NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/comp/org/eff/talk/6992

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-12 | 1.8 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!know!hri.com!noc.near.net!inmet!bu.edu!purdue!ames!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!news.cc.swarthmore.edu!plummer
From: [e-mail] (David Barker-Plummer)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: A Modest Proposal
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 12 Nov 92 20:26:03 GMT
Sender: [e-mail] (USENET News System)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
Lines: 23
Nntp-Posting-Host: cilantro.cs.swarthmore.edu

I have been wondering if anyone out there in cyberspace has knowledge
of any databases of information on corporations and organizations.

My ideal would be for a random person to be able to request a random
corporation's file from the database, and find in it information about
whether the corporation (or its CEO) gives money to political parties,
and if so which ones, whether the corporation has political positions
either explicit or implicit, and so on.  One might choose, for
example, to boycott corporations which donate money to the Republican
(or Democratic) party, invest in South Africa, support anti-abortion
rights organizations and so on.  Right now it is significantly
difficult to get this information, as it would be for corporations to
get informations about our credit ratings were it not for TRW et al.

I think that it would be good to have a database of such information
which would enable consumers to make better informed choices about the
companies with which we do business.  This may result in more socially
responsible corporations in the long run.  My intention is to subvert
the dominant use of computer databases to record information about
*us*, to instead record information about those corporations.

I am sure that this is not a new idea, and I would like to hear of
efforts along these lines.