rambling, meme, and a review about privacy in public spaces

[rivkat]

Post-Yuletide rambling: It’s sort of relaxing that I’ll never improve on my first Yuletide story, the Heinlein pastiche. If I were a different person, perhaps with a year’s sabbatical, I might try to write out the whole thing – survival, discovery of an alien race of dubious intentions, trimphant return to Earth – but that’s just not where my energies are now.

I received a complimentary copy of Dan Solove’s entertaining The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet. This isn’t a summary, just thoughts inspired by the book, which contains a number of thought-provoking examples of reputational harms that are possible on the internet. (E.g., the Dog Poop Girl, the Star Wars Kid, and other people whose foibles, while perhaps deserving some degree of mockery – or not – got blown into internet phenomena with the randomness of a lightning strike.)

More generally, the book is about conflicts between privacy, free speech, openness, and control of one’s own information and reputation. Because the internet scales so easily, small pieces of information can get spread to millions of people, with consequences quite different from the ones that ordinarily follow “public” disclosure to, say, ten or twenty people. People pile on, turning even ordinary social sanctions for misbehavior into a virtual pillory, and mockery replaces empathy. For an overview of the same points in LJ/fandom-specific fashion (also, it’s free), giandujakiss has a good post here. Like giandujakiss, Solove argues that the public/private split has always been a continuum, and so doing something in “public” shouldn’t necessarily be license for worldwide dissemination of permanent records of a person doing that thing.

As many reviewers note, the strength of the book is that it acknowledges the paucity of easy answers, but that can also be frustrating.

A side note: Solove classifies LiveJournal as a profile-based social networking site, not a blogging site, which I consider a mistake: LJ is more profile-driven than Blogger, certainly, and the friends list is a key element, but that’s largely because of the content that shows up on one’s friends list –profile alone isn’t all that interesting, and it’s hard to keep friends without routinely providing entertaining content. LJ is actually a fabulous example of a hybrid form of social networking software that is doing interesting things with control over who can see what information, and possibly disturbing things like restricting the ability to search interests on the basis of content – certain “bad” terms can’t be searched on at all.
In any event, Solove identifies the problem of reputation as that scraps of information can be insufficient to judge a person fairly, but we do judge anyway. For those interested in problems of privacy, anonymity, and limiting the uses to which self-disclosed information can be put, Solove’s book is a readable summary of the issues, and his proposals, though not fleshed out in legislative detail, are good starting points for discussion.


And for fun: If you had me under your command and could make me write anything, regardless of whether or not I know the fandom or if anybody even writes fic in that fandom and no matter how crack-addled it might be, what would you love to see me write?

I'm not actually going to write any of these (unless something strikes me), but I am curious.

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

There's some kind of formatting error in the post which makes all the code appear.

I will have to meditate on my Rivka-genie desires, though my first fancy is to make you write Profit.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Will attempt to fix.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Would love to see Alias fic by you, esp. Jack-centric or darker S/V.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I got a review copy of this book (completely randomly) so as soon as you clean up the code wonkiness so I can read your post I shall tell you what I think.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

How odd. It previewed just fine. I guess that's what Semagic means when it speaks of menu problems with a login.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

I would have you locked up and writing Chuck college-era Chuck/Bryce slashy hijinks.

[jakrar.livejournal.com]

If you had me under your command and could make me write anything, regardless of whether or not I know the fandom or if anybody even writes fic in that fandom and no matter how crack-addled it might be, what would you love to see me write?

I'd like to see Clark belatedly realizing that Lex has been right about almost everything, that he has been fighting for the survival of the human race, and that Clark and his terrorist friends have been completely in the wrong to target him and undermine his efforts. After which, I'd want Clark to repudiate Oliver and the proto-League, and then do his best to apologize to Lex and make things right with him. *wistful sigh*

[ladyagnew.livejournal.com]

I might try to write out the whole thing – survival, discovery of an alien race of dubious intentions, trimphant return to Earth – but that’s just not where my energies are now.

