This week’s
QOTW comes from a very intriguing and thought-provoking Australian documentary
by Dutch director, IJsbrand van Veelen (VPRO
Television), entitled “Google:
Behind the Screen” (watch in order: Parts 1—5).

As implied
by the title, the documentary takes an in-depth look at Google’s culture and
philosophy, including interviews with prominent Googlers like Marissa Mayer, Vint Cerf, and Nikesh Arora. It
also challenges Google’s mission statement (“…to organize the world’s content”)
and their quasi-motto (“Don’t be Evil”), particularly on the issues of privacy
and trust.

While the
documentary steered away from a cheerful and composed Brin & Page presentation
(in fact, Larry and Sergey were nowhere to be seen), it seemed to be skewed in
a somewhat negative fashion—almost like they were out to “get” Google,
seemingly trying to paint a pre-Scoble, Microsoft-like, “evil-empire” image on
them. It felt like the underlying theme of the whole thing was “How can a
single web entity, as large and powerful as Google, ever be completely
unbiased, trustworthy, and truthful?”

I am by no
means a 100% pro-Google fanatic, nor am I trying to defend Google in any way,
but I did feel that the documentary—even if it was trying to be objective—was
fairly pessimistic and aggressive. I even felt bad for some of the Googlers as
they struggled with some tough, blunt questions, like “How can you take fears away that [Google] is a ‘big brother’ company?”
and “…with all due respect, that almost
sounds naïve, considering the scale on which Google works” (in response to
a statement that Google is “simply responding to peoples needs” and are not
governmental officials or policy makers on a global scale).

So after
watching most of the documentary, it was with much amusement and satisfaction
that I heard Vint Cerf’s reply to the interviewer’s thematic (almost repetitive)
question/statement, “As an ignorant consumer, you’re implicitly saying to me:
Trust Me?” in the last 3-4 mins of the program.

So, here’s
Cerf’s response, which is also the QOTW:

I sense
that you’re really trying to hammer this point through about “Trust Me.”
Could I suggest to you that in the business you’re in—the production of
television programs—you’re saying the same thing to the audience…“Trust Me.”
You have every opportunity to manipulate this interview and any other—if you
chose to do so—to bias it according to a particular philosophy that you have.
And yet, I’m sure you would tell me that your intent is not to do that; that
you’re trying to get all sides of the picture in place, so that the viewer gets
to decide what is true and what isn’t true.  It’s true in all media that there is an
implicit potential for that kind of bias.

I guess
there’s no real etech or trend lesson to be learned from this one. Just a good
quote to keep in mind when we—the pots of the world—start calling other kettles black.

If you get
a chance, watch all
five parts of this provocative documentary—I found it fascinating
and enlightening, despite the negative slant.