The IIW conference is again underway in Mountain View, CA. This is the 12th conference. I’m capturing some of the sessions in video and/or picture-enhanced audio streams. The later option is important as the Computer History Museum offers free wi-fi, but for over 200 attendees it’s spread pretty thin.
Lately I’ve been beta testing out a low-bandwidth record/broadcast app for my phone called Chachanga. It captures the audio and pairs it with a picture, captured periodically from my phone’s camera. I started the recording a bit late in our first session–here’s most of the Trust Frameworks session with Drummond Reed of Connect.me.
What’s a Trust Framework? From the Open Identity Exchange (OIX):
In digital identity systems, a trust framework is a certification program that enables a party who accepts a digital identity credential (called the relying party) to trust the identity, security, and privacy policies of the party who issues the credential (called the identity service provider) and vice versa.
Basically, it’s a system that helps establish trust between parties: including people (“users” in this picture), sites or services that can verify who you are, and sites or services that need to know who you are. The OIX offers several pdf whitepapers explaining more about Trust Frameworks.
Coaching moment: I care about trust frameworks because I want certain services to be available in a way that protects and assures me that what I want is accurately represented. For example, if I need to digitally prove I’m over 18, I might rely on the DMV to back up my claim. If I need to show that my eyes have 20:20 vision, my eye doctor or health care provider will vouch for me.
One interesting thing about this is that the parties in these scenarios don’t need to know or provide more information about me than necessary: Yes, over 18 years old, or Yes, 20:20 vision. There’s no extra or out of bounds sharing, like “18 years old and… (cue Facebook pictures).” This is about “just the facts” from parties who can be trusted (in a legal sense).
I like to think about ways to customize my world, and the digital world writ large, in ways that support and help us explore our unique selves. It is in our very diversity that individual strengths can play out to become our personal best, to help each other grow, and create fertile new worlds.
This indiscriminate personal data hoarding is both an individual and a societal problem. Schmidt’s argument that we shouldn’t have anything to hide is specious (not to mention a double standard: it doesn’t apply to Schmidt). In a 2007 paper called ‘I’ve Got Nothing to Hide’ and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy, George Washington University Law School’s Daniel J. Solove convincingly critiques that argument. Indeed we have many things to hide, like our passwords and credit card numbers, certain personal habits and preferences, things that contribute to human dignity and respect. As noted security expert Bruce Schneier writes in his essay The Eternal Value of Privacy, “Too many wrongly characterize the debate as “security versus privacy.” The real choice is liberty versus control.”
Ironically, Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly host a blog called The Quantified Self where they report about people exploring ways to keep track of themselves. It’s a significant difference between curiosity, personal need, and voluntary disclosure that’s driving data sets, and corporate ventures like Facebook (nod to jerking you around again with recent privacy policy changes), Google (Schneier’s response to Schmidt’s quote above), and damned near every corporate site you make an account with and that tracks your every move these days.
I’m looking for examples of sites that encourage liberty and demonstrate some respect for its users/clients. I will be reporting on what I find. If you have suggestions, I welcome them.
Coaching moment: Here’s a little thought exercise. Think about a typical day in your life.
What kind of things do you do in private? These might be taking a shower, brushing your teeth, thinking about the day. Some things might be really private as in just you by yourself, and other things may be private in some context, like thinking about your day out loud with your spouse or partner. Once you get a good list, which of those things would make you uncomfortable if they were made public in some way?
Now think of the kind of things you do in public, like driving to work or the store, walking around, having a conversation over lunch. Think about stories that might be told about you from the perspective of not knowing what you were really doing. You might take clues from signs that you walk by, or maybe other people (posture, groupings, facial expressions). Can you think of any stories that are not only wrong but might hurt you?
Finally, think about your online tools. Have you actually looked at the Terms of Service or Privacy Policies that you’re agreeing to? If you knew they were disrespectful to you or even abusive of your personal self and liberty, would you stop using them? Since the answer is “probably not,” what would you suggest these companies change?
The Internet Identity Workshop (IIW8) was held in May 2009 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Here’s my brief conference report.
