My Digital FootPrint

Image from Greenpeace 31 March 2010  Greenpeace criticises coal-fuelled internet cloud o n the day the iPad goes live and the web is awash with articles following yesterdays views based on the Greenpeace report that t he 'cloud' of data which is becoming the heart of the internet is creating an all-too-real cloud of pollution as Facebook, Apple and others build data centers powered by coal. “If considered as a country, global telecommunications and data centres behind cloud computing would have ranked fifth in the world for energy use in 2007, behind the United States, China, Russia and Japan” Greenpeace have said. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/ipad-cloud-climate-change-290310 http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/make-it-green-cloud-computing "The last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power," said Greenpeace, which argues that web companies should be mor...

The Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £10 million in new research projects that will help accelerate the development and deployment of more secure and trustworthy information systems within Digital Britain and the wider global economy. Brief http://www.innovateuk.org/content/competition/trusted-services-competition.ashx To register http://engage.innovateuk.org/technologystrategyboardlz//EventMgr_ShowEvent1.aspx?eID=12 Press release http://www.innovateuk.org/content/news/british-companies-challenged-to-develop-technology.ashx The competition is to encourage innovative British companies to develop tools, techniques and services that will target the increasing risks that consumers, businesses and public sector organisations face, while also providing significant market opportunities to build a strong capability base in the UK. The £10m to be invested in the R&D includes £2m from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and £300,000 from the Economic an...

Image from   My comments on the blog post from Michael Arrington of TechCrunch I am comment 248 in a long line or rant and raves at TechCrunch, in true Arrington style he asserted that individual opinions are so wide spread that you cannot control or mange your online reputation and ultimately the public will grow immune to any indiscretions.    From what I read the post and the comments miss some critically important points: the web is a live feedback model – what is described in the original post and many of the comments hark back to the old linear print model, simple in and out. The web is feedback, hone, improve, context and build. reputation is not just about “PC, in whatever form it is” generated data, it is about unique mobile data, PC and TV data and mobile data that adds to your reputation is way more important than some small blog about that party lsat week …..     PC crew, get over it, mobile is the new black Reput...

Image from   My comments on the blog post from Michael Arrington of TechCrunch I am comment 248 in a long line or rant and raves at TechCrunch, in true Arrington style he asserted that individual opinions are so wide spread that you cannot control or mange your online reputation and ultimately the public will grow immune to any indiscretions.    From what I read the post and the comments miss some critically important points: the web is a live feedback model – what is described in the original post and many of the comments hark back to the old linear print model, simple in and out. The web is feedback, hone, improve, context and build. reputation is not just about “PC, in whatever form it is” generated data, it is about unique mobile data, PC and TV data and mobile data that adds to your reputation is way more important than some small blog about that party lsat week …..     PC crew, get over it, mobile is the new black Reput...

Last night I spoke at mashup’s event on Digital Identity: the value of digital you with Nicky Hickman, Robin Wilton, Alan Moore and David Rennie My views from the session are that Digital Identity is still at the early stages of debate and discussion even though there is an increasing number of experts who deeply understand the issues, the overriding focus is still an argument about what “words” mean – the image gives some of the words that went round. Digital Identity is a complex issue crossing many boundaries and professional disciplines. We tend to have many persona, we are no longer owned by a Brand, we know many people with whom we have a different relationship with and know to different degrees and understanding, we don’t tend to reveal all to everyone, you cannot own your data, people are lazy and don’t do things even though they could, value depends on who the giver and receiver is. Identity is a negotiation and in reality we are the p...

I spoke at Olswangs’ event on digital identity – here is the link to the interview video footage http://www.knowledgepeers.com/networks/333/item.html?id=4130

Come and join in an open debate in London on Thursday evening from 18.00 at GSMA offices Our digital identity, digital reputation and digital footprint are creating value and wealth. As users we get some services for free but is this a fair barter for your data and privacy. Now that marketers can target you with pinpoint accuracy with the data and information you have shared, should we be demanding more. In the chapter of my book on implementation issues with “My Digital Footprint” I focussed on the bonds and bridges between risk, privacy and trust. On Thursday evening this week (25th March) at mashup* I will be chairing a public session which is addressing these implementation issues . The debate will focus on the value of the digital you, we will explore how data is being gathered [with and without your knowledge and the uniqueness that mobile brings], reality mining, how these behavioural and technological changes are affecting the marketing and privacy industries ...

