One Ring to Rule Them All? (original post date November 8, 2007)
With the announcement of OpenSocial, Google has, with one fell swoop, violated their own commandment of “Do No Evil.” OpenSocial is actually the information superhighway to hell paved with good intentions. OpenSocial does nothing to empower the end user, it actually further empowers the companies that provide the remote server Big Brother “social graph” BULLSEYE to exploit the end user for their personal information that belongs only to the end user and does NOT need to be on any other computer than a person’s personal computing device.
This is the perfect illustration of how Web 2.0 technologies keep using Extraversion (Objective) where Introversion (Subjective) is called for. The Internet is a subjective technology, not an objective one.
The solution is NOT to create one profile on a remote server, with different views depending on the user. The real solution is to create MANY Personas on my computer (or storage system) that are perfectly discreet and do NOT overlap anywhere except on the subjective end. You DON’T need to do this on a remote server owned by a company whose ethics on exploiting the data can be compromised either internally or externally. It only takes one mistake by an ignorant intern to criminally expose things that should have never been combined in the first place.
OpenSocial now should be the singular target of every person in the world concerned about the inherent right of privacy, control and the inherent and original design intent of the internet - distribution of information across the network of networks. NOT consolidation. Where is *my* desktop social networking application? OpenSocial does NOT empower the end users. It empowers the companies waiting to exploit and rape users of their information.
Data portability is supposed to be the reason behind creating this standard. Has everyone forgotten that data isn't supposed to be portable? Database and hypertext theory clearly states - write once, then reference. This information is already written once - on my personal computer. I'll keep my data, thank you. Just give me your code to play with it.
So pardon me if I declare myself Don Quixote de la Mancha and announce the formation of the Windmill Coalition. I will be at my local inn and if you would like to join me on my chivalrous adventure, I drink Jim Beam on the rocks with a splash of water and I will be glad to call you my squire Sancha Panza.
*headdesk*
