Just logged in for the first time to Justin TV - a 24x365 web cam on a guys shoulder. It's great and nuts. He was at a party when I saw it. Lots of drunk people. It says he is going to wear it till he dies. Um, that's pretty big.
I couldn't watch this for more than ten minutes, but I think this changes things. OK, not massively like curing cancer, but I get the feeling everyone's going to see this guy and there will be ten others within three months. Why? Firstly because he's done a good job. The site works well and it all fits together. But mainly because it's super cool for viewers and super great for getting attention for the guy with the cam. Can't get on American Idol? Then get on American Idle - the web site where your web cam shows you watching TV all day.
What about privacy? Yep, he's decided to throw it all away. It's something about 0.001% of people decide to do. The rest walk the line between Justin and a super paranoid dude who stays 'off the grid'.
And it doesn't have to be a permanent web cam to pose this question about privacy. In Tangler some people have already commented that they needed to change their username so that they could talk openly without the information going back to their name.
User generated content poses lots of these questions. Blogging, Twittering, and YouTubing all put a part of you on public display. Add to this the power of Google and chances are, at some point you are going to type your name into a search engine and get something that you did long ago but don't really want around.
So what's your policy? Are you prepared to don the web cam and let the world see your life? Or are you more 'off the grid'?
I couldn't watch this for more than ten minutes, but I think this changes things. OK, not massively like curing cancer, but I get the feeling everyone's going to see this guy and there will be ten others within three months. Why? Firstly because he's done a good job. The site works well and it all fits together. But mainly because it's super cool for viewers and super great for getting attention for the guy with the cam. Can't get on American Idol? Then get on American Idle - the web site where your web cam shows you watching TV all day.
What about privacy? Yep, he's decided to throw it all away. It's something about 0.001% of people decide to do. The rest walk the line between Justin and a super paranoid dude who stays 'off the grid'.
And it doesn't have to be a permanent web cam to pose this question about privacy. In Tangler some people have already commented that they needed to change their username so that they could talk openly without the information going back to their name.
User generated content poses lots of these questions. Blogging, Twittering, and YouTubing all put a part of you on public display. Add to this the power of Google and chances are, at some point you are going to type your name into a search engine and get something that you did long ago but don't really want around.
So what's your policy? Are you prepared to don the web cam and let the world see your life? Or are you more 'off the grid'?
Thankfully in Australia we have sensible government. Commercially and morally we are protected by the national privacy principles. Together with a watch dog instrument that holds hearings and allocates penalties we enjoy the benefits of one of our inherent social rights.
Though, if people like the webcammer choose to do their own thing, we are free to do so. This is an important theme that arches across much of Australian policy.
Some may call it a breakdown of moral order. After all, who wants to webcam a nasty turd in motion? We are the McMansion era. Commercialise it. Generalise it. Distribute it. It brings so many wonderful things to us, but it comes at the expense of Jerry Springer and YouTube criminals destroying public property.
Though the more informed among us know that ultimately.....if you are a person of interest there is very little that will be kept from the determined, financed, organised groups. The digital age is the age of the common man having a false sense of privacy.
Posted by: Adam H | March 26, 2007 at 07:44 PM