My Digital FootPrint

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...

There is a great article here about Gerrit Visser who has been digitally curating content since “just after the internet was invented” in 1996. Quoting “I think the curator (not the strategist) will have four main roles: Searching, filtering and selecting content  to become a taste-maker for the target audience. Providing curatorial leadership  to help other workers within an organization understand what makes valuable content for the brand — so they can be enlisted to create and maintain content based on these evolving criteria. Spotting trends, and feeding these to the strategists  who will use them to help define future direction. Distributing  — identifying channels and fine-tuning them.” Looks a lot like what I try to achieve here at blog/My Digital Footprint and I massively depend on recommendations and comments from others …..

Here is the thinking, which has wider implications than a small change at Google…. If you took a complex algorithm and asked a 15 year old, a 30 year old and a 65 year old; both male and female, from different countries, using different computing languages and compliers to cut some code: will you get the same output from the same test datasets using the different implementations of the algorithm? – Probably not! So changing the algorithm is one thing; changing compliers (and who coded that), language and the age, sex, experience (life and skills) of the coders is another……but we depend on them. Yes there are tools to help ensure maintainability, supportability, scalability, performance and conformity but we do have a massive and increasing reliance on the coders ethics and lack of bias in the way the interrupt an algorithm……just wondering who is thinking about this as well. Why this is important to digital footprints. Someone you don’t know...

Background Trust and Brands are interwoven like the double helix of DNA. A Brand is much more than the image, logo, name, awareness, experience, campaign, product or trademark. Whilst all of the above (and more) are essential components of a brand, the brand itself is the meeting of an ‘intention’ and a ‘promise’, a confluence that involves Trust. A recent Interbrand survey valued Coca-Cola at US$73 billion, Microsoft at US$70 billion and IBM at US$53 billion. Underpinning that value lies the experience the brand provides to it’s customers. The consumer experience comprises many things. Today, the iPhone is a textbook case of a brand leveraging a consistent customer experience for it’s customers. The iPhone, and many other leading brands, provide both the experience and the Identity for the customer. My favourite example of a brand with timeless trust is  Patek Philippe . The watch is called a ‘chronograph’. There are no prices o...

This TED talk  by Julian Treasure  - 5 ways to listen better. He has several versions on the same topic and theme http://www.juliantreasure.com/Julian_Treasure/Home.html  The reason for putting it here on a blog about digital footprints is that listening is part of our digital footprint...and sensors are trying to do what Julian describes for us to help in that filter.

  This is driven by a thought - is there a flaw in personalisation? Most TV service providers now recognise that there is a need to incorporate recommendation as part of their content discovery mix - according to TV Genius . Depending on the provider, this can be a matter of personalising the video-on-demand store, promoting premium TV channels, or driving viewers to video-on-demand services from within the traditional EPG. All of these solutions have appeal to different demographic groups, but recent research they have conducted shows that a much broader content discovery solution is required.  After all, not every user has the same exact content discovery needs; while some viewers know exactly what they want, others are simply browsing for something new to watch.   So segmentation could look like ..... with each group having very different content discovery behaviours. 1. Socialites: Influenced by friends and family, channel surfing, and web and mobile 2. Progressives:...

"do as I say don't do as I do" from the Genesis Song "Jesus he knows me" We tend to have different accounts. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Filckr, YouTube, Gropon, Blogger, Disqus and Twitter to name a few and we cannot forget Gmail, Hotmail, and a splatter of Skype and IM.  Each one created at a unique point in time, with a profile and either to test or to engage. Each service and hence each account has a different audience and with each, you * probably * presented a different persona or in some cases names.  Personally I use different accounts to filter spam and junk and to see who sells my data. I am trying to bring all my lists together and consolidate one list of contacts (currently 11,739) in the hope that in my brave new world I will have one list no longer in silos:  Facebook, Twitter, email contacts but will have one contact and all of their content, views, contacts as one digital person. But like me others have persona and deta...

"do as I say don't do as I do" from the Genesis Song "Jesus he knows me" We tend to have different accounts. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Filckr, YouTube, Gropon, Blogger, Disqus and Twitter to name a few and we cannot forget Gmail, Hotmail, and a splatter of Skype and IM.  Each one created at a unique point in time, with a profile and either to test or to engage. Each service and hence each account has a different audience and with each, you * probably * presented a different persona or in some cases names.  Personally I use different accounts to filter spam and junk and to see who sells my data. I am trying to bring all my lists together and consolidate one list of contacts (currently 11,739) in the hope that in my brave new world I will have one list no longer in silos:  Facebook, Twitter, email contacts but will have one contact and all of their content, views, contacts as one digital person. But like me others have persona and deta...

