YouWish

As we all know the world has been venting their anger on MP’s for their completely dishonest handling of their expenses. That’s old news. And yet it plays to a topic that is equally important but less widely discussed, namely people’s honesty on the web.

There seems to be a sort of unwritten law that it is ok to dissemble, cheat, lie, mislead and generally obfuscate on the web. In fact anything that avoids one having to disclose proper information. Why should this be acceptable? Just because the web police haven’t been created yet and Stallone is yet to appear to sort out good from evil, that is no reason for people to behave like that. Much of this has originated from the fact that people have an aversion to revealing their true identity on the web. And so it is increasingly hard for people to work out what stories are true or false and nowhere more so than on Twitter.

Why do I care?

Well I care because there are so many double standards being applied by people in different circumstances. It’s ok for Journalists to reveal information about MP’s expenses and yet media insitutions like the BBC have such a problem with being fully transparent about their own organisations.

If we want other people to take each one of us seriously then it is high time that we were all a little more transparent about who we are and what we want. And so if we expect companies to take time to give proper service, then it is equally important that people give out the right personal information to help them do their job. That’s why I find it frustrating when users of You Wish don’t put in their postcodes or other critical information that a business needs to sell them something. We shouldn’t have to mandate that people fill in a ton of personal information. Instead people should just think through what is important for that company or person to deliver what they want. They shouldn’t need prompting.

After all we protect people’s personal contact details. No-one gets those unless the individual concerned wants to give out their telephone number or email address. But we’re trying to create relationships here between companies and people and both sides need to honour an unwritten agreement. If I am going to take you seriously then at least think about my needs and respect my position. If all sides do that then everybody should find it much easier to get what they want.

It’s simple really. It’s like any friendship. It’s built on trust and it’s maintained by honouring that trust. Perhaps we can teach MP’s a thing or two after all!