The next phase of the digital revolution depends as much on education as on technology. One of the main things they have in common is the use of databases. Finding out who did what to whom, where and when, on a national and international scale, requires a sophisticated means of archiving, retrieving, cross-referencing, and analyzing evidence and information. As we envision more and more of these global institutions we are simultaneously confronted with the prospect of more and more databases of increasing size and complexity. Already an integral part of fields as diverse as library science, law enforcement, and marketing, the database's presence and importance is set to grow even more.
T here are few things today that haunt the popular imagination like the database.
It is the chest that contains the most intimate details of our private lives, and we are constantly anxious that someone else may have the key. It can be seen as its own technological disease, metastasizing, impartial, given to paroxysms, and ultimately consumptive. A FEED Document on Vice President Al Gore's recent privacy initiatives, featuring commentary by David Shenk, Jon Lebkowsky, and Stanton McCandlish. This spookiness of the database makes it a powerful metaphor, an effective image called forth repeatedly in the popular cultural swirl. You may visit the doctor for a check-up, and have your health information punched into a database.