Black box spreadsheet

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A black box spreadsheet is a new concept. It is shared public spreadsheet with a share option of "protected; invisible".

The spreadsheet can be "invoked" essentially as a hidden calculator, receiving its "input" from cells in one spreadsheet (which also might have a real-time live data feed) and providing its "output" in one or more cells. The fact that nobody, except the creator or owner of the spreadsheet, can see how the calculation is performed, qualifies a spreadsheet of this type as a black box spreadsheet.

1 Origin
2 Opening the box
3 Potential Dangers
4 See also

[edit] Origin

This concept is an extension of the "protected" attribute of a spreadsheet cell - where a cells' contents cannot be changed (especially formulae). It applies principally to the future use of shared public spreadsheets where an intermediate spreadsheet performs a "secret" (or proprietary) calculation or a series of calculations that nobody is meant to be able to discover. It is analogous to program source code that is not "open source".

This is essentially "black art" or magic computing.

Cunning folk (clever persons or problem domain experts with sole access to "secret knowledge") could set themselves up as "wizards" and "ply their wares" (offer their services) for a fee.

The concept is similar to a professional such as a solicitor (lawyer or attorney) or accountant providing expert advice on legal or accountancy matters. The difference being, in this case, that the professional has "hard coded" his or her expertise into a form instantly useable by the public via shared public spreadsheets, rather than on a "one-to-one" basis.

[edit] Opening the box

Because of the possibility of incorporating live data feeds (or simply direct 'keyed' entry of data by the individual expert in a 'hands-on' fashion) into the black box, there may be a large element of undecipherable expertise. In addition, the expert may, at any time, alter the method of calculation without forewarning.

[edit] Potential Dangers

Because the black box spreadsheet is essentially a closed system from the perspective of the end user, it is potentially open to abuse by unscrupulous experts. Consider for example financial stock picking or commodity trading where it may be possible to influence the value of these by temporarily rigging data within the normally trusted black box!