Sadly missing

An old, half forgotten letter caused me to search for a lost, close friend on the internet recently. After a long search I only found one reference - It was her obituary.

Partly the shock of finding that obituary, and the strong desire to find something, anything, that showed her as she had lived, made me realise that as far as people are concerned, the internet is still not much more than a cross between an address book and a telephone. On one hand it is easy to find beaurocratic facts about someone, whilst on the other you can tell if a friend is online or throw a message out to them. It is a different matter if you want to get a glimpse of the person, at best all you can do is follow a series of clues and piece them together, if they are over a certain age this becomes scant, if they are fully subscribed to the social web, it is as trivial as a myspace wallpaper choice.

Of course none of this is surprising, we are daily reminded of the risk of being too open online, but in truth that risk is primarily economic and physical, providing that beurocratic details such as account numbers and addresses are kept separate from the biographic then where is the risk? after all we all walk and act in the real world without the need for a cloak of invisibility.
In a sense we still use the web as a glorified beurocratic portal, assuming that our national insurance and bank account details precede every transaction, yet there is obviously a place for poetry and biography here, surely that is where we should look to find our friends?

So I must pay tribute to my old friend Debbie Fogg for reminding me of the importance of people, long after she has departed. I am sure she would be pleased that I will continue to try to wave her flag (of deepest red). Although I haven't met them, I wish her friends and relatives, especially her children Rebecca, Ewan and Caitlin and partner Kenny, my deepest sympathy and hope for the future.