Noteworthy Information

Individuals Simple read

Ending the Weekly Digest

This is the 150th - and for now last - issue of the Weekly Digest. It started on June 7th, 2019 as my personal quest to learn more about personal data management. Almost 3 years later here some statistics:

  • 1920 Posts
  • from 242 different authors
  • annotated with 512 tags
  • amounted to 2.95 million website requests from you fellow readers (based on the logs starting in autumn 2019)

Lately, writing the Weekly Digest became more and more of a burden and therefore, I decided to take a break now. A big Thank You to all who participated in this journey: translators, guest contributors, all different kinds of supporters, and readers.

Individuals Advanced read

How social capital helps communities weather the COVID-19 pandemic

Why have the effects of COVID-19 been so unevenly geographically distributed in the United States? This paper investigates the role of social capital as a mediating factor for the spread of the virus. Because social capital is associated with greater trust and relationships within a community, it could endow individuals with a greater concern for others, thereby leading to more hygienic practices and social distancing.

Business & Government Intermediate read

Inside the Rise and Fall of Clubhouse

More than any other startup, Clubhouse epitomizes the venture-capital-backed euphoria that swept the tech industry since lockdowns shut millions of people inside and pushed them online for connection, entertainment, and information. Marc Andreessen has called the app "the Athenian agora come to life," referring to the hub of democracy in ancient Greece. It has raised more than $100m from his firm and other top VCs, garnering a $4bn valuation. But with vaccinations rising and more people returning to normal life, Clubhouse has been hit particularly hard. Daily downloads of the app have plunged more than 90% since a peak in June, while daily average users are down almost 80% since February.

Developers Intermediate read

The Membership Guide

Although membership in news is fairly new beyond public radio, it is not new to other movements for public good. That’s why Membership Puzzle Project studied churches, Burning Man camps, citizen science projects, and other member-driven movements for clues to survival. That research revealed five insights applicable to journalism.

[Simple] The One Number You Need to Grow

If growth is what you’re after, you won’t learn much from complex measurements of customer satisfaction or retention. You simply need to know what your customers tell their friends about you.

[Simple] Wanted: rules for pandemic data access that everyone can trust

In the wake of COVID, a pandemic treaty could be a way to agree on data access before the next emergency strikes.

[Intermediate] The Surprising Role of Shared Language in Inclusion

Too often, well-intentioned companies start groups to celebrate these differences, such as those focused on women or minority ethnic groups. Studies have shown this only makes things worse. One 2015 review found that efforts to celebrate differences can lead non-dominant members to feel uncomfortably aware of their group identities. They feel more marginalized, not less.

[Intermediate] Community-as-a-Service: A Business Model for the 21st Century

How communities generate value and how content creators are profiting from it.

[Simple] Clubhouse’s security and privacy lag behind its explosive growth

In recent months, the audio-based social media app Clubhouse has emerged as Silicon Valley's latest disruptive darling. The format feels familiar: part Twitter, part Facebook Live, part talking on the phone. But as Clubhouse continues to expand, its security and privacy failings have come under increased scrutiny—and left the company scrambling to correct problems and manage expectations.

[Advanced] Citizen led public services

New technologies empower citizens to impact society on an unprecedented scale. Yet the technological innovation environment, in its current form, mainly brings in profits for private companies rather than society’s benefit. While promising social innovations exist, they struggle to reach a critical mass that can match the scale of society’s challenges.

What has MyData Global achieved thus far and why join our journey

MyData Global organisation is 2 years old and regardless of the exceptional circumstances, we have made significant progress towards our vision! Read more about the achievements from the blog post by our amazing general manager Teemu Ropponen.

Data Literacy Project

Building a data-literate culture for all: We are a global community dedicated to making the language of data understood and communicated effectively.

Join the MyData Online 2020 Conference - Register Here

10 – 12 December 2020: Radical collaboration for designing the new normal

  • 1.000 personal data professionals and people interested in the data economy
  • 130+ Presenters from over 50 countries
  • exciting virtual venue Qiqo - learn more

Find all the details on the MyData Online 2020 Conference page - and let's meet in 2 weeks!

