The Great Debate UK

from The Great Debate:

Should we ditch the idea of privacy?

The ubiquity of digital gadgets and sensors, the pervasiveness of networks and the benefits of sharing very personal information through social media have led some to argue that privacy as a social norm is changing and becoming an outmoded concept.  In this three-part series Don Tapscott questions this view, arguing that we each need a personal privacy strategy.

Since I co-authored a book on privacy and the Internet 15 years ago I’ve been writing about how to manage the various threats to the security and control of our personal information. But today I find myself in a completely unexpected discussion. A growing number of people argue that the notion of having a private life in which we carefully restrict what information we share with others may not be a good idea. Instead, sharing our intimate, personal information with others would benefit us individually and as a society.

This is not a fringe movement. The proponents of this view are some of the smartest and most influential thinkers and practitioners of the digital revolution.

Jeff Jarvis, in his thoughtful book Public Parts, makes the case for sharing, and he practices what he preaches. We learn about everything from details of his personal income to his prostate surgery and malfunctioning penis. He argues that because privacy has its advocates, so should “publicness.” “I’m a public man” says Jarvis. “My life is an open book.” And he provides elaborate evidence on why this has benefited him, and says that if everyone followed his lead, the world would be a better place. He concludes that while releasing information should be a personal choice, privacy regulation should be avoided.

Facebook is the leading social-media site that promotes information sharing, and part of the company’s mission is to “make the world more open.” In his book The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick explains that Facebook founders believe that "more visibility makes us better people. Some claim, for example, that because of Facebook, young people today have a harder time cheating on their boyfriends or girlfriends. They also say that more transparency should make for a more tolerant society in which people eventually accept that everybody sometimes does bad or embarrassing things." Some at Facebook refer to this as "radical transparency" – a term initially used to talk about institutions that is now being adapted to individuals. In other words, everyone should have just one identity, whether at their workplace or in their personal life.

Stanford University professor Andreas Weigend, former chief scientist at Amazon.com, says that “the notion of privacy began with the creation of cities, and it’s pretty much ended with Facebook.” He says “our social norms are changing.”

Other thought leaders like Tim O’Reilly (he coined the term "Web 2.0") or Steward Brand (author of the Whole Earth Catalog) defend an individual’s right to privacy. But they argue that the benefits of sharing personal information are becoming so beneficial to each of us and so widespread that we need to shift the discussion from what to share, to how to ensure the information we share is used appropriately. Says Brand: “I’d be totally happy if my personal DNA mapping was published.”

First Direct CEO Matt Colebrook answers your questions

– Matt Colebrook is Chief Executive of online bank First Direct. The opinions expressed are his own. –

In an article on 21 September, Matt Colebrook discussed the role of social media in banking, arguing that social networks are key for customer service as they enable customers to use and interact with banks whenever they want and from wherever they may be.

Below are the questions filed in response to the article and Colebrook’s answers.

Question: As Matt rightly says customers want to access their bank when they want, but more than that they want to bank on their terms.

The quote ‘I see social media within the financial sector creating conversations’ – is a tell tale. It should be financial services as one small strand in social media. Banks need to stop thinking of themselves as so important, they must accept they are but one strand in the Y-Gen consciousness.

For financial institutions to be able to flow useful data and be part of the conversation, does Matt recognise that they have to make a mental leap in terms of security models? Release read only API’s, use open web standard like OAuth. Of course protect core assets and transactions, but let the data flow out, and see the value start to be added. Does Matt see that this shift is key to enabling the conversation? – DanMux

Answer: My comments around banks and social media were based on our looking at things from a consumer point of view. People talk about the things that affect their daily lives and of course finances are a part of that. Maybe creating conversations wasn’t the right way of phrasing it, but being there to engage in them – certainly. Our social media programme is all about trying to open up the bank so that our customers can engage with us in the way of their choosing. This was the essential innovation at the core of first direct from the outset, in fact the whole bank was founded on a blank piece of paper with the word “customer” right in the middle.

Matt Colebrook on the future of banking

– Matt Colebrook is Chief Executive of online bank First Direct. The opinions expressed are his own. –

The 21st birthday of First Direct is as good a time as any to look back on changes within the financial industry and how it will continue to evolve.

