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Academics To Predict Next Twitter and Its Pitfalls
An anonymous reader writes "University researchers in the UK have put together a team tasked with predicting the next big thing in terms of communication technologies, in a bid to tackle ethical pitfalls before they become a problem. This is in the wake of the rise of social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, which has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of personal information available online."
You'd probably not be swatting away for some douche at a University, trying to finish you thesis or get tenure. You'd probably scrape together every last penny you had and become a first round VC.
Leave the gun, take the cannoli -- Clemenza, The Godfather
So now they're trying to figure out a way to regulate new technologies out of existence before they've even been conceived of? Such progress....
The problem isn't people posting their own idiotic adventures online - the problem is people getting tagged in other people's photos and videos. It's easy for me to control what I post online about myself; it's very, very difficult for me to control what other people post about me online, and even more difficult to remove material that I find inappropriate.
Or it would be if I had a social life, anyways.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
I use pseudonyms as a barrier between me and Identity Theft, because facebook, myspace all look like vectors for Identity theft to me. Using a fake identity can't be a bad thing when people are inclined to steal it.
Unfortunately, our institutions are yet to realise that protecting privacy by educating people about using encryption is a good first step to reducing fraud related behaviour. Until that happens, the bad guys have the advantage.
Simply put, the authorities have related encryption to illicit activities instead of a set of basic tools that people can use to protect themselves on line. In terms of protecting ourselves people are often encouraged into the worst sets of behaviour, so we haven't even done the basics now, let alone 10-15 years time. I predict more scams in the future.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
I was the programmer and we did this for a startup I used to work for. We just ended up blowing a few million on some really bad ideas.
The only way to make a social networking product be as big as My Space / Facebook / Twitter AND not suck monkey nuts is to keep the marketeers out of it, and that just isn't going to happen.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
Why don't they just go read some good science fiction? Or talk to some good sci-fi authors?
Any "smart developer" will tell you the first problem with that plan is that it assumes that users know what they want.
Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
So your problem is with freedom.
How we know is more important than what we know.
But they do know what they want. A faster horse, or whatever the equivalent is these days.
-- Cheers!
If you think you have a better idea of emerging technologies, ethical issues they raise and ways of addressing them than the boffin academics, why don't you post a comment on the "discussion" blog of the project website at www.etica-project.eu?
Sorry, but you're completly missing the point.
The supermarket is a semi-private place: you show your face knowing that only a fraction of people (those that live in the same town) are present there; and if do something embarassing, an employer 10 years from now won't be able to know.
Facebook is a worldwide public place. You have to be cautious because everything you say there is on the record, for everyone to see.
So the decision to be anonymous on facebook has an entirely different meaning than the supermarket. It is far from paranoia, even more so when you think of all the new ways this information could be used ,in the future.
And of course, the thing that really matters here is politic: by setting up an anonymous account on facebook, you can lead a political life, convincing people to go to protests, or to vote or donate for a cause. It is a pretty new thing to be able to do so anonymously, and there is nothing cowardly about it when you see how scientology (for example) illegally harasses opponents.
Don't take my posts literally; it's just code to control my botnet.