Just Differently Intelligent...

Nice, how often does it update, and does it do it automaticaly or do you have to hit refresh? You may want to provide more details.

Thanks. Here's a rough transcript of your talk.

http://www.cardhouse.com/heath/2003_03_09_archive.html#90429889

Thanks for the webcam!

I was fascinated by my gut reaction at the panel yesterday. I realized I was not happy that you were posting images of the audience from your presentation without our knowledge. It was visceral. I have nothing to hide, but given the topic of the talk and the question about the unanticipated or unplanned outcomes of our application of technology, it seemed apropos.

So last night, after a discussion about Privacy with Lisa Rhine, and probably too many glasses of red wine (and some chocolate), I realized what I was wrestling with was the issue of privacy gradients. It is my perception (and I'm not a regular blogger, so I may be all wrong) is that one of the cultural hallmarks of the blogging community is mentioning others and being metioned through links. This is manifest by freely sharing content, quoting (using journalistic norms or not) and generally assuming more exposure is better exposure.

Now, transpose this idea when thinking about introducing blogs to groups who may not be part of this cultural group. Where anonymity and collectivism is more important than fame, attention and individualism. Is a blog still an appropriate tool? Can blogs in this setting create another cultural node of bloggers that are not self-referential? Is it still a blogging community?

Can one be a blogger and yet not want others to reproduce (with attribution or not, with permission or not) their words, links, images?

Your example about the women living in purdah (sp?) in Afganistan and the idea of a private intrnet blog community triggered all this incoherent thinking. We who are used to the cultural norms that have emerged from the communities who started blogging may not have a fig of an idea how they may situate in other cultures. We claim we know blogging and blogging culture, but perhaps there are other species, other varieties of blogging culture that could emerge, particularly if we do not first impose our model upon them.

How do we understand the ways a tool can manifest when nested in different cultures? How can we help clarify the values that are embedded in the design of the tools itself (assuming you believe technology is not value neutral and that embedded in it to some degree are designer's values)?

Do we send a tool with an "embedded cultural values" warning?

Too many questions. Glad you all started asked very tough questions during the panel. Forgive my rambles!