Chat Logs
One of the interesting things about instant messenger is that when a conversation starts on one computer (or on my mobile phone) and is continued on another, the chat logs are out of context and sequence, and make no sense. My computer at home crashed a couple of weeks ago, and I was able to recover the chat log data as an archive. I wonder what I can do to preserve it in a searchable form? And how can I back it up, or synchronize the logs of clients on separate computers? I like the fact that Google Talk does that automatically.
How many important conversations are lost to the vagaries of memory? If we could record and searchably archive every conversation we ever have with anyone (naturally, we would have to get each other's permission), would it have a chilling effect? You'd think it would. But it does not seem to have much chilling effect on instant messages, so it seems reasonable that in a panopticon society we would eventually forget we are constantly recording each other. Does it bother any of you that everyone you chat with has a record of what you've typed to them?
I've personally found it useful. About a year and a half ago someone presented me with a backup of what I had said. But it gave me an opportunity to explain how I had been misinterpreted. And if I truly had flip-flopped and not remembered my position from one time to the next I would want to know that about myself.
Steve Mann has been called "the world's first cyborg" because of his video recording wearable technology and refers to the practice as "sousveillance." Surveillance is watching from above. Sousveillance is watching them back, from below. "Who's watching the watchers?" Steve Mann gets kicked out of department stores lot. His attitude is that as long as some hidden person is secretly recording him, he's going to openly record back.
Comments
stormgren on Mar. 10, 2006 7:28 PM
But it does not seem to have much chilling effect on instant messages, so it seems reasonable that in a panopticon society we would eventually forget we are constantly recording each other.
We already do. Most people don't think about security cameras, they're just part of the scenery.
Does it bother any of you that everyone you chat with has a record of what you've typed to them?
Sort of. It's not what information that I keep around that worries me. It's information on other people's computers that I worry about, as I can't control access to potentially damaging information to me if it's on their storage.
Google continuing the trend of offering to store everything for their client-base worries me in a way. Essentially your data is one subpoena away from being seen, potentially without your knowledge.
stormgren on Mar. 10, 2006 7:31 PM
Gah. I accidentally hit post without finishing what I was going to say.
My final point was going to be that with all of these grand information panopticon society concepts is that there's an underlying assumption that people will stop acting with ill-intent. Your average flamewar shows a small snippet of that.
treebones on Mar. 10, 2006 8:46 PM
There are some forms of honesty I will only give to other people face to face. The ability to return to words, even with the context of the words they are embeded with, is sometimes not a good thing, when subtracted from the context of the time in which they are spoken.
But mostly, I prefer being recorded. I strongly like having a record of what I've said to fall back on.
Additionally, I just realized IM logs address the one thing that would make me twitchy: *both* people have access to the recorded history, not just one.
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