Is Privacy an Over-Rated Legacy of the Past?

The concept of privacy is a tricky one, to say the least.  Most people, when asked for a quick response would likely tell you that privacy is very important to them and that they are concerned about who has access to what they consider “private” data about them.

However, these very same people will create Facebook accounts, wander the web without using any sort of anonymous IP cloaking, send emails without encryption and speak loudly on their cell phones at crowded restaurants.  Many people are surprised to learn that things like your home address, phone number, email and endless other data is already freely (or at least) easily accessible to anyone handy with a few search engines and a database or two.

As we willingly share more and more information about our day-to-day lives via Twitter or Facebook status updates one has to wonder if we might not be better served giving up on this false sense of privacy and just open the floodgates.

As Matt Asay at CNet says:

Think about it. My in-box already knows where I’m traveling, what I buy, etc. because my receipts go there. If someone were to merge this data with my phone records (easily had for the price of my AT&T login credentials), my e-mail log, and my Twitter, IM, and social network data, they’d know exactly who I know and where I’m likely to bump into them…I’d love to automatically be told that my good friend Mike is in London at the same time as I am, and have a service suggest a reservation at a favorite restaurant (which it would know through my past OpenTable reservations). I’d “pay” for that by giving up a lot of data.        LINK

At first glance, this sounds crazy to a lot of people but the question is whether it is more valuable to you to keep your travel plans secret or to make them widely available as a potential way to add value to your travel.  We are already targeted by advertisers for our social behavior and choices made both online and offline, so it’s not especially new, at least in concept, that our personal data could and should be used in this manner.

The larger question is whether or not the whole concept of “privacy” is really just a social concept that is undergoing a major shift.  I am sure that the views on privacy from a sixty-year-old are radically different from those of a twelve-year-old.

According to the AP, this Post Should Cost Me Over $60

In an attempt to demonstrate just how absurd the AP’s new plan is for charging bloggers who want to quote five words from an article $12.50, I present to you what the AP would like to charge more than $60 for me to share with you:

“is good for the economy” – LINK

“didn’t approve the full amount sought” – LINK

“believed to have been arrested”  LINK

“engaged in tit-for-tat attacks, but”  LINK (note: unclear on charge for hyphenated words…)

“World War II may be over”  LINK

Yup, I certainly feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth.  You?

The PalmPre versus Apple iTunes Sync Fight is Confusing

According to today’s news, the PalmPre is once again able to sync directly with Apple’s iTunes.

This will last exactly as long as it takes for Apple to figure out how disable the feature and then PalmPre users will be temporarily blocked once again.

Now, I can see why Apple might have a lot of hate for the PalmPre.  It was developed almost completely by ex-Apple folk and was released in an attempt to be a direct competitor to the iPhone, though most critics agree it loses in any sort of head-to-head battle.

What I don’t understand is why Apple thinks blocking the PalmPre’s ability to sync to iTunes is a wise move. Sure, it takes away a capacity many people like in their media players but it also opens the door wide to competitors looking to give folks a reason to try something other than iTunes as a media manager.  People will only look for an alternative if they can’t get access to the original, popular and rather well made iTunes software.

Not only that, but this discourages PalmPre owners from purchasing any music via iTunes.  This is a direct loss of potential revenue and again offers a great opportunity for competitors to step in and offer an alternative.

Considering how much effort is going into blocking the PalmPre from syncing with iTunes, Apple clearly has  their reasons.  I just can’t seem to fathom those reasons.

Twitter Hacker Breaks Law and Blogs Just Abet

I’m absolutely not a legal scholar but once again I am struck by a certain weird lack of ethics especially among a number of major blogs including Mashable, Download Squad and scores of others.

In short, somebody hacked into a number of Twitter-owned accounts and made off with a zip file containing everything from internal emails to floor plans.  While nothing so far looks terribly damning it is strange that so many bloggers seem to have no qualms republishing the stolen documents.

In court, if evidence is acquired in an illegal manner it is no longer able to admitted as evidence.  Now, there was no question that the screencaps being published were stolen and there was really no way, until confirmed by Ev Williams at Twitter, that the documents were even legit.

Any way you cut it, there is something clearly unsavory and unethical about published stolen documents.  It might not be illegal but it doesn’t feel right.

Michael Jackson Dead. Britney Spears Not Dead – the Reporting Power of Social Media

One of the major arguments put forth by the big newspaper companies is that if we stop paying them huge sums of money then we will no longer get trusted, vetted and researched news – that so-called “citizen jouralists” just can’t be trusted since we aren’t paying them for their work.

It was interesting to see, last week, that the very first place I saw word of Michael Jackson’s death was on Twitter.  I immediately went over to CNN.com to see what they were saying but they were still talking about Michael Jackson being in a coma.  In fact, it was literally more than two hours after I’d seen multiple confirmations of his death on Twitter, that any of the major news organizations would report the information.  I think that TMZ.com is actually being credited as the first “official” confirmation.  Now , if that isn’t a smack in the face to the so-called professionals…

Meanwhile. this sad death, and that of Farrah Fawcette, led to a slew of fake death reports.  What I found fascinating here was that the same loose network of minds that had confirmed Michael Jackson’s death worked just as quickly to confirm that, in fact, Britney Spears, was still alive even though someone hacked her Twitter stream and annoucned “Britney Spears has died.”  Twitter users also speedily debunked the fake deaths of Harrison Ford and Jeff Goldbloom.

Now, all that is left for the pro’s is to endless rehash all of this while those of us on the bleeding edge are on to the next breaking story.

How Will Major Sports Events Respond to iPhone 3GS Video Uploads?

Here’s a question – what are the major sports leagues going to do about fans recording sporting events on their sleek new iPhone 3GS and then uploading it on the spot to YouTube (or another, less monitored website)?

