Posted January 5th, 2010
So you’ve probably seen the news – Gartner is acquiring Burton Group. Looks like we’ll be kept whole in a variety of ways; see this note from Gene Hall. I’ll let you know more as I know.
This does bring the number of analyst firms focused on identity, privacy, and relationships down to a very small number. It will be interesting to watch how the market responds.
What is with Tuesdays in my life? 9/11 – a Tuesday. IBM buys Access360 on a Tuesday. Gartner buys Burton Group on a Tuesday. In keeping with this odd streak of Tuesdays, I think I’ll be at Toledo Lounge tonight – see you there?
Posted December 18th, 2009
Facebook’s recent changes to its privacy system has been garnering a lot of attention and not a lot of it is good. Both the EFF and Kaliya Hamlin (via ReadWriteWeb) have written up their takes on the matter and, all in all, I think they are decent assessments.
With all the supposed changes in Facebook’s privacy system, I decided to revisit my work with Privacy Mirror (you can catch the backstory: here and then here). Having retested PM with both friends and strangers, here’s what I’ve learned: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Facebook’s inconsistent treatment of privacy still remains. In a nutshell, what a 3rd party developer can see in your profile, having been granted access to you via your friends, directly depends on whether you have the same application they do. If you and your friends use the same Facebook app, then the 3rd party developer will see your profile (and photos and posts, etc.) as if that developer was your friend. If you do not use the same Facebook app that your friend does, then the 3rd party application is subject to a different set of constraints.
I question whether the recent changes Facebook has instituted have even remotely satisfied Commissioner Stoddart’s concerns with Facebook, specifically 3rd party access to user information. Although users can control the scope of disclosure of their posts a bit better, defaulting settings to “Everyone” access as well as potentially making user’s social graphs public undermines any attempt to cast Facebook in a pro-user control light. Continue reading "Facebook privacy revisited: Privacy Mirror version 2"...
Posted December 17th, 2009
There are great cities that happen to be national capitals. Cities like London and Paris are such places. Great food, great culture, great sites – a good time is had by all. Then there are national capitals that want to be great cities. Washington and Ottawa happen to fall into this category. Neither has the vibe/density/scene that London and Paris have, but they are trying. (And this is where my mother-in-law would add the phrase, “bless their hearts.”)
I happen to be in Ottawa a few weeks back and had some kick ass meals. First up, Murray Street – a charcuterie and wine bar. They bring much respect to meats – all of them. Anywhere that has an offal of the day as well as a whole pig head on the menu gets my vote any day of the week. It is a small place with a great feel. Highly recommend.
Next up – The Whalesbone Oyster House. Go. There. Now. Imagine a tiny restaurant embedded into an old bike shop. Forget open kitchen, the hot stations are actually in the seating area and the night we were there the a/c wasn’t working – forcing the staff into tank tops and shorts. Whalesbone is, as the name implies, an oyster and fish joint and it takes its ingredients seriously. If the amazing fish, oysters, and drinks doesn’t do it for you, then try this – when was the last time you went to a bar or restaurant where the music was provided by records? Two huge stacks of records behind the bar, from which Ray Charles, Abba, and Sam & Dave were pulled when we were there. The staff has been friends since high school and you can feel their love for the place in everything they do. Again – go there now! Continue reading "On Capitals and Eating: A short trip report from Ottawa"...
Posted November 23rd, 2009
Continuing Burton Group’s work of social networking and social media, I’ve been having various forms of this conversation over the last few weeks. First, I was at TechAmerica talking about social networks, privacy, and data breaches. Although the audio isn’t great, you can get the gist from this video. Then I was talking to the guys from InfoChimps ahead of their debut of some huge Twitter datasets. (The potential for data they have is pretty breath-taking.) Meanwhile, I am prep’ing a more formalized version of this talk for an upcoming OWASP event. With all this activity I thought I’d share a part of it.
On the whole, people have no problem using social networking tools. Whether for personal or for work reasons more and more people are using a variety of tools to share and connect. And in this regard, we can think of social tools as engines for disclosure. Although people are relatively comfortable making disclosures such as “had a great meal in Ottawa” or “have to burn the midnight oil to get this blog post done,” people feel uncomfortable when these disclosures appear in other places. This feeling is akin to reaching into your computer bag and finding a long lost banana: a little foreign, a little gross, and a little strange. People often want to keep their social structures separates and, using a highly technical word, people feel oogy when they discover that something they have disclosed (an activity, a group they may have joined, a relationship they formed, a trip they have taken, etc) is known by other people in other networks. Continue reading "Why seeing your social activities again seems so uncomfortable?"...
Posted November 17th, 2009
A friend in the industry recently asked me for my thoughts on OpenID, InfoCards, and the US federal government’s work to consume non-government issued credentials. Letting the question rattle around in my head for a while, here’s what I’ve got so far.
My hope is that the overall ICAM initiative is successful—not because I have been eagerly waiting to interact with the federal government using some form of authenticated credential—but because we (citizens, enterprises and government) are at a pivotal moment in the history of the web. With the US government working with both the OpenID and InfoCard Foundations, there exists an opportunity to change how individuals interact with large organizations, both public and private. For the first time, individuals would be able to (even encouraged to) interact with a large organization (such as the US federal government) using an identity asserted, not by the large organization, but by the individual. In this case, the State is no longer the sole provider of identity. This breaks the monopoly that the State has had on credentials and is indicative of the future to come.
But there is a long road to walk before getting there. There are numerous concerns with these plans. Among these are notable security concerns, especially with OpenID, that the identity community is not blind to. These are not my primary concerns. Continue reading "Hopes and concerns for identity"...
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lawyer bait I work for The Burton Group, but the postings on this blog reflect only my personal views; they do not necessarily represent the views, positions, strategies or opinions of The Burton Group or its management.
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