I am really interested in these points you make, Esther.
One of the things I have thought about a lot recently is the balkanization
of the web : the idea that, rather than uniting everybody to share
information and common goals, that platforms are breaking the web into
smaller fragments that do not necessarily share the same objectives. An
example would be Twitter censoring content along geopolitical lines,
something that has been discussed much of late.
I think actions by third parties of this type are cause for concern in that
it serves as a reminder that this notion of unrestricted discovery and
sharing of information is slightly illusory.
I would also say that some of yesterdays discussion about how people and
information are distributed over different platforms and not necessarily
accessible is another example of this balkanization.
All that said, I'm not starting on a big "thin end of the wedge" argument
here: I think what social media can offer everyone far outweigh these
problems but that users should be aware of these potential restrictions.
Dom
--On 29 March 2012 14:36 +0200 Esther Arens <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Taking the cue from some comments about privacy etc. Is anyone here
> concerned about the fact that lots of these tools are owned by a 3rd
> party? That we don't really have control over our own data?
>
> Tbh, I'm largely blanking that at the moment: I'm rather restrictive in
> my privacy setting of FB because it's purely personal (really only to
> keep in touch with people I've met more than once). And I did check my
> history with Google but I don't tend to think about what Twitter does
> with my tweets i.e. how long they store them. Unusually, I haven't even
> found out about any of their other commercial actions it might take to
> fund its service (i.e. about their morality).
>
> I don't blog but if I did I might worry a bit more about who owns the
> content I'm creating. And I'm not sure who owns the things on our team
> wiki at work (the organisation I presume but not confirmed that).
>
> Esther
>
>
>
>
> --
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----------------------
Dom Fripp
Senior Library Assistant - Cataloguing
Arts & Social Sciences Library
University of Bristol
0117 928 8007
[log in to unmask]
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