Comments on: I Am Not A Number

By: Avery

Avery — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:56:05 +0000

[...] Through the Weave project, for example, we want to reclaim the vision of the browser acting as a true user-agent on the web. We want to help broker user data in a secure and private manner. We want to build the foundational, open source building blocks upon which an entire new generation of web applications will be built. We want to enable the poetry so succinctly captured by Mitchell when she says: “I am not a number“. [...]

By: Kiran Vinjamuri

Kiran Vinjamuri — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:25:17 +0000

** Problem:
Profiling is required for personalization which in turn attempts to bring better user experience. Most people choose which movie they want to go to, or while at home a particular movie may capture their attention. Because, we choose what we want to see. Some day it could a comedy or a drama another day. If someone forces you with inappropriate content, you move away. Typically I think most people read only 10-40% of a news paper, because everything does not interest everyone. Newspaper is a highly one-way mode of accessing information. And so is TV. Millions of sites on the web are no better. You goto Yahoo homepage and it treats you like anyone else. You login and personalize your *my* page. Then you get your personalization. But the whole web is not personalized to you yet and can’t be too. Currently its not possible to have a single view of all that you use and all that you want to see in a personalized way.

** Possibily solution from future:
Personalization is a must if we must evolve. To deal with privacy issues a service on the cloud must be available which acts as our agent to share any info. Typically like openID. But essentially it should be a official service managed by a government body of whichever country one belongs to. The reasons are:
a) Ultimate protection and responsibility delegated to Government
b) Authenticity and anonimity where required
c) the user has control over what info and to whom it is shared
d) I am an ID and I get my Personalization across the web without sharing my real Identity
e) An example: Whatever I claim to be, my passport details with government has all the info. This info is not accessible to most people.

** Possibility solution in near future:
Privacy concern over browsers are natural but foolish too. So does it mean we trust gmail or yahoo fully with our private communication? Is

every toolbar stuck on your browser not a spyware? Isnt your OS already reading and sending your usage behaviour?

So.. what is the *one thing* in the world people really trust on the internet? Its surely their favorite window. Whichever it might be and

whatever they might be doing in that. If its been stable, providing consistent user experience and gave no major trouble, they will use it.
For example windows OS. The web talks about how frequent is crashes, who insecure it is etc. But most of the world still uses it for their

business and personal use. So why are they using it? Every file they save, are they sure they will get it back? Most of them did… thats why

they are still using it. The problem with browsers is that they are easy. Almost anyone can download, install and start using a browser. Thats

why its easy to critize one and start using another. In early days windows OS was one among 20 potential OSes. But today most people

depend on windows. Today we have handful of browsers fighting for whatever reasons. Users will vote for the most stable and simple browser, minus personalization.

PS 1: I used Google chrome for a long time, until it repeatedly crashed with its new version. I switched to firefox which I hated because of its instability few years ago. But for now, thats the window I see all day.

PS 2: Interestingly we have implemented a concept called *My lifeboard* which attempts to provide everything what a user would ask in one screen. From about me, to about my people, my personalized content, my shopping and my virtual assistant. its very much work in progress though. Is this a way? authenticity is the key.

By: mitchell

mitchell — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:48:15 +0000

Mark

Yes indeed on the “I have a free man.” Though I struggle these days with all uses of “man” or “men” to represent humanity. I also often think of the phrase “Number 6″ as in “be seeing you.”

I agree — let’s hope there is a lot more involved in the idea that each of us has a “virtual me”, that is about more than the data and interactions we can visualize today. I’m not sure how to get there other than head in this direction and pave the way for the 1 year olds you mention. To make the path open and generative and easier to “build on the shoulders of giants” than it would otherwise be. Our experiments with Weave for example are simple now, but may be a freamework for trying new things.

By: mitchell

mitchell — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:25:21 +0000

Sundog: yes, the cult of profiling can be disturbing. On the other hand, understanding oneself or finding better ways for me to manage the information that makes up my life might feel different. For example, a better way for *me* to manage what used to be called “my rolodex” and more recently “my contact list” and today my “social graph” might feel great. Having a organization generate this information about me for its own purposes may feel very different.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:48:52 +0000

Hi Mitchell:
I’m not sure what the resulting tool /software / or browser ‘thing’ that would be built to make real the concepts you envision. But I do think that your ideas are fascinating. After reading your post, I was inspired – to do what I don’t know, but my mind was going places I hadn’t expected.
Is what you describe even possible or ‘natural’ with our current interfaces of keyboards, mice, screens (large or small) and OS’s? Maybe – but perhaps the improvements to our online experience shouldn’t feel or behave anything like what we expect and have become used to today. With much respect to the others who have posted here, I don’t think it’s just about privacy, data collection and marketing – but a new way of interacting with other humans and the content out there. A new way to find what we want when we want it, a new way to discover new things, a new way to interface with the cloud? Hopefully there are some 12 year old boys and girls somewhere in the Kazakstan or Kentucky with access to a fast connection working on this now, ’cause they’ve never known anything but Google.
The conclusion of the quote used for your post title is of course “I am a free man!” Followed by: The P: “What do you want?” #2: “Information.” The P: “Well, you won’t get it.” #2:”By hook or by crook we will.”