How "open" are YOU? | The Coffeehouse

So, we know that Microsoft is trying to be open and transparent and communicate on all levels, with blogs, chats etc.

How transparent is the average 9er? What kind of communication do you permit, and why (not)? Do you put your phone number on the homepage? Your MSN Messenger address? Skype? ICQ?

(I've still not figured out my own take on this one yet.)

manickernel

I ran into this discussion of OPEN while following links on the post for a question to Osterman. Found it thoughtful.

W3bbo

What's odd, is that I have an ACL-Like thing for my friends and other "Brain Active Directory" groups.

It's a sad analogy, I know.

A complete stranger.... no access to anything, spare my handles, and email address.
Contact... they get my IM address and other details, such as "where in the world" I am and photos and perhaps my mobile phone number
Friend.... more access
Close friend... home phone number, intimate secrets, that sort of thing

Anyone who makes their phone number or IM addresses publically available is just asking for trouble really.

scobleizer

Actually far more good has come from putting my cell phone number into public than negative things. My number is 425-205-1921, by the way.

Also, I totally disagree about email. Sometimes I want to get ahold of people privately. Sometimes to give them things or hire them for jobs.

I won't hire someone I can't get ahold of.

W3bbo

scobleizer wrote:

Also, I totally disagree about email. Sometimes I want to get ahold of people privately. Sometimes to give them things or hire them for jobs..

I said IM Address, not email address Wink

Since making my IM Addresses available publically, I've been at the receiving end of countless of people worse than your One-Man-Clan CounterStrike gamer.

I also have personal reasons for not making more information about me available to "lower levels", if one knew enough about me... well... suffice to say, I can be blackmailed quite easily, I can't really afford information leaks. (But it's nothing "dodgy", I assure you Smiley

)

sbc

This is where Skype (or something similar) can come in. Rather than pay international rates, call for free (or a standard nominal fee). It could really take off (i.e. normal people hearing about it, not tech enthusiasts), but the telecommunications companies have a lot of power, so they will either try to stop it, or come up with better services (preferably the latter).

You should be able to set ignore on your phone (i.e. only accept a predefined list of number). Pity CLI (caller line identity) is not standard on all landline phones (in the UK at least, all mobiles have it though) - you have to pick up to know who is calling, and it is often someone (often speaking with broken English) trying to sell you something.

rhm

I prefer to remain anonymous. It irks me that all the stupid posts I made to usenet when I was at university are still available on seach engines today. Although I stand behind everything I write now, how am I going to feel about it in 10 years time? I notice posts on this site are picked up pretty quickly by google.

ZippyV

lars wrote:

How transparent is the average 9er? What kind of communication do you permit?

I always share my C-drive with the P2P community.

Jaz

i feel pretty open, i don't have a webpage, i do have a blog on LJ/~jaredce

if anyone wants my mobile they can ask me on cd [UNDERSCORE] guy [AT] hotmail [DOT] com if they wish.

gizmo_

scobleizer wrote:

Actually far more good has come from putting my cell phone number into public than negative things. My number is 425-205-1921, by the way.

Also, I totally disagree about email. Sometimes I want to get ahold of people privately. Sometimes to give them things or hire them for jobs.

I won't hire someone I can't get ahold of.

Im really tempted to phone you now, just to hear that laugh... But youre in the US and i have no idea how to phone US cellphones from the UK Tongue Out

Manip

sbc wrote:

This is where Skype (or something similar) can come in. Rather than pay international rates, call for free (or a standard nominal fee). It could really take off (i.e. normal people hearing about it, not tech enthusiasts), but the telecommunications companies have a lot of power, so they will either try to stop it, or come up with better services (preferably the latter).

I added Scoble to my Skype list as a kinda space filler (I have two contacts currently Tongue Out

), I think he has been online like twice, ever. Smiley

W3bbo

ZippyV wrote:

lars wrote: How transparent is the average 9er? What kind of communication do you permit?

I always share my C-drive with the P2P community.

Not always a good idea

Wink

Sven Groot

This is really a situation where I have learned from my mistakes. I used to be pretty open, at least in terms of my e-mail address. That old address, svengroot@usa.net, lasted me quite a long time, heck, I even paid for their service when it wasn't free anymore. But that address, which was among other things used on Usenet (biiiiig mistake) was drowned in spam, and has long since been abandoned.

