kerkko.fi

A funny thing happened to us on the way to the future. The internet went from being something exotic to being boring utility, like mains electricity or running water -- and we never really noticed. We wound up being totally dependent on a system about which we are terminally incurious. The internet has quietly infiltrated our lives, and yet we seem to be remarkably unreflective about it. That is not because we are short of information about the network; on the contrary, we are awash with the stuff. It is just that we do not know what it all means. We are in the state of "informed bewilderment."

Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls, and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information. These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes a dopamine squirt that can be addictive.

While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress. And scientists are discovering that even after the multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html?pagewanted=print

Most consumers (91%) would be unwilling to pay to access Rupert Murdoch's Times Online. Only 5% said they would fork out £2 for a week's digital subscription, while 4% said they would pay £1 for a day's access. News International will introduce paywalls around its online content in the next month. Earlier this week News International's commercial chief, Paul Hayes, said he would be "in the shit" if the group's paywall plans did not work.

People believe that Facebook and the web in general should be able to protect the information we post online. This goes against the fundamental design of Facebook, social media, and the web itself. We should be relying on ourselves for our privacy, and not turning Facebook into our scapegoat.

Privacy is dead. Facebook, social media, and the web itself are designed to share information. While you can be angry about Facebook’s lack of communication over the privacy issue, to believe that information on Facebook or other social networks is inherently private or “yours” is just wrong.

Protecting our privacy starts with us, not Facebook. The privacy wall did not exist in the first place. The web makes the transmission of information easier than ever. Social media makes spreading that information even simpler. The web is a network of information, and information has no walls.

http://mashable.com/2010/05/16/in-defense-of-facebook/

http://www.just-ping.com/?vh=kerkko.fi&c=&s=ping!

Back in January 2009, David Bond packed a rucksack, kissed his pregnant wife Katie and toddler Ivy, climbed into his Toyota Prius and drove away from home. Nobody knew where he was going -- he didn’t even know himself. One thing he was sure about was this: "I'm going to leave my life behind and disappear," he said.  In the days that followed, he was being followed by detectives.

It was Bond himself who persuaded the detectives to follow him. "I told them I was making a film about privacy and surveillance, and wanted to be hunted." He wondered if it was possible, in surveillance Britain, to keep himself to himself for a month. "I promised I wouldn't sue them, whatever they did, as long as they didn't cause my family any distress. 'We'll have you in four days,' they laughed."

Bond spent a long time finding the right detectives for his project, talking to countless retired coppers before he found Duncan Mee and Cameron Gowlett of Cerberus. Ordinarily, they work as investigators for major companies and law firms, scrupulously following the letter of the law as they trail organised gangs, often in unstable parts of the world. How hard could it be to find Bond?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article7096105.ece

Since its incorporation just over five years ago, Facebook has undergone a remarkable transformation. When it started, it was a private space for communication with a group of your choice. Soon, it transformed into a platform where much of your information is public by default. Today, it has become a platform where you have no choice but to make certain information public, and this public information may be shared by Facebook with its partner websites and used to target ads.

The slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On" was originally produced by the British government during the Second World War as a propaganda message to comfort people in the face of Nazi invasion. Tim Ferriss takes the message and applies it to today's world. "Focus on impact, not approval. If you believe you can change the world, which I hope you do, do what you believe is right and expect resistance and expect attackers," Ferriss concludes. "Keep calm and carry on!"

Next week a startup is launching that is effectively Yelp for people. If someone has something good or bad to say about you, they will be able to do it anonymously and with very little potential legal or social fallout.

We have lots of experience publishing random opinions about people on Twitter, Yelp and Facebook. It is time for a centralized place for anonymous mass defamation on the internet. Scary? Yes. But it is coming nonetheless.

This has been on my mind for a long time. We are in a world where gossip is completely public, there are few repercussions to those spreading it, and it is easily searchable. No wonder people freak out. We are fish out of water.

But it is much harder to get that stuff off of services that exist to publish that information. Imagine how you will feel when the top result for your name is a site that includes “reviews” of you by anonymous people who know you.

Piss someone off at work and you will have “Sketchy and unethical in the workplace” pop up about you. And it will be there forever. Heck, your great-great-grandchildren will be reading it long after you are gone.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/28/reputation-is-dead-its-time-to-overlook-our-indiscretions/