Agility Loop

GigaOM has a post today entitled Has Dropbox set the stage for a privacy revolution detailing the last several "fun" months at Dropbox, and their recent change of their terms of service to make their privacy policies clear.  What I found interesting is that when they first tried to clarify their policies, there was actually more uproar from customers.

Then, on July 1, when Dropbox tried to do right by its users by clearing up much of the language in its terms of service, privacy policy and security overview, another uproar ensued. It appears this was the first time many customers bothered to read these documents, because the commenters on a blog post announcing the changes, as well as forum members across the web, began loudly criticizing certain Dropbox practices.

This makes sense...I can tell you that I almost NEVER read the TOS when signing up for a service. Although the article make the point that this could set the stage for a privacy revolution, I think actions like these are hopefully bigger.  Yes, making privacy policies clear is important due to recent privacy violations.  But how about making security practices just as clear?  There have been so many hacks lately that adding clarity to security practices (whether in the TOS or elsewhere) could have real value.  If I was idealistic (I'm not), it would be great if there was some sort of neutral party that rated the privacy and security policies of websites and posted them in a public location.  Similar to the mileage ratings for cars, the consumer could decide based off the rating.  However, not sure you can have a truly neutral party that will give an accurate rating.  And if it is anything like the standards for MPG and cell phone battery life, the numbers would be next to useless.

Earlier this week, Gmail quietly released a new add-on for Gmail called Priority Inbox.   The Gmail Blog post probably does a better job describing it then I can, but essentially it is a new way to view the messages in Gmail.  Gmail will prioritize messages in your inbox in three categories: Important and Unread, Starred, and Everything Else.  Gmail learns through your use of Gmail itself what messages are important and which ones are, well, less than important.  From their blog post:

As messages come in, Gmail automatically flags some of them as important. Gmail uses a variety of signals to predict which messages are important, including the people you email most (if you email Bob a lot, a message from Bob is probably important) and which messages you open and reply to (these are likely more important than the ones you skip over). And as you use Gmail, it will get better at categorizing messages for you. You can help it get better by clicking the

or

buttons at the top of the inbox to correctly mark a conversation as important or not important. (You can even set up filters to always mark certain things important or unimportant, or rearrange and customize the three inbox sections.)

You do have the ability to further tweak the Priority Inbox (as referenced in the quote above) by including certain labels or filters.  So far, I have not made any advanced tweaks.  I have however followed the advice given by MG Sielger over at Techcrunch:

My favorite aspect of Priority Inbox is the settings that allows you to create four different sections of your inbox. Yes, you could previously do this with the Multiple Inboxes feature, but these new settings make things much easier to understand and implement. The three default sections here are: “Important & unread,” “Starred,” and “Everything else” — but there’s an option to add a fourth, which you should. You should create a new label that you can quickly tag emails with. For example, I chose “A1″ since “A” shows up first in the Labels drop down menu. Set this section (which is actually the second section) to show emails with that label. Once you do that, your inbox will be transformed into four different boxes stacked on top of one another. At the top will be the “Important and unread” elements — this is your true Priority Inbox and ideally would be empty most of the time (indicating that you’ve read all these messages). Below that would be this new A1 section — these are your most important saved emails to come back to. Below that is your starred section — these are emails you quickly star that you might want to come back to. And below that is everything else — your general incoming email. Or as I like to call it, Hell.

So for the lack of being too creative, I actually did exactly as is recommended above...created a A1 category.  To be honest I am not sure that this method will work for me, but the nice thing about the new feature is I can tweak later as I use it. Reading around the web, it sounds like when you first turn it on, the results are mixed.  However, over a couple of days of email usage, I can say that it has improved (and this sentiment is echoed throughout the web). Keep in mind that you do need to turn on Priority Inbox.  Google is rolling this out to users throughout the week.  Once it is offered to you, you should see New! Priority Inbox upper right hand corner of Gmail.  You can always return to your regular inbox at any time (you will see both Priority Inbox and Inbox on the left hand side of Gmail). And a last note to Google.  Add this to the Gmail client on Android and you are invited to Sleekfest.

This week I am at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.  Originally I was attending with my customer, but as she as decided to pursue other adventures, I am here on my own. Looking through the agenda, the expo seems to be heavily focused on design, social media, and web development.  It is my goal to find out how the methodologies and technologies here can apply to the government.  As usual, the biggest challenge is likely to be that much of the cool tech presented here is more SaaS based, whereas in the government (at least where I sit) we need to be able to install it in our closed network. But that doesn't mean there isn't a ton to learn.  I am looking to blog about what I learn and see at the show, as well as Tweet/Geo-locate with the best of them!

It is always entertaining to keep track of the old media vs. new media war. Old media still can't figure out how to handle the new way of business and continues to be left behind. Today's news of Blockbuster's new deal with Warner Bros is a prime example. A few weeks ago, Warner signed an agreement with Redbox and Netflix limiting the availability of new releases on those services for 28 days post release to DVD.  Today's agreement gives BB the ability to rent these titles immediately via brick and mortar and online. Double standard anyone? In all reality, business is business and the movies are Warner's to do with as they please. However, seems like a reactive business move and some old media blowing old media. Can't wait to see what happens when BB goes bankrupt.