Fact: Karen Owen screwed up.  Big.  But here’s a question, where did she screw up?  Some will say she should’ve never created the Powerpoint.  Some say she should’ve never sent out the finished product to her so-called friends.  Some will go so far as to say that she should’ve never had sex with all of those athletes.  Whatever your opinion, I maintain that Karen Owen is an allegedly educated adult who has the same right to free speech as the rest of us do.  Now, whether the Powerpoint contains libelous or slanderous information is a matter of opinion.  I suppose it’s a matter of public opinion now.

Since everyone seems to be giving their opinion now, I’d like to put mine out there.  I’d never tell anyone who is interested to forgo sex, so more power to you, Karen.  Kudos to her again for documenting the best of her college years with one of Microsoft’s finest creative products.  Here’s where she screwed up: distribution.

When you put that kind of time and effort into something, you want to show it off to people.  Given the nature of the content, it might be a slightly smaller group than your holiday card list.  So, what should you do to get the word out…quietly?  Welcome to The Fridge.

You can go to The Fridge (http://www.frid.ge) and create simple single serving social networks when you want the functionality of Facebook without being on Facebook.  The best thing about The Fridge?  You have total control.  If you’re not invited to a specific Fridge, you won’t even know it exists.  This is truly the place to come to share with only your friends.  Not just select Facebook lists.  When starting a Fridge you’ll be able to invite your friends by providing them with a unique URL which can be reset in the event that it falls into the wrong hands.  Your friends will also have the option to decline the invitation, not just opt-out like some other social networks.  Ahem, Facebook, cough cough.

Had Karen simply shared her Powerpoint on The Fridge with something like a protected Scribd presentation, she might not be where she is now.  That could be viewed as a positive or a negative; she’s got a book deal now.

Don’t want your information broadcast all over the internet?  Visit The Fridge and start a few, you’ll see how easy it is to get addicted to the private nature of the groups.  You’ll see what I mean.  Also, I’m inviting you all to join my fridge “If I Were Karen Owen…” (http://bit.ly/If-I-Were-K-O). Here you’ll see how I would’ve distributed the presentation to my friends.  No copying and pasting, no forwarding and no downloading.  Sure, someone could go through and take screen shots of every slide and then redistribute…but my friends aren’t lame enough to have that kind of time.  Are yours?

Oh, one more thing…when you sign up on The Fridge you’ll see that we grab one of your Facebook photos to get your profile started.  Yeah, we grabbed it.  Anyone can grab most of your information stored on Facebook…friend or not and regardless of your beloved privacy settings.  We just did.