What aspects of what is market-organised need to be regulated in the public interest? Just as the banking industry has shown not to function in the public interest without regulation, nor the nature-exploiting industry, so also our knowledge environment cannot be left to profit-oriented actors alone. After the collapse of the world economy nationalisation of private companies is no longer taboo. Not a few people have suggested that Google has become an essential infrastructure that should be socialised.
Our society has long provided basic informational services to all: education, libraries, museums, public broadcast, health, the infrastructure of traffic of humans, things and information, funded through societal redistribution by taxes and mandatory broadcast fees. What is to be considered essential goods in the digital age? What is added value and offers business opportunities?
Pranesh Prakash on 23 Apr 09Privacy advocates urge people who want to set up a personal health record online to read the fine print. Deven McGraw, director of the health privacy project at the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology, said sites like the Mayo Clinic Health Manager aren't currently covered by national laws that specify cases in which health care systems can access and share information without patients' consent.