Social software is kind of a big deal right now. In the open-source spirit of transparency and dissection, let's talk about what makes social technology creepy, what makes it fun, and how to hack things to maximize your desired outcome.

2. When we use social software...
like Twitter
or Facebook
or Google Reader
or LinkedIn
or Foursquare
or Gowalla
or Message boards
or IM
or ...

3. We want

4. But sometimes it's

5. "I posted my location
on Foursquare to tell my
friends to stop by–
but my ex showed up
too."
http://www.michellesblog.net/other-social-networks/why-i-cant-
get-as-excited-about-geolocation-as-scoble

6. Social:
The ex doesn't know or care that he's not invited.
Technological:
I shared my location publicly, but I didn't know he was
listening.
Or perhaps he's watching a mutual friend's updates to see
where I am (The friend posts "Hanging out with Katie
at Lucky Lab")

7. "I post pictures from
parties and vacations on
Flickr, to share with my
friends."

8. Social:
My friends enjoy seeing what I've been doing, and reliving
our shared experiences.
Technological:
My Flickr photos can be set to public, private, or shared with
a designated group of contacts.

9. "I used Facebook to invite
certain friends and family
members to a baby shower,
but it was re-posted to a
public local events calendar
via an iCalendar feed."
http://blog.jonudell.net/2010/04/30/surprise-your-facebook-
visibility-isnt-what-you-thought-it-was/

10. Social:
I only want to invite some people to the event, not
everyone in town, so I picked a privacy setting I thought
would do this.
Technological:
Facebook's iCalendar feed service used my privacy setting
choice in a different manner than I expected when I
selected it.

11. I talk to friends on Twitter
when we all have insomnia, and
wackiness (#electricblanket)
ensues.

12. Social:
Twitter is open at all hours, and anyone who doesn't like
what I post is free to unfollow me.
Technological:
Twitter shares a feed of what I post to all of my followers,
even if they're not online till tomorrow morning.
And if a group of us vote up a new trending topic while
the rest of you sleep, well...

13. "I updated my resume
information on LinkedIn,
but it sent an email
notification to my boss and
coworkers."
awkward?

14. Social:
I use LinkedIn to post my resume information, and I'm
connected with current and former coworkers on the site.
Technological:
The site sends out periodic updates showing which users
you're connected to have added profile information, like
their job experience.

15. "I organized a surprise
birthday party for my
friend using Facebook."

16. Social:
I don't know how to reach all of my friend's friends directly,
but we're all connected on Facebook, so that's how I send
the invite.
Technological:
Facebook lets me send private (secret) event invites to a
selected group of users.

17. We probably can't change the
social problems with our software.
But we can make sure that the
technology enables fun or creepy
experiences in a deliberate manner.

18. How?

19. danah boyd writes,
"Over and over again, I find that people’s mental
model of who can see what doesn’t match up with
reality."
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2010/05/14/
facebook-and-radical-transparency-a-rant.html

20. We think we're sharing
with the people we want to
see it: friends, family,
friendly strangers.

21. But maybe we're also
sharing with people who
wish us harm, or family or
co-workers who aren't part
of our social life, or
marketing databases.

22. The software might even expose information we
didn't even know was there to be shared.
Like the amount of time we spend on a website.
Or that we've just qualified for the "douchebag"
badge.

23. Ways we can do it right:
Show the user the full context when information is shared.
Provide flexible controls for setting who has access.
Pick explicit over implicit.

24. Doing it right is hard.

25. Privacy settings on LiveJournal

26. Ways we can do it wrong:
Rely on implicit understandings of who should see what.
Make the controls and settings hard to find and use. Then
change how they work.
Assume that if you're okay with the information being
exposed, your users will be happy too.

27. Doing it wrong is easy.

28. A Graph on Navigating Facebook Privacy Settings,
via New York Times, May 10 2010

29. But wait!
Is creepy always bad?

30. A better question:
Is exposure always bad?
Don't we want to share with each other?
Different things are creepy for different people.

31. Your turn:
Questions?