[wsfii-discuss] OpenGeoData-related comments from LWN

Thu Sep 29 18:18:39 UTC 2005

On 29/09/05, Charles core Stevenson <corezion at gmail.com> wrote:
> That's pretty sweet.  I once thought of making a website which tracks the
> police.  A sort of watching the watchers who are watching you.

Sousveillance a la David Brin's The Transparent Society.  Increasingly
needed when  innocent people in London are being arrested and shot on
the Tube as suspected terrorists.

> For example
> many US law enforcement agencies are required to make the blotter (log of
> incidents) publicly available.

Hmm, wonder if similar info can be obtained under the new UK Freedom
of Information Act.

<snip>interesting geohacking stuff</snip>
Sounds like the flipside of chicagocrime.org

>  Using open wireless networks we create the fear panopticon society of
> science fiction novels where common deceny is enforced by the sheer
> likelihood of one being recorded in the act.

a la Robert Silverberg's Tower of Glass.  An ex-boss introduced me to
it.  Probably the most useful thing he did for me besides hiring me!
;-)

> This is slightly on the
> lunatic fringe, as Bruce Schneier once said @ defcon, but I think it's
> something that would benefit all.

I recall being very dubious about it at the time.  $BOSS seemed to
think it was a utopia, while it smacked a bit too much of Ayn Rand for
my liking.

  It's obviously a double edged sword.  But
> the implications are that the governments and powerful companies already are
> tapping into the abundance of data available at all times for their
> purposes.  It's time to give the populace some means to tap into the global
> information network freely with supplies cheaply acquired.
>

Balancing the scales in favour of individuals and civil society is
certainly something   I would support.

--
Mamading Ceesay

"Isn't a state that keeps files on innocent persons a police state?"
-- David Mery - Innocent In London http://gizmonaut.net/bits/suspect.html