My Digital FootPrint

  Image source: globalimaging.com/images/modis-atmos.jpg     I have written nearly 30 posts about Algorithms as they are the foundation of your computing interactions and you are influenced by them. The data that you leave (willingly or not), is your digital footprint and is the basis of what an algorithm knows about you and how you can be modelled to a known data set. Data about you generated by others helps refine and confirm how well I have been able to model you and your preferences. An algorithm is, according to Wikipedia, is a step-by-step procedure for calculations. Algorithms are used for  calculation ,  data processing , and  automated reasoning .   A starting point is Dan Ariely’s work, ( Truth , Predictably Irrational , Behaviour , Desire Engines ) – from this direction you will conclude that we are creatures of habit and habits can be modelled and coded into an algorithm.  Therefore you are not as irrational as you think...

Are you more honest than a banker? Under what circumstances would you lie, or cheat, and what effect does your deception have on society at large? Dan Ariely, one of the world's leading voices on human motivation and behaviour is the latest big thinker to get the RSA Animate treatment.  Taken from a lecture given at the RSA in July 2012 . Watch the longer talk here 

John Maeda, President of the Rhode Island School of Design, delivers a funny and charming talk that spans a lifetime of work in art, design and technology, concluding with a picture of creative leadership in the future. Watch for demos of Maeda’s earliest work -- and even a computer made of people.

So here is an observation…. If you are unique and your data is unique and I can prove you are you from your data, does that equal success? What more will social verification give, validation that your image and your name have a relationship? Will success be when the only person who can be you is you?

ID Guard Stamp Obscures Private Information on Mail and Printed Documents http://www.containerstore.com/shop/giftWrapWonderland/stockingStuffers?productId=10028938&N=62523+1000040

Who hasn’t sent a text message saying “I’m on my way” when it wasn’t true or fudged the truth a touch in their online dating profile? But Jeff Hancock doesn’t believe that the anonymity of the internet encourages dishonesty. In fact, he says the searchability and permanence of information online may even keep us honest. Jeff Hancock studies how we interact by email, text message and social media blips, seeking to understand how technology mediates communication.

Boston consulting group the value-of-our-digital-identity from Fred Zimny

The BBC has a long term program called the moral maze hosted with Michael Buerk.  This was a good one exploring the issues of social media. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ntgw5/Moral_Maze_The_Moral_Code_of_Social_Media/ However, as we begin to employ more computer-controlled objects, cars, robots, and machines that need to operate autonomously in our real-time chaotic environment, situations will inevitably arise in which the software has to choose between a set of tragic, unpleasant, bad, even horrible, alternatives. Example 1. You’re driving along in your car which has an insurance protection system on and can see that a n uninsured poor driver is about to break a red light in front of you that will lead to a crash.  The automatic system takes over and you come to a sudden halt, however the person behind you now takes evasive action, swerves to avoid you and hits the same uninsured driver killing the person instead of you. Example 2. Your self-driving car cros...

What can we do to make data more human in 2013? Executives need to understand and experience data ownership.   We generate data but we cannot visualise it.  Why not provide tools to visualize and explore data, and show the worth and utility of the information that you can derive.  Could make for an interesting board meeting. Executive lead transparent, open and balanced conversations about data and ethics.   I start with asking questions that help form models for thinking about data and how leadership teams come to their own opinions on data, based on personal experience and therefore have different perspectives about data.  Differences and gaps in thinking leads to friction about how to treat their own personal data, how to treat customer data and gaps between company branding messaging and expectations.  These gaps can lead to frictions which mean teams cannot move forward with a common approach on how to treat customer data. Here are previous blog that b...

Euro Security Experts Deem 'Right to be Forgotten' Impossible by  Justin Brookman December 4, 2012 Full version is here and worth reading: https://www.cdt.org/blogs/0412euro-security-experts-deem-right-be-forgotten-impossible ENISA comes to the same conclusion that we have: that a universal Right to be Forgotten is technically impossible on an open internet. It is simply not feasible to track down and erase all copies of factual information that had previously been made public. This is a welcome development, and hopefully will serve as a reality check against  magical thinking  that the Right to be Forgotten can easily be shoehorned onto the internet. ….. The Right to Erase Instead of a broad and impractical power to erase all iterations of controversial information, we’ve proposed instead that the Right to be Forgotten be reformulated as a more limited Right to Erase — if you choose to host or store data with a particular service provider (such as a cl...

