Society through Facets

In order to provide a real life experience Hibe uses facets and booklets. The post below and the following one provide a sneak peek on the mechanisms behind them. Next release of the platform, due this summer, will include an implementation of the discussed functionality.

Facets are our online Social Contexts

Facets are the digital counterparts of our social contexts.

They stand as subsets of our social life. For example, Sandra in Figure 1 displays three facets:  at the beach, at the music practice and at work.

Each facet comprises the following parts.

1. A profile, our physical representation within a context
2. An identity, the elements that define us in that context
3. A privacy engine, the norms of distribution we set for that context
4. A network, the people in a context and the rules between them

Most importantly, facets give us the freedom to establish and maintain different relationships with different people online.

Facet Profile

The facet profile is the representation of our appearance in a specific context.  We manage it using three required components.

1. Name:  How do others know us in that facet?
2. Avatar: How do we want others to see us?
3. Facet: How do we name that facet?

We can add more profile information when editing it. In Jack's figure, he shows us three of his profiles.

It is normal to see others through a single profile: the one they want us to see.  If we have access to several profiles of a user, we will have the ability to browse through them.

Facet Identity

In life, we chose to present and express ourselves differently in each of our social contexts. We display different values, and discuss different topics depending on the situation we are in and the people we talk to.  The facet identity is meant to duplicate this form of adaptation in our online interactions.  It comprises the following elements.

1. Our booklets, digital representations of our relations with the various elements that define us in a facet. We use booklets to discuss and share information.
2. Our notes, small messages we exchange with each other and comment on.
3. Our association to groups and contacts, the facet's social environment.

Based on the Jack Smith figure, Jack might be a different person in each of his facets.

• In his Fun Time, Jacky is a hockey fan and enjoy old sci-fi movies. He also enjoys playing tennis and golf, although his score tracking shows him more as a talker than a ball hitter.
• Dr. Smith is a professional specialized in biochemistry. He has written several papers on the subject and he actively participates in industry events and research groups. He uses this facet to share his research and his opinions in that field.
• Jack Lee Smith is happily married to Brenda for 13 years. They have one daughter, Sandra, and one son, Tim. As a family, they enjoy vacationing every year in Europe. Jack uses primarily this facet to share his family life.

Facet Privacy Engine

Offline, we control the boundaries of our social contexts. Since our birth, we are trained to manage what we talk about, to whom and under which conditions.  Why?  Sociologists found several reasons including:

• Fear of reprimands / embarrassment

We all have stories about ourselves that are not flattering. Don’t deny it.  There are moments when we prefer these stories to remain untold.

• Negotiation

Keeping aces in the sleeves is useful. If companies learn too much about us, we are losing bargaining power.  Let’s keep them fighting to get our dollars. We’ll have better deals.

• Expectation (Norms of appropriateness)

With doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, expectations guide our interactions.   Sometimes the situation itself creates expectations; such is the case when a death, a birth, a wedding or a birthday occurs.

• Image management

Various circumstances such as courting and job interviews motivate us to pay attention to how others perceive us within a context.  It is in our best interest to manage adequately our image to achieve certain goals.

• Relevance

Have you ever been to a hockey party where one started to talk about how the outer nuclear membrane of a cell is continuous with the membrane of the rough endoplasmic reticulum.  Half the people began to snore within fifteen minutes.

A conversation, as valid it can be, may be completely irrelevant in one situation, while being of a great interest in another one.

We use the privacy engine to manage who can see what and under which circumstances. It enables us to:

• avoid reprimands and embarrassments,
• protect our bargaining power,
• respond to expectations,
• manage our image,
• remain relevant in an online social context

Using the privacy engine to grant access to a facet does not automatically mean others will receive our feed of activities in their accounts. It means others can find us, can view our facet identity, and can comment on our posts.  For a full feed exchange, our contacts must consent to it by also placing us in one of their facets.

Each facet can be public, private, or conditional (i.e. it can be accessed according to predefined conditions.)

Public Facet:  A public facet reflects how we want to show ourselves on the world’s largest plaza. Everybody with an Internet connection can access it including search engines.   Note: Interacting with a public facet does not automatically make ourselves, our content or our contacts public.

Private Facet:  A private facet represents a closed social context such as our friends and our family.

We select who can interact with us in that facet. We give such privilege by associating contacts to the facet.  There are three ways to do so:

A – By using Hibe's Invite feature.  Using email addresses, our contacts are notified that we enabled them to interact with us through a Hibe facet.

B – By responding to notification. As part of an invitation, we have the option to respond by adding the user to one of our facets.

C – By directly adding the contact to a facet. This can only happen if we have access to one of that contact’s facets.

As we see in the above screenshot, it is possible to include a contact in several facets in which case the default facet indicates which profile that contact sees when looking at us. In the example above, Felix knows the user as “John”, not “Mr John”.  In this case, Felix interacts with John through the combined identities of his Friends and the Co-workers facets.

Private facets provide us with firm control of our information. Through them, we can easily share sensible information with specific people such as our doctor or our notary.

Conditional Facet:  In life, we adapt our social behavior based on our surroundings. It enables us to maintain our privacy while building expectations for those who want to interact with us. Conditional faceting helps us achieve the same online.

We can specify a set of conditions that enables Hibe’s engine to decide contextually who may or may not access our facet.  We can build these rules using:

• Booklet and Contact relations
• Location
• Facets accessibility
• Group membership

Here are a few examples to illustrate the power of conditional facets.

• Only those who work at my company may review my work projects;
• Greenpeace members can view my environmentalist opinions, but only if he is not my boss or one of his contacts;
• My “Saturday evening” facet can be accessed only if you are not part of my “Family”;
• Only Porsche owners or the Porsche company can read my lifelong obsession with sport cars;
• Only the people from my community can see my lobby efforts for cleaner parks;
• As a company, only the owners of one of our products will access our support facet.

Facet Network

A real social context contains a network of contacts that in turn can be present in other contexts. Such is life.  However, when I talk to my father, I expect our conversation to remain in our family even if he knows a lot more people.

Hibe built a networking engine that replicates those expectations by default.  To illustrate contexts, here is an example of an interaction diagram in a typical relationship where all facets are private.

When Alex posts a photo in a booklet shared through his Party facet, a post appears on Bob’s feed where it is seen only by Bob, Alex and Matt because they are part of Alex’s Party network.

A facet network diverges greatly from the unnatural “friends’ friends” network where our information is exposed to complete strangers. Here we constantly control who sees our information.

Facets as a revenue model

Hibe has a revenue model based on the services it provides to members. This dedication enables it to focus on developing value-added features for users, not for third party advertisers.

By steering away from advertising, Hibe avoids an intrusive invisible audience in the platform, greatly enhancing the privacy of our users' information.

Hibe adopts the freemium model where members can use the platform with a limited number of facets without any charges. Additional facets and advanced features will be available for subscribers at a nominal fee. Do not hesitate to contact us, if you have any suggestions.