Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mcnc!ece-csc!ncrcae!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!ucbvax!HLERUL5.BITNET!FRUIN From: FRUIN@HLERUL5.BITNET.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.society.futures Subject: Filtering A Global Hypermedia Network Message-ID: <8711201331.AA05548@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Fri, 20-Nov-87 08:18:00 EST Article-I.D.: bu-cs.8711201331.AA05548 Posted: Fri Nov 20 08:18:00 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 22-Nov-87 10:08:20 EST Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 40 > Date: 20 Nov 1987 05:18 EST (Fri) > From: Wayne McGuire > Subject: Filtering A Global Hypermedia Network If communications speeds are going to be so much higher, what's the point in cramming everything into one big hypermedia adviser? I thought the way of the future was networking. A more likely prospect is that each person's advisor queries several databases around the world and copies whatever relevant information it finds there. Big centralized systems will always stay slow, impractical, and unreliable because with the advancement of technology the amount of digitized information is growing at an ever faster rate. > Privacy: yes, a serious problem, but you should realize that we > already leave behind us a large and detailed digital trail which > profiles our most intimate habits of mind. Many large corporations > and government agencies can access and manipulate that data now. Your > privacy is already long gone. You're very cynical here, and maybe you are right. I want to think there is still hope, though, and in that case a centralized hypermedia advisor is not the way to go. There is a big difference in leaving behind a _public_ digital trail (like messages in newsgroups) and a trail that "profiles our most intimate habits of mind". What do you mean by that? In Holland a new law will soon take effect regarding databases that store information about people. It's basic premise is that a database should have a GOAL, i.e. to send you your electricity bill or to keep track of your car's registration number. It is FORBIDDEN two match or combine any two databases that don't have the same goal. You can take anybody to court who does so anyway. This should make it very hard for corporations and government agencies to access any information about you. -- Thomas Fruin fruin@hlerul5.BITNET thomas@uvabick.UUCP 2:500/15 on FidoNet Leiden University, Netherlands