"do as I say don't do as I do" from the Genesis Song "Jesus he knows me" We tend to have different accounts. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Filckr, YouTube, Gropon, Blogger, Disqus and Twitter to name a few and we cannot forget Gmail, Hotmail, and a splatter of Skype and IM.  Each one created at a unique point in time, with a profile and either to test or to engage. Each service and hence each account has a different audience and with each, you * probably * presented a different persona or in some cases names.  Personally I use different accounts to filter spam and junk and to see who sells my data. I am trying to bring all my lists together and consolidate one list of contacts (currently 11,739) in the hope that in my brave new world I will have one list no longer in silos:  Facebook, Twitter, email contacts but will have one contact and all of their content, views, contacts as one digital person. But like me others have persona and deta...

I wrote that Social filtering is deeply human at the beginning of November and I knew that there was more to the topic/ theme/ thought then but I could not articulate it. Since then I have been juggling with various ideas, these have often been driven by my necessity to justify Twitter. Twitter, get it or not, provides a function called “follow” – you can follow who you like, and you get updates/ insight/ information/ attention from them. However, can you turn “follow” into value and is following your social filter based on those you trust. Follow has an obvious value to the person who follows the leader. You gain free insights/ selection/ value/ updates/. This social filter is based on trust and it is different from curators and editors who have specific agenda’s and income/ profit requirements. In the original post I quoted David Armano   “Often times the quality of links and information I get on Twitter is better than what I would have gotten from Googl...

I wrote that Social filtering is deeply human at the beginning of November and I knew that there was more to the topic/ theme/ thought then but I could not find the words.  Since then I have been juggling with various ideas, these have often been driven by my necessity to justify Twitter.  Twitter (get it or not) provides a function called “follow” – you can follow who you like, and you get updates/ insite/ information/ attention from them, however, how do you turn “follow” into value. Follow has an obvious value to the person who follows the leader.  You gain free insights/ social filtering/ value/ updates.  This “Social filter” is based on trust and it is different from curators and editors who have specific agenda’s (and income requirements.) In the original post I quoted David Armano   “Often times the quality of links and information I get on Twitter is better than what I would have gotten from Google because the knowledge of the human feed is deep, ni...

  Social Filtering is Human - not brands, not curators, not search, not editors   In my book I write that there is limited value in the collection of data (it will be a commodity game), I contend that storage of data is just a cost and a liability, value will be derived from analysis and being about to control the feedback loop.  Analysis, I proposed, was algorithms – deeply complex bits of code that could draw out meaningful views from all the data. 15 months on from writing I am left thinking that one aspect of the algorithm – (social) filtering is actually a deeply human task as I trust my network more than brands, curators, search and editors. Therefore, whilst I accept that algorithms can do the task and as well – will I ever trust the results?   To quote from David’s very good article, where the diagram came from as well “Often times the quality of links and information I get on Twitter is better than what I would have gotten from ...

  Social Filtering is Human - not brands, not curators, not search, not editors   In my book I write that there is limited value in the collection of data (it will be a commodity game), I contend that storage of data is just a cost and a liability, value will be derived from analysis and being about to control the feedback loop.  Analysis, I proposed, was algorithms – deeply complex bits of code that could draw out meaningful views from all the data. 15 months on from writing I am left thinking that one aspect of the algorithm – (social) filtering is actually a deeply human task as I trust my network more than brands, curators, search and editors. Therefore, whilst I accept that algorithms can do the task and as well – will I ever trust the results?   To quote from David’s very good article, where the diagram came from as well “Often times the quality of links and information I get on Twitter is better than what I would have gotten from ...

Great book on behavioural economics (if your into it) and I have to confess to making some of the 'astonishingly simple mistakes' that Dan presents so well.  I do take comfort that my misguided behaviours are neither random nor senseless and that I appear to quite human, fallible, systematic and predictable - however ask any of the three girls in my home and I am sure that they would have a different view :) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X68dm92HVI?wmode=transparent]  - TED talk video Best bits for me are: Page Quote Comment 3 Let me start with a fundamental observation: most people don't know what they want unless they see it in context.  We don't know what kind of racing bike we want - until we see a champ in the Your de France racketing the gears on a particular model. we don't know what kind of speaker system we like - until we hear a set of speakers that sounds better than the pervious one. We don't even know what we w...

Great book on behavioural economics (if your into it) and I have to confess to making some of the 'astonishingly simple mistakes' that Dan presents so well.  I do take comfort that my misguided behaviours are neither random nor senseless and that I appear to quite human, fallible, systematic and predictable - however ask any of the three girls in my home and I am sure that they would have a different view :) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X68dm92HVI?wmode=transparent]  - TED talk video Best bits for me are: Page Quote Comment 3 Let me start with a fundamental observation: most people don't know what they want unless they see it in context.  We don't know what kind of racing bike we want - until we see a champ in the Your de France racketing the gears on a particular model. we don't know what kind of speaker system we like - until we hear a set of speakers that sounds better than the pervious one. We don't even know what we w...