The Few, the Tired, the Open Source Coders

Here's something for the MyData community to think about: The open source movement runs on the heroic efforts of not enough people doing too much work. They need help.

MyData view on the leaked EU Data Governance Act

More than 20 experts from the MyData community compiled a collective response to the act. Many of them representing personal data intermediaries. The official publication of the European Commission proposal is expected within a few weeks.

How Cryptography Lets Down Marginalized Communities

Speaking at a prestigious crypto conference this month, Seny Kamara called on the field to recognize its blind spots—and fix them.
The talk, dubbed Crypto for the People (YouTube Video, 1:04 hours) and given on August 19, examined the question of who really benefits from encryption technologies and advances in cryptographic research.

MyData: Applying human-centric principles to health data

The European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) invited MyData to write a feature article as part of their June 2020 Data Economy edition. With a heavy academic and health theme, Casandra from the health data thematic group took up the request to bring together experts from the community on writing a MyData article. 14 individuals from 9 countries contributed to shape the article around the 6 MyData principles drawing from real-world scenarios. The publication points to actionable areas for policy makers, healthcare stakeholders, and medical communicators to advocate for data rights. The article is open-access and publicly available on the EMWA journal website.

Thought Leadership Guidebook

This week a call took place about the MyData Thought Leadership and how reshaping the Thematic Groups can work. Be sure to check out the slide-deck!

MyData Strategy on Campaigns

The strategy of MyData Org is that the organisation won’t start doing citizen campaigns or direct activities targeted towards “regular” people in the coming 3 years but rather focus on the professionals.

MyData Webinar #4: Consent Mechanisms

The MyData Webinar about Consent Mechanisms is now available at https://mydata.org/webinars/ and in our YouTube channel. Presenters are Jim Pasquale from the Kantara Initiative and Crt Ahlin from Datafund.

MyData Webinar #3: Digital Wallets and Vaults

The MyData Webinar about Digital Wallets and Vaults is now available at https://mydata.org/webinars/ and in our YouTube channel. Presenters are Marie-Jose Hoefmans from Schluss and Robert Mitwicki demonstrating Minerva.

FOSS: Open Advice

Here is an interesting resource (from 2011) about open software and community for all that build related solutions/communities.

MyData Community - what is it all about?

We conducted tens of community interviews in the past half a year with the main goal to understand the MyData community better. We’ve now finalised with the analysis, and results are available at https://mydata-global.org/understanding-community-2019.

Meetup Usage

Currently, the MyData Global Meetup account has 12 groups with 1,144 members and held 46 events in 2019. The overall cost for this was EUR 1,317. Costwise this is not much but there is a discussion to switch to alternatives (allevents.in, eventbrite.com, or attending.io) because of low attendance despite high sign-ups. It is planned to take a decision in the next Community call on Wed Dec 18, 2019.

People-Centered Internet

This is a network we could look into. @Iain added: That group is led by Mei Lin Fung (based in California) and is already engaged with Project VRM and Me2B.

Annoying Channel Notifications

If you are annoyed on Slack about too many notifications you are not alone! This thread discussed if it is necessary to establish guidelines to use @channel/@here. For immediate relieve @Sille described a way to turn off all notifications and @Viivi explained how to mute only @channel/@here.

The Global South Is Redefining Tech Innovation

Top-down, unsustainable Silicon Valley needs to learn from Africa, South Asia, and South America, where tech is built for and by users.

MyData Global Community Blog

Read the new MyData community blog post about life after the MyData2019 conference. Find out about all the actions happening during the last part of this year and get even a sneak peek into 2020!

Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale

Despite current ads and slogans, the world doesn’t change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what’s possible.

MyData Webinars

We're starting a series of webinars this fall, with the aim to present different initiatives, projects and services that are contributing to MyData's mission in empowering individuals by improving their right to self-determination regarding their personal data.
The webinars will take place regularly on 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month. First one is already coming up next week on 25th Oct, and will present A New Governance's and Me2B Alliance's work on building a more trustworthy data ecosystem.

