[305] in Information Retrieval
DISCUSSION: World Wide Web: Threat or Menace?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tom Owens)
Tue Apr 30 10:15:26 1996
To: elibdev@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 10:14:04 EDT
From: Tom Owens <owens@MIT.EDU>
Yesterday, the New York Times Business section had a story about
Timothy Leary's decision to commit suicide real-time on the
WorldWideWeb. It was short on details but interviewed Leary who
appears to be in the final stages of cancer. Apparently Leary has a
web page which is being heavily visited these days.
A few months back, the web went black and white to protest the
government's recent legislation restricting free access in the web.
But have we really considered the social consequences of the
burgeoning web? Are there ways to decrease the web's temptation for
anti-social behavior? Do those of us who develop information
retrieval systems on the internet have any special role in answering
these questions?
thanks,
--
Tom Owens
MIT Library Systems Office
owens@mit.edu
617-253-1618 voice 617-253-8894 fax
