Apparently, the project manager who found a vendor for the Vermont State Police car decals failed to consider a few things. Such as the risk that prisoners might want to have a little fun at the expense of the police.

You can see the fun if you study the image carefully here, or in a larger version at MSN Photoblog.

• “Google+ and The Trouble With Tribbles”
  

  The trouble with social is that it is social – with all the norms, behaviors and expectations that come with that. You cannot re-engineer that overnight (Facebook is being far more successful in doing so using far more insidious means). Facebook also has a policy of Real Names, but it realizes that to make the social work you have to cater to the psychology of the users. So there are no identity verification processes, no automatic suspension of accounts and schemes that entice us to provide real data instead of telling us to do so. The fidelity of the data is proven by it’s socially verified reputation, not because there is a policy document that can be pointed to (at the end of the day, a much more robust and legitimate mechanism).

• “For Ceorl Onlyone, thanks…”
  

  “As I’ve said previously, I left Facebook and Google+ because I could see the direction and I discerned the narrowing that indicates both subtle and direct attacks upon choice and privacy. I left because my presence was a reason for my family, friends, and peers to remain.

• “The Social Graph is Neither.”
  There’s no clear pull quote, but boy is this a great de-construction of the phrase (and product name) “the social graph”. Read it carefully, and you’ll never hear those words the same way.

• In a number of places, including “Take back the comments: stop online harassment” and comment on “Why it Matters: Google+ and Diversity, part 2,” Kathy Sierra says:
  

  Keep the pseudonyms and lose the assholes.

Previously: “Google+ Failed Because of Real Names” and “Yes, Google+ Is a Failure“

Some folks might advise me to stop digging a hole, put down the shovel and walk away. But
I’m going to pick up that shovel, and try to convince you that I’m not exaggerating. Google+ may not be a New Coke level failure, it may be a successful failure, but it’s a failure nonetheless.

The goal of Google+ is to dominate the social network space, replacing Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and building a moat around Google’s core business of advertising. That moat ought to consist of Google having more information about you than the CIA does (ok, that’s hyperbole. The CIA can’t store that much info). The moat ought to be that Google can show your wallet-name ads that tug at your wallet-strings.

Do you really think that Google wanted to enter this market to play second-fiddle to Facebook? Do you think that Google is happy that Facebook is going to pop out in the biggest IPO in history real soon now, giving them a massive war chest?

I think that the answer is fairly obviously a no. Now, you could argue that Google+ is en route to topple Facebook. That Google will take three tries to get it right or something, like they did with Search and Mail and Maps. (Oh, wait, they didn’t take three tries on any of those.)

What’s more, I don’t think that no was pre-ordained because of Facebook’s massive user-base. People were willing to show up at Google+ and explore. And that exploration rapidly foundered on the nymwars.

I think the system could and should have done better, if Google wasn’t so hell-bent on controlling what name people could display for themselves.

There’s a lot that Google gets right in Google+, most notably the idea of circles. Circles could be a great way for Google to mirror how people interact, and let them present different things to different sets of people, under their control. It’s a simple, understandable metaphor.

But Google hasn’t derailed Facebook, because Google shot themselves in the foot at launch. That’s why TechCrunch has articles like “Raise Your Hand If You’re Still Using Google+.” Let’s be clear, this was an own-goal, and it was avoidable. I know of at least two Googlers who left because they felt Google wasn’t living up to its own values in the internal debate. Google has put their desire to have a real-name driven internet ahead of their user’s desires. Maybe a free name change would make that ok? But it’s not ok, and name changes won’t make it ok.

Within days of Google+ being launched, the positive press was being driven out by stories about the “Nymwars.” A lot of it revolved around Google having claims that your displayed name could be what people called you, but as Skud clearly documented, that was a bizarre and bureaucratic lie. But documenting up your “government name” isn’t enough, as people like 3ric have documented. (It’s pronounced “Three-Rick,” and that’s how I’ve always known him.)