Currently I have several addresses. My main address is known only to people that know me personally (or happen to have me on MSN, since it's also my passport) and stuff like online stores. My second address is on my website. Mail from that address is currently forwarded to my main address, but should the spam get out of hand I have an easy way to stop the flow. I have several more addresses, ranging in use from sites where I want to use my real identity but I don't want to see their mail everyday, and addresses where it's nearly impossible to associate them with me personally.

Real-life contact information such as phone number or my house address... the fewer people know it, the better.

mVPstar

scobleizer wrote:

Actually far more good has come from putting my cell phone number into public than negative things. My number is 425-205-1921, by the way.

Thanks Scoble! You'll be hearing from me soon. Smiley

mVPstar

ZippyV

W3bbo wrote:

Not always a good idea

OMG, Angelina Jolie!!! Woot! Didn't now I had that file on my computer!

Michael Griffiths

lmao @ ZippyV

I have a total of 6 email addresses.

My MSN one I don't use, and never check, because I can't access it via Outlook (well, apart from WebDAV - and guess what? I can't use auto-sorting rules with that, nor does the Outlook 2003 junk mail filter work on it. Great move, guys. Not.).

My mobile phone number is available to those who contact me via MSN Messenger.

I've had several blogs in the past, and am planning my next one now. Those blogs have easy ways to contact me, from email to IM to mobile phone.

If it ever becomes a problem, I can easily change my contact information, block the people, etc.

The advantages to having people able to contact me far outweight the disadvantages to spam and irritating people.

lars

rhm wrote:

It irks me that all the stupid posts I made to usenet when I was at university are still available on seach engines today.

Oh yeah. I've some of those too. I wish they'd just go away and be forgotten. I have matured, my views have changed, but the usenet archives never forgive. I think about that every time I post something on my blog, hoping I won't have to regret my words 15 years down the road.

Still, hiding under a stone isn't really an option either.

scobleizer wrote:
Actually far more good has come from putting my cell phone number into public than negative things. [....] Also, I totally disagree about email. Sometimes I want to get ahold of people privately.

I have no problem with people knowing my email adress, but I try to keep it out of the hands of email harvesters (like publishing an image instead of text). I don't think I will publish my phone number - I'd never forgive myself if I started getting strange calls inte middle of the night. My general ICBM location is available (Lund, Sweden). But I can't make up my mind about MSN Messenger and ICQ.

ZippyV

ZippyV wrote:

OMG, Angelina Jolie!!! Woot! Didn't now I had that file on my computer!

Now I see, somebody put it there via my Public FTP server (so people can write files to my harddisk too)! For some reason I had to make my Windows folder read-only because someone thought it would be funny to remove critical files from my system! But who would do such a bad thing? I guess it's the same person that hacked Jamie's blog too. Sad

lars

ZippyV wrote:

For some reason I had to make my Windows folder read-only because someone thought it would be funny to remove critical files from my system!

It's hard to get any more "open" than that. You even beat Scoble! Wink

Gambit

I give out my email address to pretty much anyone who asks, but that's about it. I tried blogging about writing my basketball game, but I haven't posted in a long time.

tobias

I don't mind publishing my IM contacts or email adress. It is so easy to get a new IM name if needed and than you can just import your old contacts and you are set.

I have many email adresses which I use interchangeably, and so far had never really problems with spam (my german provider GMX.net has a great spam filter). It's just a matter of having a good spam filter and some organizing skills.

But, out of my experience, it is usefull to have two cell numbers. One for business matters and one for private usage. I just turned the business phone off when I didn't want to be reached and my friends could still call me on my private one. Of course, this comes with the inconvenience of having two phones with you all the time...

Of course I don't have that much traffic on my website or people trying to get hold of me but I just wanted to give my two cents to the discussion!

W3bbo

tobias wrote:

Of course, this comes with the inconvenience of having two phones with you all the time...

Many phones support "dual lines", of course you do have you pay your provider a bit extra per month.

jamie

one thing is for sure - since i put under my avatar jamie@channel.ca i have been spammed to high heaven

Manip

<- Then do what I do

Also stops stupid people contacting you. Smiley