IP: Column about IP and Farber

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 10:25:18 -0400=20
To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>=20
From: John Makulowich <makulow () cais com>=20




Net Log Column: The Data Doctors
By John Makulowich
=A9 1998 John Makulowich


http://www.cais.com/makulow/
john () journalist com
31 March 1998
550 words




A few years ago I adopted what amounts to an Internet ritual that I now
follow religiously at the end of each month. It is to spend an hour or so
poring over the potpourri of postings collected, filtered and distributed
by David Farber. He=92s the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of
Telecommunications Systems in Penn=92s School of Engineering and Applied
Science and the man who serves as the moderator, or gatekeeper, of his own
discussion group known as IP (for Interesting People). The URL for his home
page is http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~farber/.


It=92s a productive, efficient and effective way of keeping up on Internet
policy issues as well as maintaining perspective as a trade journalist
about what=92s happening of importance in cyberspace, both in the United
States and beyond. It=92s also a fount of article ideas and resources, since
many of the messages come to Farber from Internet cognoscenti across the
globe.


I=92m convinced that as more and more data populates the world and then find=
s
a home on the World Wide Web and the Internet, such moderated lists by what
one might call Data Doctors, that is, multidisciplinary experts who combine
a broad vision and a keen eye for details with a flair for the newsworthy,
will become more critical to keeping an open and balanced viewpoint. It=92s
akin to the role of the Cybrarian in Neal Stephenson=92s science fiction
work, Snow Crash.


These Data Doctors will harvest the antidote to the intellectual malady
identified by the noted historian, Daniel J. Boorstin, in his book of
essays, Hidden History: =93All of us are in danger of being suffocated by ou=
r
own tastes. Moreover, these devices [television, cellular phones, Walkman,
cable stations] that enlarge our sight and vision in space seem somehow to
imprison us in the present. The electronic technology that reaches out
instantaneously over the continents does very little to help us cross the
centuries.=94


What threads or themes appeared among the 83 messages distributed during
March from IP? While there was, as expected, a heavy dose of policy (from
position statements on supercomputers delivered by the President to
protests about closed door meetings at the Justice Department from the
Electronic Frontier Foundation), the e-mail ranges over the spectrum of the
news.


You find everything from Farber=92s diary notes on his recent trip to Tokyo
and his comments on the latest computer technology from Sony to the
perennial jokes about Microsoft and the eyewitness report, =93Computer
Science and Engineering Research in Poland=94 from Bruce H. Barnes,
Distinguished Visiting Research Professor of the Department of Information
and Software Systems Engineering at George Mason University.


Among the more memorable topics included in this month=92s e-mail bag was an
item that my wife described as =93chilling my spine.=94 That dubious award w=
ent
to the post about The Hot Zone author, Richard Preston, and his article,
=93The Bioweaponeers=94 that appeared in a recent issue of The New Yorker. I=
t
sparked a few other posts about bioweapons Web sites and commentary on its
accuracy.




----------


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http://www.cais.com/makulow/.=20


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Sr. Writer, Technology ...... Post-Newsweek Business Information, Inc.=20
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