A simple guide to sharing

The Beacon debate continues. In today’s NY Times Zuckerberg and Co. claim that users will learn to love Beacon once they give it time.

There’s lots of mentions of “sharing” and “volunteering” of information in that article. Enough so that I thought we might need a primer. Here’s my favorite:

“Isn’t this community getting a little hypocritical?” said Chad Stoller, director of emerging platforms at Organic, a digital advertising agency. “Now, all of a sudden, they don’t want to share something?”

Somebody didn’t watch enough Sesame Street. Let’s review:

My mom packs me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. I see that the kid across from me in the cafeteria has no sandwich. Because I watched enough Sesame Street I offer him half my sandwich. We both get enough to eat, and as Cookie Monster would say “I’ve built a relationship based on shared trust.”

Now let’s say I get up to buy a half-pint of orange drink to go with my sandwich and in my absence the kid without a sandwich says “Can I have half your sandwich?” and I, being out of range, don’t hear him ask. I haven’t said “No.” so he decides that’s permission enough and he eats my sandwich. As Bert and Ernie would say; “You’re building a brand relationship based on mistrust, hostility and deception.”

So you see Chad, it’s not hypocritical at all. The former act is “sharing”, the latter is “stealing”. Whether we’re talking about a PB&J or personal info the effect is the same. Something that was once exclusively mine is now yours. And I never told you it was ok.

Written by Mike Monteiro on November 30, 2007 |