Panda Security Insight

Last week we organized the First Security Blogger Summit in Madrid. I liked the idea from the start because we would be bringing together really interesting people (including Bruce Schneier). I’m glad to see it wasn’t just me who liked it, but also the 200 people (not including Panda personnel who didn’t want to miss it, of course…) who turned up to listen to the speakers: renowned names in the field of IT security and figures whose opinions carry considerable weight in our industry.

Many of those who attended have already published their opinions on some of the issues discussed (Enrique Dans, Security by Default, Error 500, Jorge Hierro, Periodista Digital or ADSLZone). We have also published our own conclusions along with some of the ideas put forward during the event.

At lunch one of the topics that I discussed with JulioAlonso, José Cerdán and Byron Acohido, was how bloggers are changing the media landscape and allowing all of us to be much better informed about the topics that interests us the most. One point that came up during the discussion was that while blogs allow us to have more detailed and up-to-the-minute information on our favorite topics, they also have a secondary effect:  we tend to narrow the information down far more and limit it to whatever our areas of interest are.

In my case, when I use the traditional media as a source of information, the collateral effect is that I receive information on a wide array of topics. This is difficult to avoid when reading the newspaper or listening to the radio: I receive international news, political news, etc. However, when I use blogs as your main source of information, I subconsciously tend to avoid all information which is not directly of interest to me. This has both positive and negative consequences: I am more efficient and I accumulate more knowledge in those areas that are of interest to me. However, I also have to make a special effort to stay up to speed on more general issues.

I wonder if we are naturally evolving towards a society which is more informed but with less general knowledge: Do we still believe that it is important to have a minimum amount of general knowledge in today’s society? Do we take advantage of the easy access to information to stay abreast of what is happening around us or do we focus only on those issues that interest us?

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Blogs, Uncategorized ADSLZone, blog, Bruce Schneier, Byron Acohido, Enrique Dans, Error 500, information, Jorge Hierro, José Cerdán, Julio Alonso, media, Panda, Periodista Digital, security, Security Blogger Summit, Security by Default