Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What if Government had a Google Buzz moment?

sunlightlabs.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 22 posts

Re: What if Government had a Google Buzz moment?

#11

Post by alain94040 »

olliesaunders wrote: post #2

This makes me think: what should Google do to recover from this? People are angry, they feel violated and betrayed. It's a public relations disaster. My opinion is that Google needs to draw a line under this whole issue. They need to hold up their hands say "you know what, we didn't realize what we were doing here but we get it now, this was wrong, we're sorry." And within hours of making that statement, pull the who…

Agreed. They have a small window of opportunity to survive googlegate (or should we call it buzzgate).

Based on their first post on the blog, it looks like they chose the "duck in the sand" approach, classic PR non-speak: ignore the issue, sidetrack it, ridicule it. That's what 99.9% of corporations will do.

Again, they have another 24 hours to do something completely different and acknowledge the problem head-on. It will hurt for a week, but they'll be much better off long-term. Will they have the class and the guts to go for it? I hope so, but I'm not holding my breath.

Re: What if Government had a Google Buzz moment?

#13

Post by [deleted] »

olliesaunders wrote: post #2

This makes me think: what should Google do to recover from this? People are angry, they feel violated and betrayed. It's a public relations disaster. My opinion is that Google needs to draw a line under this whole issue. They need to hold up their hands say "you know what, we didn't realize what we were doing here but we get it now, this was wrong, we're sorry." And within hours of making that statement, pull the who…

[deleted]

Re: What if Government had a Google Buzz moment?

#14

Post by pasbesoin »

hexis wrote: post #5
faragon wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I am. I'm willing to stop using gmail if Google doesn't step back.

I'm already making medium-term plans to run my own mail server.

Also, someone started a thread here to discuss alternatives.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1121269

Re: What if Government had a Google Buzz moment?

#15

Post by geeksam »

sgk284 wrote: post #6
olliesaunders wrote: post #2

This makes me think: what should Google do to recover from this? People are angry, they feel violated and betrayed. It's a public relations disaster. My opinion is that Google needs to draw a line under this whole issue. They need to hold up their hands say "you know what, we didn't realize what we were doing here but we get it now, this was wrong, we're sorry." And within hours of making that statement, pull the who…

I am entirely okay with everything they've done. People need to stop overreacting. They hand held me through the whole Buzz process and all of the defaults were great. All of my non-technical friends also love it. They made it very easy for us to connect and chose settings that work for most people. The key thing is though that if you don't like Buzz, don't use it. If you don't like Google Profiles, don't make one.

Did you happen to see this item, in which a woman's sensitive data was automagically provided to her abusive ex-husband? http://fugitivus.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/fuck-you-google/

Re: What if Government had a Google Buzz moment?

#16

Post by wooster »

Um, no, we should not give the government room to screw up. The government does not exist to innovate. Nor does it exist to create "products". It exists, to quote the U.S. Constitution, to:

"establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity"

Frankly, I'm surprised to see this coming from Sunlight Labs. The point of open government data is not to innovate or develop products, it's to:

a) Give back to the people property which is rightfully theirs. Datasets developed by the U.S. government belong to the people of the United States, excepting in the cases where it doesn't (national security, personal privacy, or otherwise legally restricted). Even then, there's usually a sunset provision at which point the data should be made publicly available upon request.

b) Provide transparency and promote the smooth functioning of participatory democracy.

c) Support accountability in government.

Re: What if Government had a Google Buzz moment?

#17

Post by Semiapies »

Different levels of government "innovate" all the time and very much dislike any oversight or otherwise being open. Nor do many officials - especially at higher levels - face any real consequences for "screw ups".

Somehow give them more latitude? Really?

I am almost never this negative on a linked item, but this one is horrifyingly naive. Hopefully, Clay Johnson isn't in a position at Sunlight Labs where he needs to make judgments about the honesty of government officials.

Re: What if Government had a Google Buzz moment?

#18

Post by cjoh »

wooster wrote: post #16

Um, no, we should not give the government room to screw up. The government does not exist to innovate. Nor does it exist to create "products". It exists, to quote the U.S. Constitution, to: "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" Frankly, I'm surprised to see this coming from Sunli…

So my point is (I'm the author) is: Transparency requires innovation. It requires government to take and make risks.

Re: What if Government had a Google Buzz moment?

#19

Post by cjoh »

Semiapies wrote: post #17

Different levels of government "innovate" all the time and very much dislike any oversight or otherwise being open. Nor do many officials - especially at higher levels - face any real consequences for "screw ups". Somehow give them more latitude? Really? I am almost never this negative on a linked item, but this one is horrifyingly naive. Hopefully, Clay Johnson isn't in a position at Sunlight Labs where he needs to…

Are you kidding? Officials don't face any real consequences of Screw Ups? How about Van Jones-- who, 8 years ago, said something stupid, and lost his job as energy czar? There are dozens of casualties like this.

Let's not conflate oversight with openness, too. You can oversee an institution without openness, but you usually can't be open without oversight.

My point is this: When google messes up, we give Google a chance to listen and rectify. When Government messes up (which it always will, because it is run and managed by human beings), we don't. And we ought to.

Re: What if Government had a Google Buzz moment?

#20

Post by jrockway »

geeksam wrote: post #15
sgk284 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am entirely okay with everything they've done. People need to stop overreacting. They hand held me through the whole Buzz process and all of the defaults were great. All of my non-technical friends also love it. They made it very easy for us to connect and chose settings that work for most people. The key thing is though that if you don't like Buzz, don't use it. If you don't like Google Profiles, don't make one.

Did you happen to see this item, in which a woman's sensitive data was automagically provided to her abusive ex-husband? http://fugitivus.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/fuck-you-google/

Her most frequent contact was provided with a list of her public blog posts? OH NOES.
Post reply on HN