Who Will Control Your Data in the Web 3.0 World?
"Imagine what your cell phone could know [about you]," pondered Sandro Hawke (Semantic Web Developer, W3C), at the Web 3.0 Conference and Expo in Santa Clara, CA this week.
"It hears everything that's going on around you; it knows where you are, it knows the motion of your body, it sees what's in front of it, it knows your contacts, and it hears your phone calls". Imagine the possibilities.
Unfortunately, the opportunities that Web 3.0 offers are also seen as part of the fundamental reason most people fear it. While they realize that much of their personal information is already out there, the fact remains that no one really has any way of knowing where this information is stored or who controls it; and this can be frightening.
Certainly the fear of the unknown is a concept we are all familiar with. Hawke suggests we can only get past this, and move onto the many new opportunities Web 3.0 offers, if we find a good way to control all of that data.
But where would we start? According to Hawke, the basic requirements would be a clear, robust and simple-as-possible model that is based on consensus rights and responsibilities, making everything predictable for all parties, and gives shared control to the originating parties. While he admits that this would still not be risk free, it certainly seems to be a great starting point in a move towards Web 3.0.
The Advantages and Issues Surrounding Data Portability
Daniela Barbosa (co-founder of the DataPortability Project) began her presentation with a video that shows why most of us suffer from network fatigue, and why it is imperative that we have control of our own personal data.
DataPortability - Connect, Control, Share, Remix from Smashcut on Vimeo.
According to Barbosa, the biggest hurdle is convincing vendors to unlock their information. While most users can see the benefits of data portability, the majority of vendors only have questions:
- Why would a vendor allow users to leave their service?
- Why make it easy for users to take the precious data you have about them and use it on other sites?
- What is the business justification and risks for letting data walk out the door.
Her answer to these questions is that businesses are effectively losing out. "Is it really worth it to lock in your users data? Because, you only get a piece of their [users] information."
An important point: When users sign up to new services they generally set up their accounts once, so any friends they add to other services at a later date, won't be shared across all services. As a vendor, you have no way of knowing about any new information on other services, unless the user updates the information manually across all accounts - and really, how many people do that?
Monetizing Your Data
Michael Benedek (Vice President, AlmondNet) begins his presentation with a quote by Imran Khan, Internet analyst, JPMorgan:
More than 80% of online inventory currently sells for less than $1 CMP. This means many page views are meaningless to advertisers unless user information can be gathered and ads are targeted. In order to most effectively target the ads, publishers need to have access to user behavior on multiple sites to collect data and to repeatedly show ads to the same user.
"We all know that Internet ad spending is booming; advertisers like it because there is measurability and targetability," Benedek said, "yet, the vast majority of ads on the Internet are really not targeted. For instance, I'm from Canada and I can't vote in the United States, but all I see lately are ads about Obama."
Benedek believes there are tremendous opportunities available with Web 3.0 to leverage the data available and to deliver more targeted ads, but there are many issues to consider:
Privacy Issues
- Role of Government: Industry Self Regulation vs. Government Regulation
- Technology: Deep Packet Inspection vs. adware vs. 1st party cookies vs. 3rd party cookies
- Types of Data: Personally Identifiable Information (PII) vs. merged PII/non PII vs. sensitive non PII vs. non PII
- Notice and consent: Opt-in (PII) vs. opt-out (Non PII)
Business Issues
- Standardization: Who is an auto intender?
- Scalability: Opt-in (impractical) vs. opt-out (practical when non PII is collected/shared)
- Data Ownership: Advertiser (3rd party ad server/cookie) vs. publisher vs. consumer
Conclusion
Web 3.0 still seems to have a way to go, and there are still debates about its meaning, but we expect the ride will be interesting. Do we follow the recommendations of the W3C and look for a common standard; do we want the ability to share our data across networks as recommended by the DataPortability Workgroup, or do accept that advertising is here to stay and help businesses target us better as recommended by AlmondNet?
Who do you want to be in control of your data?
ReadWriteWeb is a media sponsor of the Web 3.0 Conference & Expo
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...wait a minute. Web 3.0?? I haven't fully grasped Web 2.0 yet. Let me catch up quick. Thanks for all the info an the heads up.