The mercurial growth of the social web is something banks just can’t ignore. We’re now in the age where both the individual and consumer are empowered with a voice that can reach far and wide in a short space of time.

However, most fundamentally, social media is advantageous as a facet of banking customer service. Financial institutions are now presented with the opportunity to become accessible and direct like never before. Social networks and the new generation of smartphones enable customers to use and interact with banks whenever they want and from wherever they may be.

Looking to the future I think the chance to listen, learn and engage better with consumers via the social web is something banks must take notice of. People will expect unparalled levels of accessibility and banks must be able to provide a regular flow of interactive and easily shareable information for anyone who wants to access it. This is where I see financial institutions adding value to their offering; focusing on customer care and service; using social media to make this accessibility effortless.

The social web gives both customers and non-customers a voice; a place where they can be heard both by brands and each other. For us in the banking industry it provides the perfect arena; we can see ‘gripes’ and ‘niggles’ and whether these are collective or individual they allow us to source discontent, which provides food for thought in how we can make things better.

Twitter Business Centre could expose firms to risk or reward

-Bob Barker is VP of Corporate Marketing and Digital Engagement at Alterian. The opinions expressed are his own.-

Twitter’s decision to launch a Business Centre is an extremely positive development for brands that want to move beyond a marketing strategy of mass broadcast and one-way conversations with their consumers.

Astute brand directors know the old approach simply isn’t working and that individuals are becoming increasingly used to interacting with content, rather than passively receiving messages.

However, Alterian’s latest report, “Your Brand: At Risk or Ready for Growth”, highlights that 60 percent of organisations do not have a social media strategy in place.

This report is not just another social media survey, it is a call for businesses to be more aware of a new generation of “conver-sumers”, and with this latest news from Twitter it could not be more timely.

The Twitter Business Centre takes brand communications to a new level by enabling more than one user to post content from the account and allowing direct messaging from users who are not being followed by the the brand.

UK political parties take mixed approach to social media

- Rachel Gibson is a professor at the Institute for Social Change in the University of Manchester. The opinions expressed are her own. -

The three main parties have clearly moved into full battle mode since the UK election campaign starting gun was fired on April 6th. And while the pounding of pavements and pressing of doorbells will no doubt be crucial in producing the swings needed in key marginal constituencies, the online technology driving these targeting efforts seems to have advanced a step or two since the last election.

Taking a leaf out of the Barack Obama presidential campaign management handbook, the Labour Party, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats have all set up ‘hub’ sites on the web to recruit volunteers and spread their messages virally.

Labour’s effort – membersnet – and the more self-referential myconservatives and Lib Dem Act are all variants of the MyBarackObama.com or ‘MyBO’ website as it was more affectionately known, launched in early 2007 by the then U.S. Democratic presidential candidate.

While the value of MyBO in terms of votes and dollars delivered is still the subject of some debate, it clearly represented something new and different in the field of campaign management, offering ordinary voters a do-it-yourself toolbox to help their candidate.

With only a little technical know-how but sufficient enthusiasm MyBO users could set up blogs, personal profiles and groups within the site to connect with like-minded others.

Emails could be personalised and sent on to friends outside the site to persuade them to support Obama. For the most enthused there were opportunities to sign up to host fund-raising events and house parties and even access party databases to download contact details of likely local Democrat voters to phone and canvass.

TweetTracker shows Nick Clegg most liked

- Paul Afshar is senior account manager at public relations firm Edelman. The opinions expressed are his own. -

A famous German writer once said “personality is everything”, which could not ring truer for the UK’s General Election, and particularly “likeability” on social media.

With the public, to lesser and greater extents, unbothered by detail of party manifesto commitments, the sturdy Scottishness of Gordon Brown vs. the persuasive tones of David Cameron and, arguably Nick Clegg, act as barometers of voters’ intentions better than their understanding of National Insurance contributions.

Should the party leaders be concerned about their likeability on social media?

Yes, according to Edelman’s TweetTracker tool. On Twitter, with its 2.5 million UK users, personality is everything.

TweetTracker comprehensively assesses personality ratings of the three main party leaders – David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg – on Twitter, giving them an “approval/ disapproval” score, like those used in U.S. Presidential campaigns.

