Persona Management Software destroys internet authenticity

August 20, 2012 | article by Ken Thompson in Virtual Communities (34)

The Guardian reports on the growth in "Persona Management Software" which individuals use to engage in web conversations using multiple identities on forums and social sites. The aim is to create the perception of a (fake) upswell in sentiment on a given topic (a practice is known as astroturfing). The most disturbing revelation is that the US Air Force have tendered for such software.

A real person using the internet. Unfortunately we can no longer assume what we are reading is written by one of these creatures.
Photograph: Jeff Blackler/Rex Features

The article reports that:

Companies now use "persona management software", which multiplies the efforts of each astroturfer, creating the impression that there's major support for what a corporation or government is trying to do. This software creates all the online furniture a real person would possess: a name, email accounts, web pages and social media. In other words, it automatically generates what look like authentic profiles, making it hard to tell the difference between a virtual robot and a real commentator.

Read The need to protect the internet from 'astroturfing

About Ken Thompson

Ken Thompson delivers keynote conference speeches, workshop facilitation and in-house consultancy in four key business areas:

Creating High Performing Teams in enterprises including Virtual and Mobile Teams (based on the Bioteams Book)
Establishing effective Collaborative Business Networks enabling companies to co-operate effectively in areas such as sales and product development (based on the book - The Networked Enterprise)
How to use the latest social media technologies including blogging and online communities to promote enterprises, brand, organisation or event
Development of graphical on-line interactive Business Dashboards and What-if Simulators for organisations to support Performance Improvement, Strategy Development and Executive Team Development.

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Bioteams Books Reviews

What teams can learn from wolves

May 12, 2006 | article by Ken Thompson in Book Reviews (37)

If you think that there is not much human teams can learn from nature think again! Temple Grandin in her amazing book Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (p303-307) puts forward the incredible theory that early humans only became today’s successful homo sapiens because they learned to act and think like the wolves they co-habited with.

Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK

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Click here to check all Bioteams book reviews

Related Virtual Communities Articles

Bioteams and The Effective Executive

September 6, 2010 | article by Ken Thompson in Bioteams Features (103), Virtual Communities (34), Virtual Teams (46)

There is a major Bioteams article in the October 2010 edition of The Effective Executive Magazine which drills down into Pheromone Messaging, Collective Leadership and Team Ecosystems. The publishers (ICFAI Publications) have kindly allowed me to make the article available to www.bioteams.com readers.

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The Stakeholder Collaboration Game

April 6, 2011 | article by Ken Thompson in Business Simulation (14), Virtual Communities (34), Virtual Teams (46)

One of the challenges for teams is that the achievement of some of their goals are not fully under their own control - they need to be achieved in partnership with, or even in spite of, external parties (stakeholders) who are working to their own agendas and priorities. The Stakeholder Collaboration Game allows teams to simulate increasingly complex scenarios involving multiple goals and multiple stakeholders.

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Games Teams Play

July 24, 2008 | article by Ken Thompson in Team Leadership Development (58), Virtual Communities (34), Virtual Teams (46)

In 1964 psychiatrist Dr. Eric Berne published a wonderful book Games people play in which he identified the different games people play, often unwittingly, in social situations based on his concept of transaction analysis. People in teams play games too including Freeloader, Pseudo-engager, Chase-me, Senior Partner, Inquisitor, Stop-Starter, Overcommunicator, Email Fixater and Attachmentitis.

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