The world is at our fingertips. Opportunities to reach vast audiences abound. In yesteryears it took great foresight and planning to assemble the masses, while today whatever stumbles from my lips could end up on YouTube. Ordinary people are speaking, and everyone is listening.
Take Cliff Stoll for example. He never considered himself a computer wizard, but his patience and persistence caught an international spy. Robert Morris launched the first worm that froze two thousand computers, even though it was “not very well written”.
Technology is bringing such a number of people into our reach, that it’s hard not to step on toes. Especially as a programmer, if I make one small mistake – wham! I could give away private information about couples’ relationships. Hundreds of people could be affected.
Communities & friendships, like the Internet & networks, are built on trust, but if no one is wearing shoes, then one person in cleats can do a lot of damage. So, let’s keep our shoes on, but leave the clogs at home.
Amen. Everything that I put my name on I have to think about who is going to be seeing it, and if they could ever use it against me for any reason. It’s ironic that “it took great foresight and planning to assemble the masses,” but now it takes great foresight and planning to make sure that every little thing that I sign up for, every little thing I associate myself with is safe and will be beneficial (or at least not detrimental).
Comment by noisdois2 — February 26, 2008 @ 7:25 pm
[...] thought more on the topic of Internet security and privacy, I decided to revisit the image of going barefoot on the net. This time, however, in the form of a poem. Here it [...]
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