NYT article on web 2.0 – 3.0 privacy

here’s a well-researched and lengthy article examining the issue of privacy, and the legalities surrounding the matter of ‘identity’ in the digital age – starting with instances of employers using online searches to determine whether or not employees should keep their jobs, or even be employed in the first place. alerted to this on the email list by one of our old hands, and well worth the read.


the discussion in the article is based on the fact that we have the ability now to keep permanent records of everything everyone has ever posted or written on the internet. the article also deals with the potential of web3.0 to search and find almost anything anyone might wish to track…using new technologies such as face recognition for example….


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html


slideshows re affordances

without sound, this slideshow seems somehow lacking in depth.. and, well, lacking in the use of the affordances of the web wrt availablity of recorded sound as well, i have to admit.

at the same time, the slides are to some degree self-explanatory and an enjoyable way to think on the notion of ‘affordances’ and what it might mean for web design.



and then this one is packed with so much information, you need to have your finger ready on the *pause* button to take it all in adequately.



Google Buzzt



Suppose that internet users were differentiated using a descriptive vector consisting of, on one side, the trail of specific information they volunteer, on another side, their various utilization modes, and, on a third side, their estimation about what their attitude is toward the dissemination of their own data.

For example, in our email discussion group we discovered some users thought their personal musings brought into the mode of a text-only dialog were basically private because it was believed it was unlikely any user with a pernicious intent would invest their time in seeking out and data mining and re-deploying the data of the dialog.

So, this vector, once the data was triangulated, could report out the often contradictory attitudes upon which the internet thrives, as a useful source of (and for,) so-called user-data.

Posed against these differentiations are the various threats and deployments, about which many users are unaware. There could be illusions extant on this other side too.

***

Meanwhile…the bust of google buzz happened so quickly that it barely has had time to pass into internet legend. How quickly?

Google Inc., owner of the most-used Internet search engine, was sued over allegations its Buzz social-networking service violated the privacy rights of users of the company’s Gmail service.

Buzz, introduced by Mountain View, California-based Google in February, automatically displayed to other users the customer’s contacts pulled from Google Gmail accounts. Google has said it modified the e-mail service after customers complained.

The complaint, filed April 5 in federal court in San Jose, California, follows a letter sent to federal antitrust authorities last month by 10 members of Congress. The lawmakers urged an investigation into whether Buzz compromised users’ privacy.

“Google has publicly admitted that its Buzz program presents privacy concerns, and Google has made several waves of modifications to the program,” according to the lawsuit. The changes “do not go far enough,” and the error “already caused damage because the Buzz program disclosed private user information the moment Google launched the service.” Google Sued Over Claims Buzz Violated Privacy Rights


Hmmm, this tickles my sense of irony.

2. Their is NO VALUE with Google Buzz as I mentioned earlier. Who wants something that has already been done before? As I said, it’s FriendFeed, but worse to every degree! I feel when using the platform that it offers a very messy experience. I don’t enjoy it. There’s so much going on that I don’t want to even bother checking it. Social Tech Zone: Google Buzz At This Point Is Google Bust


It is not simple to both protect privacy and promote the development of a healthy network. Facebook was the first to prove that privacy controls can foster the growth of social networks, but as the Beacon episode and Facebook’s recent privacy changes both demonstrated, even the most experienced social media companies can go sideways when it comes to privacy. When rolling out any kind of new social media platform or application, companies should always engage in extensive, privacy-centered user testing before releasing any social networking products to the public. Leslie Harris-Buzz or Bust?


Slashdot Thread

***

Elsewhere, this news hit at the same time as happened the Google Buzz rollout.

Google Ultrafast Broadband May Shake Up Fiber Market

As I like to maintain, it helps to have a sense of irony.

Review: Four books concerning Web2.0 media

Cooper, S. D. 2006: Watching the watchdog: Bloggers as the fifth estate. Spokane: Marquette Books.

Levinson, P. 2009: New new media. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

O’Neil, M. 2009: Cyberchiefs: Autonomy and authority in online tribes. London & New York: Pluto Press.

Rettburg, J. W. 2008: Blogging. Cambridge & Malden: Polity Press.


I’ve recently read these four books dealing with different aspects of the web 2.0 world, the common thread through all of them being that they each either touch on or concentrate on the place of blogging in the current netspace. It’s difficult to compare them in terms of content and reliability, because they each have something to offer in terms of content, however my own point of view and personal areas of interest render at least two of them worthy of steering the gentle reader well clear of.

It is these two which I will deal with first.

Read the rest of this entry »

2009 In Social Media

european commission report on web2.0

announced on a sociology of computing mailing list recently, a comprehensive report on the implications of social networking. have only scanned through the report as yet, but it looks of interest.
The European Commission JRC, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies released a comprehensive report on social and economic implications of Social Computing [aka Web2.0, social media].

‘The Impact of Social Computing on the EU Information Society and Economy’
(Eds.) Yves Punie, Wainer Lusoli, Clara Centeno, Gianluca Misuraca and David Broster Authors: Kirsti Ala-Mutka, David Broster, Romina Cachia, Clara Centeno, Claudio Feijóo, Alexandra Haché, Stefano Kluzer, Sven Lindmark, Wainer Lusoli, Gianluca Misuraca, Corina Pascu, Yves Punie and José A. Valverde

Report (a large .pdf document also avaliable from…)
News release

This wide report covers different thematic areas. In addition to a cross-cutting analysis across areas in
Ch1: Key findings, Future Prospects and Policy Implications

It contains thematic analysis:
Ch2: The adoption and Use of Social Computing
Ch3: Social Computing from a Business Perspective
Ch4: Social Computing and the Mobile Ecosystem
Ch5: Social Computing and Identity
Ch6: Social Computing and Learning
Ch7: Social Computing and Social Inclusion
Ch8: Social Computing and Health
Ch9: Social Computing and Governance

Buzz Lightyear and Web 2.0

Interest in collaborative technologies gets a rocket pack?

Join Federal Computer Week and Jeanne Holm, chief knowledge architect at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for an informative eSeminar:

Cross-agency collaboration

Federal Computer Week will present an eSeminar with Jeanne Holm, chief knowledge architect at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in an eSeminar at 11 a.m. Wed., Oct. 28, where she will discuss how technology can be used to increase innovation and collaboration within government agencies.

In the past few months, the government has accelerated its adoption of Web 2.0 tools. Much emphasis has been given to public-facing blogs, but government agencies are equally focused on enhancing their internal communications. While security concerns remain a barrier to adoption, several agencies have embraced collaboration tools, tapping the ideas and insights of their workforce and creating new spaces for dialogue and engagement.

This presentation will address:

– Tools and technologies currently being used;
– The importance of providing access to common platforms across the agency;
– The role of culture and change-management in fostering collaboration;
– How to find ways to engage the public and facilitate an open exchange of ideas;
– Barriers to collaboration – including security concerns – and best-practices for overcoming them; and
– Creative solutions that NASA has employed – such as holding meetings in SecondLife – to explore the future of collaboration.

Following the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. The entire eSeminar will be made available in an online archive.


As Frank points out elsewhere, this is coming a little late to the party…

Let’s hope that change-management can engage the culture securely. But is holding meetings in SecondLife a “solution” or an experiment? I guess we’ll have to tune in to find out…

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