Posts (page 2)

In a cowboy hat, no less. I've never played, but I am quite sure of the fact that faceball is awesome.

This is a half-baked thought that I am recording quickly. It deserves further consideration. If you have additional thoughts, I welcome them.

Just this past weekend, I read Clay Shirky's essay from 2003 titled "A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy", and part way through I got to thinking about Facebook. Facebook really isn't social software in the way that a BBS or a forum is social software. At least it isn't any more.

When Facebook started out at Harvard, it probably was that sort of group software. There was this group of students, and they had certain things in common, and this software supported some of their activities. They could share their identities, discover classmates, and flirt. That's the kind of group that Shirky's essay seems to address.

And, perhaps, when it spread to other college campuses, it still worked in a similar way. Despite the fact that there were many, many users, the users were still relatively homogeneous, and the groups still had similar needs. Identity, discovery, and flirting are still important, but the way it gets done at Harvard is likely to be different than the way it gets done at the University of Florida. Maybe not when viewed at a distance, but certainly when you get up close (and that's where it matters). And, as soon as the students at Florida can contact the students at Harvard, that creates a new dynamic also.

So, now that Facebook is open to the entire web, there is even less common ground between the users. It's no longer a group, it's millions of individuals. Some of these users are still part of groups, but Facebook certainly isn't the group. So, Facebook can't really keep being software for a group. At its scale, it only works if it can successfully transform itself into a platform that helps serve many groups.

In this context, its shift towards expanded identity control and communication and platform approach to functionality development makes perfect sense. The Facebook developers recognize that they can't build all the software that's going to make all the different groups happy. What they seem to be building is the web that substitutes people for pages. Facebook appears to have the best organized connection functionality and user identity tools of any of the large social networking companies.

What is everyone going to do? Share their identities, discover others, and flirt, primarily. But the key for Facebook is that each different group of users will be able to do it however they like.

Facebook may not be able to pull this off – it will be very tricky to do this well – but it's important to recognize that this is a fundamentally different task than trying to create community.

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Note: Thanks to Joel Spolsky for pointing me to Shirky's essay in the first place.

In coevolutionary worlds control and secrecy are counterproductive. You can't control, and revelation works better than concealment. "In zero-sum games, you always try to hide your strategy," says Axelrod. "But in nonzero-sum games you might want to announce your strategy in public so the other players need to adapt to it."

This is a cool notion, pulled from the book Out of Control. It's about biology and machines, and was published in 1994, when the internet was a novel place for university and government researchers.

After doing some reading about Lifelock and TrustedID, I decided I didn't want to hand over any more personal information to anyone else, and I didn't really feel like paying $100 a year (or more) for the services they provide. So, I read some more, and decided to see if I could replicate the services LifeLock provides without spending money. This should also roughly match the services that TrustedID offers, but because TrustedID is less transparent about what, exactly they do, I can't say for sure.

These are the tasks I set out to accomplish:

1. Set fraud alerts at each of the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion
2. Request that my name be removed from credit card and junk mail lists
3. Request current credit reports from all three credit bureaus
4. (Repeat)

It should be noted that by doing this myself, I am giving up the toll-free customer service that each company offers, and needless to say, if I am a victim of fraud while on my own, neither company would pony up to cover out-of-pocket expenses I incur, as they promise to do for their customers.

Below, I have included notes on the experience and information that was helpful along the way.

Setting Fraud Alerts
I started alphabetically: Equifax. "To set up a fraud alert, simply call our Consumer Fraud Division at 1-888-766-0008." I called in – it's option 1. That's a good sign!

The IVR system continues: "If we are successful, we will forward requests to Experian and Transunion so they will also add fraud alerts."

If this actually works, I'm going to be stoked.

Following the prompts, I punched in my SSN, the digits in my address, and the telephone number at which I would like to be contacted in case someone attempts to access my credit report. After this was complete, the computer declared success, I got a confirmation number, and was told that I would get confirmation by mail. I was then transferred to a hold line playing Karma Chameleon, at which point I hung up.

That wasn't too rough – I can manage that every 90 days.

Opt Out of Mailing Lists
This is the one that I anticipated being difficult. I expected the credit bureaus use the fraud alert lines to sell credit monitoring products, and therefore willing to pony up contact information for fraud alerts more readily than for opt-out requests. Shocked again: Equifax provides a special number on a page full of phone contact information.

I called the number (888-567-8688). It's fully automated; no attendant is available. The first time through, the computer got things all twisted; I hung up. Let's try again. The second time through, the computer heard everything correctly and confirmed that my I would be removed from the lists that companies use to send firm offers for credit cards and insurance for 5 years. Again, one request makes the change for all the major credit bureaus.

That wasn't very hard. And I don't have to call back for 5 years? Not bad.

Request Credit Reports
Each of the three major credit bureaus provide one free credit report per year. Rather than request all three reports at once, I am going to request one report every four months. The strategy will be to get more regular access to what is happening with my credit record (I got this idea from Truston). The tradeoff: I won't be able to compare three reports at once for inconsistencies.

I did a little something different this time, and called the number provided by Transunion and requested my Equifax report. All the numbers I had dialed indicated that they provided central access to each of the three bureaus, so I gave it a shot. I called into the IVR, passed along a lot of information, and then the computer confirmed that my credit report is on its way. It worked.

One interesting note -- I originally tried to request my credit report from Transunion online through annualcreditreport.com, the official, government endorsed site to make such requests, and it didn't work. The website didn't provide me any reason why, and the information requested was the same I provided on the phone, but for some reason, no luck on the web.

More trivia: despite the fact that all the numbers provide combined access, each bureau has a unique number to request a credit report. 800-685-1111 for Equifax, 888-397-3742 for Experian, and 877-322-8228 for Transunion.

(Repeat)
I'll have to call in every three months to re-up the fraud alerts, and every four months to request a new credit report (that's seven calls a year, and calls in six out of twelve months, for those of you keeping track). But after doing it today (and taking good notes), I don't think it will be too rough. It's also worth noting that I accomplished this all on a Sunday afternoon without requiring access to live humans. And, when compared to services like LifeLock and TrustedID, I've learned that it's easy enough that I'll keep the $100 and do this task myself.

Conclusion
This was tedious, but shockingly simpler than I thought it would be.

* Note: I have no affiliation with any of the companies mentioned, other than as a consumer, reviewer, member of a database, or critic.

From Mule Design. Available for purchase.

What a fantastic idea: collect your friends and their friends and race big wheels down Lombard Street in San Francisco.

The idea and the official event site are courtesy of Jon Brumit. Photo courtesy of Scott Beale / Laughing Squid. More photos and video at Laughing Squid.

Countries in red have not adopted the metric system (source: Wikipedia, via: Neven Mrgan). That would be Myanmar, Liberia, and The United States of America. Birds of a feather.

• Video of the day: the demo video for the iPhone. The guy running the demo isn't too exciting, but the phone is totally exciting, and I don't think much of it owes to the Red Stripe effect. The video is like a tutorial on why this phone rocks and all other cell phones suck. Bulleted feature lists just don't matter any more.
• Dirty Scottsdale: this is hilarious. Cuoco brought this up at lunch a few weeks back, and I had almost forgotten about it when it came up in conversation the other day. This is too good.
• A dollar for a hot dog. Over the internet. dollarhotdogs.com. A new venture by Big Wave, this is internet silliness. Perhaps not as lucrative as the million dollar home page or as cuddly as lolcats, but I like his niche. For $1 plus shipping, you'll get a hot dog, cooked to order and delivered to you or (more likely) a friend. Condiments and gift baskets available.