Discussion Knowledge Devaluation Knowledge made too widely available can become devalued in that many recipients will ignore it as they are not in the target audience. Knowledge can be used to advantage if a small number of people have it but if it is made available e.g. on the web then it's usefullness and exclusiveness has been marginalised. For example, insider information on the stock exchange can be used to make money, albeit illegally. However, if the information were to be made widely available then no one will profit from it as the share dealings would be suspended. With people E-mailing to large group lists the unsolicited mail is a useless nuisance to many people and is the electronic equivalent of junk mail.
Web users can use misleading key words in their URL's to increase the number of hits.
With the constant growth of E-mail and knowledge available on the web it will take longer to filter and sort the information to access the knowledge wanted. This may be as large a problem as having too little access to required knowledge. The form of the knowledge does not change in wider dispersion but the usefullness of it can decrease. With wider availability, knowledge can be susceptible to hackers, perhaps altering or deleting sections of it thereby decreasing it's original value. Knowledge gained from the web may be old without the user recognizing the fact.