People Who Need People...

[Blanc Weber <blancw@microsoft.com>]

I was just going through a web service which, when you enter your city &
zip, will bring up all the businesses within that geographical area - 

	Leisure
	Travel
	Services
etc., then further sub-categorized into 

	Leisure: Restaurants (type: Greek, Italian, Chinese, etc.)
	Travel: Airlines, Hotels & Motels
etc.

plus further sub-categories.   I was mulling over the all the info which
can be quickly pulled up about these people and then remembered that
these are not just individual persons whose info I'm looking at, but
commercial establishments - companies with services & products which
they are offering to anyone.  So it's okay.  (Why?) Because they *want*
to be listed; they want information about themselves to be available to
anyone (anyone with money to spend, that is).  So it occurred to me:
when you need money, you want everyone to know where you are.<g>  This
could be further generalized into: when you need something, you want
everyone to know about it (in case anyone has a solution to your
plight).

What a different consideration it is, to think of persons separately
from their place of business or trade, where they don't want anything to
be known or broadcast (except at their individual discretion, consent,
release, etc.)   When you don't need anything - when you're full,
satisfied, and happy - you want 'outsiders' to leave you alone.

I think some people can really get confused as to where privacy begins
and marketing ends (or is it the other way, I get confused <g>).   I
know it's happened on this list, where arguments have developed over the
fine line of difference between contrasting "rights" to information -
i.e, while in the workplace vs while in the front yard on the sidewalk
of one's own house or walking around at the mall, etc.

Allowance, consent, personal prerogatives, authority over one's
decisions & choices - these concepts are all going to require much
thought and refinement of demarcation, as the line between being closed
or open to others, hidden or exposed, a little bit or a lot, here and/or
there, becomes finer and finer while the "net" widens and grows.   

That is, those who in the past have not felt the need to think much
about these things will now be confronted with the necessity of doing
so; of considering precisely what the fine line of difference is between
conflicting ideas about personal authority, privacy, and public access;
what they think is right or wrong, acceptable or intolerable, just from
the nature of the circumstances.  

(like Newt, for instance.)

   ..
Blanc