BOSTON, Oct. 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Wes Kussmaul,
author of Escape The Plantation, wants to know how it
happened that the world where we spend more and more of our lives
is governed by commercial enterprises with no accountability except
to their stockholders.
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"The days when a computer was just a device are long gone," says
Kussmaul. "Today we live half our lives in a space defined by our
computers, tablets, phones, plus the apps and sites and networks
that serve them. That space has become our second home, our
information home," notes the author.
"If we live half our lives in a new space, then who governs that
space, and how do we participate in that governance?" asks
Kussmaul.
"When the government of our physical space does things we don't
like, we have a right and a means to change things," notes the
author. "But if we don't like the way Facebook or Microsoft or
Google or WPP breaks into our information home and helps themselves
to our personal information, it's not as though we're invited to
join their board of directors to change things.
"The standard answer is that as customers we can vote with our
feet, that is, use computers and services from vendors who respect
our privacy. Escape The Plantation shows how we can
have that choice. "Governance by building codes and professional
accountability of architects and contractors ensures that our homes
are built without secret passageways that we have no control of.
Using the same principles, online occupancy permits can offer the
same protection for our information homes," says the author.
In Escape The Plantation, the author proposes a
system of participatory governance that will not only prevent the
unwarranted collection and selling of our personal information, but
will solve other problems as well. "Not only can we have real
privacy, but real security as well. As problems of breaches,
identity theft and malware continue to worsen, and as the
information security industry keeps assuring us 'we're working on
it,' people grow ever more wary of their use of phone and computer
networks even as they come to depend upon them more and more.
"Governance based upon the principle of 'accountable anonymity'
will change all that," says the author. In Escape The
Plantation, the author introduces the reader to the City of
Osmio, a municipality that was founded in Geneva in 2005 to provide participatory
governance of the online spaces we inhabit.
As the founder of Delphi Internet Services Corporation, which
was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's
News America Corp., Wes Kussmaul has
been conceiving and creating secure online spaces since 1981.
Escape The Plantation, 387 pages, ISBN
978-1-931248-23-5, published by PKI Press, is available in ebook
and print form for $24.95 from PKI
Press at https://pkipress.com and from other booksellers. Review
copies available.
PKI Press serves readers interested in issues of
identity, authentication, privacy, and online community.
Contact: Harvey Wharfield, Post
Oak Associates
(978) 635-9586 | Email
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SOURCE PKI Press