2 posts tagged “choicepoint”
When asked recently how many news groups or online associations would currently include me as a member my answer was one. If asked how many I have participated in over the past 15 years you could multiply that number by 100. To be honest, I don’t have the patience for the wannabes, the trolls, the flamers and every other meatball looking for some sort of self actualization with outrageous posts on the web. When a community becomes noxious I pull the plug. The internet is enough of a time sink as it is.
Certainly everyday human interaction is rife with people who get their jollies by attracting attention to themselves. From the grocery store to the sidewalk there are some interesting characters out there. Judith Donath describes the one online community I actively participate in; a technical news group that is closely moderated by a respected member. I trust that he will keep the discussions on point and target the miscreants who are only interested in the negative attention.
But I am concerned about those personas on the web that have nefarious intentions. How much different is it to spoof a website by phishing for dupes than a 45-year-old guy chatting with my 9 year old sons as they play with their PSPs online? They are playing on the same gullible nature of the uninformed and uninitiated. These are creeps, and it makes me nauseous to think of the messages my kids get when all they wanted was to play ATV. Sure I modify the settings on the game connection, and yes that curtails it for a while, but some of these folks are really scummy.
When they were little, my daughters played dress-up. They could spend the day pretending to be queen, or mom or an alien with six heads. Trying on a new persona for size seems to be a part of the human psyche. And we have all been in jobs that required us to present a persona that didn’t ring true. But I grow weary of people spoofing a persona online or making up accomplishments to bolster their credibility. Patricia Wallace refers to this evolutionary phase of the web as a new laboratory for experiments. A place where we can construct and sculpt new identities. I am fine with nuanced shadings… Defining oneself as more courageous, or extroverted or sexy. As Wallace points out, some of those experiments can spill over positively into everyday F2F interactions. But too much of it is just crap. Or worse, a safe way to practice antisocial behavior. After a while you can spot them with ease, but only after being spoofed once too often.
Terveen and McDonald describe social matching systems that are dependent on the quality of data aggregated. Certainly mining for information that is both collaborative and content-based has become sophisticated big business. But a large part of that data is still dependent on the information the users feed into the system. And if that data is corrupt, or if the user’s intentions are misguided, then the connections created by these matching systems is correspondingly suspect. In addition, I don’t really like the idea of Opportunistic Social Matching, where connections are made because someone is watching my current and past activities. Not only does this strike me as frighteningly Orwellian, but I will be really hacked off when this data is cross-referenced with all of the commerce-based data that is sitting on a server in Atlanta. I would prefer that I have the opportunity to manage how I am presented on the web, and if someone is going to connect the dots for me, then I want it exposed so I can control how the data is used.
Perhaps I am overly sensitive, but the more I read for this class the more I realize the emerging tools of the web are in no way designed for users like me. As a married father of four who was born during the Eisenhower administration, I see little in this technology that is directly germane to my life and my interests. I know I am not alone.
I have a rich and full circle of friends. Personally managing those primary and secondary contacts requires what little spare time and effort I have available. These new technologies are more clutter in my life, not new and streamlined tools that create time. And my life is packed with the hundreds of people I have met and known over the past nearly five decades. To quote Farnham, et. al., “The primary reason people used social technologies was to interact with friends and family, not to meet new people.” On the surface, the sizzle from the steak of the Social Web seems tasty, but the more I try and take a bite the more bitter the aftertaste. Why are the over 35 demographics so underserved?
Sure money talks. Repeatedly these articles illuminate that the early adopters (ergo the money stream) is under 35. I would guess the hope is these technologies will percolate into technologies for geezers. Swell. After reading four research articles and one chapter all I see is a lot of chrome and not a lot of car. Too often these emerging accessories are about the process, not the results. One thing that Google and Amazon may have taught us is that the technology often needs to be neither opaque nor transparent. It often works best when it is translucent. As a user you have an inkling of what is happening in the background, but really you don’t care. Above all make it secure, and if you also make it easy and reliable I will be a repeat customer.
The other thing that both Google and Amazon illustrate is the perception of trustworthiness with a web site. I have a higher degree of confidence that Choicepoint is not going to get my usage and purchase data from either of those sites. With Match or Friendster or Facebook it seems far more likely my personal information will be shared as a new revenue stream for a cash-strapped start-up. I am thrilled that the “prevailing conservative notions about privacy” are prevailing. Once my data is freely circulated I don’t get it back. Would it be nice if there were shared standards and open frameworks for data? Perhaps. But I want to control it.
Maybe my demographics are underserved because we value our privacy and community more than a 21-year-old desperate to make friends. Maybe we are underserved because we take a “wait and see” perspective on new technology (remember the mini-disk? How about High Definition Audio.) All too often these tools are creating a web of the id. And that holds no interest for me.
