Prototype of a Person

Scaremongering at the Symposium?

As part of the Darklight Festival over the weekend a number of symposiums were held to discuss and debate various popular topics related to the online world. I was invited to be a member of the audience by the organisers and found the experience to be rather… interesting.

Privacy vs. Publicity in the Virtual World

Daniel Solove, author of “The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor and Privacy on the Internet” (available for free here) opened this discussion with various anecdotes pertaining to the negative effects of personal details being shared online, either on purpose i.e. through your personal blog, or without the person’s consent e.g. the Star Wars Kid. Coming from a background in law, Solove suggests that the only way to curtail personal details being posted online without your consent is by the threat of legal action being more heavily employed.

“Be responsible”

Solove suggests that allowing anonymity online is irresponsible as it removes any control we have over our personal data (e.g. intimate personal details being posted online without consent) and that the law can only do so much to provide protection. For example, while it may be possible for a photographer to have an unapproved photo removed from an unlicensed website, the individual in the photo has no legal standing. This is because copyright law is much more powerful than privacy law.

“Intertwined with the lives of others”

Solove described how we all have expectations of privacy and anonymity in public, despite always being exposed and how this notion of privacy is mistakenly expected online. Claiming that 50% of bloggers were under the age of 19, he described these Internet users as “Generation Google” – individuals that have had their lives chronicled online, leaving behind fragments of their past that are pervasive and destructive to their future.

Opinion

I disagree with Solove’s judgment that anonymity is irresponsible on the part of ISP’s and websites that encourage and allow it. Anonymity online has always provided Internet users with a constructive means for liberal expression and play, without the risk of social impairment. Though anonymity provides users the facility to post lies online without any apparent risk (except in a serious case where your IP address might be used against you), the power of an anonymous message is certainly not as strong as a message coming from a reputable source.

“Generation Google” is something that I myself am a part of, but it is a heavily constructed and thought out self, which is something anyone reading a blog or a social networking profile needs to consider. Using google search results as a basis for a decision on a job or college applicant is something that I would consider irresponsible, and lazy. Nothing we post online is a 100% true reflection of ourselves, imagine a youthful, boastful comment left on a friend’s social networking profile that might actually be sarcastic or part of an in-joke. It’s all about context, and if the context is unknown then the information is invalid. It is lazy to think otherwise.

Panel Discussion

Following this keynote address was a panel discussion chaired by Caroline Campbell, featuring Jim Carroll, Cormac Callanan, Niall Larkin (read his thoughts on this symposium here) and Damien “almost blogs for a living” Mulley. Daithí Mac Sithigh was also in the audience and has written up a great summary of the panel discussion.

“Whatever goes on the Internet stays on the Internet”

The most prevalent message from this one-sided discussion was that everything you do online is being used to build behavioural profiles for marketing and advertising. On Facebook (and probably other social networking websites) your actions are logged and combined with your profile information for contextual marketing and advertising. Sophisticated data mining tools are used in Gmail and other free online services. Law enforcement in the US use these data mining techniques to track down possible terrorists and it was suggested that all of these combined could lead to surveillance and stalking by commercial and non-commercial companies for negative reasons, debt-collection is an example used by a member of the audience.

Privacy in this instance is not about the actual collection of the data, it’s what happens to it afterwards. Suggestions were made that it would be preferable to have access to this profile and to be notified when your data is being accessed and by whom. However, when Mulley asked the audience “Who actually cares?” a minority raised their hands.

Opinion

In my opinion, many of the members of the panel seemed to be scaremongering the audience. It would have been a more interesting discussion if even one of the members of the panel was under 30 (correct me if I’m wrong). All of them seemed quite outraged by the idea that their personal details and behaviour online could be used to help companies make more money. I would argue that there are many positive things about this type of data mining, for example, attempts (unsuccessful so far) at contextualising advertising on websites such as Facebook.

Contextual ads make advertisements entertaining and informative. Personally, I’d rather this than being bombarded with irrelevant ads (like when I watch television). However, this does not mean that the advertising is more successful because of this. Despite the fear of behavioural profiles being sold to marketing and advertising executives, these sets of data are in no way accurate at predicting human behaviour. Behaviour changes on a daily basis and can’t be actualised using selective pieces of information we ourselves post into the likes of social networking websites. Our reactions to advertising and products can change based on far too many variables for a behavioural profile to predict.

Websites like Facebook and Google give us a service and our payment to them is our content. Without our content these websites are completely useless and no-one would be willing to pay for them. It’s naive for anyone to think that you can get something for nothing online and if you’ve nothing to hide, why be so afraid of a little data mining? How does this even affect your every day life? I would argue that it doesn’t. It’s a pity the panel were so strongly of the opinion that it was 100% negative. I do however agree that users signing up to these services might need to be informed more readily of the fact that their data might be used in this manner.

The question is - Do you care? (Take a second to Take the poll or leave a comment below).

Digital Media Training, Mentoring and Post Graduate Studies at IADT

Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT) are in the process of recruiting for the fifth year of the Create Digital Media business training and mentoring programme. Create seeks to train and mentor 10 entrepreneurs/employees of small companies on a part-time basis, for one day every month. It’s a 12-month government-financed programme that will train participants in further developing their digital media companies and they are particularly interested in individuals involved in e-commerce, online advertising, mobile media and social media.