"...gives shared control to the originating parties"
WTF? why should any vendor control and profit from my data ? Why do websites feel they have the right for my data? Becuse they provide me with a service ? lol - what a joke - does everyone not already realize that most internet software services are a commodity - the value of my data far exceeds the cost to provide me with the service
..wake up - its called the internet and the business models of tv and radio and print ...well they are gone
even this lame site try to barter my information for the right to post this comment lol - what a joke - charging me to provide you with digital inventory that you monitize - yea right - how long do you think that ass backward model is going to work
people pay to receive value - not to give it away - focus on quality
Thank you for posting your notes from the panel- it was a good conversation and i enjoyed being on the panel with the others but i think the panel will probably agree with me that there was a bunch more we wanted to discuss that we didn't get to (we started a bit late and it was only a 45min panel plus i was a last minute stand-in for Trent Adams who was going to be talking about how companies are implementing Data Portability based on his experience with Matchmine).
I am hoping we can continue this conversation with some of the panelists from this session over on the DataPortability in Motion Podcast (if you are interested you can subscribe from here: http://tinyurl.com/3l5wbo)
I also posted my Intro slides from the session on SlideShare: http://tinyurl.com/5oe56v
On the Web 3.0 labeling- that was the conference name and there was lot's of conversation on the topic that occurred in the sessions as well as in the hallway and it will continue to be discussed as to whether we should be using that label, what it means and what value does it have. If the only purpose would be to establish evolution of the Web then perhaps it could make sense and perhaps when i am 80 we will be at Web17.0~... Over at the RWW Friendfeed room the conversation continues as well:
http://tinyurl.com/6opy8l
Private Person, for the same reason Experian sells your data that they get everytime you are geting your .50 cents off that lettuce in your grocery store, ok?
Start a revolution, but wake me up when that happens too, so I know it's there, and I will be in :-)
Until then, why don't you try to take control of your own data and sell it piecemeal to potential companies, to eliminate middlemen? Or, if you can't, just don't leave any data trail when you surf. or, start a revolution.
By the way my friend, your data is useless - any data in and of itself is useless; processing of data, making something of that data is the true asset/value.
private person (or rather, scared to take responsibility for your beliefs perhaps?), here's a nice discussion about it (not associated with me): http://www.semanticsincorporated.com/2008/10/the-definitive-definition-of-web-30.html#comments
Thanks for the reference to my blog, Dan, and hello. Sorry we didn't connect at the Web 3.0 conference, I had to leave early and we were both quite busy.
Actually Semantics Incorporated had another post that directly discussed ownership of metadata, with actual references to the user content clauses of Twine and Calais. Honestly, I was surprised it got little commenting when it went out, as this is a critical issue that's only going to becoming more central with time.
And to private person: the only reason your web services are "a commodity" and given away is because your information is leveraged in some other way. There is no free web lunch.
why everyone is getting so anxious about web 3.0 ?
I just don't understand that...
3.0!!! Is this a technique to con the VC's into throwing more $$ at you since you're the "new thing" ?
In a future world where the only "social network" is our social graph, it is going to be increasingly more important that the data surrounding our personal information AND our personal connections is more meaningful.
The semantic web should be intelligent enough to help us in this pursuit. It should know that I want to share my party photos with the people I party with, but not with the people I am trying to get a job from. With the enormous about of online data that is being collected about our lives and with the enormous amount of social connections we are making, well in excess of the Dunbar number...
http://threeminds.organic.com/2008/10/the_web_should_be_a_great_part.html
The web is going to have to have some learning and some intelligence that makes it easier for us to share the right information with the right people at the right time. Some sort of manual on and off is just not going to cut it.
Marta Strickland
Editor, ThreeMinds
http://threeminds.organic.com
You will control your data in the Web 3.0 realm. If somehow this remains somewhat incomprehensible and nebulous (as is typical in this emerging realm) then simply think about this as: The Magic of You!
Remember, "You" was the Times person of the year as an acknowledgement of the Web 2.0 phenomenon, and maybe this time next year it would simply be the "Magic of Being You" that's the person of the year :-)
Web 3.0 brings databasing to the Web (as a feature) and the single most important action item at this stage is creating a record for yourself in this new distributed database hosted by the Web.
Links:
1. Get yourself a Web Database ID in 5 minutes or less
2. 2006 Callout from TimBL: Get Yourself a URI
3. Just watch the Numerati Video
Kingsley