We need a contact-tax to make sure social media profiles us more adequately, and leave us some time-off to think.

Sir, Tim Harford writes: “fake news entrepreneurs have realised that it is far more profitable to invent eye-catching fables than to research and confirm the everyday truth”, “How to poke Facebook off its perch”, November 4.

The real reason for that, a bit hard to acknowledge, is that most of us (me included) find it much more amusing to read eye-catching fables than blah-blah truths.

So given our weaknesses of falling for fables; and given our de-facto limited attention span, 60 minutes times 24 hours per day; and given our need for some time-off so we do not forget how to think and reflect on what we are being fed with, we must put up some very high walls or dig some very deep moats as self-defense.

At this moment Facebook can send out a message to two billion users at basically zero marginal cost!

So one way could be forcing social media and their colleagues to pay a minuscule fee for any message sent to us that does not originate directly from our private friends; call it a contact-tax.

That would at least force Facebook to target us more carefully. “Profiling us more carefully”? That might sound awful, but being wrongly profiled should be worse… or perhaps not.

But of course the revenues of any contact-tax should not go to increase the redistribution profiteers’ franchise value, but be shared out among us all by means of a Universal Basic Income.

PS. This does not mean I give up on my right to strive for an intellectual property right, a copyright on my own preferences, in order to have something more to bargain with in this data driven world.

@PerKurowski

The numbers of ads on Facebook and Google need to be limited, and those clicking these should also be paid something.

Sir, Rana Foroohar, with respect to those services we supposedly receive free from Goggle, Facebook and similar for free, correctly writes “free is not free when you consider that we are not paying for these services in dollars, but in data, including everything from our credit card numbers to shopping records, to political choices and medical histories. How valuable is that personal data?” "Big tech makes vast gains at our expense", September 18

Indeed, more than 10 years ago I wrote you a letter in which I said: “Clearly a search engine should mostly be valued in terms of the services it offers to the searchers but in this case it is actually the searchers that become the searched and this leads to some very strange signalling effects”.

And since then I have been all over the web promoting among others the possibility that we should be able to get an intellectual property right over our own preferences, in order to have sometRhing to negotiate with… and then on how we could enter into agreements with ad-blockers that could help us exploit those IPRs.

But lately what has also come to concern me, is how our very limited attention span is being overexploited, leaving us too little time for reflection on our own realities.

Would it not be great if Google or Facebook, or any such similar social media service we get hooked on, and which has over a million members, could only send each member ten adds per day, and that these would receive 50% of any ad revenues collected as a result of having clicked on the ad?

Under no circumstances should we humans allow the marginal cost of bothering us to be zero.

I believe that could benefit all parties involved. Even Google, Facebook and alike would be less harassed by the besserwisser. Don’t you think so Sir?

@PerKurowski

Our biggest problem with Internet, Google, Facebook, Twitter, is that our attention span scarcity is not duly valued

Sir, you write: “It is clear that Google, Facebook, Twitter and a few others have become an important part of the social fabric. The dissemination of fake political news around elections in the US and Europe has illustrated as much”, “New realities confront a maturing Internet” September 12.

I don’t get it. If there was any “fake political news around elections in the US and Europe” that was that Hillary and Remain were shoe-ins. And although the dissemination is important the fact is that others produced these news… mostly the political correctness clans.

But let me get to the real issue here. We humans do not have more than 7 days a week with 24 hours each with 60 minutes each and 60 seconds each. That’s all! And social media is claiming more and more of that limited attention span and there is little we can do about it, if we do not want to disconnect entirely.

Perhaps if anyone outside our circle of friends would want to send us a message, like a fake news or an irresistible click-ad, had to pay us something, then we could perhaps align the incentives better. Some could charge one cent per message, others one dollar and perhaps a Nobel Prize winner or an important politician 100 dollars for 30 seconds.

If it were so, many more would think differently about losing their time with their silly useless messages… and we would all live happier.

@PerKurowski

How many billions would Facebook lose, were there no false or outrageously misleading news that attracts ad-clicks?

Sir, I refer to your “Face up to responsibility, Facebook and friends” November 16.

Indeed, Facebook, Google and friends, must now come to terms with how to manage fake news that are there only to attract ad-clicks. Clearly since they are also in the business of ad-clicks, and probably benefit on those clicks attracted by false news, they face serious, I would hold unmanageable, conflicts of interests.