Create also offers incubation desk space at the Media Cube on the IADT campus or at the Digital Hub in Dublin City Centre and each selected individual will be assigned an average of €10,000 for customised training and mentoring in business skills related to digital media development of companies, services and products. For more information, visit www.createireland.ie.

Having studied at IADT for 5 years I can’t recommend it enough to prospective students. I’ve always found the college overflowing with highly skilled, extremely engaging and approachable lecturers, who make the learning process effortless. IADT also offer a part-time post graduate programme in Digital Media, the MA/MSc in Digital Media which is currently taking applications.

Right now I’m loving/hating…

Loving learning Yoga poses on the Wii Fit (video). I’ve always had an interest in yoga but was wary of it’s pseudo-spiritual side. Yoga on the Wii Fit removes the unnecessary parts and concentrates on deep breathing and stretching. The balance board that comes with the game tells you if you are in the right position, to make it as effective on your muscles as is possible. The Wii is teaching me well, because I’ve even started doing some of the poses without it, just to relax. I’ve also been enjoying the really fun balance games and exhausting aerobics. Hating how I managed to pull a muscle in my leg by overdoing it in the muscle exercises section, clearly I haven’t gotten to that stage yet.

Loving taking artsy Polaroid photos with the packs of film my GF got me. I’ve been trying to turn each and every picture into a mini work of art for my bedroom wall. There’s something very pure about Polaroid photos, it’s almost as if they are the antithesis of digital. With my digital camera I can take 1000+ photos and it’s fine if a high percentage of them are a waste. But with a Polaroid camera you must compose the picture so carefully, because the film has become so rare and expensive, so taking great photos is far more difficult, yet much more satisfying. Next, I’m going to start scratching to create even more art. Hating that Polaroid is no longer producing the film and that I might have to give up this new hobby sooner than I’d like.

Loving writing stories and notes into moleskin notebooks. Ever since I bought a Filofax last year I’ve been enjoying the freedom of jotting down random useless thoughts (and some useful ones) onto paper, rather than typing them out. I’ve gone a step further and further into geekdom by picking up some moleskin notebooks, they remind me of school copies, but cool. I wrote a small draft of this post in one. Just like taking a Polaroid there is something so wholesome about the act of putting pen/pencil to paper. I also love the slightly cut off corners, it makes the paper feel unworldly. Hating how expensive they are, astronmically expesnive in comparison to standard notebooks.

Book Inbox (11)

Whilst doing a late Spring clean this evening I decided to finally organise my overflowing bookshelf - which earlier today consisted of 3 squashed and disheveled shelves of books, 1 shelf of music/games and 1 shelf of DVDS. So, I put all my music/games in storage, which has given me a 4th shelf for my books to finally breath. During this reorganisation, I made a pile out of the books that I’ve not had the chance to read yet (or started reading and put aside).

Since the start of the year I’ve been reading nothing but journal articles and books for college, and since college ended term I’ve been indulging in a lot of fiction (Jeff Lindsay and Kathy Reichs in particular - don’t read into that too much!) but every single time I’ve looked at these books on my shelf individually, I’ve wanted (very much!) to start reading them, I just lack that extra motivation.

To motivate myself to read them all - I’ve set them aside on one half of my new 4th shelf (which just happens to be at eye level), and I plan on making sure that I get through all of them by the end of the Summer. They won’t be joining their comrades until they are read, so it’ll be like a Book Inbox, currently 11 unread books, and since there is nothing worse than a full inbox, I’m hoping these will be read quite soon.

What’s in your Book Inbox?

Cyberpsychology Digest Volume 2

Feminised gadgets - An eye for the ladylike: This article from the Telegraph Online opens with an interesting statistic, that women now spend more money on gadgets than on shoes. This is followed up with some fascinating insights into the “feminisation” of technology design and closes with an even more remarkable statistic, that two-thirds of Nintendo DS users are female. Related Link: Shiny Shiny

Vivity Labs launches online brain fitness platform: This recently launched website will draw comparisons to the Brain Training game on the Nintendo DS. Basing the platform online, however, allows for a much broader appeal. For example, by providing the ability to play against other users, a higher level of motivation to return to play is likely to be achieved, especially for the highly competitive amongst us. Related Article: Video games can make us creative if spark is right.

iReport: Online Terror & Hate: The First Decade (pdf): This report by a Jewish Human Rights group indicates that since 2007 there has been a 30% increase in the number of problmeatic hate (racist, anti-gay, anti-religious etc.) and terrorist websites. The historic roots of online hate-sites is outlined and numerous examples are highlighted. Related Article: A rallying cry against cyberbullying.

Mac users don’t like people touching their technology: A survey was conducted by Cognitive Daily to investigate how willing people were to let others try out their new gadgets. They found that there was a dramatic difference between how much PC and Mac users let friends try out their new devices. Related Article: Bad BlackBerry Manners On the Rise.

Your Blog Can Be Group Therapy: This CNN.com article highlights some examples of the positive aspects of personal blogging, with some interesting commentary from both bloggers and psychologists. Related Article: The Internet and Suicide ; Related Link: The Lives of Others.

If anyone has anything they’d like to contribute to the next digest, or related articles for this volume, feel free to drop me a comment or an e-mail - Sinéad.

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4