That Facebook announcement…
Facebook is a wonderful idea. Unfortunately, the people behind it seem pretty poor at communicating with their members. There have been a series of decisions that have caused ructions – Beacon, the news feed & mini-feed, the new layout and ongoing privacy issues – not necessarily because of the decisions themselves but because of poor communications and poor design. There were often problems with the ideas (such as Beacon being opt-out rather than opt-in) and they often just happened with little or no forewarning or opportunity for users to comment and, crucially, for Facebook to avoid some fairly obvious mistakes. The latest one is the ‘Facebook owns your data forever’ debacle. After less than a fortnight, Facebook had to return to their original terms of service because of the hullaballoo and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder, CEO and President, posted on Facebook’s blog to explain what was going on. Here, for the purpose of criticism, is his post with my comments.
Last week, we returned to our previous Terms of Use as we worked on a new set of governing documents that would more clearly explain the relationship between Facebook and its users.
Read: we had a legitimate problem. People want to be able to delete their accounts but some of their information is associated with other people’s accounts – wall posts, for instance. Rather than explaining the problem, we decided to keep your data for ever.
Since then, I’ve been excited to see how much people care about Facebook and how willing they are to contribute to the process of governing the site.
There really must have been a lot of complaints.
Our main goal at Facebook is to help make the world more open and transparent. We believe that if we want to lead the world in this direction, then we must set an example by running our service in this way.
I thought it was to make profit. Foisting decisions on people with little notice is not open. Not explaining why is not transparent. Indeed, it seems that ‘open and transparent’ are goals rather than, er, things FB are actually going to do.
We sat down to work on documents that could be the foundation of this and we came to an interesting realization—that the conventional business practices around a Terms of Use document are just too restrictive to achieve these goals. We decided we needed to do things differently and so we’re going to develop new policies that will govern our system from the ground up in an open and transparent way.
There were so many complaints that we realised we could lose members if we didn’t address the privacy issue.
Beginning today, we are giving you a greater opportunity to voice your opinion over how Facebook is governed. We’re starting this off by publishing two new documents for your review and comment. The first is the Facebook Principles, which defines your rights and will serve as the guiding framework behind any policy we’ll consider—or the reason we won’t consider others. The second document is the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which will replace the existing Terms of Use. With both documents, we tried hard to simplify the language so you have a clear understanding of how Facebook will be run. We’ve created separate groups for each document so you can read them and provide comments and feedback. You can find the Facebook Principles here and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities here. Before these new proposals go into effect, you’ll also have the ability to vote for or against proposed changes.
I believe these steps are unprecedented in promoting understanding and enabling participation on the web. I hope you will take a look at these documents, read them carefully, and share your thoughts.
Not really. The Linux kernel – now that’s open and transparent. This isn’t just geeky obsession (well, it is, but bear with me). Linus’ Law states that ‘given enough eyes, all bugs are shallow’; in plain English, the more people who look at a problem, the better the chance of finding an effective solution or set of solutions, therefore reducing the size of the problem.
Facebook is still in the business of introducing new and therefore potentially disruptive technologies. This can mean that our users periodically experience adjustments to new products as they become familiar with them, and before becoming enthusiastic supporters. The launch of News Feed and the recent interface redesign are excellent examples that illustrate why we need to continue to make independent decisions about products in order to push technology forward. While these products must be consistent with the Principles and in compliance with the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, they will not be subject to the notice and comment or voting requirement.
Is this Facebook recognising that their member communications has been less than wonderful?
We’re honored that so many millions of people around the world have decided to bring Facebook into their lives to share information and experiences with friends and loved ones. We understand that gives us an important responsibility to our users.
History tells us that systems are most fairly governed when there is an open and transparent dialogue between the people who make decisions and those who are affected by them. We believe history will one day show that this principle holds true for companies as well, and we’re looking to moving in this direction with you.
Goodness! That could be about more democracy and accountability in the manner of Wikipedia but is, in fact, a promise to listen.
Unfortunately, that listening is going to be very ex post facto. As we’ve seen recently, Facebook has remodelled itself to be a bit more like Twitter. The genesis of this – as no-one seems to have particularly wanted the change – is commercial. This, coupled with the issues Facebook have had recently, very strongly point to this being a Web 1.0 company trying to pretend it’s all Web 2.0.
xD.
