Welcoming big brother

So for the first time in several years, I was in a meeting that included a video-conference with another group half way across the world. It was really good quality, both in sound and video. Our host at the meeting had a nice and inexpensive set up. He told us how his entire office has moved into not just video-conferencing (a necessity for his business) but also nearly permanent remote video discussion with cameras that clip to laptops and other devices. Almost every remote conversation they have now is audio plus video, even if the other person is just down the hall. This led to some jokes about working from home and seeing each other - and sometimes spouses - in pajamas. But still, I nudged my boss that we need this at our company.

Before this meeting, I've been reading alot about the social web, Web 2.0, and all the other terms people use for the evolutions we are seeing in technology and people's personal interaction with it. And of course, I like to test things out and see for myself. When I posted photos to Flickr, I really thought for awhile about whether I really wanted to make pictures of my kids public. I don't imagine any harm would really come from it, but for now decided not too. But I've set up some family and friends to view them.

But so many people post their personal pictures. So many people blog about personal matters. A colleague at a client company went through marathon training and posted pictures of her swollen and bruised feet on her blog (which, besides the feet, provides interesting insights into her training for such a monumental event). But this would not have happened just 1 year ago. (Note the link above goes to her blog, not a picture of her feet. I've spared you that.)

Now, I have nothing against this openness. I think it is all widely fascinating. And I love the community spirit that these technologies help to foster. And of course I am writing this blog (but who knows if anyone is reading....). I just said I use Flickr. I've tested del.icio.us. . I've made the blogs I read public to the world. It's all good.

But I also find it interesting, how in some way, we have created and accepted some version of big brother. Ok, maybe it is not big brother when you voluntarily open up the view into your life. No one is forced to post pictures of their chilren or blog about their innermost feelings. But in any case, the tools exist for those who want to allow big brother to see and broadcast their world.

P.S. And because I believe that just about everything has already been thought about, I did some Google searches on this topic after I wrote the above.....

Here is an article full of menacing doom.

Just as Marx seduced a generation of European idealists with his fantasy of self-realization in a communist utopia, so the Web 2.0 cult of creative self-realization has seduced everyone in Silicon Valley.

This one mentions some video program you can pay for to be part of big brother.

You've read the book and seen the film. Now you too can oppress the proletariat - and for only £3.50 per week!

Ok, its been years since I read 1984, so maybe my depiction of big brother is wrong. This blog posts says all the authors are "mini big brothers" and has some quotes from Orwell's book:

The problem is that the Howard Rheingolds of Silicon Valley have the future back-to-front. The likely dystopia is not the ubiquitous eye of pervasive computing, but rather the way in which technology is making everyone into authors. The future is not to be feared because of the threat to individual self expression, but rather because of the threat of too much self expression. Digital technology is making all of us into mini Big Brothers with our own blogs, podcast and videocast shows. The concern is not the death of individual rights, but rather the demise of an authoritative broadcast media and the rise of what Christine Rosen calls egocasting.