Data Ownership in the Cloud networking group

Extending to all an invitation to join the Data Ownership in the Cloud networking group on LinkedIn.

The Data Ownership in the Cloud group on LinkedIn is a global platform for multi-disciplinary networking between technologists and non-technologists interested in examining data ownership in the Cloud.

What technologies and standards (Cloud Computing, Web 2.0, Semantic Web, Enterprise 2.0, Manufacturing 2.0, Social Networking, SaaS, Security 2.0, RFID 2.0, microformat standards, identification standards) will enable data ownership in the Cloud?

What are the non-technological factors (sociological, political, psychological, legal)?

What is the right mix? Where will data ownership first firmly take root?

I will still be posting here at this blog site from time to time, but the greater part of my online activity is now with the Data Ownership in the Cloud group and my related Twitter account (http://twitter.com/Steve_Holcombe).

Kindest regards,

Steve Holcombe
Owner, Data Ownership in the Cloud

Ars Technica: Inside the AP's plan to "wrap" its content

The following was published by Nate Anderson for ARS Technica on 28 July 2009:

The Associated Press last week rolled out its brave new plan to "apply protective format to news." The AP's news registry will "tag and track all AP content online to assure compliance with terms of use," and it will provide a "platform for protect, point, and pay." That's a lot of "p"-prefaced jargon, but it boils down to a sort of DRM for news—"enforcement," in AP-speak.

For the complete article go to DRM for news? Inside the AP's plan to "wrap" its content. And see in particular the technical specifications for hNews, an extension of hAtom.

For a comparable publication, see Author-Level Digital Rights Management and the Common Point Authoring System: Protecting Information Exchange.

Microsoft Office Applications and Data Ownership - Part II

Return to Part I

The growing dominance of Microsoft's BizTalk Server offers an interesting - and very real - opportunity for accelerating the transformation of Microsoft Office Applications into SaaS-anized supply chain tools for small businesses (SMBs).

BizTalk is the leader in enterprise platform integration. Click on the thumbnail to the right to see an abridged version of the Magic Quadrant found in Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for Back-End Application Integration Projects (Gartner, 19 Dec. 2008). This report is so favorable that Microsoft has licensed this publication for prominent display at Microsoft's BizTalk Server website.

Gartner says that Microsoft's leadership is directly tied to the current and forward-looking strengths of BizTalk:

• Brand recognition, global reach, mind share and huge installed base of products that are leveraged for BizTalk Server sales.
• BizTalk Server installed customer base of more than 8,000 enterprises — two-thirds are estimated to be BizTalk Server 2006 Enterprise Edition or newer.
• BizTalk Server is an identified part of two of Microsoft’s largest and most aggressive initiatives: Microsoft’s Oslo technology [a data modeling platform] and Windows Azure Services Platform [a Cloud computing platform].

But Gartner also has cautionary comments:

• Comprehensive, general-purpose metadata management (that is, business process models, component models, data models, applications, services and interface artifacts) will only become available incrementally as future versions of Microsoft’s Oslo technology and Windows Azure extend the capabilities that exist today in BizTalk.
• Currently there are no products for managing and implementing policy and life cycle management integrated with BizTalk Server.

Let's take a look at the following high-altitude slides for better understanding what Gartner is talking about vis-a-vis 'life cycle management'. 

View Microsoft Office Applications and Data Ownership - Part II on Scribd

As mentioned in the slide show, integrating Pardalis' metadata business rules with BizTalk's business rules provides a head start for massively connecting 10's of millions (to say the least) of small businesses to BizTalk's enterprise business activity monitoring. The key is providing small businesses with life cycle, chain-of-custody managment of their own data products. Providing this kind of data ownership to small businesses is the path of least resistance to Ballmer's visions of integrating supply chain competitors.

NYT: Facebook's Users Ask Who Owns Their Information

Reacting to an online swell of suspicion about changes to Facebook’s terms of service, the company’s chief executive moved to reassure users on Monday that the users, not the Web site, “own and control their information”....

For the complete New York Time's article, go to Facebook's Users Ask Who Owns Their Information.

Update on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 2:16PM by Steve Holcombe

"Under fire from tens of thousands of users, the social networking site Facebook said early Wednesday it is reverting to its old policy on user information -- for now ...." See the complete CNN article at Facebook backs down, reverses on user information policy.

Cloning passport card RFIDs

From RegisterDanGoodIn on YouTube:

"Ethical hacker Chris Paget demonstrates a low-cost mobile device that surreptitiously reads and clones RFID tags embedded in United States passport cards and enhanced drivers' licenses."

For the full story see The Register article.