James Drogan

Via SmartMobs comes a pointer to a piece by Sherry Turkle of MIT, "Can You Hear Me Now?",  that suggests the dark side of technology.  I've cited Turkle before (see How to Use Computers and Internet in Daily Transactions) as a provocative thinker.

I've questioned (see A Small View of a Possible World) whether "always on, always connected, always transacting" is a good thing.   Prof. Turkle asks, it seems to me, the same question.

Prof. Turkle is always worth a read and a subsequent think.

This is from the Washington Times via The Huffington Post.

Surely, oh surely, the Mayor can get more for his money than spending it this way.

Surely, oh surely, there are issues of more significance (e.g., education, health care) that can be addressed with this money than electing the Mayor to the White House.

I've noticed over the last several months that more is being said about the candidates' ability to raise money than is being said about the candidates' values, vision, and goals. 

We, the people, are letting this get away from us.

From /. Slashdot comes an interesting post titled Harvard Prof Says Computers Need to Forget. 

At various time I have blogged here and elsewhere, and spoken in forums regarding the nature of the data, information, and, hopefully, knowledge that is available in an always connected, always on, always transmitting world.  Web 2.0 and user generation of content exacerbates the significance of the issue.

It never occurred to me that a solution, as apparently being suggested by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, a professor in Harvard's JFK School of Government, would be, on some basis, to simply forget.  I've not read Mayer-Schönberger's paper, but will.

An interesting issue, this.  I'm writing a new lecture note on data management for my MIS class and this notion of forgetting will likely be part of it. 

This symposium was held April 27, 2007, and had as its theme: "New Rules: Convention and Change in Communication."  I was once again pleased to be selected as one of the moderators.  My preparatory notes can be found here.