Useful review of David Weinberger’s Small Pieces, Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web

“Weinberger explains how the metaphors of “document” and “building” become conflated (or even mutated) into a single concept on the Web, saying “with normal documents, we read them, file them, throw them out, or send them to someone else. We do not go to them. We don’t visit them. Web documents are different. They’re places on the Web. … They’re there. With this phrase, space — or something like it — has entered the picture.” (p. 39) But this space isn’t measured by inches or miles. “On the Web, nearness is created by interest.” (p. 49) In this place, the closest distance between two points is measured by relevance.” [More…]

1984 on its way

“Tuesday, 20 August, 2002, 10:30 GMT 11:30 UK Privacy fears over EU snooping plans Your online life could be visible to a lot of organisations

The records of who you contact via phone, web, fax or mobile could soon be stored for years under a proposal drafted by European governments.

If passed, the law would force anyone providing communication services to keep records for at least a year of what customers have been doing.

The records would be available to police forces across the European Union investigating almost any crime.” [More…]