Friday, September 7, 2007

MyLifeBits : Microsoft Covets Your Life

Well, it you were worried about your personal information being spread all of the Internet, do not worry any longer. You will be able to document every waking moment of your life. If your life is a bit risque, you can blur the edges or store your memories in an offshore facility. Fantasy? Unfortunately, no.

Microsoft want to digitize, categorize, annotate, link, collect and save your life. You may visit the web page, MyLifeBits Demo, and watch videos that demonstrate how you may use MyLifeBits. Too much information can be a terrible burden, I guess.

I recognize the usefulness of this application for organizing and annotating photographs for the purposes of genealogy, family life stories and travel documentaries. However, to think that we want to save every email, record every phone call, archive all our websites, and preserve our personal calendars forever is the ultimate in hubris, even for Bill Gates.

Think about it. If you are on spring break in college, do you really need every picture and video saved for prosperity. "Yes, honey, this is mommy doing body shots off the abdomen of her best friend. This was just before they shot the Girls Gone Wild video. Would you like to see that? Oh, I wonder how that got linked to the video of your home birth! Oh well . . . "

There are some things best forgotten. I guess it could help Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan keep track of their DUIs, jail terms and lawyers. I shudder to think about what a disgruntled ex-employee to the rich and famous could do with this tool. Do we really need this?

They should have used the Camtasia or PowerPoint for the demo. The written explanations and the quick and silent movies are disjointed and hard to follow. So, I guess our little bits o' life are safe for now.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know there are people who are going to want to document every thing they do, right? There's a website somewhere run by a girl who takes a photo of every single thing she eats, every day. Some people really enjoy minutiae, I guess! (Did I spell that right?)

Unknown said...

I'm with you.

I'm going through a real-world office design project right now, so I am cleaning out my old files.

I am running the paper shredder with reckless abandon. I am finding files of projects from 2001, that while exciting at the time, are only collecting dust.

Trash bins and Goodwill need to exist for the internet, as well.

Anonymous said...

Wow, this thing is scary!

It looks like MS is stepping into risky territory. I can see how some people like to document stuff - but this feels like privacy invasion.

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