Friday, February 23, 2007

Thoughts from Shutoutman

An online identity allows a person to create somewhat of a “second self,” and in order to maintain that identity, he or she must follow very similar rules to that of real life. To build rapport for an online identity, one must display the qualities of: trust, honesty, integrity, and to a degree, intelligence, much like that of a normal human being functioning in society. Once these qualities are displayed over time, whether it is through blogging, IMing, e-mail, commercial transactions, etc., an online identity assumes its own “personality” that people begin to recognize.

One online identity that I own, which I feel best portrays the term, is my eBay account which is listed under the username “Shutoutman.” Writes Donath, “There may be a clear and straightforward mapping from an account name to a real-world individual - or it may be deliberately opaque.” Created when I was just 13 years old in 1999 and certainly not opaque at the time, my account name was cleverly titled after the fact that I was determined to become a professional hockey goaltender. This account name has been my eBay identity and reputation for the entire duration of my use of the site. Though I do not use eBay as much I used to, whenever I do want to buy something, I have a nice cushion to return to in the form of my feedback. Feedback works as a give-take feature (and unwritten eBay rule) in which once a transaction is completed, buyer and seller are supposed to give each other a grade or comment about how well the other held up their end of the bargain. As a user buys or sells more items on the site, they can build up a positive rapport with other users by completing their transactions quickly and building a good “reputation.” It is very easy to have your username become trustworthy on the site, as many people will leave comments such as, “Excellent Job! Fast Payment! Highly Recommended!” Of course, reputation is something that one must maintain and monitor constantly in order to be beneficial to the user. Reputations are an “uncertain affair,” which can last for eternities for some but are destroyed by one single incident for others (Masum and Zhang, Trade).

Having stated how reputation can dissolve as quickly as overnight, there is always the possibly of “identity theft,” which involves the unauthorized use of your identity by someone else. As more information is collected on an individual, the easier it is for someone to impersonate that person and commit fraudulent moves online (Schneier). With eBay, it is very important that no one ever obtains your password. With your username and password, anyone could buy anything and refuse to pay for it, thus destroying your reputation in the form of inevitable negative feedback. Furthermore, when eBay first began, it lacked an intermediary that could handle the money transaction between buyer and seller. Therefore, the buyer (who always pays first), was putting his or her trust in the seller not to take the money and never ship the item. Fortunately, eBay has paired up with the identity-theft-fighting PayPal, which is a service that functions as a medium between buyer and seller (a la credit card companies). This way, no buyer or seller ever has to show one another any personal information besides a shipping address. PayPal handles the money transaction, thus reducing the risk of any stealing of information for personal gain.

Building a trustworthy reputation online is always helpful, and can be greatly beneficial, especially with commercial transaction sites such as eBay. While many new technologies and websites are popping up that effectively fight identity-theft, it is important for one to be smart about personal privacy on the Internet, as even a small form of carelessness can lead to disaster.



References:

Donath, J.S. Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. (1996, November 12). Communities in Cyberspace. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Masum, H. and Yi-Cheng Zhang. Manifesto for the Reputation. (2004, June 15). First Monday. Retrieved February 22, 2007, from http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue9_7/masum/#m5

Schneier, B. A Weblog Covering Security and Security Technology. (2005, April 15). Retrieved February 22, 2007, from http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/mitigating_iden.html

Friday, February 16, 2007

Oh...I...uhhh...didn't see you reading this...

Privacy, as stated by Bob Sullivan in, “Privacy Lost, Does Anybody Care?” is a very difficult thing for most people to define. My definition of privacy would stem from the simplest form of the word: private. To me, private means that there are certain thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are held by individuals. These aspects of life are always kept secret, or private, until a person wants them to be released in the form of expression. Even still, once these expressions are displayed, whether in hard copy form or in the form of actions or speech, one might not want these ideas to reach further beyond the point in which they were originally intended. Once these thoughts, feelings, or beliefs escape the comfort zone of the individual, this is an invasion of that individual’s privacy. While this is still a very rough and messy definition, the Internet is a device that is very dangerous in that it has the ability to break into that comfort zone of many different people. Governments, too, are getting smarter about tracing people online to stop illegal behavior. In one current matter, a number of European countries are looking to thwart fake e-mail IDs by proposing a legislation that requires companies to "keep detailed data about people's Internet and phone use that goes beyond what the countries will be required to do under a European Union directive" (Shannon).

