I've talked to enough average people to know most consider the internet(internets in case of MR.BUSH) nothing more then a dump even if they know nothing of it! Most people do not take the internet seriously, creditable, trustable or give much credit for doing anything good to our world. Most people just see it as a play ground for losers who have no life and a place of threats like viruses, misinformation, online predators, theives, con-artists, stalkers..etc Myspace is about the biggest thing to ever involve average people that I've seen. But, even so Myspace is still considered a joke to most and something you do for pop culture or when your really bored.

Universities don't even trust the internet or prefer it very much. Good creditable and trusted University level information is restricted to networks apart from the mainstream internet requiring subscriptions and logins with special access and permissions. ESBCO/GOV'T networks/health care networks/univeristy networks/virtual libraries are some of the information restricted from internet lookup and use.

Furthermore, some websites restrict what search engines find by using robots.txt..example www.whitehouse.gov/robots.txt which shows what the government doesn't want people to find on search engines.

The internet has such a poor image to both the educated and uneduated average and above average individuals. My question is how can we improve this poor image to common society? How can we get more people involved with distributed computing projects on a medium that is so ill trusted to begin with?

The thought of most Americans? The internet is bad! Just like illegal drugs are bad. Will this image ever change and if when? When will corporations, government, universities, health care, the world and just average people actually believe in the internet?