The information society is full of strange paradoxes. “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”, yet individual privacy has never been more at risk. Electronic texts may be threatening the printed book, but the first flagship of e.com has been a book retailer. ICT (digital information and communication technology) has created new kinds of intellectual richness and expertise as well as unprecedented forms of techno-disabilities and poverty. The Web requires ever better educated people, although it may be run by artificial agents. Cyberspace is said to be open, free, democratic and friendly, yet networks are protected by firewalls, mailing lists are moderated, sites and databases require userids and passwords, and our vocabulary has been expanded by words like “spamming” and “flaming”. The new frontier of long-distance education and tailored entertainment also demands increasing parental care to avoid ubiquitous pornography (would you allow your children to search for Star Wars’ “Princess Leila” on the Web?). The list could easily be expanded. The crucial point is how we understand these difficulties. | luciano floridi about john seely brown and paul duguid, "the social lie of information"

the latter can be listened at deep search, nov. 08., viena