Hvad sker der, hvis ens mobil bliver stjålet i toget, og tyven intetanende automatisk sender sine fotos til den rigtige ejermands photostream på Flickr? Tjah, man ser tyvens hund, barn og barnets bamse. Syret…..
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Technology is dangerous! Ben Clemens is a Yahoo! employee and his mobile phone was stolen on his commute. So far, so mundane. His phone had a camera and a photo blogging software called ShoZu configured to post any picture taken by the phone camera to his Flickr photostream. Nice. The fun starts when the thief not knowing about it, takes pictures of his family, dog etc and they are automatically uploaded. Ben becomes a 15 minute celebrity.
There are a couple of things interesting about this. One is the way in which technology of ’social web’ captures behaviours and make new ones possible in an unprecedented way. It’s not about ‘privacy’ but about connectivity and ease of use. There is no longer ’standard’ configuration, the user determines the final shape and configuration of the technology used in his/her environment (phone, camera, ShoZu, Flickr). Ben remarks:
But: what a great illustration of how social media, inadvertently or not, blows away all normally private separate identities and separate worlds! I don’t just know something about the person who took the phone, I see some of the more intimate details of their family and life. Social media and applications create conditions which would otherwise be impossible. These technologies are only beginning to have a profound impact on social norms and behavior.
Another interesting thing about all this is the insistence of some commenters on Ben’s pictures that this is a hoax and some kind of a guerilla marketing campaign and no amount of Ben’s dissociation from such practices could clear things up for them. It becomes :
Despite assertions from the independent makers of the software that the tale is not a promotional stunt on their part, some Web users — who may have fallen for so-called ‘guerrilla marketing’ tactics in the past — rounded on Clemens, accusing him of making the story up.
First time I read about the story I didn’t doubt its veracity, then noticed a mention about it being a guerrilla campaign and my heart sunk. So I decided to look at the comments myself and most are from what in political blogosphere are conspiracy theorist aka as barking moonbats. It seems that any mention of branded technology bring on their condition and they conclude it must be a viral marketing campaign. As companies making more social web applications proliferate and make their way to everyday life, these people might be in danger of regular moonbat attacks. Ben repeatedly says in the comments:
Hi: sorry, this activity has taken me by surprise! Unfortunately, this is not a hoax. I am a Yahoo employee, but I have no connection to ShoZu. I am not sure what I would do to prove it’s real. The phone was taken from my seat on the Amtrak train I take to work every day, during the 30 sec that I turned my back to get off at my stop and then went back for the phone. I contacted streetfire and they are as bewildered as I am how that pic ended up in my photostream, I will change the title. Thanks to the people who pointed out that I should make private the kid’s pictures. Blessedly, it looks like the function has been turned off, as there haven’t been any posts in a few days.
Here’s a comment by ShoZu person on one of Ben’s photos:
OK. If its a hoax it not a hoax by ShoZu. Just because an image was uploaded to the Flickr account that came from the net doesn’t mean anything, ShoZu auto send option will send all photos to the Flickr account attached to ShoZu regardless if it was a taken on the phone or blue toothed over for a wallpaper.
If it is a hoax from some other source you would have to be pretty sad to upload pictures a someone’s kids to proliferate the hoax.
1 - Yes I work for Shozu/Cognima
2 - No we did not create this we have no connection with benvolut
3 - But hey free publicity is free publicity after all we are a small start-up without large viral or otherwise marketing resources.
Then sense of humour takes over:
I actually didn’t know what to expect 
‘this’ is ‘legit’ as far as it goes, but I am not sure what that means?
I am not used to anyone other than my immediate family looking at my photos. Bryce is a coworker at Y!, and he’s joking. I now have a whole bunch of people at work saying that I don’t actually exist, that I am just a marketing campaign here. Maybe I can start over with a whole new persona!
Conclusions…
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Technology makes people more powerful and we are seeing only the beginning of behaviours and attitudes affected and enabled by social media.
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Geo-tagging would have completed the story wonderfully. Bring it on Yahoo!
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Viral/guerrilla marketing campaigns are even more dangerous than technology for unsuspecting thieves as people can get really upset once they discover they were manipulated.
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(Via Media Influencer.)
