Some Late Night Thoughts on Privacy

It's the middle of the night and I should be asleep, but I think the devil invented computers (and blogs) to keep us awake. I've only been blogging a few hours and already I'm up late.

Anyway, the point I want to make is that Tam has raised issues about privacy. Well, I will be blogging elsewhere to express my opinions about the Middle East (my line of work). This is for communication with family and friends, discussion of genealogy, stuff like that. Or whatever else we want to talk about. Our names and info are already out there, along with pictures (we've had a personal website since 1999 or 2000) at tamandmichael.com; we'll be discreet here about things like where we live, and are keeping pictures of our daughter off this site (if you're family we've told you where to find them).

In a world where privacy is at a premium and everyone's on YouTube and MySpace, and lots of people seem not to even want privacy, I think that, short of turning Amish or ignoring the Internet, a relatively low-key, not too detailed family communication site will work. I hope I'm right. I'm limiting comments for now to the genealogy posts, but would rather allow free discussion throughout. I just fear spamalanches and intrusive comments that aren't on topic.

I'd really like this site to become a place where our family and friends can come and comment, even perhaps create a chat site, but where outsiders, spammers, and others won't impose. If the latter happens, I can make the whole blog accessible only by login, but I know that that will mean a lot of our family and friends who aren't all that cybersavvy will opt out.

So if you find this site, please respect who we are and what we want to do here. If you know us, drop in and say howdy. If you're kin, c'mon in. I want to have a nice get-together on a cyber-front porch where we all catch up with each other. If something else turns up in the mailboxes, we can always shut it down.

All that being said, let's talk a bit.

Michael Dunn