Signal to Noise

It’s hard to argue against the realtime global accountability that Ken and Sheryl have been talking about lately, especially in light of this story about a fifth grade teacher whose home-made DVD of classroom memories, distributed to all students in the class, accidentally contained a totally graphic clip of her performing a sex act.  The DVD, made using the teacher’s personal computer, was all over the web in a matter of hours.
The DVD incident illustrates an item of particular importance in the global accountability discussion: personal conduct matters, online or off. Like a crude counterpoint to the global accountability token phrase Ken and Sheryl referred to: “We can fact-check your ass,” it seems that “we can see your ass” would’ve been the more poignant choice.
Digital content responsibility is something that has become abundantly clear to those of us who use Twitter, Facebook, and the like.  If you say something stupid, you pay for it.  If you wear your emotions or political beliefs on your sleeves, you are guaranteed to receive an argument from somebody.  Yeah, stating the way you feel about something to the realtime web is like whispering to people ten thousand yards away during a windstorm–but they can all still hear you. So–paying the price for impropriety is practically a given in this world of realtime reaction.
But what’s most ironic about this sex video spat in Sacramento is that it didn’t occur as a result of the teacher’s involvement in the realtime web continuum.  Instead, she made a “real-world” mistake, distributing a hugely embarrassing video to her students.  The fact that such mistakes can be so easily made with digital content is the underlying point.   And such mistakes are exponentially magnified by concepts like duplication, syndication, and realtime distribution.  I guess it’s a good thing she didn’t vid-tweet this thing to her students. (Ultimately though, the video made it around the globe in a heartbeat–no tweeting necessary.)
Online or off, we as a society of content-addicted consumers are still struggling with the management of such content, struggling to put a handle on our collective use of new outlets for our own worthwhile expressions, and yes, our own sensitive and private ones.
I don’t know if the lesson here is that more young professionals than we’re willing to admit actually make videos like this, or if those of us using digital content (which is everybody now) should just be more selective in our judgment about the type of content we decide to create.  Which would be an easier lesson to teach our kids?  And that, at the end of the day, is the painful downside of global accountability.
The realtime web, and related digital toolsets (like Apple’s iDVD and a stack of blank DVD-R’s), can really, really punish you if you’re not honest, wholesome, accurate, and appropriate. Defanti is learning that lesson the hard way.