The Digital Universe is an EMC-sponsored study by IDC, measuring and characterizing all the digital data created, replicated, and consumed worldwide in a single year. The 2012 report projects the growth of the Digital Universe through 2020. http://www.emc.com/leadership/digital-universe/iview/index.htm or a summary is here http://chucksblog.emc.com/chucks_blog/2012/12/charting-the-digital-universe-idcs-6th-annual-study.html

Source: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/12/kidsapp.shtm Kids' Data Still Collected, Shared without Parents' Knowledge, Consent The Federal Trade Commission issued a new staff report, “ Mobile Apps for Kids: Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade ,”   examining the privacy disclosures and practices of apps offered for children in the Google Play and Apple App stores.  The report details the results of the FTC’s second survey of kids’ mobile apps.  Since  FTC staff’s first survey of kids’ mobile apps in 2011 , staff found little progress toward giving parents the information they need to determine what data is being collected from their children, how it is being shared, or who will have access to it.  The report also finds that many of the apps surveyed included interactive features, such as connecting to social media, and sent information from the mobile device to ad networks, analytics companies, or other thir...

Source : http://chucksblog.emc.com/chucks_blog/2012/12/why-there-shouldnt-be-a-single-version-of-the-truth.html An interesting post from a long line of good posts from Chuck – and it hits home about leadership, management, learning and creation.  However, most companies are discovering that they need both old and new methods at the same time as old supports the cow (efficiency and effectiveness drivers) and new the stars (agile, flexible, bets efforts) . The bottom line is that CEO’s need new skills in how to manage both at the same time.

Source : http://chucksblog.emc.com/chucks_blog/2012/12/why-there-shouldnt-be-a-single-version-of-the-truth.html An interesting post from a long line of good posts from Chuck – and it hits home about leadership, management, learning and creation. However, most companies are discovering that they need both old and new methods at the same time as old supports the cow (efficiency and effectiveness drivers) and new the stars (agile, flexible, bets efforts) . The bottom line is that CEO’s need new skills in how to manage both at the same time.

Source : http://www.privacysurgeon.org/blog/incision/people-arent-conflicted-about-privacy-they-just-appear-that-way/ This is a cut and paste of the intro - you need to read the full article on Simon’s blog People often ask me to explain why privacy seems such a incongruous concept. Why is it that people who proclaim to love privacy will sometimes cheerfully give it away? Why do some people who oppose ID cards because they are instruments of government intrusion, contemporaneously support national security powers that are an embodiment of government intrusion? I’ll make an attempt to explain – and please forgive me if this starts off a little simplistically. It’s a surprisingly complex question and I want to tread cautiously. The family is an ideal microcosm to begin exploring the dynamics. Imagine the family unit as a miniature nation state. The parents have a protective role, and the children – while dependant – assert certain rights and freedoms. T...

Source: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/code-eu-online-rights As part of the Digital Agenda for Europe actions, the Code of EU online rights compiles the basic set of rights existing in EU legislation and related to the digital environment. The objective of the Code is to find simple explanations of their legal rights and obligations, set out in a transparent and understandable way. As foreseen in the Digital Agenda for Europe, this list of online rights and principles will be an important tool for inspiring trust and confidence among consumers and contribute to promote greater use of online services. These basic rights protect citizens and consumers for instance when using online services, buying goods online, and in case of conflict with their providers of these services. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-agenda/files/Code%20EU%20online%20rights%20EN%20final%202.pdf Personal Comment : just concerns me about who is managing the balance between real benefit for ...

