Re: [microsound] the last.fm panopticon

["Gary R. Weisberg" <gary@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> but the sad state of the world is that our data are already heavily
> tracked/spied upon/warehoused in the marketplace by corporate interests

Kim,

While I always find your comments on market economics and the politics of 
culture insightful,
and sometimes enlightening, I feel it necessary to play a bit of devil's 
advocate regarding this
last post. Firstly, although there are definitely negative (and at times 
frightening) aspects of the
ways in which corporate interests intrude upon our lives, I thinks it's a 
bit much to consider it
'the sad state of the world...' when entities who are, after all, in the 
business of making money,
resort to data mining practices in the course of their endeavors. Most of us 
still (so far) have
freedom of choice, and the axiom 'caveat emptor' does still apply to those 
of us who are
intelligent enough to make our own decisions about where we go, virtually 
and otherwise.
Delving into any site's privacy policy can usually give you enough info to 
make your own decision
as to whether or not you choose to put yourself out in the open regarding 
last.fm, myspace,
or any other 'social networking' type of environment. If you find the 
benefit of the site outweighs
the fact that your choices are being data-mined, that's your choice. Nothing 
sad about it. So far,
the goon squad is not breaking down your door in the middle of the night to 
haul you away, Mr.
Buttle, just because you were listening to a Skatenigs track. You may get 
spam, but, hey, that's
what filters are for...

Secondly, I think it's more of a stretch to use the prison (panopticon) 
metaphor in this situation,
unless you truly believe that is what we all exist in. That implies there 
really IS no free will, and
that really is a disturbing idea.

There you have it - my 2 cents.

Gary 


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