Digital ID Coach

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future, records, tools advertising industry, Cluetrain, conversation, Doc Searls, marketplace, personal data store, Project VRM, Vendor Relationship Management, VRM

Who Knows You?

March 11th, 2009

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This is an ad from a couple of years ago that Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions ran.

It’s stunning to see such a clear visual representation of just how out of touch advertisers can be with us. Databases are being compiled by our every move, our every transaction, our every query. The databases are used and sold to assist corporations who wish to manipulate and shape our needs and beliefs (as in, we need their products).

But do we really?

Coaching Moment: What would life be like if you could choose whom you wanted to share information with, which information you wanted to share, and under what conditions the sharing would occur (for example, the duration of their access, or no storing of your data)?

We are not there yet, but there are people working on developing such “user-driven services.”

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future, records, tools advertiser, advertising industry, customer, data ownership, databases, user-driven services

KindClicks (ads that you want)

February 18th, 2009

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A colleague pointed me to this commercial for a company called KindClicks. It’s an interesting concept: sign up and identify the kind of ads you might be interested in, they represent you (anonymously) to the advertisers who then pay for access to the people who are interested. KindClicks then offers you the ads, and shares the advertising money with you (or a charity). From their site:

The company protects and brokers consumers’ data and communications to enable more effective and efficient business marketing and sales. KindClicks also has a philanthropic agenda; the company is committed to helping nonprofits, associations, and foundations raise money by empowering their constituents to make and save money.

I haven’t signed up yet because I’m still mulling over their Terms of Service (especially the part that says we can change our terms any time without notification and you hereby agree to those changes). I can’t agree to something I don’t know or haven’t seen yet.

Coaching moment: What do you do when you need to research a purchase? If you had the opportunity to be represented by an advertising service? How important is it to ask friends for their opinions? (They are a social “recommendation engine.”) If you could design the perfect service that would deliver information about goods and/or services, the ones you’re interested in, what would it do or not do? There are a lot of developers that want to know.

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records, tools advertising, advertising industry, advertising service, charity, marketing, recommendation, representation

Data Ownership

February 17th, 2009

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Several people have asked about Facebook’s recent changes to their Terms of Service. The controversy was sparked by a post in The Consumerist entitled We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever! That was followed by a comparison by Amanda French, and an analysis by Jacobson Attorneys. Of course, in the fray Facebook’s Zuckerberg also weighed in.

What people were asking about is why they should care. They have ALL of their friends on the service and it has become The Only Way to keep up with their network. So what if Facebook uses a picture; that helps the photographer or artist, doesn’t it? (It’s doubtful that Facebook would give the artists credit for their work because that might distract from the mission of its use.)

A moment from history might be appropriate. Back in 1954, George Orwell wrote a book called 1984. Wikipedia says about this book that “the novel has become famous for its portrayal of pervasive government surveillance and control, and government’s increasing encroachment on the rights of the individual.”

Of note: these days it’s more about the influential power of the 10,000 little brothers to do the same work, like death by a thousand paper cuts. The issue remains as one of self-determination.

For your entertainment, here is the BBC version of Orwell’s book.

Coaching moment: Remember when you were a young teen and wanted to do a lot of exciting things, but your parents wouldn’t let you? They claimed that you didn’t yet have wisdom to act appropriately and might do harm to yourself or others. You probably viewed that as a matter of self determination: you know what’s best for yourself. As you get older, you’re often treated in a similar (and occasionally condescending) way by the marketing and advertising industry: they know what’s best for us. Advertisers make or contract with online services (like Facebook) in order to attract you to their advertisements. The advertisers want nothing more than to sell you stuff–because isn’t that the bottom line of their business, to sell more stuff?

What are your options? Would you rather be part of a system in which you can declare your interests? Let’s say you love looking at new car ads, but don’t want to see truck commercials. Or let’s say you want to know what natural soaps or facial products are available these days. Wouldn’t it be nicer to see the ads for goods and services that are of interest? That would also be a benefit to the advertisers who want you to see things you’re interested in buying.

What do you think? I welcome your comments.

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