The session on data sharing and privacy was combined with Kevin Marks session on digital publics. We talked about people's experiences handling the increased visibility of internet life.
Managing reputation
People share about their experiences in order to get their side of the story out and create a public image. Among digital natives, "it's not a real breakup until you've listed it on facebook.
Handling fame
Before the internet, there were only a small number of people who had more followers than people can comfortably manage socially. Now many more people do. More widespread fame means that more people have the issues with stalkers and pestering fans.
Cautionary and instructive tales
At the session at the data sharing summit, the conversation turned to cautionary tales about social data sharing gone wrong.
Failed white lies
Someone begs out of a work-related social event by claiming the flu. His boss discovers a picture on flickr of the guy wearing a skirt and holding a drink. The picture is timestamped at the same data as the work party. His boss sends him a note suggesting that that may not be an effective way to recover from the flu. The lesson here is that some things that feel private are more public than we think.
Social network molting
It is socially awkward to unfriend people. Some people get around obsolete lists of friends by "forgetting" their password and needing to invite their current lists of friends with a new password. The lesson is that declared, public friends lists are in
The ex-girlfriend effect
The list of "people you should know" in social network recommendations often includes exes and enemies. These are people who are part of your social graph - but you are not connected to directly. In an organization, similar algorithms might locate internally competing projects. The algorithm doesn't know that some gaps in the social graph are deliberate.