The concept that ‘information is power’ is not a new one but it is certainly a concept which is moved from one that disempowers people to one that empowers them.


Just 20 years ago, before the internet, information was something that was a precious commodity where government and other organisations could control who knew what information. In this way ignorance was a very powerful tool to prevent people from taking up their rights or access services which they may benefits from. It also meant you had to believe in what officials told you as there was no way to verify how accurate and correct that was.


It is important to understand that the legal framework for rights and access to services is often in place and so the problem is often that people are not informed of them, or front line staff provide inappropriate information because they either do not know themselves or that can not be bothered to provide accurate information.


It is therefore sometimes necessary to know more about rights and services from organisations, than the organisations themselves.  And this is where the power of the internet comes into play. It is now possible for everyone and anyone to read all the public information available and therefore be empowered to know what is right and when they are being told complete nonsense.


Information is indeed power and the internet had given that power to anyone which wants it.