At 5:32 PM -0500 10/11/99, Steve Bergeon wrote:
> Can any conclusions be drawn from this small sample?
How about "you probably don't want to run experiments that use
someone else's computer without getting their okay first, or at least
warn them what's going to happen"
Frankly, Steve, that's the ONLY thing I think you did wrong, whether
or not the experiment was ill-conceived or not. And frankly, I think
THAT's a fairly minor oopsie, but one that would almost never happen
outside of the virtual worlds. it's more an indication that we
haven't yet figured out how to handle the social dynamics of the
network, because I don't think anyone would ever consider something
like "well, I'm going to call every phone number in the 364- prefix
and see how many people answer at 2AM and what their responses are",
but it happens all of the time in the virtual world.
And in both cases, you don't really have to ask permission first --
those are all "public/open" interfaces. But as you've found out, it's
usually a lot less hassle to at least let people know, so they don't
make basic assumptions about what you're doing that might or might
not be correct.
chuq
--
Chuq Von Rospach - Plaidworks Consulting (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
Apple Mail List Gnome (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