New data released from analytics service Hitwise today names Facebook the largest website in the U.S. with 7.07% of all U.S. visits. Google is second at 7.03%. Yahoo Mail is third with 3.8% and Yahoo is fourth at 3.67% This is the first time Hitwise has named Facebook the top site in the U.S. Comscore still ranks Google the top site by reach at 81% of the U.S. population. Facebook, at 53%, is still behind Google, Yahoo and Microsoft sites in the U.S., according to the most recent Comscore data from February 2010. Source: Techcrunch So what: Facebook is user content about themselves and their own and friends activities. If value accrues to he who has data then Facebook is winning.  If value accrues to analysis of data then where is the Google?

New data released from analytics service Hitwise today names Facebook the largest website in the U.S. with 7.07% of all U.S. visits. Google is second at 7.03%. Yahoo Mail is third with 3.8% and Yahoo is fourth at 3.67% This is the first time Hitwise has named Facebook the top site in the U.S. Comscore still ranks Google the top site by reach at 81% of the U.S. population. Facebook, at 53%, is still behind Google, Yahoo and Microsoft sites in the U.S., according to the most recent Comscore data from February 2010. Source: Techcrunch So what: Facebook is user content about themselves and their own and friends activities. If value accrues to he who has data then Facebook is winning.  If value accrues to analysis of data then where is the Google?

March 5th 2010

As per my last post, the dark screen is where content goes when it moves from the lit screen, one you are reading from now, off the bottom.  Rather like my last post is now.  The majority of the web is dark screen and some of it is worth bringing back but most of it becomes our digital footprint.  It is there and can be analysed to create a reputation. Guy Kawasaki was kind enough to tweet about my book on Jan 19 th . “ @guykawasaki Who owns your digital data? www.mydigitalfootprint.com /by @tonyfish new book on the topic http://alturl.com/27vo #mdfp Here are several interesting facts.  It generated over 300 hits to the site within 10 sec and 10 minutes of his tweet. It would appear that re-tweets generated 100 hits from 10 minutes to 15 after the original post.   As many people who follow Guy also follow many others, Guy’s tweet lasts on their lit screen for a very short time.  Guy’s advise – re-tweet 3 times, if you ...

Dark Screen When writing my digital footprint I updated the Six screen’s of life work originally developed for mobile web 2.0 (extract on read/write web)    However, I have now realised that I missed one out. What is said in summary is that for the most part, we are consumers of content. In our daily lives we consume professionally created, produced and edited content from traditional and new media providers on our ‘si x screens of life’. These screens are divided into two broad categories, big screens and small screens, each with three subgroups as per figure 2. Figure 2 :  6 screens of life   Both for big and small screens, the user has traditionally been a passive receiver of content (content has been broadcast to the user) or the user has been seen as a member of a carefully controlled and managed audience (e.g. voting) – but not as a primary creator of content. For instance: both TV and cinema need users to consume (view); and a website needs users to consu...

image - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/09/ukcrime-facebook The response from Facebook to the tragic story of Ashleigh Hall today highlights a growing sense of unease about a digital world.  I am under no illusion that education and care play an important, if not critical, part in protecting those who will inherit our digital present.  In the opening to my book I said that a “digital footprint” is like marmite; some like it and some don’t.  Reading the responses to the Ashleigh Hall story, it is clear that this is a sane view. Facebook and other social network supporters are out in strength and waving the banners about benefits and this is contrasted with the stark reality from others who have been harmed and violated.  There is common ground about education and ensuring that you follow well published and sensible guide lines about your information and how to behave.   I am however worried about the view that somehow we should look...

