A visit with Brian Forth

A visit from Brian Forth.



It was interesting to hear from someone who is on the cutting edge of information dissemination and collection.  It was encouraging from a business perspective to see that as a teacher trying to instruct his students on using HTML to construct webpages, he was able to turn his knowledge into a viable business.  His business model requires him to always be thinking about the next step he needs to take in order to keep current with the technology that is being invented and be able to apply it successfully.  He must always be considering new applications that can benefit his customer base and his business.  I believe he made some very good points about ethical decision making.  His products are used by his customers to collect information from their customers and there has to be a point where the line between the ethical use of the information collected and the potential abuse of the information collected doesn’t get crossed.  The fact that information technology has progressed far ahead of the legal systems that protect the end user is distressing.  The “virtual” rights of the public can be easily abused by someone who knows how to use the newest technology to their advantage.  I believe that many bad things can and have been done to people and as of yet there is no legal recourse to protect them from the potential forms of online predation that have yet to be regulated.  Another unfortunate aspect of personal data collection is that most consumers do not realize the depth and use of the information that they freely share online and they are not informed enough to make good decisions about who uses their information.