Comments on: Data Manifesto

By: Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly — Thu, 02 May 2019 00:13:00 +0000

In reply to Rich Edwards. Yes, I think you have it correct.

By: Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly — Thu, 02 May 2019 00:12:00 +0000

Well I don’t own any of the words used in my post. The word “post” is not owned by anyone. I may claim some special rights about the arrangement of those common words, if they are indeed unique — and the longer the string the more likely they are unique. I don’t have many rights to this arrangement; I have some, and they are only temporary. ANd I have some responsibilities with what I write as well. After a short time my privileges for that arrangement vanishes and it returns to the commons. To the extent that my heartbeat is unique (some of the pattern is shared, some not) I may have temporary privileges to it, but so does the heartbeat sensor maker which recorded it.

By: Jessica Rochelle

Jessica Rochelle — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 11:41:00 +0000

I'm keen the multitude of web log posts, I simply in earnest cherished, I'd just like the data required for it once more, as it's terribly marvelous., Cheers in support of transfer. Arthur Fleck jacket

By: artmaker43

artmaker43 — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 23:18:00 +0000

Isn’t this what Aaron Swartz was saying?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz

By: Rich Edwards

Rich Edwards — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 11:23:00 +0000

On the privacy issue, I imagine the concerns around protections that come from certain data being not in the commons is addressed by the rights and responsibilities idea. For example, if we want to prevent discrimination in hiring or insurance coverage for people with genetic disorders, this is not solved with making that information private, but possible from a data governance/transparency structure that prevents the adverse effects from happening. The trick then is preventing the bad actor from creating a disguise or other façade for discrimination (think the history of redlining in housing/insurance and the obfuscation of the practice).

By: Dean Reeds

Dean Reeds — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 04:17:00 +0000

Wow, that’s a great conversation starter Kevin!

I like the brevity but it leaves me wondering about a few important things…

I generate a fair bit of what I call “personal data” – everything from records of what I eat to my journal entries to my toddler’s blood oxygenation levels and other health data.

So your #1, “Data cannot be owned” statement makes me wonder, if I (or my son) don’t own the data we generate, how do we assert control over it? Your #4 assigns me rights but but how would I define and enforce them?

It makes me think of copyright for data. From my limited understanding of copyright, it grants exclusive rights to the creator of an original work but I’m not sure you’re talking about extending copyright to, “April 23, 2013 at 8:13pm – heart rate 102bpm, spO2 93%”.

It also makes me think of some sort of de facto Creative Commons template for data but I don’t know how that would work?

And it makes me think of our “expectation of privacy” – if data is created in a solitary fashion (me logging my sleep patterns or my ratings of books I read) then I should expect it to remain private by default. On the other side, publicly generated data like a city’s traffic flow data, or annual hospital visits data rights should default to be public domain.

What I’m trying to get at is, what specifically needs to change in the real world to make your manifesto succeed?

Admittedly, my focus is on personal data. I’d like to see a world where people take their life’s data so seriously that they are meticulous about recording it, maintaining it and bequeathing it where they see fit. I’m really interested to see where your manifesto leads to.