Who owns my pics? Zee calls out media sharing services

In a recent post, Zee, Editor of The Next Web, cautions against using third party, Twitter media sharing services due to the potential risks of loss of control over your personal branding.

His overall message is important: find and use a platform that you can own and control your media as hosted.

However, what Zee intones can largely be seen as true, it overlooks and discounts the disposable behavioral dispositions for many people who actually “choose” to post multi media they consider disposable, ephemeral, and of the moment: “pop.”

Come on, Zee. When wasn’t the last time you saw a Guy Kawasaki photo-op of him standing next to his latest conference host? Personal brand value? Ok, so this means he’s human and can take those in the moment shots. But do I want to consume this as part of “the magic” of Guy Kawasaki? No, its just a momentary reference image to codify an event.

Not all information needs to be owned or even wanted by a user. Just ask any teenager with a cell phone, or look at your own travel pics of the Cinque Terra. (No disrespect nor offense meant, Zee. They were nice and showed how sweet and human you were, but I’m sure a host of other people just want to follow you for you marketing and social media insights. They’ve seen a gazillion pics of Italy’s famed coast and harbor.)

The coastal harbor pictures or the sky pics were in the moment.

A cup of cafe: in the moment. Why not just share them on Twitpic or any other third party app?

Information that is not a “keepsake” nor of positive brand value is quickly used as referential media- to connect with and to share with others about an immediate experience. This kind of disposable media does not necessarily have to “owned” nor even wanted by the user who considers its value trivial since its in the moment (e.g.; a coffee picture in any cafe while at a conference) and thus of little or no “personal brand value” to a user other than to say “I was here.”

I still think and find Twitpic and other third party media services to hold much value as media intermediaries and repositories for such disposable information.

The beautiful and value added media I reserve for my blogs. This higher quality information is what for my followers, fans, etc. truly appreciate in poignancy, relevancy and quality.

Why not post the detritus of the moment to and thru these other services as errant comments, rants, giggles and fancies caught in one’s eye?

For more, read the full post, “Why you should NOT be using TwitPic, TwitVideo or any other Twitter media sharing service.”

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Amos White is an Social Media Marketing Evangelist and public speaker.
Follow Amos on Twitter @Mos42

The Pirate Bay Returns – Buccaneers or John Paul Jones?

In the rapidly changing world, our information based societies are now faced with questions that demand greater public debate to set the standards as pertains to this developing internet medium and our actions and interactions thru it.

From a widely dug post on Torrent Freak The Pirate Bay Returns With Guns Blazing, I learned that the notorious Pirate Bay was back online after Swedish authorities pulled their plugged Monday August 24th.

Unlike Google or Wikipedia who have positioned themselves as the guardians of information on the interent, The Pirate Bay takes a bold and unique approach to standing their ground in their defense.

The Pirate Bay is, was, now again “is” theworld’s largest BitTorrent tracking service.

Pro-Privacy or Pro-Piracy

Their story underlies the argument of whether file sharing is a legal activity protected by privacy laws or is it a matter of blatant piracy of other’s copyrighted material.

A highly charged and largely followed story, the case for and against The Pirate Bay is not yet over.

Although some internet voices call for TPB to go quietly into that good night, others see this as a battleground over the freedom of expresson and information.

In The Lobby, a blog about European affairs, they write,

“Ironically however, much of the technology that is being hailed as tools of freedom of expression and for allowing cheap global access to culture (for example the use of Twitter in Iran and Google books etc) is under attack by regulators. Wired magazine reports that President Obama’s top anti-trust official is gunning for Google, something The Lobby thought the EU could do in the future, Twitter is attracting attention from the US Federal Trade Commission, and over here in Europe we’ve already seen a lot of debate being generated over the pros and cons of the EU Telecoms Package.“

Freedom of expression, of cultural and information exchange?

These questions demand greater public debate as we set the standards that pertain to this developing medium and our actions and interactions thru it.

Follow The Pirate Bay story on Google News here.
Read my previous post on The Priate Bay here and here.

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Amos White is an Social Media Marketing Evangelist and public speaker.
Follow Amos on Twitter @Mos42 or his blog http://amoswhite3.wordpress.com.

The Pirate Bay Adds User Deletion Interface

The Pirate Bay adds “user deletion” to its bittorrent file sharing service.

The Pirate Bay, the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker, announced today it is adding a user deletion interface.

The user deletion feature comes in the wake the recent announcement of the potential sale and subsequent of death of The Pirate Bay by Global Gaming Factory X.

Interface Add Meets User Privacy Concerns

User concerns over privacy rights over their accounts forced The Pirate Bay to take the precautionary measure of adding the feature.

Mounting Business Pressures Force Sale

On their blog today, The Pirate Bay cited mounting operational costs to maintain and grow the file sharing service.

“We need to keep the site going and this is the only working alternative. We cannot finance the growth of the site anymore and we cannot back down. The only way is up and this is the only route to that place.”

Read More on The Priate Bay Blog: http://thepiratebay.org/blog/165

Amos White is an Internet Marketing Evangelist and public speaker.
Follow Amos on Twitter @Mos42 and on his blog http://amoswhite3.wordpress.com.