Posted 8:20 AM (0) comments

Lying to ourselves?

Shelley Powers, whom I've taken to task before, has a very insightful comment on Burningbird today in a posting about O'Reilly's FOO camp and the counter-culture BAR camp.

"...if the purpose to go is to network, then you have to ask what the value of our online connectivity is if we feel we have to meet people in person in order to be successful. I mean, the people who are selling the whole 'online experience' thing are the same ones who are running around from conference to conference, meeting to meeting. Either this is all new, in which case the old style of networking doesn't matter; or the people who are networking about how this is all new are propagating a lie."

Anybody interested in a "no-camp camp"?

Posted 9:48 AM (0) comments

I'm infamous, I think

Today's Palm Beach Post features an editorial ("Take eyes off Floridians in national ID debate") which opens:

"We clearly are past the point of no return when Dave Kearns, a Silicon Valley consultant, wonders online in Network World which identity management conference he should attend."

It goes on to quote more of my "So many identity conferences, so little time" newsletter describing the various upcoming conferences and uses that to launch an attack on "the potential loss of privacy inherent in proposals such as the 'digital birth certificate'."

They go on to condemn, as many do, the US "Real ID Act" as establishing "…a national standard under which driver licenses will become virtual national ID cards linked to a state and federal database." Sounds draconian, doesn't it? Yet the Post editorial goes on to say "…how can 50 state IDs amount to something that will work nationally?" Now either it works as a national ID system, or it doesn't – it really can't do both. So I wish the Post and those others loosely described as "privacy advocates" would decide which it is. I have my doubts as to it's workability, especially when each state defines it's own database/directory for the data. But as to the "privacy issues"? My driver's license data is – right now – available to law enforcement officials in my city, my county, my state and my country. The Real ID Act doesn't change that. It does, though, add a bit of stick to encourage the states to ensure the accuracy of the data – something they should be doing anyway.

Thanks for the mention, Palm Beach Post, but I hope no one believes I'm in agreement with your conclusions.

Posted 11:55 AM (0) comments

Dewy-eyed Org of the month

The Attention Trust, evidently the brainchild of Steve Gillmor, wants you to get full value for your "attention". They're not exactly sure what "attention" is ("Attention is the substance of focus. It registers your interests by indicating choice for certain things and choice against other things... We realize that attention is imperfectly defined")

So what are they looking for?

what if you could share your data with other people, who were also capturing their own data, or if you could exchange your data for something of value with companies and other institutions that were interested in learning more about the things that interested you? You'd be in control--you would decide who has access to what data, as well as what you'd accept in exchange for access to your data.

Isn't that what my various loyalty cards are about? I let Safeway aggregate data about my purchases and in return they give me discounts. I let American Airlines, Marriott Hotels and American Express collect data about my flights, stays and purchases and re-purpose it to give me targeted advertising. In return, I get "reward points" which I can exchange for merchandise, flights or stays.

Somehow, though, I expect the Attention Trust to want more. Somehow I expect they'll want to have an opt-in for every occasion in which the company wants to use data collected from you - whether it's personalized or aggregated.

But it's really easy to control this, and no new organization is needed - if you don't want to give up the data, then don't sign up for the program! If you want to know how the data might be used - read the privacy policy! If the company violates the agreement or the policy - sue the bastards!

No meetings to attend, no dues to pay - and certainly no need for an organizational bureaucracy.