My Digital FootPrint

It is insane that this book has such a low coverage and poor reviews. It is brilliant. The book explores the way algorithms interpret and influence our behaviour. The book forces you to re-assess what you think data says you are. We love the idea that data and the compute model follow our mental models for binary abstraction in defining who we are. The “I am male, female or prefer not to say,” is how we believe the systems see us. John explores why they don’t. In the system we are all part-everything based on the data and how you react to media, because of this the machine see you as your behaviour to what they can see and not what you think or believe. This delta between what you think you are and what the machine thinks you are is unknown and often not reachable. We can correct false data but not false interruption. John quotes lots of people and work we all know, but also many who are not on the usual circuit which makes the book far more informative as it brings in new thi...

Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe . The next post will be Surveillance Capitalism vs Zucked - this one is just a quick review of Roger's book. Further to reading the book worth listen to Roger on Sam Harris https://samharris.org/podcasts/152-trouble-facebook/ As background: Roger McNamee is a Silicon Valley investor for thirty-five years. He was a former mentor to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and helped recruit COO Sheryl Sandberg. What you will read is how the BigTech (esp Facebook) amplify tribalism, allow “bad actors” to “harm democracy” and as there is no accountability there is an ever “shirking civic responsibility.” The book is how we got to this point and not really one on how to answer the problem (will come back to this below). The key point which might be missed is that mafia of funding giants, such as the Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman and many others shape the culture of start-ups and models. Don't blame one person (company), the eco-system is not tak...

Follow Meredith Broussard on twitter @merbroussard https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithbroussard/ Highly recommended reading , and if interested also pick up  Weapons of Math Destruction  by Cathy O’Neill  How computers mis understand the world. A great and very accessible book on why understanding the inner workings and outer limits of technology help us appreciate that we should never assume that computers will always get it right. It explores the limits of artificial intelligence (AI) and techno-solutionism, furthermore showing how we can easily replicate existing structural inequalities which is not an achievement. --- This beautifully written book by Meredith Broussard argues that our collective enthusiasm for applying computer technology to every aspect of life has resulted in a tremendous amount of poorly designed systems. We are so eager to do everything digitally; hiring, driving, paying bills, even choosing romantic partners, that we have stopped dema...

Douglas Rushkoff ’s new book, Team Human Follow Douglas on Twitter  He has a FREE Book launch event at Civic Hall in New York City on Wednesday January 23 2019 Douglas kindly provided me with a pre-launch books and here is my review    SIMPLE - READ IT. Douglas spots a trend and writes a book about it. How do we put people back into the centre (tech). It has been a theme growing for a while but the sense is that it is now that we should refocus. I agree. Team Human is a manifesto, different to the policy ideals explored by say Paul Collier in The Future of Capitalism.  The structure is 100 (one hundred) essays or statements, where he argues that we are essentially social creatures, and that we achieve our greatest aspirations when we work together — not as individuals. Yet today society is threatened by a vast antihuman infrastructure that undermines our ability to connect. Money, once a means of exchange, is now a means of ex...

The Interaction-Design.org Foundation is a labour of love founded by Mads Soegaard in 2002, and in 2010, his wife, Rikke Dam, joined the project. Apart from Rikke and Mads, hundreds of people have helped out and continue to do so. We're on a mission to make free and open educational materials: There are so many great minds in the Human-Computer Interaction and Interaction Design community and we want to empower these authors to reach all their interested readers around the world. We believe these authors have the minds to change the world and deserve a publishing venue truly designed for the author and the reader, not the publisher and the profit. http://www.interaction-design.org/ http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/interaction_design.html

Martin Lindstrom is the author of  Brandwashed , his book is about helping consumers understand how companies are gathering data about their their online activity. This somewhat narrow definition of a consumer Digital Footprint is a way to understand how Brands are gathering what consumers are looking (data) at and working out how to direct individual offers (personalisation) to people based on their digital footprint (preferences) – my definition of a digital footprint is a lot wider [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ0ju7vPgHU]

The Filter Bubble : what the internet is hiding from you… So our web experience is somewhat customized by our browsing history, social graph and other factors. Should we care that this sort of information-tailoring takes place. Eli Pariser , founder of public policy advocacy group MoveOn.org , explores the topic in The Filter Bubble. Personally I have a load of issues with the whole concept that the internet is worse than what we already have . We all have filters, as irrespective of the amount of information; we filter, pick and choose things we like, align to self interest, motivate, warm to, find interesting, our background, our traumas and use friends, family, beliefs, faith to determine what we think and listen to. Least we forget the moment in time when this occurs, other distractions, stresses and items competing for our attention. The concept that the internet filters based on what we view as a filter is better or worse than picking a TV channel, news paper or magazin...

