So if you want to supply really SECURE cloud services…
make the data multihomed so that it doesn’t really exist on any one server. Put it on servers in different countries etc. This way a subpoena many not include all areas.
It also makes it very difficult to hack.
tada – secure – ahem Microsoft are you listening? you could charge for this too! hello AZURE peeps?
oh well back to work
firstoff – Reputation what is it? and how do we as computer geeks – replicate it?
Wikipedia says basically – “Social evaluation of the public towards something used for social control”
What does this mean? Well the main part that most in the tech industry seem to forget is that the “public” decides what your reputation is. It is not a statistical average but instead a matrix of social interactions on a one to one level… it is relative to your own set of criteria. For example a cynic may have a very different base rating as an optimist.
I decide if you are “good at” dancing. Now you might be an overall “okay” dancer but with me something special happens and you become a “better than okay” dancer. I have a reputations as a “very good” follow. So when I say that you are “good” rather than “okay” several follows will reevaluate your skills but in context of ME saying it.
If I regularly find leads to be better or if I have a different dancing style, the other follower or followers may discount my rating.
So social does not simply mean an mathematical average.
It is specific to an instance in time with many factors.
I suppose to go back farther into what is reputation we have to look at trust
1) how one feels that day
2) your expertise on a specific topic
3) mine expertise on a specific topic
4) my belief in your expertise
oh and remember you do not OWN your reputation – the community does. And the Community owns the data that creates your reputation too. So you have an advantage in being transparent… but you give up ownership.
I find these days it is pretty rare when anyone actually “OWNS” their data. Most things are built on work of others… Sometimes I don’t even realize I am doing or thinking something emergent or derivative.
And friendship and reputation are created from the interactions btn at least 2 people. Both of those people own that “child” that is the relationship or statement of friendship. Facebook doesn’t… Facebook owns the behaviors it monitors (oh and trust me they are monitoring else de be fools.)
oh well noodle noodle…
So I was having this conversation last night with Alan Rosenblatt…
I was trying to figure out why I was so impatient with many people’s language in DC.
And I realized what it is… You see a major failing of mine is what I call the “WHY.” I often automatically see so many “WHY”s that are so interconnected and complex. I have a hard time describing them all to people and so I can’t even think about writing about them. I can only hope to create diagrams that show flow and interoperability. So instead I focus on the “HOW” and look at “HOW”s that could support many many “WHY”s
But the “WHY”s are crucial to getting people to do things… in DC that is all anyone says. The funny thing about it, is they like to argue about “WHY”s it is very difficult to change someone’s perspective. So I don’t understand why it is always so crucial to them to change my “WHY”?
I prefer people that focus on changing and discussing “HOW”s… the funny thing about “HOW”‘s is sometimes that can help multiple “WHY” if done correctly. The difficult thing is “HOW”s are concrete and people like to grade or dismiss “HOW” So I suppose it is not politic for that reason – the concrete dissent… Of course as a scientist, I simply think “Hm ok didn’t see that, I’ll change it.” Or I think “That makes my model too complex you can do it to solve your own “WHY”" If I discount it completely I tell them why it doesn’t work for my model. Soooo many times is ends up being not that anyone is wrong on the HOW but typically that some miscommunication occurred.
So my newest project – Citability.org is really about solving many WHYs In fact I know without a doubt it will solve WHYs I haven’t even thought of yet. The main WHYs I am stating are
1) Putting things on the web it makes it more accessible to normal people.
2) On a paragraph level is becomes issue based and more usable by normal people.
3) If you make it a humanreadable URL is easy to copy and paste for normal people and can be googled and aggregated
There are so many other advanced reasons such as creating the semantic web. All the ways Transparent Federal Budget could use it in documenting topics. How it would help all the documentation tools out there like wikipedia, reframeit, apture etc etc
But really… it is the simplicity of it that to me makes it beautiful
http://house.gov/BILL/datetimestamp/title/section/chapter/paragraph/clause
or
for websites themselves…
http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/civil_rights/datetimestamp/header/paragraph
So simple to cut and paste and post and search… several WHYs taken care of by a simple HOW
with me I so prefer the discussion of HOW…
So I was talking the other day to Mark Hindsbo, the GM of Evangelists at Microsoft. He was basically wanted to talk about healing rifts with the OpenSource community. I was a bit blunt and brutal (but in a gentle way 
)
I said it is impossible for the OSS or FOSS communities to ever believe MS. I said the OSS shouldn’t and that MS should quit trying. The MS business model is broken in regards to OSS. The only way to change that trust is to change the business model.
