The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet
5October 26, 2009 by Atila
- ISBN13: 9780300144222
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Product Description
Teeming with chatrooms, online discussion groups, and blogs, the Internet offers previously unimagined opportunities for personal expression and communication. But there’s a dark side to the story. A trail of information fragments about us is forever preserved on the Internet, instantly available in a Google search. A permanent chronicle of our private lives—often of dubious reliability and sometimes totally false—will follow us wherever we go, accessible to f… More >>
The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet
Category News | Tags: Future, Gossip, Internet, Privacy, Reputation, Rumor
Solove’s book doesn’t provide answers, rather it provides situations that help you ask the right questions.
As an extra bonus it is extremely well written and an enjoyable read.
Rating: 5 / 5
The Future of Reputation is thoughtful and thankfully devoid of the “get off my yard” ranting that many books on the “future” of the internet fall into. For anyone that has read (and hated) The Culture of the Amateur, you’re safe.
Solove discusses privacy and rumor from a legal standpoint rather than as a culture critic. It gives the reader a rational, objective discussion of the consequences of a fast paced, post first, edit later media landscape when sources are considered bonuses rather than requirements. All of which Solve analyzes with plenty of evidence, caselaw and anecdotes.
Perhaps that’s why its so surprising that this book misses both the landmark internet lawsuits involving Tucker Max, who was sued for writing graphically online about a sexual encounter with Miss Vermont and for harassing a rich heir to a farming fortune through an internet messageboard. Both cases fall right into the wheelhouse of the book but are not mentioned even though their precedence was critical. (The ACLU filed an amicus brief in one.
In 2009, this book is two years old, a bit dated and missing some crucial material but is otherwise an interesting read.
Rating: 3 / 5
This book addresses an incredibly important topic – and is well written to boot. The danger of reputations ruined by carelessness, or by deliberate ill will, should be understood. In fact, this book should be mandatory for human resources personnel and any search committee that uses the Internet to check on a potential employee.
Hopefully Solove will follow up soon with another book. Sites such as Topix, provide a frightening forum for people who are less than ethical. Although Topix provides an alternative format for news, there is no oversight for accuracy or even truth. If Orson Welles had had access to the Internet, perhaps we would all have learned a valuable lesson about questioning and independent thinking. Since Welles is no longer with us, at least we have Daniel Solove to encourage us to question timely issues.
Rating: 4 / 5
Prof. Solove’s latest book is a great follow up to The Digital Person (which I also recommend). What I have enjoyed about his writings is his ability to communicate not only to attorneys like myself, but also to a non-lawyer audience. His focus on Internet privacy impacts all of us, and as anyone who follows the news knows, the explosive growth of Cyberspace places a greater burden on the individual and on the legal community to bolster protections and to guard against invasions of privacy. Solove’s work explains the terrain of this new digital era in a way that is informative, engrossing, and relevant. I’m looking forward to his future scholarship in this field.
Rating: 5 / 5
Once I started The Future of Reputation, I could not put it down. The book brings alive how online gossip, social networking sites, and blogs increasingly define who we are and how were are perceived in today’s Information Age. The stories it tells are, at once, laugh-out-loud funny and terrifying. We see the lives of others distorted by vengeful ex-lovers and mocked by teachers. Online commentators shine light on bad behavior to shame people. Our reputations are out of our control.
What I loved about this book is that it asks us to rethink assumptions about how we define ourselves in an age where search engines tell our story to future employers and old high-school classmates. The book helped me appreciate that online shaming plays a new and perhaps important role in shaping behavior but also has serious costs. It offers thoughtful suggestions for what we can do about these problems without sacrificing so much of what is liberating about our online interactions. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in living a full and informed life in the Internet age.
Rating: 5 / 5