Community Blog: Trust-based data-sharing models

Trust must be integrated into all aspects of business, data sharing included. A data economy based on trust is an essential part of socially responsible activities.

The Tech Pledge

Take the Tech Pledge and join the movement: Make tech a force for good. Created by 150 people in technology during this years Techfestival.

Information gerrymandering in social networks skews collective decision-making

An analysis shows that information flow between individuals in a social network can be ‘gerrymandered’ to skew perceptions of how others in the community will vote — which can alter the outcomes of elections.

Invitation to DWeb Camp

The Decentralized Web Camp will be from July 18th - 21st and you are invited to join.


Questions Asked

[Simple] MyData community & membership survey

MyData Global exists to serve the community around MyData. We consider you also a part of the extended community and we want to understand what it is that you want and need. (You can answer anonymously if you want.)

Participate in the “EU Survey on Data Strategy”

It would be important that as many of us as possible could respond to this EC survey related to the data strategy and raise MyData thinking there.

Call for webinar topics 2020

After 4 succesful webinars in 2019, we would like to give you the opportunity to have your say on what we should present in 2020. Click the link to find a few suggestions and a place to add your own suggestion. What topics would you like learn more?

Should AGM coincide with the global conference in odd years?

In the future, would it make sense to organise the association’s autumn general meetings (AGM) to coincide with the global conference in odd years? As in, have the AGM as a part of the conference programme?

PhD research about the MyData Community

I am currently conducting a vanilla PhD research about the MyData community based on the interview material at the University of Helsinki and I wonder if I could gain access to some of the existing data the community has already produced?

Do you host an Athens Community Satellite meeting?

I can host a satellite meeting in Helsinki Finland. I challenge at least 10 other locations to do their satellites, we can get there!

Spread the Message

Are you coming to #MyData2019 conference? Let's spread the message and let's be proud of this awesome event MyData Community is putting together!

Topics for monthly community call

Our next monthly community call is on Aug 16th - time TBD. Would anybody of you like to present some recent developments with others?

Are we open, transparent and participatory enough?

Teemu Ropponen wrote that he recently got some criticism from the membership about MyData Global not being transparent enough. Because transparency is one of the MyData key principles and many of the staff have some background in the open knowledge movement, this feedback stings and needs to be taken seriously. Read more about participation, planning, leading, and finance on Slack!

Which personal data sources would be most useful to get easily portable?

Here's a try for quick crowdsourcing the above question. The aim is to crate a top-20 list.

Who joins Community Call about Japanese Information Banking?

Many of you've heard about the developments in Japan around Information Banking. We'll have the chance to hear more in depth presentations about it at MyData 2019 conference, while we wish to already share insights in the next community telco on July 19th.

How to make the most of our guiding principles?

Sille was listening to the Boss Level podcast and among other things they were talking about corporate values. This could be an interesting input to think about the MyData Guiding Principles!

Do you have a knowledge about any big conferences, festivals etc relevant for us happening in March 2020?

The spring community meeting is planned for March 2020 in Amsterdam and we want to find the best dates possible and avoid the situation where a big event happening at the same time.


Tools
Brella

World’s largest events use Brella to help attendees meet the people they want to meet.

Discourse

Discourse - Civilized Discussion is the 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet. Use it as a mailing list, discussion forum, long-form chat room, and more!

Dyne.org Think & Do Tank

A non-profit free software foundry with more than 15 years of expertise in developing tools and narratives for community empowerment.

Mesensei

Mesensei Private Social Networks is a decentralised platform for communities to communicate, network, and organise events in their private, mobile social media.

Modular

Awesome hosting for Matrix chat and integrations

The Global Data Management Community

DAMA International is a not-for-profit, vendor-independent, global association of technical and business professionals dedicated to advancing the concepts and practices of information and data management.

g0v

Founded in Taiwan, "g0v" is a decentralised civic tech community with information transparency, open results and open cooperation as its core values. g0v engages in public affairs by drawing from the grassroot power of the community.