Seth Godin recently pointed to Richard Thaler’s article in the New York Times about how governments and businesses should make the data they collect about us consumers available to us in a form we understand. It is our data after all. You know the way Google and Facebook target their ads to us – he’s right when he says we have a right to know how they make those decisions to show us what they want to – rather, what advertisers want to. I think open data is the way forward and sooner or later there will be a more concerted effort made around getting this to happen. As Godin says:
Data about data is more important than ever, and being on the side of the person creating that data is a smart place to be.
Jan Chipchase also recently wrote a really good post about making field data transparent to participants, and giving them control over what is finally tabled:
Today we live in a world of data servitude, where commercial organisations own and have the rights to exploit the personal data that lies on their servers. Whilst the effort taken to harvest, sift and draw value comes with the assumption of being able to then seek commercial returns fro this investment, the relationship is one-sided, the process for the most part opaque. To truly go full circle is to give participants the rights and access to their personal data both now and for ever more, something that will enabled by the prevalence of always-on connectivity and a shift the expectations of participants.
For every Google Health that dies, there is a Keas that lives (more here, if you’re interested). (The title of this post comes from here).
One Size Fits One 