Everywhere I turned, the one thing I kept hearing people talking about was the new Google Latitude feature on mobile Google maps and iGoogle gadgets. The service is available in 27 countries and allows users to let others know where in the world they are located. If you choose to opt-in (because that would be the only way Google could ever get away with this) you can use Latitude to find friends and communicate with them via SMS, Google Talk or simply by dialing their phone number.

The feedback, per usual, is both positive and negative. Some were delighted with the news because it shows just how increasingly accessible and open our world is becoming, and others shivered at the thought of being exposed and having their privacy put in jeopardy.

A few days ago I was listening to NPR’s Studio 360 and heard the story of Hasan Elahi who, after suffering the biggest scare of his life when he was arrested at the airport shortly after the attacks of 9/11 and was held in custody as a terrorist suspect, started recording his every move and posting information about his whereabouts on a Web site. Elahi’s decision to publicize his privacy and keep track of himself was motivated by fear and not a willingness to share his life with others - practically a complete deviation from the norm where most people are unwilling to post any personal information online because they are afraid others may be able to trace their steps.

As I have mentioned before, we are entering an era where the traditional definition of privacy is coming into conflict with what is happening with technology and the power of the Web. How do we deal with that? Baby steps? Do we just hit the ground running and correct mistakes along the way?

I signed up for Google Latitude today but I have to tinker with it before I can say anything about what I think about how it works. I will say this though – our lives are getting streamlined and I have no qualms with getting a little outside help to make some aspects of my every day a bit easier.

I am a very private person but I’ve never felt that my integrity or confidential information are under any sort of threat by having an e-mail account, a profile on LinkedIn… this blog…

Think about this… how much of what has happended during this recession could have been prevented if we thought differently about privacy… leading to transparency… leading to accountability… leading to a participative society???

Alex French mentioned in his article for GQ – and I agree – that the way Facebook came into our lives was unique in that its users trusted the site and felt safe sharing personal information on it for friends and family to see. Clearly, Facebook has opened up and although it’s not as exclusive as it started out to be, the trust that dictates the way in which people engage and participate still remains. Sure, when the news feed came about legions of people rose against it, but 120 million users are still online and we love it. Can’t get enough of it.

As long as people are willing to share themselves (their true selves for the most part, which is more than MySpace can say for itself) online, Facebook will hold the greatest social database on the web. By harnessing the potential and power of this database, Facebook Connect will not only help by opening up Web sites’ doors so that we can browse and share content easily but it can also be a significant leap towards customizing people’s experiences online, knowing us to help us navigate better, etc. Sure, advertisers will gain some edge in having the ability to target us better but, as a realist, advertising revenue is inevitable, however, some good might result in that I might see an advertisement for penis enlargement if, and only if, I happen to share via my personal profile that I’m looking for or am interested in anything related to that product.

There is so much out there. It indeed does need to connect. Much like the theory of homeostasis and the way in which nature regains balance after a state of entropy, randomness, chaos, complexity … so can we develop and engage in the means that introduce simplicity into the way we exist online.

Google often gets kudos for keeping things simple, in spite of the fact that the collective knowledge of its database and utilities is the epitome of complex. I know… that’s off topic… I just felt like shamelessly plugging it because I loves me my Google.

UPDATE (Dec. 9, 2008) – The day Facebook Connect rolled out, Google Friend Connect followed suit. Nice Google – It’s almost like they read my mind (or that las bit on my post) This article on Mashable did a little bit of comparison and concluded that although Facebook’s service is not as user friendly as Google’s yet (emphasis on yet), it’s advantage is the fact that with Facebook, you have a central place to take data back to.

Again, Facebook’s database of willingly shared information seems to be providing it with a  safe haven as it rolls out services and new developments at it’s own pace, while everywhere else on the web seems to be caught in a frenzy of start-ups and a slightly greater sense of urgency.

My feed gets a massive dose of blogs daily that talk about the latest applications, sites, updates and online tools available to all web users, which as of last week include even my grandmother in Quito, Ecuador, the unchallenged epitome of the phrase “out of the loop”… or so I thought. 

And yet I don’t see many blogs that talk about us – the web users. It seems to me that we have arrived at a new phase of human evolution. We have adapted in order to use the resources available to us but with a new twist – we also happen to be the creators of these new resources. We have changed the very ecosystem we live in and slowly but surely, by general consensus we have made things like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Google search, Digging, bookmarking, sharing, etc. essential to our personal and professional functions.

We have posed ourselves with the challenge of evolving and we are all doing so. Ask my grandma.

Things like Twitter, Google, etc. are almost second nature to my generation and it looks like it’s only a matter of time and further evolution until they are concepts that are innately familiar to us.

The interesting thing is that many – or should I say ALL – of these sites are in constant evolution as well. They adapt according to our needs and then we tweak them in return. It’s the best vicious circle I’ve ever known of and have had the chance to get sucked into.

What about survival of the fittest? Am I out because I can’t Tweetdeck? Do my blog and Facebook profile keep me in the game? The beauty of it all is that collaboration and participation still have degrees. But we certainly need to react to the fact that the web is evolving the world as the world evolves the web. Our institutions need to adapt as do our industries and ourselves.

How fast? In which way? … that is the evolving dilemma.

The new pick-up line

The Friday after Thanksgiving a few friends and I went to Mantus Lounge, a very posh club in Dallas that, regretfully, people seem to frequent more for its poshness than for the DJ/owner’s unmatched (according to me at least) ability to mix songs seamlessly and almost effortlessly. 

It was while scoping out the dance floor that I witnessed one way in which new media and technology have changed ways in which people interact with each other, even face-to-face. 

In an act of either cleverness or cheesyness (you be the judge) somebody placed his iPhone in front of my friend displaying a game of tic-tac-toe  where he had made the first move and it was now up to my friend to decide whether or not to continue playing. The novelty of this compelled my friend to participate and see the game through to the end. Later, the guy confessed that he had let her win as well – clearly the man left nothing to chance.

No further conversation ensued after the game and that brief moment during which two complete strangers connected with each other. However, for the rest of the weekend and now until the end of time through this blog post, I discussed with family and friends just how many aspects of our lives are being enhanced or completely revamped by the apparently unnecessary applications we have found for technology and new media.

We can now break out into random light saber fights, we never have to worry about songs getting stuck in our head because we can’t figure the title or artist and, as of Friday night, I learned that pick-up lines are a thing of the past as well. I can’t imagine the original tic-tac-toers would have ever seen this coming.