Meet the World

This is pretty powerful stuff.

inanoffwhiteroom:

United States

Angola

Somalia

China

Colombia

Burkina

(Source: spinnellii)

I play the keyboard.

I play the keyboard.
I compose concertos and songs on blank pages.
Fingers gliding, words I am finding,
The sounds of each letter forming notes,
Guiding my hopes, success for wonting ego to gloat.
No this isn’t right, Terrence,
You have got to give me a little clearance,
For my fingers only move so fast,
And I cant remember the last
Time you gave me a chance to cast;
My own chaotic rhythm
Without humming a nonsense hymn
To get me from…
I play the keyboard.
Wouldn’t you like to hear?
The fleeting dance of souls slantng
N-G. 
Wait.
Backspace. Backspace
I-N-G.
Slanting as I run out of blank pages.
It isn’t easy to fit this all in stages
Of a life in music.
I feel the rise in disguise,
Telling me its right here, that I should pace
My fingers around this space.
I play the keyboard.
Sometimes I am repetitious for effect,
A chorus for retrospect.
It never fails, to no avail,
That my fingers should wail
The same notes of competency.
Of course there is no complacency,
Terrence, please,
I can’t stand your correcting plea,
Just let me be,
Fingers gliding, words I am finding
Tiptoed climbing.
Ideas binding.
I play the keyboard. 

“Personal Information” on the Web

I am always a little taken aback when I hear that people are upset about privacy issues on the Web. The issues seems to surface in a national issues every month or so, whether it be that Facebook changed their privacy settings again or the threat of a ‘Do Not Track” law on the tech industry. For the sake of this discussion, let’s first define “personal information.”

“Personal Information”

1. Personal - adj. : of, pertaining to, or coming as from a particular person; individual; private or relating to, directed to, or intended for a particular person or intended for use by one person.
2. Information - noun : knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance; news; or knowledge gained through a study, communication, research, instruction; factual data.
3. Personal Information - descriptive noun : (So by definition, mind you) personal information is knowledge communicated pertaining to, or coming as from, a particular person, concerning a particular fact or circumstance, i.e. news. Or, you could even phrase it: personal information is knowledge gained through a study, communication, research or instruction private or relating to or intended for use by one person.

Ok so now that “personal information” is defined, lets discover how when placed in a certain context “personal” and “information” become oxymorons. 

Context: the Web/Internet.

Purpose of the Web/Internet: to share and communicate information seamlessly from remotely located areas.

Source of information: People.

Does anyone else starting to see how silly it is to believe in “personal information” on the Web?

There is this social networking site called Facebook. Facebook is a service that allows people to easily share information with other people on a platform that was mean to catalog and communicated information. Where does Facebook get its data? The people that create personal profiles about themselves in order to share it. Wondering how Facebook has so much personal information is like wondering where babies come from. You gave Facebook that information/you had sex and got pregnant. 

It is absolutely ridiculous to assume that when you post status complaining that your boss made you do extra work and is a huge jerk it isn’t published. EVERYTHING that you post, write, share or produce that contains personal information on the Web is PUBLISHED. Much like an author may compose a memoir, each Facebook status, tweet, and blogpost is now a part of a memoir, catalogued and documented. Shame on you for thinking different. 

So what does your internet identity say about you? Can you think back to a Facebook status you posted 5 years ago that you wouldn’t want a future employer to read? Yeah, you wouldn’t like them to read it, huh? Well too bad, you should’ve thought about it when you posted information about yourself on the Internet (that had the sole purpose of sharing information with other people.)

Instead of blaming companies for using information that you gave to them, people need to become personally accountable for their actions and what they say, especially if they are so willing to publish it all over the web. 

Getting angry that your click-through actions are being recorded on a website is like getting angry that a store is video taping customers. The only difference is that the video tape is to make sure you aren’t stealing anything, while recording your movements on a website (#1) is anonymous and not attached to “personal” data and (#2) it can contribute to better websites and customer experience on the web. 

It’s all so silly. You know what information is personal? Information that you chose to keep to yourself. 

There is only one type of information that is personal, and that is information involved in carrying out a purchase online. 

(Inspiration: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-07-26-mozilla-chrome-internet-explorer-privacy_n.htm)