Interesting piece from Mark Suster on what social networking’s past can tell us about its future.

A couple of highlights:

On Privacy:

Facebook made a deal with us that our social network was private. When they jealously watched the rise of Twitter they decided that it should be made more public, but that wasn’t the bargain we made when we signed up in the first place…

… I know most people aren’t troubled by the loosening of their information – but I believe that’s because most people don’t understand it.

What I realized in working with so many startup technology firms is that even if you don’t give permission to third-party apps to access your information much of it is available anyways as long as somebody you’re connected to is more promiscuous with third-party apps. Also, all of those “Facebook Connect” buttons on websites are awesome for quickly logging in, but each gives those websites unprecedented access to your personal information.

I believe that privacy leaks will cause a longer-term backlash against misusing out information but in the short-term not enough people understand the consequences to be alarmed.

On Social Network fragmentation:

Since 2006 I have been lamenting what I see as “the Facebook problem” – they are trying to lump me into one big social network. Nobody exists in one social network. I have the one with my friends where I want to talk about how wasted we were at the party last weekend that I don’t want to share with my family network where I share pictures of the kids with my parents and siblings.

I don’t want either of these mixed with the business social network in which I want to maintain the appearance that I’m “all business” and certainly don’t want to see college pictures of me in Mexico floating around. I don’t want to mix my “public network” with my “private networks.” Facebook has jumbled these all together and then tried to bandage it by making groups available. I don’t think this really solves the problem.

And young people aren’t stupid – they certainly aren’t as digitally naïve as their elders like to think. To get around all of this jumbling of social graphs they simply create multiple Facebook accounts under pseudonyms or “nom du guerre” for their real discussions and more pristine Facebook accounts for their real names. I wonder how many of Facebook’s 500 million users are created for this purpose? I’ve confirmed this trend with several young people.

Press Release: 70 per cent of adults more upset  about losing photos than other valuables

• We’re more worried about losing our photos than phones, purses, wallets or handbags, survey reveals
• We find it hard to locate photos, music or other digital data, and  increasingly suffer from ‘digital disorganisation’

Surrey, UK,  October 2010 – A survey of over 1000 adults in the UK, commissioned by DADapp.com – the software for easy indexing, backup and file sharing – has revealed that of all our treasured possessions we would be most upset about losing our photos.  The survey also found that it is women who are more concerned, with 85 per cent surveyed citing photos as the one item they would dread losing the most, over and above handbags, purses, or phones.

Dr Rob Yeung, an independent psychologist, commented on the survey’s findings: “Our photos are an irreplaceable part of our histories, of the people we are and the moments we’ve had.  We can replace credit cards, keys, and most of our gadgets and possessions, but not our photos.  So it makes total sense that people worry about losing their memories which are increasingly scattered across many gadgets and devices, and are at great risk of being lost forever.”

With the amount of digital data increasing tenfold every five years, keeping control of our digital lives, and our photos in particular is fast becoming a genuine concern.

One company has tackled this ‘digital disorganisation’ head-on for the first time.  DAD, a piece of software launched today, enables you to have all your photos and music, valuable contacts and documents organised for you automatically and safely, filed in one easy to use index, and makes sure you’ve backed them up.  It is the first system to do all this on one platform.

The need for a solution has been underpinned by the research results, which also found that 85 per cent of people who owned several gadgets acknowledged that they did not know how to use them to their full potential. This might be why digital disorganisation prevails, since only 24 per cent of respondents find it easy to locate their friends’ photos, only 21 per cent find it straightforward to find their downloaded songs, and 17 per cent said they didn’t find it easy to locate anything at all!

DAD can be easily downloaded and set up to organise all aspects of our digital life, notably preventing missed opportunities to enjoy photos and allowing whole photo albums to be created and viewed.  DAD then enables you to share privately and securely some or all of these pictures across a network of family and friends you choose for yourself, setting it apart from other ‘sharing’ platforms.  DAD also organises music, videos, contacts, and documents, which can be seen in an index and shared privately.

Julian Ranger founder of DAD comments: “From busy parents through to silver surfers and students, we are all suffering from digital disorganisation and the problem is only set to continue, as the range of social networking and online content sources grows.”

Julian Ranger continues: “DAD is the ultimate fix-it for digital overload.  It promises to be as revolutionary to our digital lives as the Dewey Decimal System was to libraries.  Today’s launch sees us tackling what is becoming the number one digital dilemma of the 21^st century – DAD could be nothing short of life-changing for many people.”

Media contact Information:

Rebecca Pain, [email protected], 01252 899969, 07974 212544