Stupid, it's the data

Our world is constantly changing and it is changing fast.

One of the underlying forces is technology. More specifically,it is the availability of massive amounts of data and the ability to process it with aceptable cost and time. This data is about our environment (think Google Earth) as well as data about ourselves (think Facebook).
People think differently about this change:

• some fear big brother
• some are excited about the opportunities and great changes to come
• and some people have never thought about this at all.

We the authors have now realized that we sit comfortably in both of the first two groups. We would like to make the most of the opportunities offered by the new types of media, communities and tools available. However at the same time we are uncomfortable about the amount of information which is being collected, stored and processed - often without our knowledge or consent. 

So we intend to explore the future of data processing and its implications in a series of random blogs. We hope to
examine what great things may be possible and how to protect ourselves from those people and companies who collect all that data ;-)

Feel free to comment and sent us your ideas for future topics.

ND and OJ