Life is grand

Apologies for the dramatic title but this Facebook Beacon story just gets better and better. Zuckerburg and co. have not just fumbled the ball, they have scored an own goal.

First up is that Facebook seem to have misled their own Beacon partners. Coca Cola’s Carol Kruse says that she believed Beacon would be an opt-in system and not opt-out. This is backed up by Louise Story of the New York Times. Whether intentional or not it must make well established and professional companies think twice about working with Facebook. As much as I enjoy the free-for-all attitude of many internet companies you can’t dick around with your reputation and your business partners. They are stuck in their ways and often abusive with their power but they aren’t going to help you rebuild a bridge you just burnt down.

Even if Facebook had got opt-in right it would seem it doesn’t matter; Beacon partners send usage data whether you are a Facebook user or not. It sends it without any permission and Facebook has full access to the data. So if you have visited one of the Beacon partner sites you may just have unwittingly sent Facebook some data, whether you have ever used Facebook or not. The partners include Microsoft, CBS, BlockBuster (don’t go renting anything dodgy now), eBay (don’t buy those “herbs”), Joost (don’t watch that channel), NYTimes (so, you are a conservative eh), Sony, Travelocity (want an upgrade to first class for that flight you never told us about?) and many more.

I apologies for ever thinking good thoughts about Beacon. It seemed a cool idea, creepy to some but interesting to me. The implementation has been botched and the situation mishandled. Modern internet companies call themselves transparent and in touch with their users, they spout phrases like “your data” and “you set the privacy.”

Facebook is giving us a bad name and knee-capping our future by making arrogant mistakes with 50 million users. This isn’t some little web 2.0 site that a bunch of us tolerant geeks use. This is prime-time, mass-market and those folks don’t tend to forgive and forget. They go to another site.

Some people say Facebook is the next Google. Good lord, we are doomed if they are.

Check out crayon physics for one quite amazing “game.” The video shows the player drawing the outline of car and a second later the game turns it into a moving car. The programming behind that must be something else.

This would be fantastic for kids and adults alike. Teaching creativity, cause and effect, basic physics and all the time having fun. So intuitive too, no messing about with property dialogs or complex settings. Just draw what you want and it becomes “real” in the game.

* Talk show host Larry King. He said so on his show earlier this month.
* Doug Morris, CEO of Universal Music Group.
* Judge Judy Scheinlein.
* Media entrepreneur Ted Turner. He told me this personally.
* Former Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill.
* Donald Trump may be an Internet-resister as well.

What do all these people share? Apart from wealth they all admit to not using computers. Russel Shaw goes on asking a question about why this is. Is it there age? No.

The truth of the situation is made clear when he mentions “These are people who don’t place their own phone calls, don’t write their own letters… …don’t send their own e-mails… …Heck. Not even all of them drive!”

They have other people to do it for them. Assistants, secretaries, researchers, consultants and entire companies.

The real question that should be asked of Larry, Morris, Judy, Ted, Sanford and Trump is; could your job be done without computers in this day and age? The answer would be no. Larry King has an army of researchers who, without doubt, use digital technology. Donald Trump has an empire of computer users monitoring his wealth. Judge Judy would find many of her law references come from digital sources now.

The wealth of these folks is now digitised. Stock markets don’t run without computers. Banks don’t run without computers. Their platinum credit cards are mini-computers connected to an epic computer network.

The initial question, do you use a computer, is a misleading one. When the answer is “no” and we see the success of these people we falsely think there is something meaningful to the lack of computer use in their lives.

But ask them some other misleading questions; Do you do your own taxes? Do you make your own bed? Do you ever clean, cook or take the trash out? Do you take your kids to school or pick them up? Do you book your own flights, personally set up meetings and so on.

The answer is not that we should attempt to achieve success through removing computers from our lives. The answer is we should employ people to handle the “trivia” in our lives but make sure we own the rewards of what they do. When Larry’s research assistant finds a damning fact about an interviewee it isn’t the assistant who gets the acclaim, it is Larry. When Ted makes an astute deal we pin it on him, not the army of lawyers and assistants that made it happen.

I don’t begrudge them at all. They have found a tactic in life that works and, hopefully, most of them are happier for it.

But Larry King does use computers. In the year 2007 he wouldn’t be able to broadcast without them.