Technology/The Internet/Communications

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Linus

This piece is from xkcd, a techie cartoon. It's a few years old since Facebook has powerhoused past MySpace in population, I believe. That said, I wonder sometimes if people friend others just for the sake of... well, friending. To be honest, in many ways, these aren't "communities" in the traditional sense. They are more like networking in a small party sense. You connect with others in hopes of being able to see opportunities (Twitter, in particular, is the worst of this I find and it's partly why I stopped visiting Twitter).

It reduces the human element -- that thing that makes us special -- to near nothingness. Last night I watched "Kill Switch", an X-Files episode written by William Gibson (he's the man who coined Cyberpunk). At the heart of the story was the deeply-in-love couple who wanted to be on the Internet forever. To me, it's sad when we give up our humanness to communicate to each other and instead, we communicate AT EACH OTHER.

Now, don't get me wrong. I do like Facebook. I can ping people and share articles of interest. But I recently contemplated trashing it over a) privacy issues and b) someone who didn't understand that I didn't want their e-vite to a conference. They sent it to me about 6-10 times (I can't remember but I remember getting more and more annoyed). I avoid the apps on Facebook because I do not trust their ability to control privacy. Unlike Canada, the US has the worst privacy policy I've seen.

I am open about my life and I hide nothing. I've had students find me and be very supportive of who I am and what my past is. Does it put me at risk? Sure. But I won't hide who I am. I've always been open but **I** get to decide what I want to share and when I want to share it. Not some third party.

The options, IMO, should always be, what I call, the Novell School of Security. There are two schools of computer security: Microsoft and Novell.

Microsoft maintains that everyone has access to everything unless you dictate no.

Novell says no one has access unless you dictate yes.

I prefer that method.

Updated Tech Map (the one above is from 2007). This one is for 2010 (click on the image for the larger version):