Funny that half the comments so far are people linking to their own projects in this space.<p>Yep, me too.<p>Try a demo: <a href="https://demo.sandstorm.io/demo" rel="nofollow">https://demo.sandstorm.io/demo</a><p>And here's the code: <a href="https://github.com/sandstorm-io/sandstorm" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/sandstorm-io/sandstorm</a>
I've spent the last 3 years in this space[1]. 2 of those were with a fellowship from the Shuttleworth Foundation[2].<p>I applaud all the efforts to free up and decentralize data. I believe it's the future but the way we're approaching it is making that a very distant future.<p>My suggestions are simple. Data ownership will not be solved by technology. Focus and practice on framing the solution in a way that people connect with. Build that into the fabric of your team. And be prepared to spend a lot of time figuring out how you can describe what a world where you own your data looks like and how it is drastically better than today's world.<p>It's all too easy to get caught up in writing code.<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/photo/frontend" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/photo/frontend</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/fellows/current/jaisen-mathai/" rel="nofollow">https://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/fellows/current/jaise...</a>
One thing that is missing from most homes is symmetrical internet access. As long as most people can download data significantly faster than upload them, data hosted in the cloud has advantages. Ideally eventually internet connections would become symmetric and fast enough for everyone to have their own low power server with a static ipv6 address at home, with which they can sync all their data. Of course this does not solve the problem that most sever software has complicated configuration and open source alternatives often lack the polish of commercial products. But as soon as there is a switch to ipv6 and symmetric internet access, I see little reason why a decentralized solution would not win.
I'm in favour of making it easy for individuals to own their 'digital' life.<p>However, simply having a 'data store' isn't enough. You need to have a system that actually <i>runs</i> some infrastructure for you and then 'data collection' is an obvious side-effect. There are number of projects I'm involved with that take different approaches to this, including technical infrastructure for distributed systems and personal clouds [1,3] as well as business models and market places [2]. Systems like these can provide benefits to end-users that include resilience and flexibility -- it's not just about privacy.<p>[1] <a href="http://nymote.org/blog/2013/introducing-nymote/" rel="nofollow">http://nymote.org/blog/2013/introducing-nymote/</a> and <a href="http://openmirage.org/wiki/overview-of-mirage" rel="nofollow">http://openmirage.org/wiki/overview-of-mirage</a><p>[2] <a href="http://hubofallthings.com/what-is-the-hat/" rel="nofollow">http://hubofallthings.com/what-is-the-hat/</a><p>[3] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8020635" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8020635</a>
This is an idea/concept that has been around for awhile but nobody has been able to execute (well) on it. I like the initial work brought forth through this team and will definitely continue to watch with a close eye.<p>I think this is a natural progression to the future that the industry doesn't want to happen. Best of luck to the team though and everyone else working on similar projects!
Owning your own data sounds good. Unfortunately, once you share a piece of data, it's out there forever.<p>What we all need is to have our own personal servers that validate tokens. Then we would just give out these one-time use tokens to people or institutions. Does the bank need a SSN? Well, here is an auto-generated token. Bank stores that, but to validate it, it calls your personal little server, which checks for use.<p>Unfortunately, systems are built which require personal information. So eventually, for example, the government or a third party service to get credit reports needs your actual SSN. Then you are hosed.<p>Alternatively, all information could be free, but ALL systems would require your personal server for "permission to use." That of course is highly complicated.<p>The problem is everybody / every app thinks they <i>need</i> some piece of information. It bothers me when I go to a weekend clinic to take my son and they ask for an SSN. Why? I am going to pay you and walk out of here. "We need to send the report to your real pediatrician." well, just send it. It's not like they wont be able to file it.<p>I hope somebody smart comes up with a definitive solution, but a lot of processes, people's attitudes and systems need to be recreated from scratch.
This space is not easy to penetrate. VCs are not interested because there is no easy short term money in it. Large companies are not interested because they would like something with market traction (impressive prototype stage) to buy. Developers who are in this space know well that this requires way more money than you can raise from Kickstarter.
It would be great if all of the people who posted on this page did a google hangout and joined hands (or at least a subset). I think this is bigger than any of these projects individually. Succeeding in this space means something as big as Google, Facebook and Apple. If you are interested in the hangout idea and would like to meet up with other similar project founders (or like minded people), perhaps you can drop me a message (with your email) and we can get started?
I like the idea of owning and controlling the permissions of all my data at the source, then those settings applying everywhere on the internet - in all the different social media services and systems out there.<p>Stored in the cloud space of my choice. Continually updated as I live my life, my data would be something I own that I could selectively share to social media services or other individuals or systems with fine-grained control over the whole lot.<p>Services like Facebook would need to change how they worked. Facebook would not disappear it would just shift its focus to offering a place to use your data.<p>Taking back the data keys would be a cool direction to evolve, and fun having new responsibilities of managing your own living-breathing data, be it stored in the cloud, your phone, or an encrypted USB stick- up to you.
My proposal in this space is unique: decentralized AND built on an existing protocol, email! See:<p><a href="http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=76" rel="nofollow">http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=76</a><p>You don't even need special software to set it up. Standard email autoresponder features make it work (see my demo).
This is great. Assuming something like this becomes the new normal, I feel like the next problem is micro-payments so that people can get paid for their data.
This, or something like this, is my best guess at dealing with the "loss" of privacy.<p>THere are some exciting ideas coming out of (of all places) UK local government, looking at ways to tame the crazy number of proprietary apps that think they should own the database at the centre of their world - simply by forcing the data into the app then back again.
We have been working on something similar for a few years now: <a href="https://register.blib.us" rel="nofollow">https://register.blib.us</a>