Category Archives: digitalness

googling

Although i’ve read notes on Googling potential dates before, i really like this latest by the Ethicist at the New York Times (even though i don’t completely agree). It’s a tough conundrum, and the technology has certainly changed our expectations of privacy and awareness of one another. Then again, should this information be so readily available? How does it change our lives when we have to always operate as though we could be Googled by dates, by potential employers, etc.? How do we stand up to inaccuracies that do not go away because someone else owns the site that throws libel against us? Interesting ethical questions… [Of course, Google realizes they’re in a tough place too.]

wimper

I am often told that i’m a bit to hypersensitive about the Department of Defense’s interest in Social Network Fragments. I mean, c’mon, it’s money, right? And there is no doubt that i’ve suffered some consequences from disagreeing with this connection, such as a terrible stake between my old advisor and myself. And everyone’s right – they can always repeat the work and ideas that i’ve been doing. But it makes me terribly miserable to think that my research might aid their objective directly:

The goal of the Evidence Extraction and Link Discovery (EELD) program is development of technologies and tools for automated discovery, extraction and linking of sparse evidence contained in large amounts of classified and unclassified data sources. EELD is developing detection capabilities to extract relevant data and relationships about people, organizations, and activities from message traffic and open source data. It will link items relating potential terrorist groups or scenarios, and learn patterns of different groups or scenarios to identify new organizations or emerging threats.

graphical browsing

As much as the notion of graphical browsing pains me for its inefficiency, i have to say that i appreciate the elegance of the system (mmm.. circles) and i realize that many AOL users only browse the web through clicking on items at the portal front site. Scary, isn’t it?

Google & collapsed contexts

Oh! Oh! So, i’ve been bitching about the problems with Google for quite some time, the concerns about privacy, how it collapses contexts, what that means, etc. And every time i say something about that, people remind me that Google is a fabulous company (which i’m actually certain it is) and that everyone is speaking to the public so get over it. But, it’s not that simple. People aren’t speaking to the public like they do in the physical world. The ability to archive, search, etc. collapses contexts and leaves people fundamentally vulnerable.

It made me realize that people aren’t aware of the underlying differences between the physical and the digital. And while my initial flip-out was quite incoherent, i’m starting to have a better grasp of how to address this, how to break it down and discuss the issues in terms of context, faceting of identity and presentation.

And i’m glad to hear that i’m not the only one who thinks that this is a problem that must be addressed! And there’s even a metafilter discussion going on!

[And of course, more on /., which is a quick reminder that /. geeks don’t get social issues or context… too much libertarianism, not enough reality and way too little self-monitoring]

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agoraphone

Kelly Dobson, one of my labmates has this great project called Agoraphone that is up and running outside of the Lab. The basic idea is that you can call it and speak to a public forum, expressing things that you might not express in private. The people in the public space can respond to you while the anonymity is maintained. It’s fabulous, and so related to the kind of storytelling that V-Day encourages people to do, to start expressing their ideas, concerns and depression. If you want, give it a call (617-253-6237) or stop by the Media Lab to check it out (daytime only; it’s in the grass across the courtyard).