Well, that sounds cool. I think a straight-up SF novel with a lot of traditional tropes from your pen would be a great read.

I'd love to see you play in the Vorkosigan-verse. The concepts and set up of Bujold's universe are endlessly cool. Though Miles's story is pretty much closed -- and I'm personally okay with where Diplomatic Immunity left him, there are lots of other characters to play with. I would die if you wrote Cordelia, because Cordelia is awesome and hasn't gotten much airplay since forever. But I'm also still kinda waiting for someone to write Ivan's story -- or Mark's further adventures... The whole universe is peopled with desperately smart characters.

Wow, I just made myself want to go and re-read the series.

the larger problem

[sapphoq.livejournal.com]

I think the larger problem is not whether or not I link to places that are public.
The larger problem is the bots and spiders crawling through the net and some
of them do not obey the rules as to what is public or f'locked.
And I figure when hostile people link to my blogs, it drives up my hits and that is all well and good.
I write so people will read it.
So to be higher up in search engines is a good think.
I realize not everyone has this outlook.

Kind of like "Any illusion of privacy will be smashed."
Certainly internet laws haven't caught up as many of the laws
were not written with the internet in mind.
spike

[hulamoth.livejournal.com]

This brings up for me the distinction between formal and informal rules. It may be rude to air out publically available information, but it isn't necessarily illegal. Does Solove address at all finding information versus hunting it out? For instance, what I say on my public blog today versus looking up my IP address and determing my home address? Both things which are within the realm of legal technology. When does it become stalking?

scraps of information can be insufficient to judge a person fairly, but we do judge anyway
Yes, but our information about other people will always be incomplete - what else are we supposed to do?

---
Fic to write:
Well, obviously, anything X-Files related, particularly the later seasons, not because they're better than the earlier ones but for continuity's sake. I'm eager to see how you tear apart the new movie - if you go to see it.

I'd be up for anything in any of my fandoms, just because I like how you write. The Animorphs or Yami no Matsuei, especially.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Solove does talk some about the need to figure out new norms so that there is a more broadly accepted definition of okay behavior. I think there is a google/beyond google line, but I'm not sure what it is. And I agree that our information is always incomplete -- but with the Dog Poop Girl it might be more incomplete than with a neighbor. No easy answers, that's for sure.

I have not succeeded with anime/manga, even those loved by people I trust, and I think it's because I'm fundamentally verbal, not visual. I need words to know who people are. Maybe a really good translation would help.

[notreallyjordan.livejournal.com]

I would like to see you or someone as talented as you (ha!) write this:

The title of the story would have "Bitch" in it, as a pun on "Witch." Like, "The Bell Bitch," or "The Blair Bitch Project." Only, you know, GOOD.

The story would use the characters in Supernatural.

Sam and Dean would be after a shapeshifting object of some sort. I mean, the object would cause shapeshifting. Dean is shapeshifted into a fifteen year old girl. At the end of the first chapter, or segment, the object is destroyed, so there is no hope of regaining it to undo the spell. Now the story would be about Sam and his little sister "Dee-Ann" or something, trying to find someone who can undo the spell.

Dean must deal with breasts, peeing sitting down, periods, weaker muscles, the constant disdain of people who address Sam and totally ignore him, or make patronizing remarks, etc.

Insights? Entirely left to your imagination. Sex? Maybe an attempted rape that Sam saves him from.

Discovering a power that in its own way is every bit as strong as Dean's smirky masculinity? Again, I leave it to you.

Just a thought. You DID ask.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I'm working on a somewhat different SPN genderswap story, one I think of as my story of feminist rage. I hope to get it done sometime in the new year.

[miche-connor.livejournal.com]

I love everything you write! So--does anything count?

Wishing you a happy holiday and merry new year. Or something like that!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16092711@N05/2134309066/ (ecard:)

[meret.livejournal.com]

what would you love to see me write?

First time Sam/Jess where one or both are virgins. :)