Some of the biggest threats to an individual’s privacy on the Internet are simply out of the hands of that individual. For example, people get involved in many different activities in their lifetime, whether it be related to sports, academics, or simply holding many different jobs. The problem, one might realize upon “Googling” his or her self, is that many of these activities post things online that directly relate to particular individuals. Sports teams often post player profiles and statistics, academic institutions might brag about accomplishments or discoveries and put a name and a face behind them, and large companies may post brief biographies of top CEO-level or other high-profile employees. Unfortunately, these organizations might be doing more harm than good. While they may have the best of intentions to allow the public some insight into their members’ lives, they do not take into account who could be viewing this material and for what reasons.

While I do not have a striking or shocking invasion-of-privacy example for myself on the Internet, I did Google myself just to see what happened. The first thing I found was the homepage that I had to make for CSE111 at UB, which states that I am a sophomore in college. It also states that I live in Buffalo, N.Y., and some of my interests and hobbies. I was surprised to find this page, as I forgot that I had made it. I was a little annoyed that I forgot how to go back in and delete or change this page, as I don’t want to be forever associated with the things listed on the site. It is not that I have anything to hide, but rather that my interests and life experiences will surely change (if they haven’t already!). I found it interesting that if someone Googled my name, they could read old and possibly false information. On a larger scale, this must happen to people all the time. For instance, a CEO of a company might leave his position for a new company. If the website is not updated too often, he or she could still be listed as head of a company that they haven’t worked for in weeks, possibly months! That could lead to potentially embarrassing or confusing conversations or situations.

While I do not specifically fear my privacy being misused on the Internet, it does concern me to some degree that my name is already posted on so many different websites at the age of 20. I do not believe that taking measures such as avoiding spyware just to achieve a higher level of anonymity is really the best route for one to take (Wikipedia: Levels of Privacy). It will be interesting, however, to see if future action begins to take place in which companies, sports teams, etc. make a special effort not to make their members a matter of public interest.




Internet privacy. (2007, February 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:55, February 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Internet_privacy&oldid=108253712

Shannon, Victoria. (2007, February 14). Proposed legislation called a threat to Internet users' privacy. Retrieved February 16, 2007 from http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/14/business/privacy.php

Friday, February 9, 2007

My Gift Economy Space

A gift economy is not exactly the easiest thing to define. Peter Kollock breaks down what a gift economy represents in the online world by simply asking, “What is a gift?” Starting with the basic definition that a gift is “the obligatory transfer of inalienable objects or services,” it appears that the Internet certainly could be a place for this to occur. Thus, it would be inferred that a gift economy would simply be the forum in which this took place, presumably a website with posts, blogs, etc. The conclusion that Kollock reaches is that the Internet has opened up a whole new give-take world in which users can connect and interact with one another about topics or issues that are of universal concern. Furthermore, not only can ideas be shared, debates waged, and advice given, but both sides should come out of the experience with a time- and cost-efficient sense of accomplishment.

While I generally do not use the Internet for what appears to be our general definition for a gift economy, a website that I do use, I believe, belongs in that category: MySpace. Yes, MySpace is more often than not brought up only to serve as the butt of a joke. However, the site has a built itself an incredible forum for exploiting new music and video that has the ability to reach an audience of millions on a daily basis. Because MySpace had become so popular with its users logging in daily to post comments to other users, it was inevitable that this huge flow of traffic would be taken advantage of to exploit media. Therefore, MySpace music was born, allowing bands and artists to create user pages with streaming audio and later video to be played at free will. Users could download these songs or videos for free, or could simply link them to their own page so that personal pages could also have streaming audio. This simple change propelled an already growing website into the stratosphere, and became a very good example of a give-take relationship between artist and fan. By posting even 30 second clips of songs on their page, bands could gain exposure from anyone who stumbled upon their site, and begin to get the word out on their music.


The most notorious example of this to date (and most god-awful in my opinion) is Cute Is What We Aim For. While it pains me to write about that band in a blog, and even more so that they are from Buffalo, they are the epitome of what MySpace music has done for hopeful youths. Not even out of highschool before they struck nation-wide fame, they became forever linked with MySpace in that their music gained an extraordinarily large fan base in a manner that was previously unattainable. Richard Barbrook touches on this topic in, "The High-Tech Gift Economy," stating that bands learned long ago that giving away music usually attracts more possible sales than denies them, as the record companies have long-feared. While MySpace is a haven for new-music-starved youths, it is also a pretty sly marketing scheme for big-business artists. While unsuspecting underage users are constantly searching for the song or band that represents their “independent, different” selves, they are exploring more and more artists that they are probably enjoying and eventually buying their music. With the introduction of the MySpace Music Store, it seems that Tom and his constantly heckled website continue to do nothing but improve themselves by the minute.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding; whether you love it or hate it, MySpace has blown away the possibility of competition in its field (Facebook has its die-hards, but has yet to reach par).