As bad as it is to tell people what they can write on the “Hello, My Name is” badges, it’s worse to be inconsistent and upsetting around something as personal as a name, or to tell someone that a Capulet they’ll no longer be. The very worst part is that Google managed to do it at the wrong time.

What Google did by focusing attention on “real names” when they did was to take attention from the really cool aspects of Google+, and draw it to an emotionally laden set of battles that they can’t win. They managed to calm the waters a bit by declaring that they’d “support” other names, leading to this awesome bit of politically-incorrect-calling-bullshit: “EFF declares premature victory in Nymwars.”

Another way to see this is Google knowingly burned an awful lot of goodwill with one of their key communities, techies. The way that they did it hampered Google+ during its launch, preventing it from getting the momentum it probably deserved.

They did all that in order to get one unique name for everyone. Oops, wait, there’s lots of people named Mike Jones. They did it to get name that links to “the real world you.” They wanted to get a commercial advantage for Google, at the expense of people’s ability to choose how they present themselves.

It hasn’t worked out, and yesterday, Google announced the next set of changes. (EFF has some comments in “Google+ and Pseudonyms: A Step in the Right Direction, Not the End of the Road.”)

Most interesting to me, Yonatan Zunger, Chief Architect of Google+ says:

We thought this was going to be a huge deal: that people would behave very differently when they were and weren’t going by their real names. After watching the system for a while, we realized that this was not, in fact, the case. (And in particular, bastards are still bastards under their own names.) We’re focusing right now on identifying bad behaviors themselves, rather than on using names as a proxy for behavior.

That’s gotta hurt.

The key takeaway: Google spent a huge amount of goodwill on an attractive, but untested idea, which Yonatan summarizes as “Bastards won’t be bastards under their real name.” (As an aside, there’s a lean startup lesson there, but Google has yet to pivot.) You shouldn’t make the same mistake.

Names are personal. They shouldn’t be subject to policies for vague, untested reasons. They shouldn’t be subject to policies at all unless your idea is even better than Google can do. Don’t make your new thing fail by sacrificing it on the altar of real names.

Some follow-on posts: “Yes, Google+ Is a Failure” and “More on Real Name Policies.”

I am currently out of the office on vacation.

I know I’m supposed to say that I’ll have limited access to email and won’t be able to respond until I return — but that’s not true. My blackberry will be with me and I can respond if I need to. And I recognize that I’ll probably need to interrupt my vacation from time to time to deal with something urgent.

That said, I promised my wife that I am going to try to disconnect, get away and enjoy our vacation as much as possible. So, I’m going to experiment with something new. I’m going to leave the decision in your hands:

If your email truly is urgent and you need a response while I’m on vacation, please resend it to interruptyourvacation@example.com and I’ll try to respond to it promptly.

If you think someone else at First Round Capital might be able to help you, feel free to email my assistant, Fiona (fiona@firstround.com) and she’ll try to point you in the right direction.

Otherwise, I’ll respond when I return…

Warm regards,
Josh

It avoids any lies, and drives responsibility and choice onto the sender. You can learn a lot about senders this way. It’s probably better than many background checks.

Let’s start with “Why Facebook and Google’s Concept of ‘Real Names’ Is Revolutionary” by “Alex Madrigal.” He explains why the idea is not only not natural, but revolutionary. Then move on to “Why it Matters: Google+ and Diversity, part 2” by “Jon Pincus.” From there, understand see “danah boyd” explain that ““Real Names” Policies Are an Abuse of Power . One natural reaction is ““If you don’t like it, don’t use it. It’s that simple.” ORLY?” as “Alice Marwick” explains, it’s really not that simple. That’s why people like “Skud” are continuing to fight, as shown in “Skud vs. Google+, round two.”

What’s the outcome? Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia require real names. “South Korea is abandoning its “real name” internet policy”

So how do we get there? “Identity Woman” suggested that we have a ““Million” Persona March on Google ,” but she’s now suspended. “Skud” posted “Nymwars strategy.”

