Social software is getting better and better all the time at having more nuanced and granular control over permissions in a way that mimics the real world.
The fact is, though, that we can invest time solving those problems until we solve the blank slate problem every socially aware app faces.
That is, we need a way for the apps to get the data, then we can add layers of innovation on top.
At the end of the day, though, people just want to share far and wide at the moment - they don't seem to care about the subtle real-world interactions. Yet.
Mike
· 1 year ago
(Sorry Chris, I edited just as you commented)
Thanks for weighing in. I'm curious to see how long the trend to 'share far and wide' lasts. As I just pointed out in my edit, I think it indicates the stunning impact of technology's shortcomings back onto human behavior. Will the effects be permanent? Is the perceived importance of personal privacy altogether on the decline?
Also, for me, I'm taking as a given a new blank slate outside the walled networks. If I build my own identity endpoint, I'm in complete control of the data there, but I'm still left asking, what to share?
In the long run, I'm less interested in how to my "Facebook data" onto another corporately controlled website, than I am in imagining what ad-hoc open networks are possible with independent control of my identity and social data.
Chris Messina
· 1 year ago
I think there are a couple factors here.
First, one of the problems will not be about achieving privacy; it will be about getting heard in the din of democratized technology. When everyone's publishing, how do you rise above and get your ideas heard? This is a fundamental shift -- one that's quite unintuitive for previous generations who felt that anonymity could provide protection.
Second, the web needs to invert itself from a service-centric world where you must repeat your identity on all of them to a user- or citizen-of-the-web-centric orientation. This is what technologies like OpenID are all about... can you define yourself as the primary authority about yourself without relying on a third party service? You should be able to -- but today we know people by the services they use, rather than by the multi-faceted individuals that they are (potentially with accounts across multiple services).
Third, one thing that we need to begin to cope with — or adjust our expectations about — is the concept of decay, which of course is absent from digital technology where everything is designed to persist, perhaps, indefinitely. What does it mean when you can connect with your preschool friends on Facebook after you've graduated from college? Would that be a meaningful or useful relationship? Would such connections crowd out more happenstance but possibly deeper relationships that might spawn from random associations, or by affiliating oneself with people with similar interests.
In other words, we live in a time of information and social abundance; the same assumptions that worked in a time of relative isolation and desolation should no longer apply.
I've written about these subjects previously. Might interest you:
All Comments
The fact is, though, that we can invest time solving those problems until we solve the blank slate problem every socially aware app faces.
That is, we need a way for the apps to get the data, then we can add layers of innovation on top.
At the end of the day, though, people just want to share far and wide at the moment - they don't seem to care about the subtle real-world interactions. Yet.
Thanks for weighing in. I'm curious to see how long the trend to 'share far and wide' lasts. As I just pointed out in my edit, I think it indicates the stunning impact of technology's shortcomings back onto human behavior. Will the effects be permanent? Is the perceived importance of personal privacy altogether on the decline?
Also, for me, I'm taking as a given a new blank slate outside the walled networks. If I build my own identity endpoint, I'm in complete control of the data there, but I'm still left asking, what to share?
In the long run, I'm less interested in how to my "Facebook data" onto another corporately controlled website, than I am in imagining what ad-hoc open networks are possible with independent control of my identity and social data.
First, one of the problems will not be about achieving privacy; it will be about getting heard in the din of democratized technology. When everyone's publishing, how do you rise above and get your ideas heard? This is a fundamental shift -- one that's quite unintuitive for previous generations who felt that anonymity could provide protection.
Second, the web needs to invert itself from a service-centric world where you must repeat your identity on all of them to a user- or citizen-of-the-web-centric orientation. This is what technologies like OpenID are all about... can you define yourself as the primary authority about yourself without relying on a third party service? You should be able to -- but today we know people by the services they use, rather than by the multi-faceted individuals that they are (potentially with accounts across multiple services).
Third, one thing that we need to begin to cope with — or adjust our expectations about — is the concept of decay, which of course is absent from digital technology where everything is designed to persist, perhaps, indefinitely. What does it mean when you can connect with your preschool friends on Facebook after you've graduated from college? Would that be a meaningful or useful relationship? Would such connections crowd out more happenstance but possibly deeper relationships that might spawn from random associations, or by affiliating oneself with people with similar interests.
In other words, we live in a time of information and social abundance; the same assumptions that worked in a time of relative isolation and desolation should no longer apply.
I've written about these subjects previously. Might interest you:
http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2008/06/11/thoughts-...
http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/11/11/privacy-p...
http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/06/05/privacy-w...
http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/01/24/pry-to