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Comrades,

This discussion resonates with take journalist John Tierney had on my
paper on notification ("Getting the Word Out..." Soc Theory Sept 2006
-- http://djjr.net/papers/published/ryan-notification-norms.pdf) in the
NYT last spring ("As Grapevine Withers, Spam Filters Take Root"  --
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/science/22tier.html?ex=1337659200&en=6619e8ff1cb79513&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink)
.

Gist is that a component of the sting of "friendly fire spam" is that it
undermines or contradicts assumptions we have about relationships. 
There's a broad range of "informational responsibilities"  bound up
normatively with our notions of friend, colleague, acquaintance, etc. 
These technologies make it too easy for us (or others on "our behalf")
to elide the rich information responsibility distinctions that we make
in the geometry of our "circles" of friends when an entire address book
is swallowed up in one bite.

--
Dan Ryan
Mills Collge
Oakland, CA

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