Linkability?

So you post some information on your website, your blog, or post some pictures on the internet for friends to see. What happens to it then? Can this information be copied, re-used, modified? Yes it can. This is less than ideal as you soon lose control of your information and it is off into cyberspace somewhere for who knows what purpose.

Some would say this is no different to talking to someone and them talking to someone else and soon you do not know who is talking about you. This is OK if it is about things you are happy for people to talk about, in fact this can often be beneficial. But what if you share something personal with someone in confidence and others get to know. You feel your confidence and trust in that person has been breached and this is not OK.

How can we set up similar confidence rules for information we share on the internet to protect ourselves from the openness of the internet when we need it?

Some would say that if you do not want your personal information spread on the internet, then do not put it up there. That may be right sometimes (e.g. just do not put those pictures from the office party up on Facebook). Others will say, make sure you submit such information in password protected areas. But what is stopping other members copying that info and distributing it outside of the protected area.

There are times you need to share information on a confidential matter and discuss it with people you trust. Due to geographical location or the need for input from multiple people, the internet is often the best mechanism in which to do this.

So, in the mean time, you are left with using a search engine to see what is being said about you on the internet and how information about you is being treated, then trying to correct it. Perhaps what we need is some mechanism to link (Linkability?) us to our information or protect sensitive information we do post or submit to the internet. Is there such a mechanism?

Look forward to learning about what views people have in this regard and what initiatives are underway to move us forward in this area.

What is our identity in the digital world?

As with any new system, it will evolve over time and hopefully improve the way it operates. The Internet has evolved primarily by the construction of individual websites that view the people they interact with as "their" customers and so have set up userID's and passwords to let users enter "their"system.

Of course as more and more websites have been built we the users have had to have more and more UserID's and Passwords the we have to remember to enter each website we want to make use of. Of course each website has different rules and processes for setting userID's and passwords. Some ask you to use your email address, some ask for a unique identifier for you that may not be able to be your name. The passwords can be short or long, capitalised, include symbols etc. which makes it impossible to have the same password (not that we should be using the same password should we).

What we need to evolve to is the Internet seeing individuals as real people who need to access more than one site. This is where the Open ID was formed. The Open ID allows you to use an existing account to sign into multiple websites, without needing to create new passwords.

Click here to find out more about Open ID http://openid.net/get-an-openid/what-is-openid/

More and more websites are adopting Open ID or something like it, including some of the big players like Google and Yahoo. This will help users have a better experience on the Internet over time. Bring it on!

Please let me know if you have used Open ID of something similar and let me know if it is improving the experience on the Internet or if it is creating issues for you.

There must be a better way!

Today we all have many social networking sites we are connected to, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, You tube, as well as many other sites we may subscribe to. We sign up for each one and they all ask us for more or less the same personal information - Name, email address, credit card details, Zip Code etc.

With each duplication, it increases the number of user-IDs and passwords we you have to remember, the data we need to keep up to date and the risk of that data being out of date or even compromised.

There should be a place where your personal information is stored once, kept up to date once and called on by these various applications rather than having to re enter it each time in each application. For example, if you need to change your address or credit card number you currently need to go to all your sites and change this information. It would be so powerful if we could update this information in one place and it was updated in all sites you use automatically.

I am aware of some attempts at Digital ID's or passports in the past. Is anyone aware of any working versions of this or any info on why that have not worked in the past?

More importantly who would like a service like this?

Check out this video - Will this be the future?

At the recent Mediasense conference in New Zealand, US futurist David Siegal (purportedly the worlds first Blogger) presented the concept of a Personal Data Locker. Not only did he describe the concept of what our lives could be like if we better managed our personal information, but he presented a video to help us visualise it. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so what is this video worth?

Click on this link to start the video :

http://vimeo.com/user3645147/pdlvision

Lets get some discussion going on this. What do you think, is his vision achievable? Desirable?

How private is our personal information?

We have all heard about Wikileaks. I noticed this article today that made me think about all personal information stored on the web in cloud based solutions that you may think is private and secure but can be clearly accessed under legal process as required.

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/8615201/u-s-orders-twitter-to-hand-over-wikileaks-records/

We considering this as part of the design of myINFOSAFE. If we were ever asked to provide details of account codes and encryption keys for customers by the court, we would have to do this. But we could not provide any of the customers personal information stored in myINFOSAFE as we do not have access to it as it is stored locally on the users PC and is protected by a password that we do not know. (assuming the user has changed it from the default). The customer has control of their information and they can protect it, back it up or delete it in any way they want.

It makes you think that while there are many benefits of cloud based systems there are weaknesses that you need to be aware of in relation to your personal information.

Look forward to some discussion on this please.

The team at IDEO looks to the future of the book

One of our main sources of information is still the good old book. The book has been around for centuries and has not changed it's format much over time. Even the e-books we get these days are usually designed to give you the look and feel of a traditional book because we are so use to it. But times are changing as we know. Who still has the bookshelf full of encyclopedias' any more?

The Team at IDEO, who I have a lot of time for, have been doing some thinking on the future of the book. Take a look at this video and see for yourself what they see.

There are some great comments below the video, most of the people love the possibilities these concepts would offer but as always there are some who do not.

I agree there are times all you want to do is read a book like you always have but I am sure there can be a function where you turn off the smarts if you do not want them. I see the sorts of things IDEO are presenting would make the reading experience much more valuable, informative and rewarding to me than reading a normal book.

In terms of our product, myINFOSAFE , I see these concepts would open up the need for us to have better ways to manage more information, keep track of ideas that flow from reading in a more non linear way. Something for us to think about for future versions of our software.

So what do you think, let's hear your thoughts.

We continue to look for ways to help people manage their personal information. We have added the most asked for features into version 2.

Many of our customers were happy with being able to enter their data into myINFOSAFE but were forcing data about their partner, their children, and even their pets into the application without it being structured for this. We have added a function where you can identify your family members and store their information in their own area of the application.

Many customers asked for the ability to store their medical information. We have added a simple health record in Version 2 that can be printed out or emailed to your doctor prior to you visiting them then you can update the record after your visit.

Another major addition we have added is the ability to download the application and your data to a USB key. This is a big improvement to Version 1. Not only does it improve your back up options but it lets you be more mobile with your data. You can connect hte USB to any Windows PC running XP Service Pack 2 or higher and access your data.

We have improved a number of minor usability points raised by some customers, the two main ones are the moving of functions to the top tool bar and also the adding of a reminder function.

Now we have version 2 out there we would like to hear from you as to how these new functions have helped you manage your information.

We also want to hear from you what else you would like to see in future releases of the software.

We have plenty of ideas of things we could add. Here is a few to get you thinking.

• Your Bucket List - the list of things you want to do before you kick the Bucket
• An area to store serial numbers of software that you purchase .... So you can find it when you need support or when you decide to purchase that upgrade.
• Providing the ability to upload information you want to be able to see on the internet.
• Access information you select to be visible via your mobile phone.
  

Let us know your ideas and thoughts so we can make myINFOSAFE all the better for you.