Probably the most interesting thing about the case reported in the Guardian, in which a man in Korea has been acquitted of spreading falsehoods on the web, is the way it highlights the differences in culture and emphasises that the Web might make us look at the same thing but through many different sets of eyes. I sound like Marco Pierre White at his most cryptic, I know.

But it’s true. This Park guy sets himself up as an economic prophet. To a Western pair of eyes we see the word ‘prophet’ and already start to write him off as a chancer. He’s not serious, he’s calling himself a prophet, it’s a ludicrous title...but there it is. He’s one of these odd people you get from time to time who might, concievably, have something to say. Elsewhere it appears they take him seriously enough to take him to court when they find that some of his credentials are bogus.

There are areas in which it would be the same over here. Had he styled himself as an independent financial advisor in the UK without the right qualifications or offered actual financial advice without the right title there would have been regulatory questions to answer. But prophet? It sounds almost like guru. I hate to think of how many new media or social networking ‘gurus’ would be in serious trouble if they actually had to quantify their expertise.

Tags: blog, blogs, internet, web, on the web, twitter, facebook