Web Standards Questions- Recommendations- for Web Documents- Doc-Dating, Source-Referencing, Corp Responsibility, Jurisdictioning, Cyber U.N.

Dear Web Standards Organizations:

I do not necessarily have the credentialing or industry or group “standing”
that one might consider necessary to compose a letter of the sort I’m not
composing, but I do feel it’s important, in this era of information, to
address issues I see as being problems with the current set of standards
used in the design of web pages.  I’m not totally updated with regard to XML
and I know this is an important area for me to research further, but my
current concerns do not depend, I think, upon an understanding of new
technologies, unless the new technologies encompass (handle/address) the
problems that I’m about to describe, and for which I request some discussion
in World Web Standards organizations.

There are several standards that I would like to see introduced to web
pages.

I’m not sure exactly how the following can be made to come into existence
(implemented), or how these would be enforced, but here are some problems I
see:

In summary I see problems regarding:

*	KNOWING THE DATES APPLIED TO INFORMATION and
*	KNOWING WHETHER THE INFORMATION HAS BEEN VALIDATED AND ACCURATE IN THE
CONTEXT OF CURRENT SUPPORTING RESEARCH AND INFORMATION RESOURCES

More specifically:

1.	When you visit a web site you don’t necessarily know the date the page
was first published - some generous web site developers provide this
information
2.	You don’t know the date the page was last modified - some generous web
site developers provide this information
3.	The date when information was first published is not always– especially
research papers and web sites explaining some highly technical issues-
medical information, nutrition information, astronomy- etc.- you name it…
4.	People may post information and plagiarize without there being any
enforcement of this:  the specific resource base of information is not a
requirement- especially the need for bibliographies, endnotes, footnotes,
and other types of reference lists, does not exist and is not enforced
5.	Is there currently a working group that enforces the responsibility of
web sites to publish accurate information?
6.	The type of organization or review board which has the authority to
validate and has validated the specific information provided on a web site,
especially research information, which is being published as truth, is not
always provided on a web site

Aside from these I have also two other concerns regarding

A.  TERMS AND CONDITIONS, PRIVACY STATEMENTS and other corporate fine print
on the web

1.	It seems that corporations offering services, access, or software
download features on their web site, should be FORCED to report changes in
TERMS and CONIDTIONS to customers in some OBVIOUS way, whenever these
changes occur, even if the customer is not signed up to receive e-mail
because- really- who reads all that corporate spam?
2.	It seems that corporations offering services, access, or software
download features on their web site should be FORCED to BOTTOM LINE the
crucial points of their “fine print”:  it is not likely that corporations
have no idea what snafus or loopholes they use to place responsibility upon
customers and not themselves, but the onus of responsibility for the
legality of a service must ALWAYS be on a corporation offering a service-
and the web is an especially important area of concern because children surf
the web, people surf the web pretending to be other people, people log on
all the time using the screen names of other people and when they do this it
is not always clear what they are doing when they are using someone else’s
computer:  if the onus of responsibility is on the web site developers, and
the associated corporations, then consumers can be better protected,
regardless of who gets hold of their computer.

B.  IDENTITY VERIFICATION

1.	Computer developers might consider adding a small device to computers
that will either accurately recognize voice, or faces (as is being developed
for bank machines)- or perhaps have a “fingerprint pad” or something that
can verify the identity of a user while the person works on a computer, even
if the computer changes hands for a few minutes.  This identity data could
be stored privately on the individual’s computer and then would only be made
accessible to for legal purposes when there was issues a “cyber search
warrant” or something else similar to a subpoena for information


C.  LEGAL JURUSDICTION AREAS DEFINED FOR CYBERSPACE

1.	I addressed this issue to AOL when I was an AOL user.   Many web sites
and ISPs offer chat rooms but do not monitor the activity in the chat rooms.
To a certain extent, a person’s right to privacy might be argued to be
important.  But I no longer believe much in the usefulness of any person’s
belief, when it exists, that that actually have privacy.  What’s crucial is
that  children are protected, and that other forms of illegal activity are
monitored to the extent that they become issues that are resolved.  There is
always the truth we must deal with that not all countries have the same laws
and that not all laws are just laws. My own pet peeves often are with
anything that might get in the way of a spiritual vision quest or gets in
the way of the harmless interaction of consenting adults online and offline.
But nonetheless,  there are many times when online activities are a problem,
for society and for specific individuals- and I have heard in the past that
the jurisdiction of cyberspace has not been defined.    Is there a President
of Cyberspace?  A United Nations of Cyberspace?  How are Internet
information zones defined in a ways so that legal jurisdiction can be broken
down and shared?  I’d jump mentally first to management of the following
bases”  OSI seven layer model: cabling, data packets, protocols,
application, etc.- and also data format jurisdiction monitoring.

Chances are many people who have worked with your organizations have
discussed various aspects of these issues in the past.  I am not claiming to
be original.   But I am claiming that I see nothing actually implemented or
enforced in cyberspace to yet deal with these issues.

Thanks in advance for considering this current list.

I hope you will review this list in some manner and consider reviewing other
ideas in the future, regardless of the fact that I have no standing
whatsoever in the world of “web standards.”

Regards,

MIKO
m-i-k-o@attbi.com <mailto:m-i-k-o@attbi.com>
107 Collingwood Apt. 1
San Francisco, CA  94114
415-431-5597