Barbrook, R. (Decmeber 2005). The High-Tech Gift Economy. First Monday, Special Issue #3. Retrieved February 9, 2007, from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue3_12/barbrook

Kollock, P. (1999). The Economies of Online Cooperation:
Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace. Communities in Cyberspace. Retrieved February 9, 2007, from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

Friday, February 2, 2007

Downloading, To Me, Is Not Too Fergilicious

The very mention of the words “downloading” and “filesharing” in any conversation are liable to spark a debate right on the spot. The topic of copyright infringement has been one of the hottest and most controversial since it has become so easy for the average person to obtain illegal copies of media on the Internet. There are two parties involved in this argument; the first is the artist/producer/whoever is in possession of the copyrighted material, and their best interest is to put out a product that can be stored as media on a computer, but not to lose money when people illegally download the product instead of purchasing it. The opposing side is the consumer, mainly the average person, whose best interest is to obtain the media he or she desires in the cheapest possible manner, which is usually illegal downloading (free!) The problem with this issue has been how to compromise so that both sides get a fair shake, and a thorough solution has been elusive since the beginning. Another major concern is that many people do not fully understand the consequences and seriousness of the offense, as many myths and rumors are constantly floating around about what “fair use” really means in legal terms (Brady).
When debating this issue, one will not likely bring anything new to the table unless he or she first chooses a side. I say this because I have personally been in conversations with people who are neutral about the topic, and it generally goes in circles and no one even comes close to suggesting a solution. “It’s really unfair to the artists who worked so hard on their product…” “…but I love downloading songs I have like a million on my computer now.” A conversation like that is simply restating the problem that has been in question for over a decade now. Therefore, the side I will choose is that of the artist or owner, albeit I know it is not a popular side outside of the entertainment industry and especially nowhere near a college campus. Sure, I have illegally downloaded music in the past, and I even presently have about 25 downloaded songs on my computer. Compared to the majority of my generation, however, that number is laughable. On the other hand, my CD collection, (yes, small metallic objects known as “compact discs” that also hold music) is quite impressive.
So what is the reason that I will always go out and buy a new CD rather than just download the single (most everyone who even uses iTunes downloads singles and not albums)? Stupidity? Ignorance? Stubborness? The argument for any of the three could be made I suppose. The real reason is that I do not believe in downloading or obtaining something for free that is not rightfully yours to have. Aw, how adorable, right? Most college students could not give a-you-know-what about possessing something that is not “rightfully” theirs. There are not too many levels to this point in my argument, however. To be put simply, once you start to understand and get a feel for the way the business world works, even the way life works in general, it is not always about having as much as possible for as cheap as possible. Yes, this aspect of life dominates many decisions we make. If I like an artist’s music, however, I have enough respect for what they have done to purchase the CD for $11. (A whole different argument could be started right here about where people buy their CDs. My advice: go to shows, go to record shops, do not go to FYE and pay $19.99 for Led Zeppelin IV which has been out for 36 years). After all, the artist and the record companies are primarily considered with the first sale. Once that first sale is made, it is your decision to do anything you want with your copy of the material.
The second reason I do not illegally download music is that I think people (and sometimes artists) today often completely miss the point of an album. An artist puts out an album, record, CD, whatever you want to call it these days. What he or she does not put out is an iTune. While I believe iTunes is a really great idea, and as we all know is greatly beneficial to the problem but still not the solve-all, I would hope by the time we all reach the collegiate level, we understand the business of music enough to know that singles are face-value smoke and mirror tricks to lure in half-awake potential consumers. Very rarely are the singles the best material on the album. And while iTunes certainly does give one the option of purchasing the album, I have rarely encountered anyone who purchases full albums online on a consistent basis.
So my suggestion for fixing the problem is that everyone decides to just be honest and fair and experience music in more than just a knee-jerk ADD-like reaction? Well, let’s word that differently. My hope is that once everyone reaches the collegiate level, some of these big-business marketing schemes will start to sink in, and people will just in general grow and become smarter about their music and the way society in general should work. I think limiting the problem is much more feasible than actually stopping it altogether. What can you do about 12 year old girls with access to LimeWire and Kiss 98.5? Not too much.


Brady, Kevin S. Coypright FAQ: 25 Myths and Misconceptions. Retrieved Feb. 2, 2007 from https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_39998_1.