Something like this image cropped up in a talk given by Ed Mitchell at Digital Eskimo yesterday around our use of social software 'n' suchlike. The public/private distinction is something that I'm acutely aware (oooo, I have so many secrets from you all and let's face it, that's best for everyone), the personal/professional less so. That's mostly a, well, personal thing: I put a lot of my personal life into my work and vice versa. The idea of keeping them completely separate seems a little odd.But for many people that division is critical part of who they are and I see their choice as reasonable & legitimate. We all pay a price for our choices.
Another thing that cropped up in Ed's talk was the word affordances. This is an important word because it suggests that our technologies (what we build) and our practices (what we do) need to offer multiple ways of working or being. And I think we are both very comfortable and very uncomfortable with that idea. Formally/Collectively we like the idea of people behaving in a certain way, of following the rules. Informally/Individually we cut each other some slack.
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