could become part of some very exciting applications that could be used for purposes ranging from academic research to location-based mobile services. All of a sudden, this is not just about building family trees, but realizing the potential of the Semantic Web.
Another thought occurred to me as I mulled this scenario: What if Google (or some other company) not only made available old census forms another vital records that have entered the public domain, but also digitized and indexed new public records that now mostly exist as paper or locally stored electronic documents? Consider what might be included:
- Records from municipal assessors' offices
- Court transcripts
- Legislative correspondence
- Business applications
- Tax records
- Environmental surveys
- Campaign records
- Budget documents
- Crime reports
The enormous resources required for such an initiative makes any large-scale private effort unlikely, but within most of our lifetimes I believe these public records will find their way onto the Web, perhaps via some sort of government-backed initiative to make the switch from paper to digital records at all levels of government.
Opening up the data gathered by local, state, federal, and international bureaus would provide valuable insights into our society and the way it is governed. But some of the data would also be disturbing, and potentially very troubling for some. Crime records and divorce proceedings are usually a matter of public record, but relatively few are indexed by search engines or other public-facing applications on the Web.
Consider what the Webification of these data would that mean for local, state, and federal bureaucracies. How would it affect their operations? How would services based upon online records impact digital media, social networking, and other companies that do business on the Web? How would they impact you personally, not only in terms of how you use the Web, but also how your existence is viewed by others? Use the comment form below to post your answers.
(Image: Sample from the U.S. Census of 1790, source: University of Michigan website/Clements library)
(Note: There will be a follow-up article published on The Industry Standard later this week. The article will be linked from this page.)
More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:
- News: TGN CEO promises to open Ancestry.com to developers
- Analysis: Google pushes towards 70 percent of all U.S. searches; Yahoo, Microsoft push towards zero percent
- Analysis: The future of the Web is 3D, not video
- Analysis: Microsoft's struggle to innovate and lead on the 'Net
- News: The 3D future, according to Microsoft: A Photosynth-based "Spatial Web"
- Industry Standard Daily Newsletter Signup
Comments
Gathering public records is easier said than done.
I run a site called EveryBlock.com, which (among other things) collects public records for a number of American cities. It's a tremendous amount of work, because every government agency in every city does things differently. There's no one-size-fits-all solution to acquiring the data. And that's not even counting the mounds of paper that haven't been digitized yet!
Adrian @ EveryBlock
Google is already indexing Ancestry.com data.
Go to http://news.google.com/archivesearch and search for "Asa French" (my gggg grandfather) and the third hit is to Ancestry.com. Of course you will need a subscription to Ancestry.com to see the data.
(Most of the hits in the Google news archive are subscription. You can skip them by using an option in the advanced search page.)
I work on a website, http://www.publicrecordswire.com, that allows users to search for public records currently available online and submit their own public records databases. The best part? This site is 100% free. We don't have the resources that ancestry.com or genealogy.com has, but we do have almost 1600 public records databases.
Sounds aweful to me... that would mean the world is one more step closer to big brother. With a search you could find out almost anything about anyone. Don't have to go to the courthouse to see anything about anyone because just search and find it in a few clicks. Identity theft would be even more rampant. Bank asks what's your mother's maiden name? Just google and find out, then break into everyone's accounts.
Correct me if I'm wrong but you seem to be talking mostly about information that is publicy available. This data is made available by the authorities for good reason. Making it easier to access can only be a good thing.
Whether Google makes this data available in an easy to access format is of almost no consequence. As technology advances, these records will be stored and made available in easier to access ways by the authorities themselves. Someone like Google doing it simply speeds up the process.
The Dangers Of Using Free Public Records on google search.Here's an article on it:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7425640/httprecordonlineguideblogspotcom
Post new comment