Personally, I am for an open Internet where people get to express themselves. Of course, they should do so keeping in mind that there are liable laws and one can be sued for spreading untrue and malicious information.

As far as one own actions on the Internet, it is best to warn your children that just as in real life, what you do on the Internet can follow you through your life. People have long memories in neighborhoods, villages and small towns and the Internet is certainly a village.

Valeria, this one is double-edged sword for sure. Just yesterday, it appears that Gov. Spitzer of NY was brought down by the ubiquity of digital footprints. And, in the absence of the fear of God, fear of exposure can help regulate individual wrongdoing. On the other hand, who among us hasn't messed up in countless ways? By and large, I don't fear being observed, but I don't think I'd want my every moment exposed to the world - there are too many flaws to work with!
I feel sorry for anyone wanting to go into the (increasingly transparent) glass house of politics...

@Harry - Thank you for joining the conversation. You are wise to educate and inform younger generations on the permanence of digital information. They are natives online and may not be mindful of the permanent nature of those records, yet.

@Steve - Twitter was alight with the news on Spitzer. Context is a very important consideration to remember. In the example of the girl and her dog, an otherwise mundane occurrence (my neighbors sometimes may forget to bring the bag when walking the dog) became an event when repeated online.

I have such mixed feelings about this.

Dog Poop Girl is an interesting example. On the one hand, I am not inclined to be sympathetic to her; as a dog owner who takes a lot of care to make sure that my pride and joy is not anybody else's headache, I hate it when other dog owners do things like this.

But the story took on such a life that it actually had dramatic effects on her, far out of proportion to the misdeed that started it.

I actually think public shunning is underused; over the four decades of my life, I've noticed public behavior really decline in the US - everything from the cars whose stereos you can hear from six blocks away to cell phone rudeness and the like - and think we'd be a more civilized culture if some public behavior led to public humiliation. But there is of course a dark side to it.

The reality is that when you're in public you can indeed be recorded - just think of all those unaware pedestrians in Google Street View! Like it or not, it's our reality.

We get the sense sometimes that everyone knows what we know, and if we see something online that may implicate someone in compromising behavior, that everyone who is close to that person must know it, too.

Except in the case of celebrities and politicians (as in Steve's example), I doubt this is the norm.

This does not address the overall concerns about privacy that you raised, though.

A decent respect for others should encourage empathy and restraint, but over time, I think such respect has become a scarce commodity, and we have done very little collectively to build it in others.

@John - I hear you on being civil. I know many dog owners who are impeccable. On occasion there is the one who spoils it for everyone else. That is the case with everything in life. Balancing the dark side is indeed a fine art. Depending on the mood, and environment (is everyone doing it?), if we are not rooted in values, behavior can get out of hand.

@Cam - you mean people are not in our heads? I'm shocked! Yes, that is very easy to forget. I was fascinated by Solove's take on social norms. Manners used to be part of the teaching and example we got from our communities. Alas, with so much moving and disconnects we lost that a little, or a lot. Sometimes I do wonder if being so projected into the future, and so instant results oriented is good for us.

Maybe this is the real meaning of the famous quote from Andy Warhol about our 15 minutes of celebrity. That said, society is turning into a voyeuristic one. Raise your hand if you have ever watched big brother or any other reality in tv.
Is this a threat? To me, yes cause bad habits spread like wildfire.
And I'm with John both as a proud dogs owner and about the decline of public behavior, as far as I'm concerned, in Italy.

I'm not convinced that people have changed and believe it's likely most people are just being seen for who they really are these days. Nobody wants their worst on display for anyone. But I'd be willing to bet, we'd be surprised to see how much good is out there.

For example, yesterday morning on my way to work, someone hit a dog in my neighborhood. That person left the scene--who knows if they even knew they hit the animal. If cameras were there that person would be strung up by their shoestrings. However moments later a young lady stopped her car when she saw the dog in the road. This is the point where I came along. I got out of my car and the two of us did what we could for the dog. If cameras were there, how would we look? Probably better than the guy who hit the dog. But I wouldn't want that on public display either.

The majority of people don't do good to be put on a pedestal, they do it because it's right.

I think if you're going to put the bad on YouTube, you need to put the good too.

I own 2 dogs and I'd be lying if I said one of my dogs never did their business in someone else's yard when I didn't have a bag. Sometimes I go back with a bag and sometimes I forget. But 99 out of 100 times, the dogs go in my backyard.

On the privacy/freedom spectra, I would place myself on the freedom side. I'm a private person, so while posting wrongs on the internet might be offensive and tasteless to me I believe the constitution allows for truths to be accurately depicted or repeated.

Anyone else immediately think of Godin when they saw the bald head image on the front page?

@Gianandrea - what happened with the dog story is that an instance that everyone can relate to, globally, has become a catalyst for conversation. In that case of the bad/gossipy kind. That is why journalists use stories - it drives the message home. Do we laugh with the poor South Korean girl? I think not. Instead, we judge.

@Michael - we often see in others what we recognize as ours (secretly). And yes, by and large people do good things/deeds because it's the right thing to do, not because they want to be seen doing it. You share a very easy to understand story. It should be black and white. It reminded me of the opening of the movie "Michael Clayton" where Clooney is talking to a guy who just hit a person and ran. And the guy is actually mad at the person being in his path! When we say we are on the freedom side, we might consider the implications of the freedom we allow others by our own actions. Thank you for extending the conversation.

@David - I did not until you pointed it out. Yul Brinner was the famous bald in my imagination. Now that dates me, huh?

Discuss the evaluation and control of sales forces in a market organisation.

The selling process has been identified as been necessary for the exposing of organization product. Identify how would a sales personnel cope with the objective in the selling process

The world is starting to remind me of a casino -- where no matter where I go, there are always 10 cameras watching me.

I liked it better the old way.