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?

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