Okay, so I started to leave this as a comment on my earlier post about privacy rights, and it quickly began to grow into a post all its own. Here we go:
I think one of the main reasons I wanted to start this conversation was to begin talking about how we, as a community, can take control of our information and how it gets disseminated across the wider cis culture and among ourselves.
I’m old enough *sigh/grin* to remember how long it took to grab back language and power from the talk show circuit. We have had to work hard to reorient how our lives are talked about, and in some ways are still suffering from that timeframe, even though in other ways it was good for visibility. Certain memes were born in those realms that, for good or bad, we have not been able to shake. One thing I think we should look at is how to start telling our stories online in ways that give us ownership instead of waiting until cis culture determines where and how we fit in online and then having to battle back.
Part of that may well include figuring out how to respect and carve out space for people who have to be stealth, but still need access to the larger community. The online world also gives us ways to provide leverage for voices that don’t get heard offline. Communities of color, people with disabilities, youth, elders…all of those intersections of the trans communities are starting to gather together. One of the responsibilities of those among us in leadership positions, I feel, will be getting a more firm grasp on the ins and outs of social media so we can insure a wide open cooperative space.
The development of cisgender serves as a good example of this. The community has grown this word, dialogued and even fought about it online. Now it’s become more user friendly in the offline world. Even I’ve started using it, and that’s pretty amazing. Two years ago, I had no use for it at all. These days, it rolls off my tongue and I actually understand it, instead of viewing it as some theoretical ivory tower stuff developed by rich trans folks with too much time on their hands. Our communities have dialogued with cis folks around this word, trying to do education. When necessary though, we have held our ground and simply let them know that whether they like the word or not, it levels the playing field and we’re going to keep using it. This type of conversation, and other discussion like jettisoning the terms “MTF/FTM”, are proof that our online world continues to evolve and effect our offline lives.
This is the kind of control of our information and stories that I’m hoping grows bigger quicker. Attending this conference was a mental quantum leap in online life for me. Even though I’m very far from a social media expert, I suddenly grasp a lot about how crucial mastering these tools are to our future.
Another thing I learned is that the people on the other side of our computers are still looking at all of this information we leave online every day as this great, amorphous mass they have barely begun to figure out how to mine. One of the lecturers pointed out that part of what is wrong is how companies are defining “non-personal” information. He used his own example. He actually read the user agreement on his Itunes. On page 35 of 37 (I couldn’t have done it), it talked about the “non-personal” information they would be allowed to gather from him if he agreed to this contract by clicking yes. It included:
Occupation, zip code, item serial number, and a couple of other data points I can’t remember.
Now, I’m not a data maven myself, but most of us realized that two or three of those data points in concert would easily give you the user. And if you started there, with some diligence other information could be obtained.
He decided not to click yes and allow this information to be gathered. Now there are features on his Itunes that he is not allowed to have access to. We discussed (via Twitter and actual “words-coming-out-of-our-faces” conversations) ideas about how to tilt information consent and sharing back toward end-user (us) control. Some of them were: creating simplified, one page user agreements, allowing end-users to manually enter in data they were willing to share, and more transparency about where the data would go.
I’m not going to start behaving like Chicken Little and hollering that they’re coming for our information. In fact, I didn’t even lock down my Facebook page until it got hacked a few months ago. Until then, I was a happy budding social media consumer. My phone and yahoo email were connected to FB, along with a few other things. When my account was hacked, I realized just how much of my life information was available through one entry point. It did startle me a bit.
If anyone is interested in looking at the Twitter feed from the conference, you can find it at #pii2010
Lincoln
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