Hey! Over here…Yeah… F-r-a-n-c-e.

I’m a long-time fan of Bruce Schneier, widely known for his deep insights into the real world of computer security and publisher of the informative and readable newsletter Crypto-Gram.

His communication gifts extend well beyond the high-tech explanations, however, as can be witnessed in this wonderful essay on privacy and freedom, which puts into words why I am so much more frightened of Bush/Cheney than of Bin Laden.

The Value of Privacy

Last month, revelation of yet another NSA surveillance effort against the American people rekindled the privacy debate. Those in favor of these programs have trotted out the same rhetorical question we hear every time privacy advocates oppose ID checks, video cameras, massive databases, data mining, and other wholesale surveillance measures: “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?”

Some clever answers: “If I’m not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me.” “Because the government gets to define what’s wrong, and they keep changing the definition.” “Because you might do something wrong with my information.” My problem with quips like these — as right as they are — is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It’s not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.

Two proverbs say it best: “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” (”Who watches the watchers?”) and “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he famously said, “If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.” Watch someone long enough, and you’ll find something to arrest — or just blackmail — him with. Privacy is important because without it, surveillance information will be abused: to peep, to sell to marketers, and to spy on political enemies — whoever they happen to be at the time.

(Continued)

The User Interface Design Update Newsletter that just landed in my mail, reports:

“The news reported recently that a number of people wagered real
money (via the Internet) that June 6th (6-6-6) would be the end of the
world. Hmmm. If they had won that bet, one wonders how they
planned to collect.”

Good question. The punters were obviously not into game theory.

The authors add: “Human logic is a fragile thing.”

Hmm. But others have said that the lottery is a tax on human stupidity. Maybe they didn’t cast a wide enough net.

Made a rare contribution to the UTEST list, to recent thread on usability of real estate websites:

Precisely one year ago we launched our own real estate website as a joint venture, at the request of a friend who is a… real estate agent. As I follow this thread so far, I realize that our criteria for making our site ‘purposeful’, ‘usable’ and ‘useful’ were somewhat different than what is being evoked so far.

Our site sells Fine Properties, Chateaux and Vineyards (oh my!) in the southwest of France, which is really really a niche market. Maybe this fact disqualifies my comments, or qualifies them as an extreme subset, and if so, I apologize in advance.

• The site is in a language (english) that is different than the language usually spoken in this part of the world.
• The clientele is everything-but-French (mostly British, Dutch, Canadian, American, et al) and live far, far away.
• The selling proposition elicited by the properties on the site is not so much proximity to schools or malls or even price, but rather, as an American friend nicely described it, the mythos of the Meusli commercial (imagine londonian paysans under blazing mediterranean sun, scythes in hand, filling up Range Rovers with Nature’s bounty.)
• The total number of properties offered on the site at any given moment was rather small. Giving visitors the ability to search for “vineyards > 60% merlot in St. Emilion with chateau having at least 6 bedrooms, zoned for Bed & Breakfast” was not necessary.
• These types of transactions are complex sales, and it became apparent that the site’s main purpose had to be to establish contact between prospective buyer and seller’s agent so the the process of facilitation could begin. This seemingly shifts the focus away from the deep user experience that others have mentioned and is probably at the opposite end of the spectrum of for-sale-by-owner sites.

There is a long tradition of prospective buyers from northern countries coming down here with photo printouts of properties seen on a website, criss-crossing the countryside looking to identify a property with the idea of contacting the owner directly, bypassing the agent and consequently, the agent’s commission. Since this latter can equal the cost of a new Range Rover w/options, it is understandable. In any event, it makes for a great ‘theme’ vacation. At our partner’s request, some ‘cloaking’ was necessary; we refrained from nifty map mashups or anything in that tone.

With this as our brief, we compared dozens of websites, and quickly decided to get rid of much of the common functionality seen on classicly sophisticated (and I thought –still think– extremely painful-to-use) websites. What survived included:

- search on region
- easy drill down and up
- ample information and photos for each property, nicely presented.
- very easy contact
- some SEO wallpaper

That was pretty much it. The site has had a successful first year.

I can’t imagine that UTEST guidelines allow for giving the URL, so I’m spared the terrorizing thought of hoards of UTESTers visiting it and tearing it to bits. If anyone is interested, though, please send me an email.

Bonne année,

Denny Adelman
Albi, France