Identity / E2

There is a simple solution when guarantees are required against falsification of the identity of the author of a message. Each participant is supplied with a pre-printed set of "interaction stamps" on each of which the unique participant number is overprinted. One stamp is stuck on to each message, certifying the identity of its author and rendering misuse very difficult. A stamp would not be necessary for anonymous messages or pseudonyms.

If costs are a consideration, participants can be asked to pay for a set of "interaction stamps". This method may also provide a way of distinguishing between participants permitted to interact (e.g."full members") and those who are not (e.g. "observers"), or to ensure that their messages go into separate Bulletins. It may also be used to limit the possible number of written messages from different categories of participant.

How consumption starts? You just bought a beautiful dress and then you need new shoes; now your old handbag is not good enough and your old coat is out of style, so you have to buy a new hat, new gloves, new car, new business club membership and soon ... be careful of having any material desires. Long live the people who live in the world of the spirit. Ege Hirv, "Roots of the Future", Paris, 1991.

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Written by Nadia McLaren, Union of International Associations, with revisions and HTML layout by Robert Pollard, Information Habitat: Where Information Lives.