This week’s theme is about the impact that the digitization of information is having on the way that we live our lives. The three sites below are examples of a trend known as Transparency Tyranny or Transparency Triumph. The last one is for our creative boys. Thought I didn’t care?

A

Wikileaks (http://wikileaks.org/)
Launched in January 2007, Wikileaks was conceived as a safe place for whistle-blowers to reveal their secrets to the world. It’s a contentious site, as its founders will publish pretty much anything, and even hard-line campaigners against government secrecy have balked at documents being published that have no obvious newsworthiness and potentially harm some individuals’ privacy rights. However, it is the ultimate example of the power of mass consumer behavior, as even attempts by various bodies to have the site closed or de-listed from the web have resulted in intelligent counter responses by erudite netizens to keep the site running and openly accessible. Think your secrets are safe? You have been warned…

Glassdoor (http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm)
Glassdoor is a site where anyone can find and share real-time reviews, ratings and salary details about specific jobs for specific employers. All for free. What is interesting is that the site content is populated by employees of those organizations, rather than brand marketers. This kind of idea isn’t new (we’ve seen a multitude of variations on this theme in previous disguises since the web went mainstream), but what is new is how easy social media technology has made it to populate the site, collate, analyse and distribute the information. Most of our clients do have listings, but very few comments. Yet.

What’s hot (in a partying sense) (http://www.citysense.com)
The industry got very excited with the launch of the iPhone as it represented a step-change in the use of mobile devices. Now, we are starting to see mashups that use the GPS-enablement facility of phones to show real-time information on a map of how busy a city is and where people are. City Sense is a free application that can be downloaded onto a BlackBerry that shows a ‘heat map’ of activity in various areas. Think about it like this – imagine you are out clubbing with friends and want to go where the buzz is. Simply use this application and it will show you, in real time, where everyone is. Cool? Yes. Scary. Definitely. Especially when you consider what else you could do with such an application. It’s currently only available in San Francisco. It will be interesting to see whether it takes off.

Make the Tea (www.makethetea.com)
Make the Tea is a new site from Cravendale that aims to facilitate the tea-making process amongst groups of tea lovers around the world. Enter your tea preference, invite your friends and once you have a select group, click Brew Now’ and the site randomly selects a brewer to do the deed. What I love is that you can rate or slate the maker, depending on the quality of the brew. Genius.