We can all pull the "Mark never walked in our shoes" line, but what he is trying to say is that transparency is inevitable as we march forward into the information age. So we might as well accept our convictions and live with them.
As for the people in Egypt there will always be outlets for anonymous communication. However, it won't be found on some tech blog.
Putting faces behind the comments provoke people to consider their opinions more carefully, just like we do in real life. And if you are one of those people who want to lash out, but don't have the guts to do it in face then you should just tell your best friend or keep it to yourself.
It's only inevitable if you give up on it. Technologically speaking the tools are there for it to go either way. That's why you see these technology CEO's that make their money on tracking and surveillance making statements like this. They have to convince you to stop caring and shift societal norms.
I admit it doesn't look good for privacy for now. But 20 years ago, a lot of smart forward thinking people, including global intelligence organizations, thought it was going the opposite direction. What they didn't anticipate is that we'd all be convinced to voluntarily give it up ourselves.
>Putting faces behind the comments provoke people to consider their opinions more carefully
You're absolutely right. KGB and Stasi had achieved a lot of success in putting faces behind the comments, and as a result people were considering their opinions extremely carefully.
Easy to take everything out of context isn't it? Also you would have to assume that the people hosting the comments where either KGB or Stasi... Are you referring to Techcrunch?
yes. It is one of the reasons people may like to remain anonymous - to avoid dealing with consequences when comments are taken out of context, incorrectly interpreted and/or understood. Why should i spend extra effort dealing with morons who aren't able or inclined to understand a simple logical idea?
>Also you would have to assume that the people hosting the comments where either KGB or Stasi...
not necessary. Just reading/listening to have been enough.
I agree that using a real identity forces people to be more deliberate. Also, idealistically, I agree that we should own our convictions.
Realistically, people's convictions change over time. The internet on the other hand is mostly undated. A Google search doesn't return a persons online activity in reverse chronological order. In a traditional environment the absurd things we might say as a result of past convictions will fade as time goes by. Consequently the perception people have of us is biased towards the present. This isn't true for the internet and anonymity is the only way to keep our identities from stagnating.
Putting faces behind the comments provoke people to consider their opinions more carefully, just like we do in real life.And if you are one of those people who want to lash out, but don't have the guts to do it in face then you should just tell your best friend or keep it to yourself.
I am curious, why do you think that transparency is the future? I can't think of a significant reason why that would happen. The only people that think this way are the ones that would benefit from it, and for the regular user, there is not much good. I can see alot of downsides though, like many here have mentioned, out-of-context interpretation.
Possibly the only people benefitting from this are companies, especially those with good CRM systems. And don't jump to the idea that being anonymous is no good either. Imagine sites would begin to ask for your identification before you were allowed access to content or features, like commenting systems. Imagine you are a kid again and were trying to access hacking information that were behind a over-18 wall, or just trying to post a comment on HN, but you have to be either a hacker or an entrepreneur to do so...
Also, transparency will never stop hackers or crackers from doing what they do, neither it will stop terrorists, piracy or <insert-your-digital-threat-here>. Hopefully, transparency will fail.
As for the people in Egypt there will always be outlets for anonymous communication. However, it won't be found on some tech blog.
Putting faces behind the comments provoke people to consider their opinions more carefully, just like we do in real life. And if you are one of those people who want to lash out, but don't have the guts to do it in face then you should just tell your best friend or keep it to yourself.
Just my thoughts.