Comments for Shimona Carvalho

Comment on Anonymity is Relative by Greg

Greg — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:21:25 +0000

Just ran across this post about a new book covering some of these topics: http://laughingsquid.com/hacking-the-future-privacy-identity-and-anonymity-on-the-web-a-book-by-cole-stryker/

Also, there was recently a lot of stink about the “real name” requirements for Google Plus. It especially matters for people wishing to interact online without revealing gender, race, sexuality, etc. What’s old is new again!

Comment on Anonymity is Relative by Shimona Carvalho

Shimona Carvalho — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 16:58:39 +0000

Wow I was not aware that there was such a war over aliases. But for similar reasons, I sometimes want to post somewhere and not have people judge the comment based on my perceived or assumed gender, nationality, race etc…

Comment on Anonymity is Relative by Daniel Rehn

Daniel Rehn — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 03:39:31 +0000

Also, a more typical passage from a BBS-based discussion in 1992:

“It’s the lack of “benefit of the doubt” which suggests to me that what’s happening to people with “aliases” is simply the FidoNet version of McCarthy’s days of communist hunting. It seems that, increasingly, the FidoNet community is less willing to judge a user on what the user says and more willing to judge the user by the user’s name. In recent months I’ve seen Native Americans (Indians) harassed simply because their names don’t conform to Columbus’s White America’s naming convention.

As Donald Tees said, “Why on earth does the die-hard anti-alias person assume that John Smith is not really Janet Smith.” Why, indeed? I could, I suppose, call myself “Donna Smith” and get by these name restrictions, but I’m not sure I care to be dishonest like that. At best, I find it highly ironic that a system which is designed to *keep* people honest is insisting that I lie in order to be a member of the system!”

(http://www.textfiles.com/bbs/FIDONET/FIDONEWS/fido0913.nws)

Comment on Anonymity is Relative by Daniel Rehn

Daniel Rehn — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 03:39:04 +0000

Tangential, but—anonymity suffered some serious blows in the early ’90s on both BBSes (FidoNet) and Usenet during the real name vs. alias wars. Here’s a passage from John Coate’s (great) “Cyberspace Innkeeping: Building Online Community” (1993):

“This is one of the most important decisions one has to make in the online realm, both as a provider and a user of a service. There is a definite tradeoff that will occur with either choice. One the side of anonymity you have: easy entry, greater safety, more freedom to play with one’s whims and fantasies and higher population. With declaration of your real identity you get: commitment, greater likelihood that people will be truthful with each other, stronger chance that relationships formed online will blend into long-lasting “real life” relationships, increased confidence that minors could participate without being tricked, and a lower population.”

(http://www.cervisa.com/innkeeping.html)

Comment on You Are The Natural User Interface by Shimona Carvalho

Shimona Carvalho — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 16:53:19 +0000

Hi Christina,

Thanks for your comment! And you’re right, maybe if we didn’t spend all day frozen in front of our computer screens, moving nothing but our wrists and fingers, certain movements wouldn’t be so alien to us!

I’ve been running a bit lately, and I just noticed yesterday that walking felt a bit different than usual because I’ve been doing it so much more than before.

Comment on You Are The Natural User Interface by Christina

Christina — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 16:16:06 +0000

I don’t know how relevant this is to the article, but since I started doing yoga almost everyday, I can see how my body moves the way I want it to. Certain movements that were once alien to me, now seem very real and acheivable. I may never be able to acheive the Olympic grace like the man in the picture above, but for now, I will settle on being able to do the wheel pose by myself

[Ref] http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/473