[Web4lib] Paperless Society

[Peter Keane]

On Mon, 11 Feb 2008, Ms Norma Jean Hewlett wrote:

> Whenever I read propositions to eliminate hard-copy documents in favor
> of electronic ones, I think of something that happened to me a few
> years ago. The incident really gave me a feel for how easy it is to
> change online information, and how difficult it can be to convince
> people that it has been changed.
>
> Someone posted a message to one of the email lists I read, saying they
> had created a table that compared online classroom management
> environments and it was posted at a particular url.
>
> I went there. One of the comments about a particular program was that
> it included instructions about "pedagogy and knobology." I knew what
> pedagogy was, but knobology was a new one, so I emailed the list and
> asked if anyone could explain what it was.
>
> Almost immediately, I got back several messages defining the term--
> Knobology is an interface designer's term that means knowing what
> knobs to turn and which buttons to push.
>
> The next day, I went back to the web page to read the information
> there again. I noticed that the creator had changed the
> word "knoboloby" to "user interface management." That seemed a lot
> more clear. I assumed that she'd read my comments and changed it
> almost immediately--very nice work on her part!
>
> For a long time afterwards--almost 3 weeks--I got a stream of messages
> saying, "You must have made a mistake. I read you message, went to
> this webpage, and I couldn't find the word Knobology anywhere on the
> page."
>

For what it's worth this is *exactly* the issue that distributed source 
control systems are designed to address:  unique identifiers for a large 
set of "content" that establishes (indisputably) whether it has been 
altered or not.  "Digital Signatures" address the same problem.  I suspect 
we'll here much more about such things as data moves online and integrity 
checks become commonplace.

--peter keane

> Jean Hewlett
>
> All opinions in this message are my own, and do not represent my
> employers.
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