And so it is with IGOPeople.com, the latest company being promoted in the revamped “Tuesday Push“.

The I, G and O of IGOPeople stands for Individuals, Groups and Organisations. The idea is that this is a network for real people. Not the social media elite (both of them) nor is it aimed at the youth market. The idea behind this site is that it allows individuals to contact organisations (mostly businesses, but there are a few charities in there too) and have the feed back in the public domain. It also allows for groups to form.

Groups like the proposed OpenCoffee Kilkenny. Groups like the DellCamp project to get things going in Limerick (and surrounds again).

Of the companies in there, its not just the technical ones like Blacknight and Eircom nor those using social media in other aspects like FBD and Vodaphone (who are running free top up offers) but accountants, recruitment companies and sellers of waterproof childrens clothing (who have their own special offer on IGOPeople).

This Irish company is paying attention to its users. Thy will take and act on suggestions. Its a tightly wel run (and threaded messaged) ship.

I joined it very early on, but I’m still listening. I’ve said this to the founder, Campbell Scott, I can see the appeal, but I just don’t get it.

Yet.

I’m still listening,

Will Knott

At first I was going to write about green issues. What happened was that I bumped in to a pair of representatives for Change.ie, a government run site for creating a plan of action for environmental change and reducing Ireland’s (and maybe the world’s) carbon footprint. I told the reps that I was surprised that there hadn’t been blogger outreach to other blogs concerning green issues, and pointed out a few that I knew of.

One rep asked me to e-mail in the details of the sites, the idea was to get something of an aggregator going.

The first person who came to mind was Ms. Phoebe Bright…

who seems slightly miffed in this photo about what happened next.

Phoebe presented at the recent Open Coffee BBQ about energy, energy demand and a technological solutions to change the thinking currently driving our consumption habits. Well worth a read if you weren’t at teh presentation.

Also, how can I forget Greennav. Actually I did, which is why I e-mailed in the links. Greennav is an odd mix of a group blog in that anyone can add to it. So its one better than an aggregator, is something of a community. And yes its full of green hints and tips.

Even the landscape gardener Peter Donegan has added a collection of green hints and tips to his site.

And now a change in direction.

Ladies and gentlemen. Get them together, as the response from the government sources was “that’s nice, anyone can blog, go ahead”. Or a “we’ll do nothing thank you”.

This is one of those areas where we should collaborate, and double, nay triple the voices to get the messages, and actions out there. A green meme. Not just an internet meme but a get off our backsides and do something about it meme.

I’m just not sure what.

But its this tendency for collaboration which brings me to to the next change of directions, sponsored by Twenty Major and Adrian Weckler.

They have complained about the fact that …

1. We’re not angry and fighting enough. (But Mr Weckler things me are too angry).
2. We aim for consensus
3. We don’t do enough investigative journalism
4. Bloggers seem to be people who are fake

Well lets see.

I know that I don’t intend to ever get close to Granddad without a stab-proof vest, but the Irish blog-sphere is a small place. If you don’t count Bebo blogs, you could fit most of the Irish bloggers in a medium hotel for an awards ceremony. Because we are a small group, the chances of prolonged bickering are few. Grudges can be held, but so can tongues. And the word “community” tends to hold sway. (Besides, Twitter is the place for small short-lived Irish fire fights). And besides, Barcamps, Tweet-ups, Open Coffee clubs, photo-walks and general get-togethers happen enough to prevent full blown flame wars that lead to bits going missing.

As for a consensus. Well, the early Irish bloggers were either techies, or non-technical people in the technology industry (sometimes in the one person). In this world, standards mean a lot. Consensus gets the job done. And could a barcamp exist without consensus?

As for people who aren’t and don’t aspire to be investigative journalists not doing enough investigative journalism for Mr Wreckler’s liking. Well, circular logic only gets you so far. Maybe you would be willing to teach us the way, and teach us, using your blog or course, on how to do these investigations. I think a few hundred well trained (even if we are bored, lonely or angry) bloggers might do you some justice. (Besides you forgot about Maman Poulet teaching journalists how to do their jobs when it came to Michael Lynn).

