On 8/16/2010 6:42 PM, Lauren Weinstein wrote:
Report: Google CEO predicts name-changing option at adulthood
http://bit.ly/acXA7V (Read Write Web)
--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator
Schmidt's idea is definitely thought-provoking, but after that extremely
brief initial thought, silly.
One can see that with the advent of a fully indexed collection of
on-line social networking exchanges, especially by young people not
really thinking about the implications in the future, we could easily
end up with an entire generation of people that would be, given a quick
Google search, "un-hirable or un-electable" by today's standards.
Ignoring the fact that this would simply result in changing today's
standards, it does make Schmidt's idea sound useful, and not unlike laws
which wipe a child's criminal record at 18.
But after a brief pause, one realizes that search technology (something
Schmidt should know a bit about) would most likely be able to connect a
child's adolescent name with his or her post-Rumspringa name
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumspringa). Especially given the fact
that name changes would be a matter of public record, and more and more
public records are online and search-able. Actually, one could argue
easily that they /all/ should be online and search-able, as the Internet
is the modern day equivalent of publication in a newspaper or recording
in a town hall ledger. I mean really, Google's not going to be able to
figure out a name change, but it can predict what I'm searching for as I
type into the address bar of Chrome?
Even if legislation prohibited use of "adolescent name change" records
for such search connections, the wealth of online information in social
networks would make it easy to connect old names with new.
And consider the social networking fun:
John Smith: Hey, everyone here, please "friend" my new profile under
"Jon Smith" -- I just did the "new name at 18" thing!
Jane Doe: Will do John, err, I mean Jon! But I almost didn't see
your message -- I have a new profile and don't log into this one
often anymore! My new name is "Jayne Smith" 'cause I just turned
18 too!
