I got my first email from an MLA the other day.
I didn’t recognize it in the inbox, but when I clicked on it I saw that it was a form response to a petition that I had supported.
I say ‘supported’ because, well… I never actually signed anything. The whole thing went like this:
- Friend posts good cause link on Facebook
- I follow good cause link to good cause site
- Prewritten form e-mail is there on site
- I customize form e-mail with my own two paragraphs
- I click send
- Time passes
- E-mail from MLA appears in my inbox
Hmm… seems kind of mundane. I admit, there’s nothing special about receiving a form letter from an MLA. But it seems a little special that I got to send one. I’ve never sent a form letter before, even if I just sent one copy of it.
I guess what gets me a little excited about this boring story is that it’s a real life story of new tools at work – new tools of communication and organization. The playing field of who can say what to whom is changing.
The playing field of who will listen to what from whom will probably stay forever unchanged, though.
Or maybe I’m just cynical.
I wrote real letters, and got real letters back – though the one from the premier had my name misspelled and then corrected in pen on top of it, which sort of spoiled the finesse
Just remember that Big Brother is watching. Your name is now on …’s watchlist!
I guess the only anonymity anymore is that of the needle lost in the haystack, but then the Miller’s Daughter didn’t have a computer when she was spinning gold from straw.
That last paragraph may not make much logical sense, but I like the ring of it.
You’re right. From this blog post, I am discoverable and my MLA is discoverable.
The post is now timestamped, so even years later it will be discoverable. Discovering the petition would require some manner of attack against my Facebook account. My first thought is a bogus application that would sniff all my past activity in the time period.
I haven’t looked at the Facebook API closely enough to know how far back applications can mine data, but going by the breadth of information applications have access to (everything) the depth is ‘forever’.