Facebook & the Implications of Privacy

A number of articles published in today’s ‘The Age’ online have equally disturbed and intrigued me on a number of levels.

The first was the identification of the arsonist in the Victorian Bush Fires in the article ‘Vigilantes publish alleged arsonist’s image online‘ , and the subsequent Flash speed with which their identify has been disclosed on Facebook, now numbering some 150+ million active users.  Some of the commentary as reported in the above article, is disturbing in its explicit anger and intent, all the more so, because what was once a ‘closed garden‘ environment has now become public by virtue of the introduction of ‘Pages’, ‘Groups’ & ‘Causes’. This speaks volumes about the ‘power of the people’ and the strength such social networks have on influencing real life from its virtual footprint. I logged in this evening and found no less than 10 groups devoted to this topic.

The second aspect that caught my attention is the comments of the presiding judge who quashed suppression of the alleged person’s identify in ‘Churchill arson accused fails to face court‘

“Any prison system has its jungle drums…how is the suppression going to protect the anonymity,” Magistrate Klestadt said. He said murderers and pedophiles appeared in court every day and their names were not suppressed.

The above comment shows the judges limited understanding and social context with which Facebook’s influence extends too. Putting aside the guilt or innocence of the alleged for a moment, and assessing in an entirely dispassionate light, the inherant problem with this statement by the judge is that, even with television and radio coverage, such types within our society are not likely to face the sheer volume of recrimination and potential vigilante action that is brewing on Facebook’s Wall’s, News Feeds’ and Status Updates. What was once the realm of small town gossip, maybe a phone call, at worst, televised coverage has now breached the divide of a worldwide, instantaneous communication network where the information source is vetted by any reasonable persons measure – the information source is one you trust – your network of friends. By its very nature of being a ‘closed garden’ network, Facebook itself is inadvertently endorsing the publication of such activities. Where communications over television, radio or in print would fade as the natural path of time charts its course, the Facebook group and subsequent alerting of your friends and acquaintances of your wall will potentially last for weeks, if not months.

The 3rd area which sounded alarm bells was the following as quoted in ‘Churchill arson accused fails to face court‘

Dr Matthew Rimmer, senior lecturer in law at the Australian National University, said Facebook is in much the same position as any other media organisation. “Much like a newspaper, Facebook needs to be careful what it publishes because it’s not just the author who is liable. Sometimes the publisher is liable ,” he said.

Here is a learned academic passing comment that Facebook is a media organisation like a newspaper. This troubles me greatly in that Facebook does little to police nor vet the activities of its users from a day to day personal perspective. Newspapers on the other hand vet everything that goes to print, and operate in much this similar fashion when moderating their own blogs and article comment feeds. Facebook is different as the ‘closed garden’ premise is that you only invite your friends to be a part of your network, and as a consequence, you are subsequently responsible for your actions and activities on your wall. I liken Facebook to be like a Hotel – you hire the room, once you have the keys, what you do with the room for the period of your stay is up to you, so long as you abide by the basic ground rules of don’t trash the place, pay for the mini bar and be civil to other guests whilst enjoying your stay. The very appeal of such networks is you can control who sees what, you get presented information that your friends have already vetted and endorsed and your privacy is maintained.

Overall, Facebook’s principle of offering a ‘closed garden’ is widely acclaimed and endorsed. Their creation of ‘Beacon‘ to data mine and ad serve your preferences, offering targeted advertising by way of user preference profiles and in recent years Facebook ‘Pages’, ‘Groups’ and ‘Causes’ all started life as different ways for the business to make money. However what is going to challenge their supremacy and high patronised usage is Privacy. Privacy and the implications of Facebook’s responsibilities as a publisher are only going to become more and more challenging as time goes on, as they will potentially be held responsible for the activities of its vast sea of users, generating millions of words, actions and images each day.

Information Architecture

I had reason recently to discuss the concept of Information Architecture with a client. In its broad context, as it applies to web, It was readily apparent that this client’s world view, the definition that they pursued was limited to the site navigation and page layout in context of a classic sitemap. Whilst I can understand that most IA’s are referred back to a site map diagram  – a trap of the industry -  it has occured to me that the definition as interpreted by my esteemed work colleagues who rank developers, project managers, digital strategists and designers (conceptual) is in an entirely different area of focus and emphasis. However, we’re often left with clients that need to understand just what in the world we are talking about. So where is the disconnect?

As is always the case when in doubt, I fall back on the Trusted Wikipedia definition of Information Architecture as a starting point:

“Information architecture (IA) is the art of expressing a model or concept of information used in activities that require explicit details of complex systems. Among these activities are library systems, Content Management Systems, web development, user interactions, database development, programming, technical writing, enterprise architecture, and critical system software design. Information architecture has somewhat different meanings in these different branches of IS or IT architecture. Most definitions have common qualities: a structural design of shared environments, methods of organizing and labeling websites, intranets, and online communities, and ways of bringing the principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.”

