fyi, apologies for cross-post to those on both lists.
cheers
martin

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 14:07:42 -0500
From: Anthony Townsend <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Urban Technology & Telecommunications
    <[log in to unmask]>
To: Urban Technology & Telecommunications <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Wired - "A Dissertation So Good It Might Be Classified"

cool maps on the site, check it out.
Sean also did some interesting (and as yet unclassified) work for the
Taub Urban Research Center's NSF project on "Information Technology and
the Future of Urban Environments" several years ago

http://www.informationcity.org/research/web-factories/index.htm
Where are the Web Factories? The Urban Bias of e-Business Location
by Sean Gorman
February 2001

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Issue 12.01 - January 2004

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/start.html?pg=10

A Dissertation So Good It Might Be Classified

Sean Gorman knows where all the US fiber-optic cable is buried. He can
fire up his digital map, then zoom in on a bank in Manhattan, drill
down to a critical cable feeding a Nebraska nuclear power plant, and
pinpoint the data lines serving a military installation in San Diego.
No wonder the government wants to confiscate his dissertation.

For his doctorate in public policy, the George Mason University student
set out to pinpoint the network's weaknesses in 2002. He mined public
records, then used a series of algorithms to build fine-grained models.
The result is the most comprehensive map of the nation's fiber-optic
infrastructure - a network that handles Internet traffic, landline and
mobile calls, military communication, financial transfers, air traffic
control, and data transmissions to power grids and water systems.

Gorman, 29, is scheduled to defend his dissertation in January. But
officials from the National Security Agency, the FBI, the CIA, and the
Department of Homeland Security have said his project would be valuable
to terrorists and should be classified as top secret - even Gorman
himself wouldn't be allowed to read it. Former White House
cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke suggested the work be burned.

So far, George Mason - which is eligible for research funding from the
DHS - is cooperating with the government, keeping Gorman's work under
wraps. Gorman believes his maps and analysis should be published, but
only with the approval of the Feds. "The US university system is a
great asset for developing technology," he says. "But it needs to work
collaboratively with the government." In his case, there may not be
much choice.


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