The Big Faceless Technology Challenge
I came acrss an interesting article on theServerSide.com today (here), some guy claiming that Ajax could infringe on your privacy. He’s right you know, up to a point. I gave my reply on TSS, I won’t repeat it here.
Well, not all of it, anyway. Computers have the potential to infringe on your civil liberty, by making it easier to collect, store and sift through information. This is an important issue, but I don’t think Ajax is unique or even unusual in this respect.
Assessing the impact of a new technology is always a matter of crystal-ball gazing. Weigh up your starry-eyed Trekkie optimism against your gothic Philip-Dick-ian dystopian. Both speak the truth, partially.
Here’s the challenge. Name any hot new technology from the last five years, I bet it’s possible to dream up three ways in which it can save the world, and three ways it’ll keep us in chains forever. I’ll kick things off with a quick list for Ajax:
Ajax will save to save the world because…
- it allows you to work with your real applications anywhere, anytime
- more efficient use of the network reduces infrastructure needs
- the new kind of workflow empowers users to be more responsible and proactive, rather than tying them in to slavishly following pre-defined scripts (see Pawson & Matthews ‘Naked Objects’ book and Java/.Net framework)
Dr. Evil/Lex Luthor/The Fat Controller love Ajax because…
- your data is no longer your own, and can be re-written without your knowledge
- control on when to upgrade an app is centralised
- the forces of darkness can see you hovering over that ‘click the monkey’ ad
(I think I’m a dystopian at heart. While writing each of the positive statements, I was busily formulating counter-arguments in my head, but I struggle to come up with positive rebuttals for the second list. Excuse me while I go eat my own shadow.)
Have a nice day. We’ll be watching you :0)