2003-06-15
... ? The Observer | Business | John Naughton: A perfect match for political protestIn the current hysterical atmosphere, putting an anti-Bush poster in your window might result in a brick being thrown through it. Alternatively, of course, it might result in a ring at the doorbell and a neighbour saying 'Thank God someone has spoken out against this nonsense'. The point is that you cannot know in advance, and nobody is willing to take the risk. Now comes a thought that links Amazon with political atomisation. In principle, it would be possible to use collaborative filtering and other data matching techniques to allow people safely to describe themselves in terms of political or ideological values, and then provide them with anonymised contact details of others in their locality who have similar profiles.