The battle for Twitter

- Paul Afshar is senior account manager at public relations firm Edelman. The opinions expressed are his own. -

Twitter claimed its first scalp in the Election campaign on Friday with the sacking of Labour candidate for Moray in Scotland, Stuart MacLennan, following a series of controversial tweets on the site.

Whether or not 140 characters will influence the election campaign is a moot point, but with 2.5 million UK users including the PM’s wife Sarah Brown and actor Stephen Fry, Twitter will no doubt have some influence on conversation around the campaign.

To track its impact, Edelman has used its Political TweetLevel tool to track and measure the influence, trust engagement and popularity of the top 150 politicians, bloggers, candidates and journalists, ranked by their influence, on Twitter during the campaign.

TweetLevel measures the influence of individuals on Twitter based on a number of factors (including re-tweets, followers, frequency of tweets, references etc measured by an algorithm).

But enough about the science and down to the findings.

The battle for influence on Twitter is decisively being won by Labour, a trick the party will no doubt want to emulate in the polls.  Labour politicians and candidates are greater in number and by influence in the top 150 with MP for West Bromwich East Tom Watson topping the ranking, beating even Downing Street and David Cameron.  Grant Shapps, the Shadow Housing Minister beats all other Conservative MPs for influence, closely followed by party favourite Eric Pickles.

Old traditions die hard in UK election campaigning

A study of constituency-level campaign techniques undertaken by Brunel University ahead of a general election expected in early May shows that direct mail is by far the most common method of contact used by politicians to reach potential voters.

Of the 27 percent of the electorate contacted by one of the three main political parties in February, about 90 percent received some form of communication through the post via direct mail, the study shows. Some 92 percent said they had been reached through mailings from the Liberal Democrats, 89 percent from the Conservative Party and 81 percent from the Labour Party.

Although a lot of people have spoken about this being the first new media election in the UK, and there is some evidence of email and Facebook being used, traditional campaign methods are still dominant, says Justin Fisher, director of the Magna Carta Society at Brunel University in West London.

“What we can say about social media is that it may enhance or complement more traditional forms of campaigning, but the idea that it’s going to replace traditional campaigning at least at this stage is very wide of the mark,” Fisher said.

Just over 1,000 people were interviewed for the study.

The Conservative Party, which needs to gain 116 seats in the election to win a majority of 1, have been most aggressive in their campaigning, reaching 60 percent of those polled, compared to 44 percent reached by Labour and 43 percent by the Libdems.

Overall, Labour are making most use of the telephone, the Libdems are making most use of direct mail and the Conservatives are making most use of email in reaching out to the electorate, according to the study.

A social media vox populi experiment

The BBC World Service tested its capacity to produce large-scale social media events by hosting an ambitious global conversation in multiple languages from Shoreditch Town Hall in London on Thursday.

For the six-hour event, billed as “Superpower Nation Day“, the public broadcaster used television, radio and the Web to connect with people around the world.

Contributors answered the question “Is the Internet a right or a luxury? by typing into a social media platform that used Google’s translating tool to interpret comments.

Other events included live music and a reading of scenes from William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet” in multiple languages.

Mark Sandell, the editor of  “World Have Your Say”, spoke to Reuters about the event.

Watch the video clip below or click on the headline of this post to view it if you can’t see it.

Rory Cellan-Jones on virtual democracy

Direct, real-time communication among politicians and the public through social media platforms is reshaping democracy and the news media, but questions remain about how the fabric of society might change as a result, argued a panel at an event hosted by the BBC on Tuesday evening at Westminster.

The Web provides a de-centralised opportunity for users to communicate from various points on the political-economic spectrum, but gatekeepers are emerging who try and curtail the dissemination of information they find objectionable, suggested panellist Aleks Krotoski, who recently completed work on the BBC series “Virtual Revolution“.

“Innovative social-media platforms start off being interactive, but then they can become broadcast tools,” cautioned Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s new digital election correspondent.

The panel was chaired by Peter Horrocks, director of BBC global news, and included Pooneh Ghoddoosi, a presenter with BBC’s Persian service and Peter Barron, director of communications for Google in north and central Europe. BBC is producing a series about the Internet titled “Superpower“.

Cellan-Jones spoke to Reuters after the panel discussion about social media and the upcoming UK general election. You can watch the video clip below or if you can’t see it, please click on the headline of this post to see it.