At first look, someone might easily say "Why does 'Being Caribbean' exist, this material can be found elsewhere!?"
As the World Wide Web increasingly becomes the exclusive domain of a few popular sites, the more detailed and nuanced information about unique places is becoming harder to find. This may seem like a contradiction but if you've noticed anything about sites like tiktok, Google, facebook, twitter and YouTube is that the encyclopedic properties are disappearing in favour of delivering popular (aka optimized) results. While Wikipedia serves very well to fill the gap, it does not offer a complete resource.
Effectively, the WWW is becoming more like a shopping mall or an entertainment emporium than an information resource. The 'best' search results are the ones that have the best ability to filter to the first page in a search. Most people rarely look beyond this page and that makes these search engines imminently powerful as influencers.
There are other ways to see this: First, when you see millions of results in a response, in reality only a few hundred are actually accessible. Secondly, the results that appear on the first page are heavily influenced and are usually related to popularity based on number of times the search terms appear in searches, or commercial value, as examples. The highest quality results mostly no longer appear in the highest rankings which is not what we expect.
The results may be interesting, even fun, but we are being misled by conflating 'popular' with 'quality'. Its also a 'dumbing down' because the most popular sites only contain the most popular content and not necessarily the best quality information. We are witnessing the fallout from a battle of commercial sites to optimize themselves to appear near the top and the ones that do it best will succeed. Directories that were once an important part of the WWW have all but disappeared.
The focus of 'Being Caribbean' is on the Culture and Heritage of the insular Caribbean countries specifically. And it is discovery of various meanings that is the quest here. Different people see these meanings in different ways.
The purpose is to provide some ways to find information that may not appear in 'popular results' that include learning and educational resources. The objective is for anyone to be able to find interesting and useful resources that otherwise might have become lost in this new realm of 'search'.
Importantly, it is the local people who are both the originators as well as the owners of local Culture and Heritage and their ownership cannot be taken away. Visit a place properly informed and aware in order to benefit from a more complete and fulfilling experience.
This is a curated selection and therefore the content is not only high quality but also the chances of running into anything that may not be suitable for a family audience is virtually zero. The emphasis is on interesting content which is both durable and practical.
The answer to the question, therefore, is "Indeed, the information exists but it is not always easy to find. What's more is that in the digital realm, it does not remain static and evolves over time*. Less popular or commercially unviable material will gradually disappear from results. This is all designed to deliver 'popular', where 'popular' is the objective. But as soon as one goes looking for more depth, one is confronted with a quagmire that is difficult to navigate. So, then, the question becomes "How does one make high quality information both more popular and/or commercially viable"? This question is much harder to answer.
One final note: Whenever Wikipedia and Internet Archive have a donation drive, please donate. These sites are performing valuable work that benefit nearly everyone —who will eventually be looking for high quality information.
* Links are verified from time to time.
Alan Barry Ginn eMail: info[at]wittreport[dot]com
Ottawa, Canada
Presenting opinion and editorial (Op/Ed) articles centering on Caribbean tourism and in particular, Tobago tourism.
This is my contribution to the understanding of the concept of 'Caribbean' and 'Caribbean tourism', and is intended as a basis for further discussion.
Anyone with an interest, especially those who plan to travel there, might benefit from being aware of, as well as discussing, at least some of this content. To be sure, within the context of a 'doom and gloom' scenario, there are still opportunities, extant, for valuable experiences as well as moving the dialogue forward. I encourage feedback. Whether you agree or not, there is much to consider.
This content is a bringing together based on information available elsewhere and I don't claim any unique knowledge. I always include references. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing.
The path to the future is uncertain but it is certain that someone will have a hand in creating it. If anyone wishes to make a contribution, please share it.