’s with this in mind that we meet Sophie, Jake, Alex. A gang of inquisitive school friends brought together by a class assignment and the search for a possibly extinct local bird species. To reveal more of the story would be needless as you need to follow the progression of it yourself; with all its questions, intrigues, searches, debates and doubt (It’s a children’s book but we found ourselves Googling along”.
Doubt is an integral part of the plot as Prof. Wierzbicki notes, “The kids today are the netizens of tomorrow, and they need to know how to evaluate web content credibility to make better decisions in their lives.” To doubt, think, search and compare are some of the most critical skills we need in the digital era. And not just children either, but adults too. More doubt, backed up by rigorous searching and a comparison of sources can go a long way in separating fact from fiction.
It must be mentioned too that the friends are aided in this journey of discovery by the Virtual Professor. A handy piece of software that answers their questions and guides their search on the internet. One of the most revealing and touching parts that we came across was an admission of fallibility by the Virtual Professor, “I am myself a piece of software, but a software written by a human, so I can also make mistakes”. At a time when we’re turning to tech evangelists to solve problems like the climate catastrophe, instead of radically rethinking our structures and patterns of consumption, it’s heartening to see such a message.
“One of the things that the book tries to explain is that the entire Web is made by people. Not just the technology, but also the content. And that this means that the content on the Web can be good or bad. True or false, interesting or useless, wise or stupid. Appropriate for children, or not.”
The neutrality of technology is often discussed in lengthy and obtuse academic papers or exhibition-research projects. Such attempts now seem like exercises in hubris when confronted by such a small statement from a children’s book.
Crossing Domains only had access to a few chapters as it is still currently being translated into English (The original Polish version will be published by Helion). However what we did read drew us into a world that is both familiar and a little alien. We adults take a lot for granted when traversing the web, and so rarely stop and think. That’s the familiar part. The alien is the realisation that we don’t know everything and our confidence is only due to habitual use. We both know and don’t know. So while this is a children’s book, we should all be reading it together. The clarity of structure and questioning on its pages can teach us all a lot.
On a final note, this book was made possible thanks to collaborations within the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. Prof. Wierzbicki stressed in our interview the role professor Ewa Satalecka, head of the New Media Art Faculty, played in finding someone to design the book and its characters. A competition was organised for young art and design students and practitioners to submit proposals. In total there were over 100 applicants and 35 submitted works. The jury selected 10 finalists with the illustrator Ewelina Garbula making the final cut.
Get a copy of the book or explore tajemnicesieci.com to learn more and also meet the Virtual Professor and the gang.
“For the Web to realise its full potential, people must realise what the Web is. It is an artificial environment that largely encompasses our lives: work, education, relationships, and human culture: science, but also art, media, literature. We are responsible for improving the Web, and there is nobody that will do this for us.”
