The Fifth Information Age is characterised by the ubiquitous recording of social transactions in an explosion of persistent cultural memory. A person who contributes to social media is an agent who creates digital cultural artefacts. The internet of things, of personal devices for the capture, creation, transmission, and output of information means everyone is potentially an author, a publisher, a distributor, with a profound impact on traditional methods of authority control. The focus of authority control is shifting from the provision of a unique label for an individual person or group to the description of an individual as an instance of a class, as an entity.

Continue reading