image from the BBC Words are both a blessing and a curse; phrases are fashionable, colloquial and always misinterpreted.  Today at the dentist I was told I had a “communication” and that got me thinking about how we use the same word in different professions and how the same phrase communicates different things depending on location and intent.  My interest here is “Digital Footprint” and here are the most common interpretations I found today…. Digital Footprint is an term that helps educate our children about the dangers of being on-line; followed by the following advise; if in doubt don’t do it and if you do it will be found (probably the most popular use) Digital Footprint describes the data you leave in the Internet from your keyboard and mouse. Digital Footprint is the data you leave in the cloud from you all your interactions, creating and consuming, passive and active with all digital devices. Digital Footprints describe you...

  I was invited by Olswang to private viewing of Erasing David which is a documentary about privacy, surveillance and the database state. Made with The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation “David Bond lives in one of the most intrusive surveillance states in the world. He decides to find out how much private companies and the government know about him by putting himself under surveillance and attempting to disappear a decision that changes his life forever. Leaving his pregnant wife and young child behind, he is tracked across the database state on a chilling journey that forces him to contemplate the meaning of privacy and the loss of it.”   The plot is about David, who tries to run away and hide and in the process discovers how his data can be tracked and presents his story. The film will be in cinemas on 29 th April 2010, and screened on the UK’s Channel 4 Television on 4th May 2010.   From my perspective it is a dark side story line about privacy, survei...

Just in case you missed this the BBC programs - worth spending the time as it will make you think.  Virtual Revolution – Cost of Free You pay with your data…….

Education of our children about their digital footprint is important. There are numerous good sources of data and advise out there – This one is US biased this one as it presents case studies, I like the video/ slide show – simple and sweet.

Tending to Your Digital Remains is a dead interesting post on a topic I have asked the same question about – what happens when you die. First you need to make sure you hand on the keys (passwords) At least three companies — AssetLock.net , Legacy Locker , and the charmingly named Deathswitch.com — have arisen to keep customers’ passwords, usernames, final messages, and so on in a virtual safe-deposit box. After you’re gone, these companies carry out last wishes, alert friends, give account access to various designated beneficiaries, and generally parse out and pass on your online assets. Digital remains that are not bequeathed to an inheritor are incinerated, closing the book on PayPal accounts, profiles, even alternate identities ( especially alternate identities: You don’t want your mother knowing about, or worse, playing, the wife-swapping giant badger you became in Second Life). A second post on the same topic is Logging out after snuffing ou...

Tending to Your Digital Remains is a dead interesting post on a topic I have asked the same question about – what happens when you die. First you need to make sure you hand on the keys (passwords) At least three companies — AssetLock.net , Legacy Locker , and the charmingly named Deathswitch.com — have arisen to keep customers’ passwords, usernames, final messages, and so on in a virtual safe-deposit box. After you’re gone, these companies carry out last wishes, alert friends, give account access to various designated beneficiaries, and generally parse out and pass on your online assets. Digital remains that are not bequeathed to an inheritor are incinerated, closing the book on PayPal accounts, profiles, even alternate identities ( especially alternate identities: You don’t want your mother knowing about, or worse, playing, the wife-swapping giant badger you became in Second Life). A second post on the same topic is Logging out after snuffing ou...

Reality mining is according to MIT is “the collection of machine-sensed environmental data pertaining to human social behavior. This new paradigm of data mining makes possible the modeling of conversation context, proximity sensing, and temporospatial location throughout large communities of individuals. Mobile phones (and similarly innocuous devices) are used for data collection, opening social network analysis to new methods of empirical stochastic modeling.” We know that every time you search (text, image, video), you give Google some value, you give even more value when you click on a result.  From each search and click Google ‘learns’ and increases it knowledge and value.  Google doesn’t need you name or address to do this, but with Picasa facial recognition, oddly enough they do know what you and your family look like. However android opens up the opportunity to gain all the mobile operator data as well. Mobile operators know who you ar...