Saturday, August 08, 2009

Google Wave Implications for Government and Security

One interesting question at the Google Wave hackerthon is the implications for corporate users (and government) with security and accountability. Because the waves are dynamic, many security measures designed for email (and adapted from paper documents) are not applicable. In terms of accountability the dynamic and group nature may cause problems. However, it occurs to me that the way the components of the wave (Wavelets) are separately maintained and labeled could improve security and accountability. This might create problems of its own, particularly in a political environment. Not only would it be possible to see who wrote what (avoiding the problem which occupied Parliament for several days recently). What might make corporate user less comfortable is that it would be possible to reconstruct exactly who changed what text when, allowing for a forensic analysis when a disaster occurs, such as the in the case of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.

No comments: