Just a guy in Vermont trying to connect all the dots...
Dan York
Author's posts
Dec 18
WAIT! Don’t Delete Your Instagram Account Just Yet…
WAIT! Don't just delete your Instagram account!
Across a wide range of social networks today, I'm seeing people deleting their Instagram accounts after Facebook changed the Instagram terms of service in a way which allows Facebook/Instagram to potentially use your photos in advertising. At issue in particular are two clauses under "Rights" in the new terms of service (my emphasis added):
2. Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you. If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to this provision (and the use of your name, likeness, username, and/or photos (along with any associated metadata)) on your behalf.3. You acknowledge that we may not always identify paid services, sponsored content, or commercial communications as such.
The first of which is the serious issue, while the second is more just annoying.
UPDATE 19 Dec 2012 - Instagram has responded with a post about the new terms of service. I think it's an open question whether that will help or whether people will continue to take a wait-and-see approach as Neville Hobson is doing (as am I).
I completely understand why people are deleting their Instagram accounts, particularly when directions about how to leave Instagram are published on Wired and being widely circulated - and also when other services like Flickr roll out new mobile apps that rock!
But think about what you are losing:
- ALL THE LINKS WILL STOP WORKING that are to your Instagram photos. All those links floating around out there in Twitter, Facebook and other sites will no longer work. Presumably they'll all now be 404s.
- YOU WILL LOSE YOUR ACCOUNT NAME - and someone else may be able to get that name. Maybe your name is unique enough that someone else won't come along and want your account name... but I know mine is NOT unique, and so if I were to give it up, some other Dan York could come along and take it.
- INSTAGRAM MAY CHANGE ITS TERMS as it deals with all the backlash. You may find yourself wanting to get back in... and someone else may have claimed your username.
- INSTAGRAM IS PART OF FACEBOOK... and love it or hate it, Facebook is a big player in this space. We don't know how they will (or will not) evolve Instagram. It may be worthwhile to have an account there at some later time.
Now it may be that there is a very simple way to keep your Instagram account yet not fall under the new Terms of Service:
Do not USE Instagram starting on January 16th!
I am NOT a lawyer, but I've seen multiple notes that this Terms of Service only applies to photos you post as of January 16, 2013. I don't know if that is true... but if it is, this may be a simple way to keep your account and links intact. Keep the account, but just stop using it and switch to some other service instead.
Of course, if it is NOT true, then I might be joining you all in deleting accounts... ;-)
Seriously, though, please think carefully about whether or not you want to lose all those links and your account at Instagram before you just go and delete the account.
Links are how the web is constructed... and by deleting your account you'll be tearing a hole in your own personal web of content!
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Dec 17
FIR #682 – 12/17/12 – For Immediate Release
Thoughts on Newtown tragedy; new interviews coming; FIR length discussion; Quick News: best practices for social media in the workplace, input for Creative Agency of the Future book, On the Media makes timely use of its podcast, Twitter will let you retrieve all your tweets; Ragan promo; News That Fits: Google Plus Communities and brands, Dan York's report, Media Monitoring Minute, the Human API, listener comments, TemboSocial promo, PR's role in the era of pageview journalism, malware links in QR codes; music from Lily Sparks; and more.
Dec 13
Join The DNSSEC and IPv6 Communities On Google+
Are you are a Google+ user interested in DNSSEC or IPv6? Google+ recently introduced the capability to have “communities” of interest and so I went ahead and set up a “DNSSEC Community“. Separately, TJ Evans created an IPv6 community.
I’ll be honest and say I’m not entirely sure how these communities will be used yet. Perhaps they will be an active discussion area… perhaps it will be another place to post links related to DNSSEC or IPv6 that then get seen by others on Google+.
In any case, if you want to join the experiment, feel free to join the community on DNSSEC or the IPv6 community.
Dec 10
ION Conference At USENIX LISA This Week Features IPv6 and DNSSEC Sessions – Will Be Livestreamed (Featured Blog)
If any of you are attending the USENIX Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference in San Diego this week, the Internet Society's "Internet ON" (ION) Conference is co-located with LISA12 and will take place tomorrow, December 11, 2012, from 1:30 - 5:00 pm US Pacific time. More...
Dec 10
FIR #681 – 12/10/12 – For Immediate Release
Craig Silverman interview is up, interview coming with Ekaterina Walter; Quick News: Microsoft opens SOCL, PeopleBrowsr battles Twitter, find out if your workforce is happy, GE values Internet of Things at trillions; Ragan promo; News That Fits: IABC misfires on staff layoff communication, Michael Netzley's Asia report, Media Monitoring Minute, research offers insights into FTSE100 social media use, listener comments, Dan York's report, TemboSocial promo, LeWeb Paris report; how to comment; music from Jason Harrod; and more.
Dec 07
5 DNSSEC Training/Technical Sessions at USENIX LISA Next Week In San Diego
Want to learn more about DNSSEC? Next week at the USENIX Large Installation System Administration (LISA) Conference in San Diego there are going to be some excellent DNSSEC sessions in addition to our ION San Diego event happening on Tuesday.
Starting it off will be a half-day DNS and DNSSEC tutorial on Tuesday morning (right before our ION event) by Shumon Huque of the University of Pennsylvania. It looks like a great way to spend the morning diving deep into DNS and DNSSEC.
