The Internet, in its current design, does not have a way to manage critical information such as owner, address, political figure, area(s) of responsibility, and contact information. Google Places does, but it requires manually entry and is voluntary. For example, each County or State Government site publishes these details based on authoritative guidance on what should be published and lacks standards on what information is published where and how to manage or secure that data for protection or use. County and State sites and systems are varied, non-standardized, and the publishing of information or systems is left to local powers, limiting opportunity for integrated information management and analysis, forcing manual data calls to answer national or global questions. While empowering federal, state, and local agencies to organize and publish information however they want provides creativity and leeway, it slows other critical tasks and limits opportunity. A few simple examples are included:
- National or Local Alerts, such as COVID-19s global pandemic requires the notification and custom messaging on each site, when a national alert system could swiftly update in a standardized manner across the United States, eliminating confusion, and rapidly alerting users in a standardized manner.
- The publishing of standardized Local, Federal, State, and Commercial Company information in a structured database enables data management and provides necessary insight to effectively manage the country and improves economic understanding and forecast. While this information is managed by business reports sent to the IRS, it is important and useful for other businesses and economists and the Internet which can make Data Management for E-Commerce, Advertising, Taxation, and Economic Advancement more efficient.
Standardizing data publishing and management with security or privacy protocols makes the internet a more organized and integrated place. When systems work together properly, the systems footprint is reduced, saving both time and money on data management, human resources, and operating costs. It also reduces waste on advertising budgets, providing vendors and suppliers more accurate targeted information restricted to qualified customers, based on set queries. Standardized systems, using a database, increases capability in planning, real time information, reduces data gathering efforts and when properly implemented in both Government and Commerce, paves the way for better Economic Planning and Management. The Internet gives us opportunity to standardize and improve, but its current design is text or keyword based, limiting opportunity to compile local, regional, or global information. This forces companies or organizations to individually invest in Data Managers, Programmers, and Engineers to design and answer only immediate questions at hand and not create solid, globally useful integrated query and compilation systems. Our current media design is for entertainment purposes, when it could be designed to do so much more.
A start to a more efficient Internet Information Management strategy is to hire engineers to design a system that answers common questions for multiple and frequent uses or reduces tasks on multiple levels. I shouldn’t have to go to 5 different places with 5 different logins and passwords to receive messages. Opportunity to create niche software by individual industry providers, for companies like Intuit, a leader in Business Finance and Tax software was given and the software became the industry standard and is not connected to E-Commerce Internet Solutions. An individual industry approach leads to mismanagement, non-standardization, and security problems, as we’ve experienced. As an Internet user, business owner, and student, I should be able to query the Internet using parameters to locate specific information, such as every Fast Food Restaurant or Park in my County and save the list for additional use as mail list or other purpose, but am restricted and forced to conduct multiple keyword based searches and create my own database which are useful for other Data Engineers. Results are flooded with publishers who provide aggregate information or data from those who have taken advantage of such opportunity by providing data and physical delivery services, requiring the creation of another manual information compiler using a spreadsheet or new database. As a business owner, I shouldn’t even have to compile tax information – my E-Commerce System already has the information stored from online transactions and has the information it needs to submit to the system that manages my Profit & Loss Statement, and the IRS.
Google Places and Maps has made finding businesses easier but is limited to location only and does not offer other useful business data. While this provides future business opportunity for Commerce Data Providers, it limits opportunity for small and growing businesses, making it unaffordable to advertise and continues a path of unorganized, non-integrated, individually crafted volunteer data management. Search engines addressed this problem by setting specific criteria for ‘naturally’ appearing in search engines, giving businesses an opportunity to be found without paying a price, but it is limited, non-standardized, and cumbersome for publishers programmers and has in fact, turned into an area of service and profit for technical marketing companies. Facebook headed down the same path of providing a place for Business Listings called Pages and provided search engine capability called Open Graph, which provided greater search parameters to include number of employees, hours of operation, business size, category, and other data points (Facebook OGP, 2020). This gave Facebook major control in Business Information, requiring regulation and oversite to manage competition, privacy, security, and compliance. Their efforts essentially duplicated the Internet and although it offers a nice feature, it’s data duplication, does not work properly, and limits search engines and other Social Media sites such as LinkedIn or commercial competitors. The Internet and Information Management would be better controlled and managed by working together in a top level official system that works with People, Businesses, and Regulations that manage Licensing, Law Enforcement, Emergency, the Internet Revenue Service, Traditional and Advanced Media services, Internet and Technology Service Providers, Partners, and System users.