Information overload and virtual institutions

The Internet puts at our disposal an unprecedented wealth of information. Unfortunately much of this information is unreliable and its very quantity exceeds our cognitive capacity. To deal with the resulting information overload requires knowledge evaluation procedures that have traditionally been performed by social institutions, such as the press or universities. But the Internet has also given rise to a new type of social institution operating online, such as Wikipedia. We will analyze these virtual institutions to understand how they function, and to determine to what extent they can help manage the information overload. Their distributed and collaborative nature, their agility and low cost make them not only a very interesting social model, but also a rather fragile one. To be durable, virtual institutions probably need strong rules and norms, as well as an appropriate social framework.