Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Big Data mining: Who owns your social network data?

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, March 11, 2011

Big Data mining: Who owns your social network data?

by Paul Krill from InfoWorld.

An attractive application of Hadoop and other Big Data technologies is to analyze users' social activities, sometimes without their express knowledge

Investors are always looking to places where they can "make a killing", and many are training their sights on software that is capable of mining information from Facebook, Twitter, emails, etc. They know that money can be made by selling information. However, such sources present difficult problems regarding "ownership" which, of course, is one of the foundations of the capitalist religion. I'm sure they'll sort it out and make big profits.

You didn't know that capitalism was a religion? Yes, indeed. It is faith-based: the followers believe in the beneficial "invisible hand" of the market. Just ask Ken Fisher, columnist with Forbes Magazine.

I believe in capitalism. Capitalism to me is a spiritual concept. Democracy just gets in the way. Democracy is annoying. Let them buy stuff and eat cake. Where I come from if you don't believe in capitalism you're going to hell.

You didn't really think that social networking software was devised to merely bring people together, did you? In a capitalist theocracy, nearly everything ends up by providing a few people with profits. Capitalist worshipers believe that nothing can possibly happen unless people can make money from it. And the money made from creating something usually does not go to the creators, but to the "owners" of enterprises where the creation happens.

Many people who do not subscribe to this religion believe that all creative activity cannot be merely a product of individual efforts, but derived from the work of other contemporaries and, especially, from the efforts of many past generations of people (workers) who contributed time and creativity in solving other related problems. Hence, they believe that such creations are social property. And, they also believe that solving problems, creating things which make life easier, more secure, and happier are intrinsically rewarding for their creators.