Great link! Thanks for sharing! I’m fascinated by the technology, and I do think a lot of it will come to fruition in the next decade. Overall, this would be extremely useful technology.
That said, I’m not sure I like the idea of people being able to see all the “tags” related to me when they look at me. I have an extremely ecclectic personality, and have a wide variety of interests. Things that are important to me are not always accepted in the various groups I interact with. For example, I lobby for gay rights, but don’t know that I’d want that to be broadcast when I’m working with returning soldiers to ensure their legal rights are upheld, since my work for the department of defense puts me in the company of people who are very uncomfortable discussing “the gay issue.” Don’t get me wrong… I’m very public on my stance with gay rights (being published on the subject doesn’t allow me much anonymity), but there is an appropriate time and place to bring various things into the conversation. I also do a lot of electronic communication with my family, through blogs, FaceBook, etc. While none of it is inappropriate, I don’t want my personal preferences and life events to be broadcast during a job interview where my personal life is none of their business. I also teach college students. A certain degree of separation is required when I do that, and I’m not sure I want to be completely transparent when lecturing, meeting with students, etc. Nor do I want to be completely transparent with the employees and managers I work with (I’m in human resources, and again, have to maintain a degree of separation to be successful in that role). My opinion on that part of this technology depends to a great extent on how much control individuals will have over the information that is linked to them. For example, I don’t care who knows I have horses, live in the country, enjoy the outdoors, etc., and those are all factors that can help people get to know me. I just don’t want my other views/activities to be quite so visible to complete strangers.
Great question!