The Issue of Information Ownership

Ahmed ElAmin is a business writer of over 20 years' standing specialising in development issues, technology, international business and offshore finance. He currently serves as the editor of FoodProductionDaily.com.

In May, 2007 Ahmed published an article about data ownership in The Royal Gazette after reading my white paper, Banking on Granular Information Ownership. Here's the introductory paragraph to Ahmed's article:

"Could we treat data as if it were money, private objects that can be deposited, exchanged, managed, and protected? This is the concept Steve Holcombe, CEO of Pardalis, put to me by e-mail after reading one of my articles on proposed EU legislation to limit the use of radio frequency identification technology (RFID)."

 To see Ahmed's article in its entirety, go to The Issue of Information Ownership.

First Journal Entry

In our on-demand world we are becoming comfortable and familiar with the online banking of our money, and the online purchase of products and related services. With a few clicks people, small businesses and large organizations easily check their bank accounts, move funds, and pay bills. A few clicks more and they purchase anything, anywhere, anytime.

Online companies employ solutions to disclose how they handle people's information. However, little direct, on-demand control is provided to the actual owners of the information.

That’s not good enough in a world where people want to share their entire personal health records with a personal physician but only share precise parts of it with an impersonal insurance company. Fear factors are still keeping people from becoming comfortable with posting their personal health information into online accounts.

Nor is it good enough in a world of international product supply chains providing dangerous toys and potential ‘mad cow’ meat products to unsuspecting consumers. Unscrupulous supply chain participants will always try to hide in the ‘fog’ of their supply chains. The manufacturers of safe products want to differentiate themselves from the manufacturers of unsafe products. But, again, fear factors keep the good manufacturers from posting information online that may put them at a competitive disadvantage to downstream competitors.

William James, the American Philosopher, said that "[t]he instinct of ownership is fundamental in man's nature." This blog is dedicated to exploring data ownership vis-a-vis the emerging Semantic Web. The exploration will balance the how (the technological aspects) with the why (the socio-politico-legal aspects) with the who (the players).

It should be an interesting journey.