Liminal states

From Jeff’s talk at pii2010.

Publicness …

1. … makes and improves relationships.  “If you don’t reveal you’re a skier, you won’t meet other skiers.”
2. enables collaboration.  “When a journalist says, while doing a story, ‘what do you know, what don’t you know’, that’s collaboration”
3. (oops, missed this)
4. … frees us from the myth of perfection.  “Toyota should build trust by opening up everything in its repair database”
5. … kills taboos.  “People coming out of the closet solves the problem of homophobia and bigotry”
6. … grants immorality (or at least fame and credit).
7. … enables wisdom of our crowd.  Cites Twitter’s ability to predict box offices.  “We as a people know a lot of stuff.  if we had that from each other, we’re stealing from each other.”  “Not to share our health data will be seen as selfish and asocial.”  “I want to go on a plane and have everybody tweet what they’re paying for their seets.”
8. … organizes us.  “Cue Clay Shirky.  I quote him at least once every conference.  As Marc says, it’s a political economy.”
9. … protects us.  “I don’t have a problem with body scanners.  I’ve talked about my penis online.  I have one.  So what?”
10. … creates value.  “When the government of Germany tells Google Street View not to take pictures.

Jeff’s Cyberspace Bill of Rights appeared in the Guardian in March.  It’s interesting to compare-and-contrast with the Social Network Users’ Bill of Rights we did at Computers, Freedom, and Privacy.  I believe he added one more in the presentation today.

1. We have the right to connect
2. We have the right to speak
3. We have the right to speak in our languages
4. We have the right to assemble
5. We have the right to act
6. We have the right to control our data
7. We have the right to our own identity
8. What is public is a public good
9. All bits are created equal.
10. The internet shall be built and operated openly