And finally, “bloggers are fake”. Now he’s not talking about fiction blogs, nor blogs maintained by a fictional (or pseudonymous) character. He’s talking about people who create great blogs, to get employment, and once employed, stop blogging. I can only assume that he means people who want to write for a living, and are using their blog as a portfolio in the same way that an artist creates work for themselves, to get their own style (or voice) and use that portfolio as a way to become a writer.

Well, if they exist, and I actually expect that they do, then more luck to them. If the only reason they wrote was to get someone to pay for the writing, then isn’t it better that they stop blogging?

Can we all agree to that?

take care,
Will Knott

The Open Coffee Club BBQ took place last night. And thank you to Evert Bopp for setting up the event, getting the people in Terryglass, and supplying the food.

Actually, getting the food and the chef in one place. The meat was supplied by SulMeat.com, a Tralee based supplier is responsible for the ribs, smothered in Deborah Hadley’s own Spicendipity Two Brew BBQ sauce before cooking (so good, bones were nibbled). She also supplied the brownies (that mostly the kids found), the mix for which is also available. I’m sure we’ll find out how the Belfast co-working boys handle the cooking.

Conor O’Neill is also responsible for the first BBQ sitting during the talks.

The technical bits and talks beforehand were really good (waiting for the slide packs to become available), and I’m currently annotating the photos I took, including the competitors of the “Dragon’s Den” contest, won by the talented Daudi Kutta of Pitchside Products for his GAA design products.

The meeting people and associating online tags with faces (Do I really look like my twitter avatar?) around the glowing coals was also fun. But eventually the cold got to most of the crowd.

Now, I need more sleep,
take care,
Will Knott

Grannymar has found a way to mark her toyboys. I don’t know if she’s done her own pinning ceremony or not. And I’m the cause.

I know she got Darragh, Darren, Anthony and recently Rowan has admitted his pining. She’s got a badge.

And she know how to use it to good effect.

I got them for her.

But lets step back. Back to May and the ToeJam photographs of May. I grabbed this shot…

and it got me thinking.

You can see “King” Damien’s “Fluffy” badge and Lexia’s pink “geek” badge (all that’s missing is Midge’s “Filthy” one). In Ireland at least, these badges are medals of honour. Social objects, not something to be sold, but something to be shared or given away to help make and bind social relationships. Awards for serving the social network of the Irish blog-sphere. Membership cards that the wearer has entry in to this world. That makes the blog awards the equivalent of a dame or knighthood, and the monthly awards something like an knavehood. (Oh to be a knave and a scoundrel)

So I wanted to help people in Ireland start blogging, or at least get interested in the Irish blogging world.

The other part of this was guilt. Since I started my course my blog writing has, well, collapsed. Time is more pressing (just as well I suppose) and ideas are being applied elsewhere (and not on to Twitter like everyone else). Pictures have filled up the breech, but I feel that I’m missing something.

So the badge… when the idea formed, I thought; “What should my badge be?”

Well that fizzled out.

So the question formed; “Who would get a lot of fun with a badge?” and my thoughts turned North.

A few chats and emails later, and an order to 50pbadges winged its way (after a redirect) to her awaiting floor (well, she was out at the time).

I’m interested to see how this will play out. How many (other) gentlemen of dubious qualities will try to attract the attention of the one and only Grannymar. And how much fun is she having making these ‘boys’ happy?

Oh, as for why? It seemed like a good idea at the time.

take care,
Will Knott

Which is a problem when it comes to Photomeets and Photowalks. And slightly impromptu events and meetings, as the initial invite is sent out via a Facebook invitation. I sort of went off it in the flood of applications, and I’m not surprised that LinkedIn is getting a flood of new users.

The one thing I loved was the friend feed. The quick status updates of “Bob is arriving at three” and “Alice is looking forward to the meeting” and “Eve is still listening”. Of course these are the essential parts of Twitter or Jaiku, or even FriendFeed.com (not the same thing, but I’m intrigued by their rooms to abate noise).

The main use of Facebook I’m doing is trying to track someone I don’t know down and contact them, or as I mentioned, meet-ups (as opposed to Tweet-ups or Meet-kus).

