A commonplace observation about the Internet is that it has (a) a lot of wonderful stuff on it, (b) a lot of drivel on it, and (c) a depressingly low ratio of wonderful stuff to drivel - a relationship that is sometimes characterized in engineering jargon as a poor signal-to-noise ratio. The observation, alas, is quite true. However, it's also true of television, movies, legislation, committee reports, poetry, textbooks, novels and magazine articles (except ones appearing in Educom Review) - and so we might do well to spend a few minutes considering just what it is that constitutes a poor signal-to-noise ratio.
Some of the different kinds of "noise" are:
- Noise (literal). This kind of noise is often found on television, in such noisy (and noisome) politainment shows as "Crossfire" or "Capitol Gang" on CNN.
- Word and Thought Inflation. This is noise that can be measured in simple, dreary word count - or in mindless (i.e., purposeless) redundancy.
- WWWhiplash. If EVERY WORD or EVERY OTHER WORD is a HOT button THERE's a VERY good CHANCE that the WEBMASTER is OUT of CONTROL.
- Falsehood. This is a tricky and old-fashioned concept, which may no longer apply, because falsehood is "noise" only when you're looking for truth. If you're looking for falsehood, then falsehood is just another false (but "emotionally true"!) movie from Oliver Stone.
- Lost Time. Inability to connect to the network is a kind of noise in the system; so is software that crashes your system; so is a Web search that yields a massive amount of irrelevant and trivial material.
A simple procedure for determining the specific signal-to-noise ratio (at least in principle) for a particular "message" - such as a speech, article, movie, lecture, proposal or report - is to break down the message into atomic components (phrases, sentences, images, "frames," etc.) and then color-code the components to characterize their contribution as either signal or noise. The procedure can be applied easily to any text (but not this one, if you don't mind!), and it is worth trying on a couple of different examples in order to judge its conceptual utility.
For the color coding process, you will need a number of colored pencils (with the exact number of pencils depending on just how finely you want to sift through noise and nonsense). What you are going to do is read each part of each sentence of a text - or, in the case of visual texts, each image of a collection of images - and classify it by underlining it using the colored pencils. When appropriate, you may underline the same piece of text in more than one color.
- Maroon. Use maroon to underline key words and phrases, without which the text would make no sense. The full collection of words and phrases underlined in maroon should provide an accurate, if somewhat choppy, summary of the entire text.
- Blue. Blue is for blather. Everything that is not "key" is not necessarily blather - but it is under strong suspicion. What exactly is it doing there if it's not "key"? Loitering? Possibly it has an honest role to play - but chances are high that's it's just blather. If so, color it blue.
- Brown. Use brown for bombast. Bombast is blather at the bursting point; it's pious blather, pompous blather, platitudinous blather. Use brown to identify all bloated observations ("Information technology will be crucial to success in the 21st Century") and all bloated phrases ("Information Superhighway"). Press down on your pencil as forcefully as you must, in order to get the boredom and anger out of your system.
- Black. Use black when you've pressed down so hard on your brown pencil that you've broken off the tip. You can also use black when the blather just goes on and on, and there's no end in sight. Or use it on User Manuals, which seem to oscillate maddeningly between incomprehensible technogibberish and goo-goo baby talk. Use black to underline such friendly reassurances as: "On this tour of the Internet you are going to come across some terms that may scare you a little because you've never seen them before, like ftp and Gopher and WAIS, but you've got to remember that these strange terms were once strange to all of us, even to me, and here I am writing a book about the Internet. So don't worry. Just hang on to your hat and get ready for a new adventure. Next stop: Browsers!" As I said, use black, and try to be forgiving.
- Green. Use green to identify thoughts that are poorly conceived or ineptly expressed. Buy green pencils in large quantities.
- Red. Red is to signify gratitude, and goes especially well when combined with maroon. Use red to reward the author of words, phrases or sentences that amuse you, astonish you, intrigue you, or enlighten you. (Alas, a good red pencil will probably last you a lifetime of disuse.)
Now begin counting, by category. Skip articles, prepositions and conjunctions. Red and maroon will quantify the amount of "signal." Blue, brown, black and green will quantify the amount of "noise."
Are you finished counting and finished weeping? Yes, more than likely you have found the signal-to-noise ratio to be distressingly low. So you have a right to be sad. Have a good cry.
However, please don't blame the problem on the Internet. It reaches far beyond the Internet. Blame the problem on the Fall of Adam and Eve and the Educational System that failed them.
John Gehl is editor and publisher of Educom Review. [email protected]