It’s already happening.  YouTube claims that already half of the mobile uploads last week came from an iPhone 3GS and it comes in addition to fans often updating friends and followers on scores and major plays via Twitter or Facebook updates.

How will the leagues control this sort of fan interaction?  Will they try to ban anyone from shooting a picture or video with their phones?  How will they monitor for this?  What will they do when fans are caught?  And how to distinguish between video being taken for personal use and video being taken for a homemade version of SportsCenter you are your friends have just dreamed up.

This is just one of the many challenges facing those who would like to continue to control the flow of content.  This is a losing battle for the people currently (barely) in control.

Dresdon Doll’s Amanda Palmer Makes Almost $20k Via Twitter

Go to this link and read an amazing email written by Amanda Palmer of the band Dresdon Dolls in which she explains how, over the course of three weeks she was able to gross almost $20,000 using Twitter.

In contrast, she also points out that she has made exactly $0.00 for selling over 30,000 solo albums this year.

A sample:

WEBCAST AUCTION, $6000

a few nights after that, i blogged and twittered, announcing a “webcast auction” from my apartment.
it went from 6 pm – 9 pm, my assitant beth sat at my side and kept her eyes on incoming bids and twitter feed.
while we hocked weird goods, i sang songs and answered questions from fans. we wore kimonos and drank wine. it was a blast.

people on twitter who were tuned in re-tweeted to other fans. the word spread that it was a fun place to be and watch.
we had, at peak, about 2000 people watching the webcast.

The biggest take-home lesson for musicians is that Amanda made none of this money by selling albums but she played a ton of music and increased her fan base while having fun and making money.

Now that’s rock ‘n roll.

Should CNN Pay it’s iReporters?

The major news suppliers have been making a lot of noise lately about how “people” should pay more for the news that they are supplying.  They argue that news is expense to report and if the “people” don’t pay for it than the “people” will simply now longer have any news.

That’s absurd, of course, but that hasn’t stopped the AP from threatening bloggers kind enough to link to their content or stopped a possibly illegal meeting of newspaper execs colluding over erecting paywalls.

Now comes the official uprising of the citizen journalist in Iran and one really has to begin to wonder just how much longer the traditional news model can last.  According to Beet.TV:

CNN’s iReport has been getting many uploads about the Iran crisis, about 4600 over the past week, including 1600 last weekend alone. While these user-generated videos go up on the site without filtering, CNN producers vet these videos for use on the air and on CNN.com

The network has pulled 150 user generated clips from iReport, we have been told by a CNN spokesperson.    LINK

That’s right, CNN is using over 150 clips of reporting they did not create OR pay anything to broadcast.  Yes, people voluntarily sent in their clips and I am sure they clicked on a box giving CNN the rights to do anything they wanted with that footage without providing any compensation but one has to wonder how much longer that concept will work.

There seems to be a great opportunity for a savvy team to start a competing citizen news web site that pays its “iReporters” for exclusive rights to their content.  CNN might currently have a bigger audience but we all know the potential audience online is impossible to rival.

If anyone is interested in joining forces to start just such a competing site, drop me a line.  Together we can take down CNN/FOX/MSNBC!

Qik and Brightcove May Soon Present “Live From…Anywhere.”

Sure, the terrible violence and politcal unrest in Iran is a tragic and disheartening story, but the “real” story continues to be how social media sites like Twitter and YouTube have been bringing the sad story to the world.

While it remains to be seen what will happen to Mahmoud and company, the writing is clearly on the wall for traditonal journalism.  The “citizen” journalists are rising up and taking reporting of the news into their own hands.  Is it neat and tidy and fact-checked? Not really.  Is it instantly more compelling, engrossing and informative than any half-hour with Tom Brokaw could ever promise to deliver?  You bet.

Of course, what’s been largely missing in this journalistic uprising is live video reports from down in the trenches.

Qik has been providing a service that allows certain cell phone users to live stream to the internet.  While they are expanding the number of devices offering this service, they are combining forces with Brightcove, a very large internet video distribution company, resulting in, eventually, the ability for ordinary folks with cell phones to “broadcast” live over a potentially massive network of sites reaching, theoretically, millions of viewers.  All of this without any satellite trucks or multi-million dollar news-vans.  No FCC, no corporate overseers and no commercial sponsors to placate.

As technology like this becomes more widespread it is going to become harder than ever for anyone to hide.  Imagine the power of not just, say, audiotaping an encounter with a NYC police officer detaining you unlawfully.  Now imagine live streaming that same encounter.

It will be very interesting to see how various goverments react to these innovations.  As Lancaster, PA has proven, the government loves the idea of cameras watching our every move but what happens when the cameras are turned back onto them?

The Notificator Beat Twitter by Over 70 Years

BoingBoing points out a great story from the archives of Modern Mechanix magazine, a description of a device known as the Notificator:

The user walks up on a small platform in front of the machine, writes a brief message on a continuous strip of paper and drops a coin in the slot. The inscription moves up behind a glass panel where it remains in public view for at least two hours so that the person for whom it is intended may have sufficient time to observe the note at the appointed place. The machine is similar in appearance to a candy-vending device.   LINK

It seems one of these devices was actual put into service in London in 1935 and according to a lengthier description of the device, it looks like it was in service until sometime in 1938.

Sadly, it looks like none of the original paper rolls survived.  That would have been a priceless archive of information about the daily lives of Londoners in the 1930’s.  Actually, it would probably look a lot like my Twitter stream, and thus prove worthless from an historial perspective.

If nothing else, the existence of the Notificator, which is really just a fancy bulletin board, proves that humans have always had the desire to broadcast even their simplest needs into the public ether.