Why all this, it’s because I know about the next photowalk this weekend, (and yes I’m grateful that it e-mails out all messaes and the message contents now) but I have no idea if I’m going yet (and won’t know until that morning). I just don’t want to have to log in to FaceBook to say so.

take care,
Will Knott

Image via Wikipedia

The answer is no. I think that Robin Blandford, Damien Mulley and Alexia Golez all agree that we have more innovating to do. Part of the perceived problem is that the innovators produce something for the general person; but the general person doesn’t want it. The bleeding edge early adopters might love it, but not their less technology loving friends and relatives. The early innovations tend to be the “engineering model” with a few unfinished features, bugs and complicated instructions. A remote control which has an individual button for every function the device can do is not the most user friendly of interfaces. The early adopters will flock to it and understand it. But if it isn’t obvious and fast and easy to use, I know my Mum will hate it, and the chances are that the device won’t survive to a second model. Its an innovators dilemma.

The true irony of this dilemma is that its caused by a mixtre of a lack of communication, and too much. After all, some innovations were things that the users didn’t know that they wanted. An “unknown unknowns” sort of thing. This is a want, which is so convenient that it rapidly becomes a need. Sometimes this is generational (e.g. mobile phone uptake), sometimes this just swoops in out of the blue and everyone joins in (grandparents and grandchildren on the Wii). But sometimes they are consigned to the “ideas before their time” bin. Being able to “vote out” unnecessary parts of the solution, means that the idea has less of a problem.

The other type of solutions is the “What if?” caused by the “Why not?”. The “Why doesn’t this exist yet?” type problems. Which is usually what is thought about when people talk about a lack of innovation. The slow incremental kind where the steps seems obvious only after the product comes to market. And these steps are being sped up due to communication.

Now an idea or observation can become a idle tweet, which sparks another’s blog post, which sparks a small blog storm, which sparks a business plan, which sparks a gathering of minds and ideas, which sparks improved ideas and a flurry of research work, which (might) spark a business plan but is more likely to spark a business start-up first. And each step in an itteration of the idea, refining the initial notion with practicalities and possibilities. Due to the wonder of social networking at it’s finest, this allows people who know brightsparks to become involved in an interesting idea and produce something. Because ideas are easy, but the skills to do something specialised are, well, specialised, and few people have them. But knowing someone who knows someone who might be able to help you is a practical possibility due to the sped up communication of social networks. Then your idea moves from notion to production.

But you have to produce something which enables others to know some of your ideas. You have to give in order to get. You have to spend time or talent to get attention. To get communication. And you have to join the conversations, otherwise you are considered the unwelcome gatecrasher that will be ignored. But if that gatecrasher helps out, then he or she is no longer an unwelcome gatecrasher, but a welcomed guest. And this new guest may point out that part of the solution yo are trying to make already exists, so there is no need to reinvent that wheel (or how to avoid being sued by that wheel’s inventor).

Open source projects and wikipedia works this way. Individuals who may never physically meet work on a project in their spare time. And it works for businesses, where one entrepreneur meets another on line, or a third party brings them together virtually and then physically. Perinatal ideas get defined through this virtual iteration and idea refinement so that not only is a full bodied idea born, but the creation process creates a bit of interest in the idea itself. Enough interest, and there might be interested funders.

Can we over-innovate? Only if we are willing to accept it as (science) fiction, but science fiction frequently sparks the research to become science fact. Is innovation over? Not as long as others can spark ideas and collaboration. As for a visual representation of this collaboration, see the video below.

take care,
Will Knott

• “I’m thinking of going to the pub tomorrow. Anyone else going?”

Image via Wikipedia

And there is silence. So I’m looking at how to do something like this. Random event organising 101. This equally applies to parties, board meeting, Barcamps, foocamps and political protests.

Step the first: Who are you?
Think about it. An anonymous blogger like Twenty Major could organise a well attended sortie (or boarding raid) but since no one really knows what (s)he looks like, (officially) then it wouldn’t quite work. If someone organises get-together, particularly a get-together of random blog people then they either need to know what you look like (hence the avatar on so many social network sites) or you need to wear something distinctive. For example…

• I’ll be holding a red rose.
• or I’ll be wearing a yellow polka-dot bikini.
• or I’ll be in a giant gorilla suit.
• or all three just to be really distinctive.

Or simply show them a picture of what you look like. For example, this is my ugly mug. Sometimes it’s not necessary. If its a “flash protest” then there is every chance that you’ll be handing out the signs. If it’s a flash freeze on Grafton Street you need everything else.