To put the burden of this responsibility on Facebook and similar, would be something akin as having the banks calculating their own risk weighted capital requirements, like naïve bank regulators allow them to do.

I believe the most expedient way to resolve this issue, in a way that benefits most of us, is not to try to establish the veracity of any individual news, but to go after those sites that make it their business to attract ad-clicks by means of false or outrageously misleading news. 3 lunacies that have attracted more than 100 clicks, should suffice for a one month suspension.

Recognizing my human weaknesses I recently twitted: “Help, I can’t resist. More than an ad-blocker, I need a blocker of stupid/outrageous only designed to be clicked on stories”

PS. As a gentle reminder, in reference to the thousands of letter I have written to you on the distortions that risk-weighted capital requirements for banks cause, to withhold important information that could be true is, for a news organization like Financial Times, basically the same as presenting fake information.

Caring more about us, the targets, would go a long way to improve advertising efficiency on the web, and reduce fraud.

Sir, John Gapper describes some tip of icebergs in the word of online advertising “Regulators are failing to block fraudulent ads”, February 3.

But I also assume that those paying for the ads do not pay, or stop the advertising, if the ads fail to translate into profits.

We, the targets, we used to be hit with some few advertising bullets while reading a paper, looking at TV or listening to radio… now, on the web, more and more we are hit with thousand of ad pellets, which give very little consideration to the physical limits of our attention span. If the computer has a malware that keeps it reading ads while I sleep I don’t care… but when I sit there and try to use the web for its original purposes the ads are really getting into my way and into my nerves.

What could be done about it? I have suggested the advertisers, with the help of ad-blockers, take contact directly with us the targets. I am sure we could work something out. I my case I have offered to hire out my very scarce attention span for 30 seconds against the low price of US$ 1… initially!

@PerKurowski ©

Those willing to cut a deal with the real owners of limited attention spans for ads, will come out ahead.

Sir, I refer to Jeevan Vasagar and Robert Cookson’s report “Axel Springer winning fight against ad-blockers” November 4,

And on Axel Springer’s website I found that: “Axel Springer finds the business model of ad-blocker services to be unlawful. This applies to both the blocking of advertising on publishing websites as well as to the ’whitelisting’ service, which publishers can pay for to free themselves of the advertising block, which is an extortionate approach according to Axel Springer.”

And I was left wondering… why is it unlawful to block the way into my limited attention span and not to enter into it?

So now, if we want to have access to BILD we have to accept the ads, or subscribe to it paying 2.99 Euros per month. Hold it there; is not my limited attention span worth anything?

I have figured out that I have about room for 64 30-second ads per week which makes about 256 per month. And I have decided that my using up that limited attention span should be worth about 1 Euro for any 30-second ad to me; on which I would accept to pay a 30 percent commission for managing my preferences.

And so now my calculations are: First is access to BILD worth 3 Euros per month to me, and, if so, should I pay BILD in cash, or with 3 30-seconds attention spans?

But what if BILD cheats and wants to pump more pieces of attention spans out of me?

And so here’s my proposal. BILD if you have an article I am interested in, and I read it, then I will look, with interest, at any 30 second ad you send me. And, if you sell that to a client who is sufficiently interested in me to pay me 1 Euro, you can keep 30 percent of it, in order to split it any which way you want between yourself and the writer of that article.

And then of course I am going to rank how well BILD is my interests and my need of intellectual diversity.

Current business model are based on the assumptions that we the recipients of ads have unlimited attention span and that is simply not true… you should look at my inbox even after the span filter has done its job.

I foresee throat-cutting competition for attention spans for ads, and those cutting a deal with the owners of it will come out ahead.

And if the BILDs of the world do not want to make that kind of deal with us ad viewers, I am sure many ad-blockers– duly authorized by us – would love to do so.

And Sir, any good results BILD is reporting now, are as pyrrhic as can be.

@PerKurowski ©

The most forceful adblocker is the limited attention span available… and here is an offer on how you can access mine

Sir, Matthew Garrahan, Hannah Kuchler and Robert Cookson write “the latest adblocking software, and programs already available on PCs and laptops, could have ruinous implications for the companies that rely on digital advertising, such as online publishers” “Adblocking threat to marketing industry grows” October 6.

