LISNews: Librarian News

My son recently convinced me to read Neal Stephenson\'s \'Cryptonomicon,\' a great read. In the book, some of the main characters try to set up a \'data haven\', a secure location that hosts internet services and is under no government imposed regulations.

He added that it turns out that the people at HavenCo (havenco.com) are setting up a data haven of their own, on the Island Nation of Sealand (A WWII British military installation 6 miles off the coast of England). You can read about the data haven at the first link, and you can read the unbelievable story of Sealand at the second link.

The second link, is as my son told me, really funny. It describes the checkered and colorful past of this smallest nation on earth.

At one point in the 1960\'s the Prinicpality of SeaHaven was the base for a pirate radio station. At another it tried to rely on selling rare postage stamps and, well, obscure passports. Now the issue is data privacy. Sort of like a Swiss bank for companies in search of a place to store data that governments cannot subpoena. That there can be both legitimate and less savory needs for such privacy is as true for a secure data haven as it has always been for Swiss banks.

Privacy is a critical library issue, no? Which library do you suppose will be Sealand DataHaven\'s first customer?

http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/biztech/articles/04have.html\"

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0004/03/features/features2.html >http://www.smh.com.au/news/0004/03/features/features2.html

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,36749,00.html

Thomas J. Hennen Jr.
http://www.haplr-index.com
6014 Spring Street
Racine,WI 53406
Voice: 414-886-1625 Fax: 414-886-5424
thennen@haplr-index.com