Step the second: Where is this?
“OK lads, I’m going for a drink. Want to join me?”

Great! Where? Hello? Unless you actually tell someone on your blog where this meet up is taking place, no one is going to know where to go (or start). So a location is needed. Things you need to consider about your location; is it suitable. The Dail Bar is, well, members only. The Church of the Consumption is not well known for its pints of Beamish. The IKEA store in Belfast is not the place to arrange contemporary drama. And Patrick’s Street isn’t the place to stage a musical (yet). Just make sure that everyone knows where the get-together is. Given that this is going on the internet, I don’t think I’d have a party at my parents house.

Also you might need to give more details. Saying “meet me in The Office” will have a bunch of people arriving at your desk, and another bunch arriving at the amusingly named bar called “The Office” (and knowing my friends, I see a bunch watching “The Office” on the television). Be exact. A same thing for saying “I’ll meet you at Kelly’s”. I suspect every city (and quite a few small towns) have a shop of some sort called “Kelly’s”.

So back to this meet up. Since I don’t drink (and I’m Irish too, stop being shocked), I first thought of a meeting in Ó Conaill’s Chocolate Shop. But they close early. Well I did consider a meeting in Cork Coffee Roasters on Bridge Street, but its a bit small (he typed hopefully). So what about Sin É, on Coburg Street, Cork City?

Step the third: What time is it (on)?
“See you all on Friday”

Sounds great, but when exactly. Unless you

• work there (so will be there all day long)
• live there (so will be there all night long)
• telecommute from there (its possible)

then there is a chance that you need to give both the time and day. The date won’t hurt (as things show up in searches). So 7pm Friday April 18 2008.

Step the forth: Why?
There is a story behind the meet up. Sometimes the story is one of years of friendship, so “no reason” simply means “no special reason, but it would be great to get together again”. In my case, I’m in Cork City for an interview and to call in to the Fás Jobs Ireland Munster 2008 so I’m going to hang around. Contact details are in the “about” section if you want to call first.

Step the fifth: what?
Sometimes this is optional. Sometimes this is essential. In the above case of the flash freeze, detailed instructions are essential. In the case of going for a meal, detailed instructions aren’t really needed. In practice, the “what” is always remembered. Usually it’s what you want people to do.

So… thats me, drinking coffee (you can get something else if you like) in Sin É, on Coburg Street, Cork City at 7pm. Am I going to see you there?

take care,
Will

I don’t like tagging, and I got tagged. Alice tagged Grannymar and she, in turn, tagged me. The task: write your memoir in six words.

The rules:

• Write your own six word memoir.
• Post it on your blog, including a visual illustration if you’d like.
• Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to the original post if possible so that it can be tracked as it travels across the blogosphere.
• Tag at least five more blogs with links;
• and Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play

Well, I’m not going to make anyone else suffer to come up with something. So this branch stops here.

But in case you are wondering about the “bland” picture, well look closely. You’ll see that the pattern is not the standard or expected chequerboard pattern (in 2 places at least). Not the standard just about sums me up.

take care,
Will

However, the law and reality split.

Getting your hands on your data

Lets assume that Aunt Bessie has died. What now… well as her only heir you get everything.
All her encrypted files. All her data accounts. All her data is yours, but you can’t get to it.

Unless Bessie provided something for you…

As Ellybabes pointed out in her Death and Divorce in the Digital World presentation, unless you leave someone the password, they are going to stay locked out.

There is a method… as was pointed out in the ‘Security Now!’ podcast (episode 72):

Today, while alive, I don’t want to give my sensitive stuff or passwords to anyone, including my wife. But when I eventually die or become very ill, I need to make sure that my family has access.
But I know my wife wouldn’t be able to figure it out to save her life. If I have TrueCrypted all of my data, have complex unguessable password schemes and so forth, how do I unwind all of that for the benefit of other people I care about in my life?

So what you could do would be give to your attorney who has your will, or in a safety deposit box, something where access will be granted in the event of something bad happening to you without your taking any action.
Here’s what I’m thinking is that you separate the information out. So one of the things TrueCrypt lets you do is have an image file and a password. You need both; right? Maybe give the attorney the password, maybe even put it in your will, and store the image file in a safety deposit box. Separate the two, to be opened on your death or whatever.

