To Each His Own Web Site

You may remember my article from last week that discussed how the Internet affects everyone and everything. It examined the future of the Internet for that ubiquitous consumer item: the motor car. Further, it mentioned the fact that, soon, one day, every person in the world will have his/her own web site. This week, I’m going to look at how this could happen. Most of my conjectures are currently fictional, but some of them have already become reality.

Have you ever met someone at a cocktail party, accepted his business card, saved the card along with the 2,331 other business cards you’ve accumulated in the same fashion, and promptly forgotten the individual? Some of us are systematic enough to note a few comments on the back of the card, just to help recall the two-minute conversation we’ve had with the person. But notes from brief encounters can’t possibly illuminate the individual enough for us to remember one another meaningfully.

So, once everyone’s web site is running, it’s not difficult to imagine how these cursory acquaintances could change. Just like the car sites (discussed last week)that document every vehicle in the world via layers of information, every individual’s web site could also be composed of several layers. Further, each layer would only be available to certain categories of visitors.

So let’s imagine the cocktail party scenario once again. I have this card in my pocket. Oh yeah That was that guy I met last night. He told me he was interested in a job at my company. So, I hop online and key in the guy’s web address to access an introduction to the person on his web site. But this is just layer one.

He told me that by typing in my name, I would get access to an information layer outlining his job requirements. I type in my name and receive an entrie to the next layer. It describes the guy’s career to-date and lists his references; all of which are linked to individual sites recommending this person, and all offering to engage in a dialogue about the person via email.

I didn’t have access to the third layer of information. This was dedicated to someone special whom he had yet to meet. It didn’t concern any business, but rather was dedicated to private affairs, chat rooms, night clubs and for meeting companions.

The fourth layer was for the guy’s family. This was where his parents, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles exchanged comments,, pictures and kept up-to-date with each other. One of his family members even created a special section which revealed the family tree for the past 215 years. It had active links to the web sites and stories of more than 59 people.

In addition, this family layer also revealed the guy’s friends. It documented all the people he had met since he was a child. Almost every name (which was capable of categorization by using an intelligent keyword search function) had active links-even the deceased. The links also gave access to certain areas of the friends’ web sites and insights into their lives.

The fifth layer was dedicated to the guy’s purchasing behavior. Various icons illustrated the shopping categories (groceries, clothes, gifts, cars), and each icon led to product preference information.

Product selections were all linked to each product’s history. The nice thing about this section was that it listed every item the guy ever bought. He had given some manufacturers and outlets access to some of the data, mainly because they offered him discounts by doing so. For example, his local supermarket had the responsibility for doing his grocery shopping. It was familiar with 98 percent of his shopping list because it was based on his past shopping behavior. The store offered him a 10 percent discount on his purchase of the unvaried virtual shopping list and, if he didn’t change more than two items on it, delivery was free of charge.

The sixth layer was very private. I only had a sneak peak of it. Actually, the guy himself didn’t have access to everything in this layer. It was dedicated to his medical history: current prescriptions, hospital admissions, radiography reports, X-rays, dental history, etc… I tried to get access to the whole section to read comments from the his doctor regarding his health condition, but wasn’t allowed access to this section.

I never saw the seventh layer. Only security and law enforcement agencies and the government had access to this one. But I was told that it revealed his criminal record. Luckily he doesn’t have one, or so he claimed. But who knows?