The Open Society Paradox: Why The Twenty-first Century Calls For More Openness--not Less

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Summary: Timely & thought provoking!
Review: Bailey has distilled the issues of privacy and security in the 21st century into a very readable and informative work! I highly recommend The Open Society Paradox to scholars, policy makers, and any citizen concerned with the security of our nation and world. This book offers a fresh perspective on privacy and openness that is sure to initiate constructive debate on what may become the most shaping issue of our century.

Read this book!!

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Summary: Can the Internet save liberty in the War on Terrorism?
Review: Dennis Bailey says it can because the internet forces a new, higher level of transparency and accountability on government by giving citizens greater, more immediate knowledge of what is going on behind previously closed official doors. He also says the key to protecting individual liberty while fighting the Global War on Terrorism is for our society to become more transparent to the government.

That probably sounds sinister (it did to me at first,too), but Bailey makes an extremely persuasive case for the idea that advanced technologies for reliably verifying identity and the ability to do extraordinarily complicated pattern searches while combing billions of pieces of data generated by the everyday activities of people offers us greater security. The reason is because using these tools the government is more likely to identify terrorists among us before they are able to strike us again.

Bailey addresses the Big Brother fears by contending that America's system of checks and balances has always and will continue to correct abuses. Lincoln suspended habeaus corpus during the Civil War, for example, but a year after the war ended the Supreme Court ruled the suspension was unconstitutional.

He also argues that sufficient procedural safeguards can be required when the government establishes anti-terrorist systhems based on these advanced technologies. As an example, pattern queries would require prior approval by a congressional authority and such queries would remain anonymous until probable cause was found and a federal judge approved federal authorities moving forward with an investigation.

I have my own doubts about the ultimate efficacy of the checks and balances and procedural safeguards, which I describe at length on my blog, Tapscott's Copy Desk. Bailey has a lengthy response there, too.

Even so, this is an extremely important book that presents a persuasive case for an approach that could give America a decisive edge in the war against terrorism while protecting the civil liberties we all cherish.

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Summary: Vital information for every US citizen!
Review: Post 9/11, we have strong advocates for security at all costs. Others insist on blindly protecting our privacy, even at the expense of security. Both sides have valid points. Yet no one has come forward with a way to resolve these polarizing issues--until now.

I highly recommend Dennis Bailey's The Open Society Paradox. For the first time, someone has taken a thought-provoking, sensible approach that challenges both extreme positions on this issue. Objective and practical, this author offers insights and doable solutions to these issues critical to our times.

I notice that Paradox has been brought out by the same publisher who did Imperial Hubris. This book is a must read!


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Summary: Privacy vs. Openness
Review: The Open Society Paradox is a refreshing approach to the staid privacy / security debate that we too often hear in this country. Bailey's argument that instead of more security or more privacy, we need more openness, is a more realistic approach to the direction our technologically-oriented society is headed. Greater security only ends up restricting our freedoms; we saw this at the conventions in DC and Boston when the cities were shut down with road blocks and random searches. At the same time, protecting privacy and anonymity when terrorists live in our country makes it impossible for the government to serve the common defense; when everyone is anonymous, everyone is a potential terrorist. Bailey takes on both the Bush administration and their penchant for too much secrecy and the privacy movement who argue for greater anonymity without providing any solutions to the problem of terrorism. While his vision of the future may be too optimistic for some, his description of a world with a million eyes watching one another is right in line with the proliferation of surveillance cameras and camera phones. The question is whether a million eyes can use the mass commoditization of surveillance to keep Big Brother in check. The Open Society Paradox makes a strong case that it can.



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Summary: Privacy vs. Openness-- A New Perspective
Review: The Privacy vs. Openness debate is probably one that will continue for years and years. This is one of the great paradoxes of our time. Personally, I have grown tired of hearing the same people voicing the same tired banter. When I saw Dennis Bailey's book I thought it would be more of the same played out song. However, after reading Bailey's book, I was pleasantly surprised. Bailey addresses the same debate with new insight and a new perspective. Not only does he provide new ideas, but he presents them in a clear easy to read manner. In a time where national security is of utmost concern, I highly recommend this book to everyone.