World Wild West

I'm still trying to arrange various themes in my head about the changing dynamics of software development and distribution and what it means for the future.

My sense is that there's a chunk of stuff going on, some of which runs in parallel with similar effects the web has had on other creation and distrubution models, some of it could be unique to software. And a host of things have yet to iron themselves out.

One of these aspects is curation or more broadly, deciding what's good and what's bad.

Curation used to be simple - it was called print marketing and went something like; build something, sell some and make a little profit, invest that profit in telling more people about your product and maybe making some more products; rinse repeat. In time the remit of your marketing mix would mature and expand to encompass shiny glass office buildings and other classic shop-front artefacts upon which someone could base a decision about whether your company and product were good or not.

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Reed Hastings, please make it stop cc @netflix

Dear Reed,

Every few days Netflix sends me emails about movies I've ordered, sometimes you email me asking me what I thought about movies.

The thing is, I'm not a Netflix customer.

Some Netflix emails, earlier today

Someone else who shares the same name as me - and who can't type - keyed my email address into your system. It might well be the same Gary Turner that signs me up for other annoying stuff, which really isn't your fault. But it's kinda douchy that you didn't ask to confirm the email address at registration, because if I'd gotten a registration confirmation email, I would not have have confirmed it, obviously. But you don't have a registration confirmation step in your sign-up process.

And so, I tried looking for a customer service link on your website but being all clever like you are, your website detects my IP address as being outside the US and auto-flips me to a 'sorry but Netflix is not available in your country" landing page that has zero functionality on it.

So, then I try to message you on Twitter but all I get is the sound of crickets.

It seems I have zero means of communicating with you to ask you to amend the other Gary Turner's registration info to remove my email address and replace it with his.

Now, I could try to log in to the other Gary Turner's Netflx account, say I've forgotten the password and you'd happily mail me a password reset form. But that would be to undermine the steps to which you go to protect the private identifiable information you hold on your customers and it would make me feel a little dirty.

So, Reed, please make it stop.

Have someone in your team drop me a note to garyturner [at] gmail.com 

Different World

Probably the most interesting observation I can make about my blogging career is to recognise the purpose this blog serves as a chronology for the way perceptions have changed in ten years. Reading and then getting caught up in Cluetrain Manifesto crowd was certainly my initial call to action but even in 2001, writing online openly, honestly and sometimes too personally about stuff was still considered way too revolutionary and dangerous, even sometimes for those of us that got it.

So, I recall a long period from 2001 to 2005/6 during which I was something of a closet blogger, not in the absolute sense of being anonymous, but it certainly wasn't something I was open about. It was, frankly, very odd to be writing your thoughts in public ten years ago. Too odd for some. Whereas today you're considered space-cadet weird if you don't use your Twitter account to complain (with photos) about why the cheese in your lunchtime sandwich was grated and not sliced.

Progressively though, my desire for this half-assed church and state separation evaporated and while there was a time I was uneasy about what my blog might say about me, ten years on I'd say that this blog along with all the other chunks of my digitial identity that lie scattered around the web now fundamentally define me, as I am today.

If nothing else, this blog at least documents that shift quite well.

Movember 12

If blokes had sleepovers