RE: Another argument for anonymous resources...

Jan Grant wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: 19 March 2001 11:52
> Subject: Another argument for anonymous resources...
>
> ...albeit a quiche-eating one. It occurred to me that there are some
> things that we shouldn't attempt to assign URIs to. In an ironic twist,
> here's a link to an example:
>
> 	http://home.earthlink.net/~thebadger/prisoner.html
>

That "shouldn't" is explicitly bringing moral questions into this thread.

As Dan pointed out we do get identifiers all the time; and as The Prisoner
makes clear, being so identified can cripple our ability to be an
individual.

I would hope that the semantic web vision aids individual liberty by
allowing extensibility and openness. I might not like how other people
describe me, but at least I can add my own descriptions of myself.

If not, the concerned individual (which inevitably will be the minority) can
struggle against systematic classification by:
+ opting out of the system as much as possible
+ maintaining multiple identities

There is a deep problem to do with time ... the myth of the continuity of
the self ... an appropriate temporal logic ... an understanding of the
temporal reference of any RDF model ...

[OK - these are random musings]

IMO, a goal of the semantic web activity should be that in ten or fifteen
years time, European data protection legislation should insist that *all*
data records of a personal nature should be accessible through the semantic
web, to make it easy for an individual to check and refute inaccuracies in
any data about them held by anyone, anywhere. We are clearly a very long way
from having the bits and pieces needed to realise that goal.

Jeremy Carroll

Received on Tuesday, 20 March 2001 05:33:53 UTC