When at SIBOS in September with SWIFT/ Innotribe , there were a few of us authors types there…. so I traded My Digital Footprint with Hugh.  I got the better deal :) I have followed Hugh’s work for a long time as www.gapingvoid.com .  If you are not familiar with his work, do yourself a favour and take a few minutes to check out his website and the insights. The books explains where he came from and why he does what he does, what I like about Hugh’s style is the cut down of corporate and human insights.  Having read it and I gave my copy to a young entrepreneur at www.theIW.org (my incubator) who’s only word of feedback and description was “ massive ” My recommendation; top present from dads to screenagers!

Totally agree with the principal as I write about this all the time -  digital footprints are about what you say about yourself and what others say about you.  Have bought and will read when it comes out original review : http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/digital-assassination-protecting-your-reputation-brand-or-business-against-online-attacks In Digital Assassination, Mr. Torrenzano and Mr. Davis make it quite clear that protecting a digital reputation—your own, your business’s, a brand’s, or that of a long-lost relative—is a little like chasing after spilled water which seeps into every crack and crevice it finds. Mr. Torrenzano, a strategic communications consultant and New York Stock Exchange veteran, and Mr. Davis, a former White House speechwriter, bring their considerable knowledge and experience to bear on this new and very difficult area. What is “digital assassination?” The authors describe it as “a wil...

  Terence Craig ( @terencecraig ), co-author of " Privacy and Big Data ," A different perspective and not sure that the interview really focussed on Big Data other than it is a trendy term Original copy and interview from O’Reilly Your book argues that by focusing on how advertisers are using our data, we might be missing some of the bigger picture. What are we missing, specifically? o        Terence Craig:  One of the things I tell people is I really don't care if companies get more efficient at selling me soap. What I do care about is the amount of information that is being aggregated to sell me soap and what uses that data might be put toward in the future. o        One of the points that co-author  Mary Ludloff  and I tried to make in the book is that the reasons behind data collection have nothing to do with how that data will eventually be used. There's way too much attention bein...

Book by Douglas Rushkoff "ScreenAgers Lessons in Chaos from Digital Kids" and a word now famous thanks to Lady Gaga Not what I expected - somehow I thought the book was going to be about how kids interact with screens and how having been bought digital what their psychology was.  Well it was a lot about kids and trying to understand them, but was about their entire lifestyle and not just digital. He also offers a controversial view that attention is not about concentration on one thing (classical old thinking) but putting things together from dragging them together from many sources at the same time. The book describes the end of linearity, how the youth are not evolving but jumping (innovating) discovering what we are capable of, but are doing with chaos, more than searching, discovering, not breaking the rules but recreating them..... they are time rich and therefore have that one precious resource Given that evolution is loosely based on survival of the fittest - ...

http://www.peterhinssen.com/books/the-new-normal/   Good book - quick read for anyone who is already thinking digital.   The book, describes the idea of "The New Normal", a concept that states we are now halfway to somewhere which is a digital revolution. Although we have already gone through a lot of change, what lies ahead of us involves you and I; and our data. The past 25 years were about technology getting into the hands of consumers. The next 25 years will see those who engage get some value from the trade of personal data. Digital has become the New Normal, and this will have an enormous impact on the way companies organise data, their communications with customers and the way they have to be organised internally. Peter presents digital without limits, pointing out that organisations are increasingly faced with customers and consumers who no longer tolerate limitations in terms of pricing, timing, patience, depth, privacy, convenience, intelligence   A number of ...

Overconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet by William H. Davidow, January 2011. This books needs to be set in context of other books like The Shallows by  Nicholas Carr ,  Clay Shirky 's Cognitive Surplus, Kevin Kelly's  What Technology Wants and Delete by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger   as they tend to bias towards the way technology affects the way we think or have actually recreated how we think. Overconnected, is not about email, iPhones and the other distractions that seem to direct our modern lives. William Davidow is focussed on how strong connections, instead of idyllically solving problems, and what they mean. Being connected has certainly made us more efficient. But there's now the risk of reacting so quickly that we don't give the thought we might have given to our actions and reactions even twenty years ago. Strong connections, it is presented, have only magnified the problems, turning local proble...

I have just ordered http://www.amazon.com/How-Disappear-Digital-Footprint-without/dp/1599219778   I will read and blog..... From the world's preeminent people finder—an insider's guide to disappearing   How to Disappear   is the authoritative and comprehensive guide for people who seek to protect their privacy as well as for anyone who’s ever entertained the fantasy of disappearing—whether actually dropping out of sight or by eliminating the traceable evidence of their existence.   Written by the world’s leading experts on finding people and helping people avoid being found,   How to Disappear   covers everything from tools for disappearing to discovering and eliminating the nearly invisible tracks and clues we tend to leave wherever we go. Learn the three keys to disappearing, all about your electronic footprints, the dangers and opportunities of social networking sites, and how to disappear from a stalker.   Frank...

“How data analytics help to monetise the user base in telecoms, social networks media and advertising in a converged ecosystem” Ajit Jaokar, Brian Jacobs, Alan Moore and Jouko Ahvenainen http://socialmediamarketing.futuretext.com/ Before you read my review of this book, you need to know that I am not entirely without bias. I am the co-author with Ajit for “mobile web 2.0” and Open Gardens”.  I know Alan Moore and we have spend time working up ideas.  I know Jouko Ahvenainen from xtract and I am a major supporter of his company.  I don’t know Brian. I am about to publish “My Digital Footprint” http://www.mydigitalfootprint.com which has a high degree of correlation to many of the topics cover in this book, so I am very sympathetic to the focus and emphasis. This is an airplane book, easy to read and you can get through it in a round trip to Barcelona.   It is not a detailed read as it is about setting up a...

“How data analytics help to monetise the user base in telecoms, social networks media and advertising in a converged ecosystem” Ajit Jaokar, Brian Jacobs, Alan Moore and Jouko Ahvenainen http://socialmediamarketing.futuretext.com/ Before you read my review of this book, you need to know that I am not entirely without bias. I am the co-author with Ajit for “mobile web 2.0” and Open Gardens”.  I know Alan Moore and we have spend time working up ideas.  I know Jouko Ahvenainen from xtract and I am a major supporter of his company.  I don’t know Brian. I am about to publish “My Digital Footprint” http://www.mydigitalfootprint.com which has a high degree of correlation to many of the topics cover in this book, so I am very sympathetic to the focus and emphasis. This is an airplane book, easy to read and you can get through it in a round trip to Barcelona.   It is not a detailed read as it is about setting up a...

Review by Tony Fish, 2008 Overall a good book, but this is a speed read.  For me personally well balanced and good issues raised.  Downside too US centric, too much about the law and too little about the complex inter-relationships. Overall the book left me with a number of questions the most important one being “at what point does reporting on (shamming) the norm breakers make it acceptable that more people will break the norm, seeing the shame as tolerable to gain the benefit.” The basic premises (which I agree with which is why I read it) is that the Internet model provides a broadcast, available and permanent record.  The ability to forget, forgive, ignore, wash away, remove or bury has gone.  Throughout the book I picked up five core themes             Change (why this is an important topic) Judgements (where and how is reputation created)         ...

Review by Tony Fish, 2008 The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain, cyberlaw Professor at Oxford is a difficult book to read and not for the faith hearted, on the same lines as ‘The wealth of Networks’ by Yochai Benkler. Personally, a very well written book and as with other books written by top rating academics, every sentence is well balanced and has a thought linked to it.  This is no speed read. However, overall the book left me rather numb, as it is a heavy read, and there is not one single impression you walk away with.  The best one liner summary I can give is “leave the internet alone and it will continue to develop faster than those trying to stop it.” Zittrain develops an argument to protect the “generativity” of the Internet but warns of its own powers and the anxieties of regulators to step in, believing they have seen it all before. The book has three parts. The first part is a historically...