#@andrearavenet

@barryoneill

     RE:  Mind of Man (MOM) for Twitter User Experience

Hi Barry:

In getting ready for our global launch of Mind of Man next month, we're collecting reviews from our Irish and UK early adopters.  Among our favorite reviews to date is "Weirdly Cool!" But our second favorite is yours: "Not Cool."

It's not that we're glad that was your first impression. It's that you took a moment to respond with your reaction to Mind of Man's auto-sharing your Celebrity Twin on Twitter.  

We designed Mind of Man's Orwellian tone and atmosphere to address issues surrounding digital privacy in a pointed yet playful way. We're pushing the limits of sentiment analysis beyond mere polarity, while weaving into the user experience --among other things-- a tongue-in-cheek exploration of the personality each of us cultivates online.  The concept of an omniscient entity that slowly unveils aspects of your online persona, including those celebrities most like you, was intended to be entertaining social satire.  Maybe we got caught up in that.

You're the first to raise this concern over sharing, and it begs the question, "Why weren’t the login screen and the EULA explicit enough?"  

Here’s the first image, from the login sequence, disclosing MOM’s intentions:  

Next, our EULA was written in good fun to communicate that sharing is an instrumental part of the Mind of Man experience. Below are a few screen captures, to illustrate that intent:

…. and, the EULA goes on to explain that the User to whom each MindPrint is granted has an "unlimited license to his/her respective Mindprint™ and, in turn, grants MOM the permission to display said Mindprint™."

In keeping with the tongue-in-cheek attitude, the EULA continues:

and...

So, what gave us pause was the fact that your MindPrint share surprised you.  

This points to our failure to clearly disclose MOM's intent to auto-tweet a user’s Celebrity Match.  For this, we apologize and have decided to implement another strategy.

In fact, your reaction has inspired two versions of MOM: a free version to those who wish to "pay" with an auto-tweet (illustrating that there's still no such thing as a truly free lunch), as well as a paid version. Both versions give users a one-year subscription to all future features and functions as we evolve the application.  

We’re proud of what our organization has built and hope that early adopters -- like you-- will continue to shape the future for this awesome technology.  As the saying goes: Sometimes, you can't see the forest for the trees.  Your comment helped us see the bigger picture a bit more clearly.  In fact, we feel that your response inspired an even better solution.  

Thanks again for taking the time to give us a shout. Your response illustrates the emotional impact of the choices we make everyday online, and especially, in the cultivation of our online identities.

Best,

Andrea