The way to do that is focus on services. But maybe not services the way the FOSS community does…
I said if MS wants redemption it should look to the clouds…
hehehe or “the cloud.” One thing MS has always respected is the automony of its business clients and developers. I mean that is the point for such products as Small Business Server. Business clients are responsible for their own data and can act autonomously. This is NOT a stretch for people to believe in when it comes to MS’s reputation.
With the cloud’s current state, Data/autonomy is being taken away from people and businesses. Years ago I registered the URL WeTheUsers.org/com when I realized this was happening. Though understand, I have a gmail address. I am as guilty as the rest. But, at least I understand the tradeoff of convenience to secrecy.
So what can MS do? instead of Open Source… they should give people back their data. On MS cloud, Azure, they should do it right. Charge for services. Encrypt the data so the Feds can’t raid MS to get YOUR company/ind data.
and here is the BIGGIE
Be TRANSPARENT!
Let people SEE the data can be gathered and decide if they want to SELL it back to you for “free” services. This will KILL google. When people realize the scary psychometric data being gathered and presented back to them ESP companies… I think they will find it worth while to pay for services.
I mean most companies don’t even realize that they void NDAs when using gmail addresses. Make that transparent to them. Create accountability.
This isn’t just about security… it is about another form of transparency and that is about data.
People as a whole don’t care about code… they care about themselves and their data is a reflection of that.
yea… sometimes I’m evil. But they loved me at the Microsoft VIP party at SXSW.
At the very least we will be able to check the anonymizing functions the data is being put through… and make up our own minds as to what monolith to support.
Personally this gal with a libertarian bent likes it better when the monoliths are fighting it out.
or how to write a one pager.
I have been pondering this concept for the past 5 yrs. LoTV did a survey of legislators on 2004 and the top features they wanted was 1) a rss feed of all commentary on their legislation 2) one pagers from organizations and 3) the demographic data behind those one pagers.
They were not interested in the pure voter opinion demographic data. That surprised me as I had assumed the thing that would be forefront in their minds was getting elected and being representative of their people. That was not true of the elected officials. Instead they were more interested in tools that would help them become statesmen again. They want to facilitate win/win solutions between divergent groups of people.
This makes sense if you think about it… after all who wants to be a pure voting tool? This could eventually can be done by computer (I argue could be done today if people cared.) Instead they brought up an important point. They want to be like Solomon and help people as well as being a good leaders.
This in the larger sense is comforting to me. When I created the survey I was very focused on feature set not an agenda. The fact that this evolved out the discussions in an indicator of something more ingrained to their personality types.
So to help with Number 1 requested feature, I came up with the idea of creating permalinks on a paragraph by paragraph basis. I will outline this in another post esp when the video presentation from SXSW as done by my Design intern Adrian Parsons is posted. I call it making Government Web Citable!
This post is about the #2 and #3 requested features. The one pagers and the demographic data behind those groups. I created the concept of the C-wiki or consensus or common ground wiki.
It is a wiki with special tools so that it could mimic Robert’s rules of order. The difference is people could not just vote but also rate their levels of satisfaction. This way we could not only have a whitepaper but the demographic data.
You could even target the tool towards Consensus of 80% satisfaction for close knit groups or 50% when you are simply looking for common group w diverse groups.
Hunter Ellinger has done different demos both in Drupal and Rails. But I think truly we may need to look further than this. I am instead looking at taking this open source code and providing a hosting service model that would be a revenue stream.
Some features I think would be necessary to make this work are
I can imagine having RL fishbowl style meetings with virtual participants. Imagine the board of directors getting together in RL and broadcasting this to the membership and allowing the membership to also participate virtually. If the numbers are too large, the virtual membership with similar goals can pool resources to gain visibility. Perhaps they can elect their own representatives or just vote up a concept they like regardless of the person.