I am perfectly fine with any advertiser who simply tags on a Twitter, Google or Facebook and gets paid for it even if I were bothered is put out of business. We need smart adblocking on our telephone lines too.

But the fact is that the biggest adblocker of them all, is time. There is just so many hours and minutes available per day. And so the whole adblocking technology, instead of being considered a threat, should be good news for the ad industry, since it will permit to separate the good from the bad.

And, since we on the receiving end are in fact the most important participants in all this, let me take this opportunity to once again remind the industry of my offer:

Anyone who following my personal copyrighted preferences feels he has a very special message to me, could begin by paying me a token of good faith, for instance 1US$. If so, I guarantee him the access to my fully devoted attention span, during 30 seconds. For your information my adblocker will be receiving a percentage to be agreed upon of my revenues, and so that it also has an interest in maximizing these.

This is going to be fun.

PS. I just went out to my mailbox. I will need an adblocker there too. My ordinary mail does not fit any longer.

@PerKurowski © J

If Disney though dead makes money on Mickey Mouse © why can’t Per Kurowski do the same on Per Kurowski © while alive?

Sir, let me use Tim Harford’s “Copyright and wrongs” of October 3, in order to bring to your and his attention, my own copyright wishes.

I have spent my whole life, carefully, with great love and dedication, developing interest and taste for many different things. And now, all my efforts doing so, are being vulgarly commercialized by third parties, to whoever thinks he could use it in order to tempt me to buy something or to donate to some cause.

With that information on me, they pursue me on the web and on the phone, day and night. And I can hardly escape any longer. In fact I am no longer a completely free man, I am now being trapped by my own past preferences and blocked from exploring new horizons. “Tell me what you like and I will show you what you like” is a vicious spiritual deathtrap that engulfs you more and more.

And there’s little or nothing in it for me. Oh, if only I could have a copyright on my own preferences… only until I am dead, not one day more. I swear I would not hire lawyers to extend its validity.

If that were possible, I would immediately enlist one of those many emerging ad-blockers, to make sure I was reasonably compensated for any ad that targeted me using what is included in Per Kurowski ©.

And of course, if I also had to look at those ads, I would want some compensation for using up my so scarce attention span. I have initially been thinking about a low revisable fee of US$1 per 30 second of serious attention to anything serious information they want to feed me. 

In order to stimulate the ad-blocker for maximizing my copyright and my attention span revenues, I have thought of paying it a 30 percent commission rate. Sounds reasonable eh?

@PerKurowski ©

Ad-blockers, do not allow any unsolicited ads on my mobile… unless of course I get paid good money for looking at it.

Sir, Richard Waters writes: “Slow loading times for mobile web pages — when users are paying for data… cost more than just time” and yet, while discussing the issue of ad blocking he refers to all major actors, except the users. “Who gets to block ads is flip side of who gets to decide which get through” September 10.

It is we the users who end up bearing the brunt of the costs, when having our limited and valuable attention span filled up with noises of all types. And so therefore let me repeat a request for ad-blocking services that would better serve my purpose.

I want an ad-blocking that charges anyone trying to send me an unrequested solicitation of any sort, or more than one per moth of the requested, to charge the advertiser an adjustable fee for me to look at it. Let us say initially US$1 per 30 second’s view. And on that income I would be willing to pay the ad-blocker for his services an adjustable commission, let us say initially 20%.

An alternative in which I could perhaps bypass the ad-blocker is signing up an agreement, for instance with Facebook, Twitter, Google and Apple by which they share their revenues obtained from targeting me and my preferences, for instance, initially 50 percent.

Users unite! Let us maximize the returns for us of our valuable and very limited attention span. 

http://teawithft.blogspot.com/2015/07/my-ideal-adblocker-besides-earning-on.html

http://teawithft.blogspot.com/2015/03/i-want-net-40-percent-of-revenues.html

http://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2015/06/for-1us-i-will-look-for-30-seconds-with.html

http://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2014/06/should-not-google-and-other-public-eyes.html
http://teawithft.blogspot.ca/2007/06/in-search-of-answers-on-search-engines.html

@PerKurowski

Yahoo and Bing, if you want us to search with you, instead of with Google, make us an offer we can’t refuse.