By the end of this talk, there will be 864 more hours of video on YouTube and 2.5 million more photos on Facebook and Instagram. So how do we sort through the deluge? At the TEDSalon in London, Markham Nolan shares the investigative techniques he and his team use to verify information in real-time, to let you know if that Statue of Liberty image has been doctored or if that video leaked from Syria is legitimate. The managing editor of Storyful.com, Markham Nolan has watched journalism evolve from the pursuit of finding facts to the act of verifying those floating in the ether

Sources: http://www.economistgroup.com/leanback/new-business-models/moving-from-mobile-first-to-touch-first/ http://www.mckinsey.com/client_service/high_tech/iconsumer “We’re seeing fundamental changes in the way people are interacting with digital media” McKinsey and Company’s research into how consumer digital behavior is changing across platforms, activities and geographies The emergence of the smartphone and tablet computing experience — it is changing where and how computing devices are used. Smaller format screens don’t just mean changing column widths, they mean rethinking the business model. Companies need to have a “mobile first” mindset when developing new content. In the early years of web browsers, there was so much angst about whether print media was doomed that newspapers didn’t know whether to dive into digital editions. Although business models are still evolving, all publishing titles have some form of website now. B...

   Source:   http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/../../tony-fish/does-agile-methodology-gives-it-entrepreneurs-an-edge_b_2321892.html "Agile" is, in essence, a method of software development based on iterative and incremental improvements. Requirements and solutions evolve over time through collaboration. At its best, “Agile” is actually an attitude, an understanding, a way of life, a philosophy.   Entrepreneurs can turn great ideas into even greater businesses with a good understanding of this iteration driven philosophy, however when combined with latest management thinking – the combination is explosive! purpose over profit…. Harvard Business Review has been exploring a change in business drivers over the past 18 months. It is a move from an organisation focus on profit to a focus on purpose .  This may sound artificial at some levels, but it is deeply important. A profit focus often drives management teams down a dark...

Whilst the obvious answer is in a good business, good idea and a good team; this blog explores that this is an obvious trap. The simple answer to where to invest is follow the team and whilst this is the stable advise from any venture and PE house, should and does the same apply for those looking at using their hard earned money to invest in emergent, early or growth businesses using a crowd funding platform? The pragmatic approach is YES. So what next after you have filtered through CrowdCube, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Fundable, Crowdfunder, EarlyShares, SeedInvest, GetFunded, WeFunder and RelayFund for starters (yes I know this is a mix of equity and other funding models) This is where it is time to think differently. As in the diagram below I want you to image three circles which overlap and are labeled good Idea, good business and bad idea. Let’s jump straight past the notion that you will invest in a bad business (whatever one on those is) and that you, like I, like anyone e...

Mary Meeker , a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers, has just published her latest huge deck of amazingly useful data, the “2012 Internet Trends Year-End Update.” http://kpcb.com/insights/2012-internet-trends-update full deck http://www.scribd.com/doc/115395317/2012-KPCB-Internet-Trends-Year-End-Update This is an update to a   http://www.kpcb.com/file/kpcb-internet-trends-2012  

Who hasn’t sent a text message saying “I’m on my way” when it wasn’t true or fudged the truth a touch in their online dating profile? But Jeff Hancock doesn’t believe that the anonymity of the internet encourages dishonesty. In fact, he says the searchability and permanence of information online may even keep us honest. Jeff Hancock studies how we interact by email, text message and social media blips, seeking to understand how technology mediates communication.

How do fast-paced video games affect the brain? Study that means that data provides insights that some in the media may not like

So this is the email from Facebook and above are the results on 5th December - however I expect that the vote is slow low that FB will ignore them facebook Facebook, Inc. and Facebook Ireland Ltd., which together operate the Facebook service worldwide, recently posted some proposed updates to our Data Use Policy and our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities for your review and feedback. Those updates provided more detailed information about our practices, reflected changes to our products, and modified how we conduct our site governance process. The period for submitting your comments has ended, but you can still provide feedback on those proposals by taking part in our site governance vote. To learn more about our proposed updates (which include additional clarifications based on your comments) and the vote, please visit our Site Governance Page . Voting will end on 10 December 2012 at 12 (PST) / 10 December 2012 at 20 (GMT). We encourage you to review and vote on the proposed v...