But if you change your password regularly… then the copy with the attorney is probably out of date.
You could always try to break in to the machine, or maybe you don’t need to, after all, if the hard drive is not encrypted, you just need to put it in another machine. Right?

What if the machine isn’t local. What if the data is on a remote server. Do you need to go get a wig and break in somewhere.

Well, if you want to keep the data, the answer might be yet.

No right of survivorship

Under the terms of service of Yahoo, which includes the photograph sharing service Flickr,

(section 27 Paragraph 4)No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability. You agree that your Yahoo! account is non-transferable and any rights to your Yahoo! ID or contents within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted.

Or if you prove that she’s dead, you loose access to all her stuff permanently.

For the record, a Flickr.com spokesperson detailed how their system works…

Flickr works with the Yahoo! Legal Compliance team to resolve these types of situations. You’ll need to send them a copy of the death certificate in order to have the Flickr
account closed. Please include their Yahoo! ID as well as their Flickr screen name for removal of the Flickr account. Compliance can be reached [via telephone and fax].

After a death certificate is received we are not able to
give access to the account but we can close it.

Memorial State

Sites like Facebook are a little more accommodating. According to a Facebook spokesperson

When it comes to our attention that a user has passed away, put the profile in a Memorial State. In the Memorial State, certain profile sections and features are hidden from view to protect the privacy of the departed. We encourage users to utilize groups and group discussions to mourn and remember the deceased.

I don’t know what “Memorial State” means, but it does mean that the data is retained.

Not everywhere has such a formal response… I contacted the Irish based life data organizerPutPlace.com and the photo and social network Pix.ie.

When I posed the question to Marcus MacInnes of Pix.ie he replied…

We do not have a specific policy dealing with the death of one of our users. Our policy on account access however is as follows:
We provide access to a user’s account only under one of the following conditions:
1.via our automated password recovery method;
2. if instructed to do so by a user’s legal personal representative (which may be the user themselves);
3. if we are required to do so by law.

In the event that the owner of an account dies, upon request, we would be obliged to surrender that account to the user’s legal personal representative (usually the executor of their will). The legal representative would then act in accordance with the wishes of the deceased and may for instance request deletion of the account.

And Joe Drumgoole of PutPlace.com explained that

we haven’t put the legal framework in place yet. Our intention is that all content gets assigned to the probate or estate and the executor gets to do his stuff. In situations where no estate exists or legal structures don’t support it we will allow appropriate next of kin (spouse, children, siblings, parents etc.) with supporting documentation to take over the account. We will support an alternate contact to allow somebody else to recover the account but we depend on the user to keep this up to date.

Its definitely a tricky area and something we will be coming across more and more in the future.

Messages from beyond

Another complicating factor is that with more and more of s spending our lives on line. Frequently out virtual network of friends and “friends” are the only ones that the next of kin cannot contact, because all this data exists on remote servers. Do you have a local or hard copy of all your friends contact e-mail addresses or IM names? (Actually do you have a list of all your accounts?)

If you got access to Aunt Bessie’s social network account, should “she” be the one sending the funeral notice. Is parking the account in a “Memorial State” the answer? Marcus MacInnes of Pix.ie explained

[the] moral issue which until your question, we had not fully considered. How would friends react to receiving an on-line message from someone whom they knew had recently died. We cannot assume that the custodian of the account would act in any given manner and it is not clear whether or not we have a moral responsibility to provide reasonable protection to our users from receiving messages via our platform which are likely to cause distress. An example of this may be when a custodian acts irresponsibly, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Because of my questions, their policies are being reviewed.

I would have loved to include details of the policies of other vendors, but only the above companies contacted my in time. If I get any more details I’ll include them in the comments.

Take care,
William Knott

With kind thanks to John Looney of Google (for the tech and social angles) and Simon McGarr of Tuppenceworth.ie (for the legal questions and answers) and for all the people quoted above for providing their perspectives.

tags : 4 Ds of Information loss, 4 ds, Death, legallegal, property, Ellybabes, Security Now, right of survivorship, terms of service, Yahoo, Flickr, death certificate, memorial state, Facebook, PutPlace.com, Pix.ie, Marcus MacInnes, Joe Drumgoole, friend, moral responsibility