Coaching moment: Like most developments, first comes an idea then a discussion, followed by an implementation and testing. Thankfully most people aren’t involved in these early stages when things may not work well, or may take more patience or tech skills than you have. That said, it’s good to know what’s on the horizon. It helps you be aware of tools that will help you when they become available, and knowing about these tools helps counter some of the spin from companies that want to “help you” protect yourself.
This is the delicate balance that exists for those of us representing our companies thru social media. Since conversation is king, those who are great at engaging in dialog both online and offline will likely become the voice of their company whether intentionally or by accident.
We become part of “the brand”–the marketing and communications efforts that help distinguish our company from the rest of the marketplace. In a sense, we become our work and our work takes on life through us. This is interesting because people don’t always have good filters to separate their personal “self” from their work persona (or lack the ability to be professional enough to represent their company).
I asked my friend Neenz Feleafine for her thoughts on this. Neenz uses social media tools like Twitter and Facebook for her professional life.
JC: Do you think people ever find this confusing–as if you were being a commercial?
NF: A few years ago when I first began participating in social networking sites it was out of curiosity. Today, it’s purely for business. I use social media tools to build my network, but I engage in relationships through other more intimate forms of communication: emails, VoIP, IM, telephone calls and most importantly real life meetings to maintain my network.
One of the greatest things–although making friends was never a goal for my use of social networks or social media tools–I have discovered very good people, and am developing not only solid business relationships, but lifetime friendships.
JC: Do people ever confuse you and your personal network with the companies that you promote? I mean do people think that Alltop is involved with some of your personal interests?
NF: My role with Alltop is Chief Evangelist which means that I am to spread the good news of Alltop without ceasing. And, it’s my honor to do so. I have been blessed with a much coveted opportunity to work with Guy Kawasaki–learning and growing, loyalty and perseverance, and grinding it out are my personal interests.
I have also recently launched my social media marketing startup, Pono Media–as an entrepreneur there isn’t much else to be interested in except for its success.
I am fortunate to have the unconditional love and support of Lilinoe, Chelsea, and Jayden for me to invest so much of my time in Alltop and Pono Media.
JC: What are your thoughts on managing your digital self in mixed purposes?
NF: More than 95% of my network met me as “Alltop’s Chief Evangelist”. Only in the recent months have my classmates, friends, and family members taken an active interest in Facebook. And, I have exactly 2 friends that I knew since childhood whom have joined Twitter, but very rarely participate.
Coaching moment: Social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, and LinkedIn often work to blur the distinction between our personal and professional lives. It’s not enough to compartmentalize yourself with the confines of a specific service. For example, your personal (e.g., Facebook, MySpace) life can–and sometimes does–crash into your professional life (e.g., LinkedIn, or a potential job interviewer Googling you before your interview). Your Twitter stream (sometimes referred to as a form of “life streaming”) likely contains conversations about all parts of your life.
Whether you are online to represent your inner personal self and/or companies that you do business with, it’s worth noting that services and people on the Internet are archiving everything, and they have no particular reason to keep everything in context. Until tools are developed to help us manage our conversations, transactions, and relationships, we’ll need to be mindful of who we really are.
This video, an Introduction to Digital Identity by Stefan Brands is from the Google Tech Talk series. This talk was held about a year ago (Jan. 25, 2007). Its an hour long, so get your drinks and munchies ready. As Google Tech Talks go, this one is not overly technical.
Note: the volume is a bit unstable in this video. It starts out loud, about 5 minutes in goes quiet, and continues to change periodically.
Google Tech Talks
January 25, 2007
ABSTRACT
Identity management is increasingly recognized as a cornerstone of electronic communication and transaction systems. Applications such as electronic commerce, social networking, electronic health record management, government online, and enterprise identity and access management all critically rely on the ability to manage, provision, and authenticate the “identities” of people, devices, processes, and other entities. Three approaches to identity management can be distinguished: silo identity management, federated identity management, and user-centric identity management. Each of these has unique characteristics with regards to security, privacy, …
Coaching moment: In this video, you see an introduction to user-based identity. You’ll also hear that this is where the friction starts to develop as people and corporate interests start to disagree on how to implement the future. If you’d like to have a say in one future or another, learn more about the topics of single sign-on, user-centric or user-driven services, and tools to control your digital domain. Talk with your friends about it so the terms become familiar. The stronger our collective personal voice, the harder it will be to erase our personal interests.
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