The most useful session I attended was John Feminella‘s presentation on Internet Privacy. It was a great example of the kind of nuance that I see missing from general public discourse on any topic. The first step in addressing any problem is understanding the problem. And when the problem is privacy on the Internet, we have to understand what we mean by privacy.  John’s main point was

privacy != secrecy

that is, our privacy is not achieved through secrecy.  Instead what we really want is control over our information.  When Facebook changes their settings or when we find out about Spokeo’s listing on us it’s the lack of control that causes our anxiety, not the lack of secrecy. We don’t put secrets on Facebook for our friends to read and Spokeo’s data is collected from public records like the Charlottesville City Assessor’s Office. The problem starts when we feel that we don’t have control over how the information is distributed.

Facebook’s big change this year was their new “API” or interface (called Facebook Open Graph) for other websites and applications to read data out of their site.  And by data I mean what you and I have put on Facebook. They reorganized their privacy settings to align with this new API and to align with their business goals of making money off our information.  The two big problems with the new privacy settings are that many of them defaulted to be more sharing than most people like and that it’s very hard to tell when you’ve locked them down enough to suit you.   That’s where the tool John Feminella showed comes in handy.  Not sure what the Internet can see of your Facebook profile? Go to http://zesty.ca/facebook/ and put in your Facebook ID.  Click on the links in the list it generates to see what anyone else can see about you.  Because the tool’s navigation is not the best, I recommend ‘center-clicking’ to open the links in a new tab or ‘shift-clicking’ to open in a new window. Review each category of information, then go back into Facebook and change the settings.  Because of the loose structure of Facebook’s database, there may be a time delay between changing the settings and seeing the changes on Zesty’s tool.

I locked my profile down a few days ago and now the only thing it shows is a list of “likes” I belong to.

Hope this helps you feel okay about staying on Facebook.

http://www.YadysAlterations.com

While they’ve only been in Charlottesville for a few years, they’ve been doing this kind of work internationally for a while:

Yady’s Alterations brings you more than 30 years experience. Our goal is to satisfy our customers with the lowest price in shortest time.

A great family-owned and operated business, they are happy to tackle any job, big or small:

From custom couture to small repairs, bridesmaid’s dresses to backpacks, costumes to curtains, Yady’s Alteration has done it all.

Can’t get the right fit? Arms are too long? Pants are too short? Just a small hole doesn’t have to ruin it. That backpack would be perfect if it only had that extra feature. We have a solution to these common problems. We alter clothing and add features to equipment, returning your item with a “factory finished” look.

They’re a great “Green” asset for our town because they can fix things that we might normally be tempted to trash and replace.

We have the experience to bring your items back to “good as new” status. Most zipper repairs are simple and inexpensive. We offer many alternatives for repairing rips and tears with multiple color and fabric choices. We can repair almost anything including tents, packs, parkas, pants, sleeping bags, and dry suits.

We also make dresses, pants, skirts, shirts, coats, jackets, pajamas, nighties, robes, pillows, curtains, and costumes for any event.

I’m looking forward to many years of success for them in Charlottesville.

In Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
Jeff Lavezzo

See you there!

Mr. Dahl just published a new book called One World, One People: How Globalization is Shaping Our Future.

In this two part interview he talks about living in Bulgaria and returning to the States for visits, social aspects of globalization and other topics in his book.

A lot of people find it easier to be against something. That’s why we have so many anti-globalization demonstrators and so on, than to have a vision of what they want. That’s part of what my book is about, to ecourage people to think about what kind of world we want.

In the second part of the interview, the host asks less about tainted toothpaste and more about human interactions and smiling salespeople.

Helping others and being of service will gain importance as a source of human happiness

This is the big struggle in the world: finding out how to live together on a shrinking planet.

Heather A Maxwell
Heather A Maxwell is a musician, ethnomusicologist, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and a new client of mine. I’ll be helping her set up a website to promote her band’s February trip to Mali to play at the Festival on the Niger as well as to serve as her “web presence”.

The coolest part about this band, to me, at least has to do with the songs they’re singing. I’ll tell you the details but since they’re going to be on the same stage as Ali Farka Toure, Oumou Sangaré and other artists of their caliber, this should tell you what a Peace Corps nerd I am. The lyrics of there songs include some Heather wrote as a Peace Corps Volunteer in health education and so the songs are basically health education lessons, with a good beat you can dance to.

Fund raising
They were invited to Mali by the Prime Minister, I believe. But, if this trip isn’t going to leave Heather flat broke, she needs a good bit more money. Anyone know of any quickly available grants or sponsorships? She’s planning on talking to USAID via contacts in Mali, local Dave Matthews Band related juggernaut Music Today, local tv news outlets, AfroPop.org and possibly talking directly with pro-Mali musicians Ry Cooder and Robert Plant (well you know through their “people”).

Let us know any ideas you have!

In Charlottesville, Virginia (US):
Jeff Lavezzo

My parents-in-law have been living in different parts of Malawi since 1975. That of course is worth a whole batch of articles unto itself. There’s a serious food shortage in Malawi right now. So I did what any computer professional who is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and Africa lover stuck in the US would do: I set Google News to build a custom list of headlines about Malawi for me. One day it pulled up Mike Mckay’s Hactivate blog. And that pointed to more Malawi blogs. And they were good. They were important! News! Firsthand accounts! Pictures of wild animals! well… that part wasn’t so important, but reprints of newspaper articles about the current famine and stories about the challenges of living in a “foreign land” inspired me. I said, “well I’ve resisted it for a long time, but I’m going to set up my own blog.”

There are lots of reasons to do this. One is that I’ve been trying to get some children’s stories written and writing practice is never a bad thing. Another is that I’m getting more into some independent projects that could use some exposure. And the impetus today is that my friend Patryk Laurent who had been generously giving me space on the server he ran is giving up that server and switching to a DSL system. So, I was forced to get a new hosting company. I found Dreamhost.com who charged me, what I referred to yesterday as, “chump change” for one year. They also provide “one click installs” of software packages including, you guessed it, this Word Press blog.

All of this begs the question: How many people’s first blog post is about their blog?

In Charlottesville, Virginia (US):
Jeff Lavezzo