Two Great Internet Quotes

One is fiction; one is not -- but they're great commentaries about those darn internets.

In National Treasure 2, Patrick Gates, played by Jon Voight, mutters woefully when the press conference is held claiming his ancestor was the mastermind of the Lincoln assassination:

"It's on the internet," Gates moans. "There's no stopping it now."

What's really interesting about that passage is he's watching a press conference on his laptop. That same content was obviously available on television, but the passage rings true. Here's a falsehood that now lives forever and gets its wings because it's posted as a viral video.

The second one comes from TWIT's last week podcast.

"People are turning to their computer now to answer questions, it is the library," Brewster Kahle said. "If it's not on the internet, its as if it doesn't exist."

Kahle is the man behind the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine. The Internet Archive does exactly what you think -- vacuuming up back-ups of the internet. A more public version of the Googleplex that I've warned you about. Remember -- once put on line, nothing goes away.

"If we're raising a generation without our best stuff on the internet, we're raising the generation that we deserve," he continued. Somewhat self-serving for someone essentially in the on-line library creation business, but one should not argue with the logic behind it.

Taken together, they present more reason why institutions that feel wronged need to take their battle to the medium and why it is in the institution's best interest to be the one that tells all the news.