I have just found out about Spock, which seems to be a love child of Google and Facebook from what I have learnt so far. Spock describes itself as: “… the leading people search application.”
According to a Wired article last August:
“Spock… mixes search with social-networking tools like personal profiles and tagging. But you don’t have to join to have a profile on Spock. In fact, you may be shocked to see what your profile says about you.”
So an invitation to join Spock may be an offer that you can’t refuse – if you value your reputation. Even so, others can play a role in determining what your profile says about you. Sort of like Wikipedia getting personal.
I am a strong advocate of Wikipedia, and the basic principles of trust and openness, but I am not sure what I think about this one yet.
Spock gathers info about individuals from the web, including your public profile on LinkedIn, without asking you first. But then, hey, that info is all out there for everyone, isn’t it? At least you can “claim” your profile and edit it for free – unlike some other web-crawling personal info sites.
My main hesitation about joining is the bother of having to maintain yet another profile, but when it is being done for me, it may not be too hard!
How did I hear about it? I received an invitation from Spock, telling me that a person (whose name was not immediately familiar), “… has requested your trust on Spock.” The email even includes a link to click on to “unsubscribe”. Funny, I don’t remember actually subscribing yet. Is this the behaviour you want to see from someone asking for your trust?
Maybe I will eventually form an actual opinion about this one.