Sir, Douglas Coupland writes: “people are perfectly free to use Yahoo or Bing yet they choose to stick with Google and then they get worried about Google having too much power – which is an unusual relationship dynamic, like an old married couple.” “WE ARE DATA-The future of machine intelligence” July 18.

Why should they change? Have Yahoo or Bing really made their case for them delivering better search results? Have we heard them sing: “I can search anything better than you… No, you can't…Yes, I can… No, you can't… Yes, I can! Yes, I can!”?

Google, Facebook, Twitter and many others, by gathering data about us, and using that data to deliver advertising to us, make money on us.

If Yahoo or Bing offered to share part of the revenues with us, and at the same time made clear what are the differences, if any, in the search results compared to Google, I guess many more of us would favor them with our questions. Make us an offer we can’t refuse!

@PerKurowski

My ideal adblocker, besides earning on what he blocks, should earn on the "quality" ($$$) of what he passes through to me.

Sir, Henry Mance refers to the opinion of Didier Truchot, president and co-founder of Ipsos in that “The idea that Facebook, Google and others should pay internet users for information does not stand up because the sums involved would not attract wealthy consumers”, “Plan to pay internet users for personal data would attract ‘just the poor’, warns Ipsos” July 1.

That depends, if the wealthy are an attractive consumer target, then they might be willing to pay more, not for the data on them but for their attention span.

For instance if non-wealthy little me could get a copyright on those personal preferences that data on me currently reveals, then I could make the following public offer: 

For 1US$ (revisable), for 30 seconds, with reasonable interest, I will look at any unsolicited ad directed to me while travelling the web.

I hereby declare that I am a great consumer and I have a good history of easily falling prey to offers on the web. That said, nothing here should be interpreted as a commitment to purchase anything or to otherwise follow or do what is suggested in any ad for which I have been paid a royalty.

And I would then contract an ad-blocker, not just for blocking purposes, but also to assure those advertisers sufficiently interested in me so as to be willing to pay good money, have access to me. Depending on the efficiency by which I am served, and the little I would get bothered by any unauthorized access to me, I will offer the ad-blocker up to 30% of any income derived by me in royalties on my copyright on my own preferences.

Of course, any really wealthy could charge much more for his attention span.

Sadly though, this does not seem very compatible with the fight against inequality championed by so many… but does that mean I should waste my time attention span for free? Yet, the wealthy could always donate their attention span usage income to the less well off.

@PerKurowski

I want a net 40 percent of the revenues generated by ads on the web in which I am the target. Who can help me?

Sir, I refer to Robert Cookson’s “Web publishers in arms race with adblockers” March 30.

Clearly picking up information about what we are up to on the Internet, and screening us for what we might like, in order to reach us for with some advertising, is big big business. And stopping that from happening seems also to be big big businesses… and now we read that sometimes those two big big interests even collude to get the most out of us.

But what about us, the targets? Is there no way we can participate in those revenues? Anyone who figures that out could have a very interesting business model in his hands.

For instance: “I want to prohibit any ad blocker to block any ad in which I am the target and in which I do not get a share of the ad-revenues… let’s say 50 percent”. Who can help me with that? I am willing to pay 20 percent out of my revenues for that service… in order to retain a quite modest 40% of my value as a target.

PS. Sir, between us, to block any ads targeted at me, without my explicit authorization, sounds like something quite criminal to me.

@PerKurowski

I’ll sue Facebook if it makes me sad

From Mr Per Kurowski.

Sir, I refer to John Gapper’s article “We are the product that Facebook has been testing” (July 2), about the research Facebook has been carrying out on whether our feelings can be influenced. I find that research to be absolutely great news!

Now Facebook, without us having to spend one penny on it, has with its own money conducted the research that proves conclusively that it needs to be controlled. And, to top it all off, it already confessed the motives and intentions of what it was up to. And what’s more, it did so, as Mr Gapper says, without really seeking anyone’s consent. Had it done so, its confessions would not have been half as useful.

But since that research might also open a window in how Facebook could branch out in the future by offering one Happy-Facebook, one Sad-Facebook and one Slightly-dull-neutral-Facebook, let me hereby formally notify Facebook that I want to be happy, and if it makes me sad I will sue it into oblivion!

By the way, at what point could Facebook be labelled a stalker?

Published in FT

http://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2012/06/we-might-need-global-web-constitution.html