Ask Marian

If our American founding fathers like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin could be here today, wouldn't they marvel at innovations like the Internet? Could they recognize our world of instant access to real-time news sources from throughout our world? After my week in the UK for a Family Online Safety Institute conference on mobile computing, I'm struck by the convergence of factors giving us unprecedented and overwhelming information about government, our citizenry, elections overseas and the proverbial "man on the street."

Events that in previous generations would require on the scene reporters to seek out, sift through and filter  for us in our print newspapers, radio and TV pronouncements can now be provided by average citizens for free via internet services such as blogs, Twitter feeds and photo sharing sites. Of course, I'm referring mostly to the phenomenal events surrounding last week's Iranian election and disputed outcomes but it could also describe the recently revealed British Parliamentary expense scandals or the creation of the White House's online data retrieval site at www.data.gov.

Americans have set their Twitter settings to the local Tehran time zone to confuse Iranian censors from figuring out which reports are local and which are foreign. People have also re-colored their Twitter avatars to green in solidarity with the protestors. In England, you can go online and review in entertaining and confusing details the expenses claimed by members of Parliament. Examples include moat cleaning services and the building of a floating duck house for the luxurious homes of these public servants. As a result of the coverage of these abuses, politicians have had their careers cut short and the public is outraged at the apparent abuse of public funds.

A visit to www.data.gov, an innovative clearing house from the Federal CIO for government data sets, and features topics like on-time airline performance and recent earthquake activity. Visitors can rate the reports, and download data for their own usage. In previous generations such data might have been available in dense reports you purchased at the government printing office. When I was in my first post-college job, I often visited the downtown Los Angeles GPO to purchase census reports and Medicare data in dense publications featuring teeny, tiny writing. Any effort to repurpose the data required re-entering into your own computer, a laborious activity sure to discourage all but the most devoted to the task. For example, I had created a database of hospitals receiving Medicare reimbursements and created all 7,000 hospital entries by hand, using federal report data. Now, with a few clicks of your computer's mouse, you can access and start using the data.

Openness, freedom and anonymity have been the hallmarks of the Internet since its inception. We can focus on the negatives of these elements when considering the online dangers presented to children lacking the blessing of alert and caring parents, but for today, let's celebrate the qualities that allow our global community to share in these collective events, shining light into the dark corners and increasing our overall knowledge and understanding.