This is important stuff for how we shape the future of the internet, and how the future of the internet shapes our lives. Even if you only use one name, you should get involved. Get involved by understanding why names matter, and get involved by calling people what they want to be called, not what Google wants to call them.

I think this is the way of centralized social network software. The best of them learn from their predecessors, but inevitably end up overcrowded. Social spaces change. You don’t hang out at the same bar you hung out with in college, and you won’t use the same social networks. Specialized networks like LinkedIn will likely fare better, as long as they stay focused on a core mission.

Ezra Klein says “killer app of Google+ is the ability to start your social network over w/benefit of years of Facebook experience.” I hate to say it, but that doesn’t strike me as a killer app like Lotus 1-2-3 did.

Phil Windley says “just realized G+ is using asymmetric follow.” I think this is right and important. “Friend” relationships are rarely perfect mirrors of each other, and the software asymmetric follow pattern is closer to the human patterns of friendship, respect and fandom.

I suspect that Google has gone further, and consciously built on those patterns with friend, family, acquaintance. That’s cool, and it’s a obvious outgrowth of Flickr’s default circles of friends and family, and adds making new circles easily.

So what does this mean for you?

First, it’s time to start thinking about leavingFacebook. Get your social network back in email where it belongs. Start trying to get your data out of Facebook’s databases before everything about you sells for pennies on the dollar.

If you’re a product manager for one of these things, you’re building on the happy dopamine releases we all get when we get positive social feedback. (That’s why Facebook only has a “Like” button.) You need to realize that the dopamine-release cycle requires bigger and bigger hits of wuffie over time. And the grimaces and hesitations add up. People remember the negatives for a long time. So the bad graph builds, and over time the happy graph drops away, and with it your eyeballs, minutes, options and stock options.

So finally, enjoy it while you can, Zuck.

To this end, I embarked upon a Cunning Plan. I discovered that my work had been pirated, and was available for free on BitTorrent sites located in the many outlaw server dens of former Marxist countries. So I downloaded my own work from thence with the intention of saving the work of scanning my books— I figured I’d let the pirates do the work, and steal from them. While this seemed karmically sound, there proved a couple problems.

Read more in “Crowdsource, Please.”

One element of this is the “VRM” or “vendor relationship management” space, where we let people proxy for ads to us.

As I was listening, I realized, I’m in the market for another nice camera. And rather than doing more research, I would like to sell the right to advertise to me. There’s a huge ($59B?) advertising market. I am ready to buy, and if Fuji had shipped their #$^&%^ X100, I was about ready to buy it. But even before the earthquake, they were behind in production, and I’m ready to buy. So I could go do research, or the advertisers could advertise to me. But before they do, I want a piece of that $59B action.

I don’t want to start a blog. (Sorry, Nick!). I don’t want to sell personal information about me. I want another nice camera. How do I go about accepting ads into this market?

I’m willing, by the way, to share additional information about my criteria, but I figure that those have value to advertisers. Please send in your bids for the answers to specific questions. Please specify if your bids are for exclusive, private, or public answers. (Public answers prevent others from gathering exclusive market intelligence, and are thus a great strategic investment.)

So, dear readers, how do I get a piece of the action? How do I cash in on this micro-market?

If I get a highly actionable answer, I’ll share 25% of the proceeds of the advertising with whomever points me the right way.

A few cards are not straightforward to apply to a webapp situation (some seem assume a proprietary client) – do you recommend discarding them or perhaps you thought of a way to rephrase them somehow?

For example:

“An attacker can make a client unavailable or unusable but the problem goes away when the attacker stops”

I don’t have a great answer, but I’m thinking someone else might have taken it on.

For Denial of Service attacks in the Microsoft SDL bug bar, we roughly to break things down to a matrix of (server, client, persistent/temporary). That doesn’t seem right for web apps. Is there a better approach, and perhaps even one that can translate into some good threat cards?