Tuesday afternoon will be our ION San Diego conference where we have two sessions focused on DNSSEC on our agenda. First, Pete Toscano of ARIN will talk about ARIN’s support of both DNSSEC and RPKI. Second, I’ll be moderating what should be a truly outstanding panel on the topic of deploying DNSSEC. We have a great group of panelists including Rick Lamb from ICANN, Infoblox’s Cricket Liu who is also the author of multiple O’Reilly books on DNS, Jim Galvin of Afilias (who operates multiple TLDs) and Roland van Rijswijk-Deij of SURFnet who has been very actively working on getting more validating DNS servers deployed. The panel will be a questions-based, highly interactive discussion session that we expect to be very educational (and perhaps entertaining) for all attending. I’ll have questions for the panel but there will also be plenty of opportunities for you to ask your questions, too.
(Did we mention that registering for ION San Diego is FREE? Just fill out the form and come in for great IPv6 and DNSSEC education.)
Jumping to Friday, there are then two invited talks about DNSSEC. First, Roland van Rijswijk-Deij of SURFnet will be discussing “DNSSEC: What Every Sysadmin Should be Doing to Keep Things Working“. Roland’s presentations have been both educational and amusing in the past, so I’m sure this should be a good one. Following Roland and closing out the DNSSEC sessions next week, Scott Rose of NIST will be presenting “DNSSEC Deployment in .gov: Progress and Lessons Learned” where he’ll be providing the case study of the US government’s deployment of DNSSEC and relaying their lessons learned thus far. Scott and the team at NIST have been doing great work monitoring the DNSSEC deployment and this session should be very helpful to those looking to understand how to deploy DNSSEC on a very large scale.
There you have it… lots of great DNSSEC material! If you are in San Diego next week for USENIX LISA, check out these sessions and also come to our ION conference. Great opportunities to learn what you need to do to get started with DNSSEC today!
Dec 03
World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) Starts Today in Dubai
These ITRs were last updated in 1988... and the world of telecom has changed just a wee bit since then! :-)
Unless you've been asleep or offline for the past few months, you'll know that some of the countries out there are seeking to use this WCIT conference as a way to expand the ITRs to cover the Internet - and to thereby control the Internet more or to impose other business models on the Internet. Obviously a lot of people (myself included) are opposed to the expansion of the ITRs to include more of the Internet and believe that the ITRs should remain focused on the telecommunications interconnection related to the traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
This all will play out over the next two weeks in the meetings happening in Dubai that will culminate with a series of votes by the member states. The ITU is a United Nations (UN) entity and so each country gets a vote.
I'll not comment further here about the ITRs and WCIT, except to note that if you want to follow along with what is happening, my colleagues in the Internet Society Public Policy team (of which I am not a part) have been maintaining a site where they are curating news about WCIT:
http://www.scoop.it/t/wcit
They've been doing a great job and it's the site that I am using to keep up with what is being said out there about WCIT and the ITU.
That same team also has a great site full of background material about WCIT, the ITRs and other related information - follow the links in the right sidebar for much more material:
http://www.internetsociety.org/wcit/
The material includes a good background paper on the ITRs that explain a bit about how the ITRs evolved and why they matter. The Internet Society's communications team also has a page up that they will be updating throughout the week with news:
http://www.internetsociety.org/wcit-newsroom
You can expect to see social networks filling up with commentary, too... and I know I'll be watching two Twitter hashtags:
The reality is that true to the title of this blog, the telecommunications industry has been severely disrupted by the Internet. The world of the PSTN has been fundamentally altered by Voice over IP (VoIP), by "Over The Top" (OTT) applications, by SIP trunking... and so many other aspects of Internet-based communications. This WCIT event does provide a chance for all of those who have been victims of this disruption to try to push for changes that will be in their favor. Similarly, all of those wanting to ensure the Internet remains open are fully engaged now, too... and various countries are aligning on both sides.
It shall be an interesting next two weeks...
P.S. Vint Cerf's op-ed on CNN is worth a read on this topic: 'Father of the internet': Why we must fight for its freedom
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Dec 03
FIR #680 – 12/3/12 – For Immediate Release
Interviews coming with Craig Silverman and Ekaterina Walter; Quick News: ITN Productions launches citizen journalism channel, US mobile phone usage metrics, Leveson Inquiry report user experience; Ragan promo; News That Fits: Leveson traditional media oversight challenges; Dan York's report; Media Monitoring Minute; social media surveillance in DC; listener comments; TemboSocial promo; Michael Netzley's report; Bell Pottinger launches digital content agency; music from Ed Roth; and more.
Nov 30
What Happens When All Communication From A Country Is Disrupted?
What happens when all communications into and out of a country is completely disrupted? We're seeing that right now with Syria. As I wrote on CircleID yesterday, all Internet access is down... and reports say that all communication via cell phones and landlines has also been terminated.
What happens when a country just completely... drops... off...
It's scary, really, to think about. And we're seeing it play out right now. The links are still all down.
My thoughts are definitely with the people there in the country. I hope things are okay... and that the connections get restored soon.
Crazy times...
