Comments on: Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, Sarvodaya, Big Brother and Broadband http://lirneasia.net/2008/11/dr-at-ariyaratne-sarvodaya-big-brother-and-broadband/ a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific Wed, 23 May 2012 17:07:34 +0000 hourly 1 By: Nalaka Gunawardene http://lirneasia.net/2008/11/dr-at-ariyaratne-sarvodaya-big-brother-and-broadband/comment-page-1/#comment-16677 Nalaka Gunawardene Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:21:14 +0000 http://lirneasia.net/?p=2964#comment-16677 Here's how John Battelle described it in his book, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2005): “Link by link, click by click, search is building possibly the most lasting, ponderous and significant cultural artifact in the history of humankind: the Database of Intentions….the aggregate results of every search ever entered, every result list ever tendered, and every path taken as a result. It lives in many places, but three or four places in particular – AOL, Google, MSN, Yahoo – hold a massive amount of this data. Taken together, this information represents a real-time history of post-Web culture – a massive clickstream database of desires, needs, wants and preferences that can be discovered, subpoenaed, archived, tracked and exploited for all sorts of ends.” Elsewhere in the book, Battelle quotes one Google official as saying: “We are one bad story away from being seen as Big Brother,” Reviewing this book in The Times Higher Education Supplement in Nov 2005, Sir Arthur C Clarke wrote: "While that’s a real public relations nightmare for any search company, there is one big difference here: every single individual who uses online searches does so voluntarily. It’s almost like Big Brother in reverse – but with potentially the same results." Read the Clarke review in full here: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=199969&sectioncode=4 Here’s how John Battelle described it in his book, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2005):

“Link by link, click by click, search is building possibly the most lasting, ponderous and significant cultural artifact in the history of humankind: the Database of Intentions….the aggregate results of every search ever entered, every result list ever tendered, and every path taken as a result. It lives in many places, but three or four places in particular – AOL, Google, MSN, Yahoo – hold a massive amount of this data. Taken together, this information represents a real-time history of post-Web culture – a massive clickstream database of desires, needs, wants and preferences that can be discovered, subpoenaed, archived, tracked and exploited for all sorts of ends.”

Elsewhere in the book, Battelle quotes one Google official as saying: “We are one bad story away from being seen as Big Brother,”

Reviewing this book in The Times Higher Education Supplement in Nov 2005, Sir Arthur C Clarke wrote: “While that’s a real public relations nightmare for any search company, there is one big difference here: every single individual who uses online searches does so voluntarily. It’s almost like Big Brother in reverse – but with potentially the same results.”

Read the Clarke review in full here:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=199969&sectioncode=4

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