Quite a formal definition that needs bearing in mind if we are to dessiminate the underlying definition in context of the Web world.

When building a website lots of people, including both clients and practitioners make the mistake thinking that it’s easy. It’s not. A well built website considers factors that are the summation of different areas of endeavour for the business or organisation in question. Everyone has a vested interest to ensure that this pesky website thing works – the sales force, corporate comms, IT & IS, HR, executive, products group etc. Ultimately, they are there to support the activities in communicating to the site’s end users, both actual and intended and the intended function of the site in turn supports the business goals being focussed upon.

What is overlooked on a regular basis by both clients and so called ‘expert’ practitioners is the need for us to have an understanding of those other audiences on the business side who have a vested interest as well as the same understanding as it relates to the user side. The often subscribed to view is that managing or eliciting such involvement from other stakeholders internally can uneccesarily stymie the progress of the project. And in contrast, assessing the audience both intended and actual is often just ‘too big a task’ by most peoples standards. Involvement in such activity extends to the IA and how it impacts on the User Experience (UX).  IA by our own industries definition is not just the site structure from a page relationship point of view, however the problem is that we often don’t communicate this terribly well to our clients, who are more focussed on the commercial outcome of  what the end result will be. And rightly so, as they are the ones ‘paying’ us to deliver results. Succinctly, IA involves not only the navigation and the hierarchical arrangement of the pages, but also encompasses the below aspects.

1. Who is the audience? Are they going to be myopically challenged (as mentioned below) or have the attention span of a butterfly
2. Content Layout – Priority and scaling of content in relation to context and intended purpose. The concept of a great tract of text 750 words long doesn’t faze most people – until I point out ‘Would you read that?’ Both clients and practitioners are guilty of not thinking in this area nor offering advice and alternatives. How to solve this? Heading 1, followed by heading 2 byline, followed by 30 word summary, followed by introduction paragraph, use of tabulated data to present data (not to break up data), dot points and cross referencing. If you can’t deal with all that in 250 – 300 words, breakout the massive slab into a PDF Whitepaper, with that as a specific topic.
3. Images – Either overused (way to large), underused (way to small) or cliched, out of context. How many product sites have I gone too where the images are tiny? Too many.
4. Use a breadcrumb! Highly underated. This trail and visual cue of where you are in the site gives relevence to the hierachical order of information.
5. Font Size – Again highly underated. How many sites have I found where the audience is 40+ male white collar workers…. who are probably wearing glasses. Have at the least a font size button which can scale the site up and down.
6. Information Hierarchy – specifications, instructional guides, price lists, high level description, sizing etc
7. Print version – like it or not, people still print pages. It’s gotta fit on the A4/Foolscap sheet and is useless if it gets cropped. Savvy website owners will also setup their print variants to have pre-formatted pages with company logo, contact information, the page location within the site, print date and possible cross linked information.

Good User Experience yields ease of access and allows people to fall into the natural rhythm of finding the information they are looking for and if it is done correctly, it is self feeding in that it yields data back giving you insights into your web audience. The key things is that good IA starts at the design stage and should be encompassed in the Wireframes and the Site layout. Excellent IA is the result of good consultant activity at the Pre-Sales / Client Definition / Discovery stage of the project and should take into account a site visit whereby you can ‘soak up’ the atmosphere of the client in question.

All the above needs to be determined before a good IA can be setup and they all impact on the overall User Experience of how site visitors will interact with your site. The current line of thought extends to the notion that interactivity with your site is a reflection of how a client interacts with your brand. Brand as a touch point is every single interactivity they have with your organisation – products, service, phone call centre, printed material, customer interaction, your staff, your sales force, the words being portayed in popular media…. and your website.

Software: Firefox Browser Extensions

A work colleague was crowding around my machine last week, when he passed comment on the “look” of my Firefox browser. Conversely, his machine had some cool picture viewing software which I hadn’t seen before. Aside from the fact that it is a faster browser, the nice thing about Firefox is the myriad of useful software Add on’s you can install to make your web day just that little bit easier. Add On’s https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Add On’s I have installed:

Firebug https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843
Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page…

Cooliris https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5579
Full-Screen, 3D — Cooliris transforms your browser into a visually stunning experience for searching, viewing, and sharing online photos and videos. Our “3D Wall” lets you effortlessly search and zoom your way around thousands of images, videos, movies, news feeds, and even online retailers. To share stuff with friends, just drag and drop.

Firefox Companion for Ebay https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5202
Keep an eye on your eBay trading wherever you are on the web when you install the eBay Companion for Firefox. It’s a free tool built with eBay users in mind that will help you get more out of your buying and selling.

ScreenGrab https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146
Screengrab saves entire webpages as images…

And the theme?
Aquatint Black Gloss https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6111