We could create one pagers from these and have all the background discussion and demographics documented. This would be some phenomenal information in regards to decision making. Of course we will fine tune the toolset with transparent algorithms. I think unlike DIGG and other groups. The group of people themselves owns their own data (hence this being a paid service.) So they would be responsible for creating balance themselves in a transparent fashion. That is the beauty of this solution. Unlike other sites everyone participating here honestly want to know the general consensus.
I think the first and most simple Template we would create of this is a
Robert’s Rule of Order Wiki
and to target NPO (NonProfit Organizations) creating their Bylaws and other such documentation.
Once upon a time I helped run and ran political campaigns.
It was an amazing time. I really felt in the thick of things and that I was saving the world. I lost the taste for it when I finally lost one in 94. I couldn’t handle being depressed for 3 months. Went back to school for computer programming instead.
Today I went to a fundraiser for my mentor during that time, Pat Crow. She is an amazing woman. A force of nature. She has helped 23 people get elected. And it all started because of friend of hers was murdered by a stalker. She disposed the judge that rejected her friend’s request for a restraining order.
And tonight many dear friends held a fundraiser in her honor… The sad thing is she has no health insurance and no retirement. This is how the system rewards her. The event was a good one though. All were happy. She was happy seeing all the people that love and support her. But most of us are poor too. I couldn’t help her… And as some said – this isn’t charity but instead a debt to be paid.
For the past 5 years, I have worked much on my vision of transparent legislation. 3 years ago I was able to convince Sen Bill Bradley and other about the validity of the idea. Bill suggested that I limit it to the federal budget. Now Obama says things I have been saying for 5 yrs. Parents and friends that are not in the open govt scene call me – all excited. Hoping that the time has come for me… finally after 5 yrs. After all, they remember when they thought I was crazy. And yet here it is – the things I have been talking about.
The time has not come. I work hard to make sure that I am heard about underlying architecture issues. The concept is heard. Funding is sparse. Health insurance – well that doesn’t exist either.
I am tempted to going back to the high tech project management or perhaps back to systems architecture design or perhaps back to being Dept Chair at a tech college. At least at the tech college, I do believe I was making a real difference in the world. Those jobs gave me validity and recognition for work done. The things I do now… rarely do. I search now for an in so I might take a position at the OMB hoping they will let me help so that at least my design will live.
I know what the next step is after transparent govt. It is transparent business and the injustice there. The banking and credit industry are the first one. I have been afraid to talk about my plans in that arena for the past 3yrs. Primarly for fear of ideas being exploited… Just as my marketing databases for political campaigns were taken from me in 94.
I have to figure out how to monetize this. For I do not want to scrape forever. I am not a young gal anymore – despite my appearances. I want a family and I want a home. (Though my idea of home involves alot of travel look at my mom and dad platinum members.) But I am quite tired of being a martyr. The person that runs things and creates for nothing more than a thank you.
I love that woman and I appreciate and admire all the amazing things she has done. But I realize that reputation in the end – doesn’t really support you when you are old. (Yes I knew this intellectually but tonite – it became emotional.)
And part of me is very very sad to realize that. Some little part of me feels betrayed though I can’t completely explain why. I blame comic books. Though it is that dream that drives me to codify reputation currency. I guess even now I can’t be a cynical as I want to be. I still strive to fix things.
I received an email today that is the perfect example of why I created this site.
“Thank you for using Stimulus.Virginia.Gov.
Your submission, confirmed below, has been received.
Giving Back
Project ID # – 3460 : Giving Back
Give the money back….don’t spend a dime. Just give it back to the Federal Government and our children.
Please save this email for your records or to submit another proposal
More information is available on the Reports Page
http://www.stimulus.virginia.gov/addproject.aspx?h=A3DA34CC67DE316447F7F36B878143CD67C87D0B&e=silona@leagueoftechvoters.org ”
I obviously did not submit this proposal nor did I misspell Government. And yet, now I am on a governmental record for doing so. It seems like this group – of all groups should understand more about checking and verifying posts and identities before adding me to spreadsheet. I suppose at least they sent me a copy of the email. I sent an email complaining to the contact listed. I’ll keep you posted.
UPDATE: UGH they responded but now I get one of these one an almost weekly basis. I think they have something major screwed up in their database system.
