My Digital Footprint

OPENING REMARKS – THE AUTHOR’S MOTIVATION AND BIAS

Marmite. Rather an odd first word for a book on digital footprints; however, some love it and some don’t. Is your glass half full or half empty? Maybe not the best way to categorise human behaviour and our attitude to life, but one we understand. Cancer, faith, wealth, fame and world records: some people get it and some don’t.

Identity, privacy, digital you, the social data revolution and this book on MY DIGITAL FOOTPRINT drive head first into the same upfront contention, some do and some don’t. Some are advocates who want to embrace, contribute, collaborate and participate; others hate the idea of ‘big brother’: control, snooping and invasion.

As ‘becoming digital’ continues its pervasive invasion into every aspect of life, there will be a higher, wider and deeper realisation that MY DIGITAL FOOTPRINT is important for board and executive functions in marketing, operations, sales, finance, product development and legal; no-one is outside of the consequences.

The book has been written to provide the reader a framework to look at opportunities, strategy, governance and investments in this exciting area and to help provide a rationale as to where to focus time, energy and resource. It is not intended to convert or change professional beliefs, overcome resistance to change or answer all questions. Some of the issues raised are controversial, not for the mundane reason just to be controversial, but there are some underlying important strategic issues that need to be unpacked and discussed in a framework where ideologies can be put to one side and the value and concepts presented. Whilst not bold enough to say this goal will be achieved, I do hope it contributes, as exploitation of digital data is one of the most exciting areas of growth for the next five years.

The focus within the text is on Business to Consumer (B2C) mainly because it is easy to touch and see, but there is a distinct lack of the mention of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and data mining. There is a passing mention of Business to Business (B2B) within a context that the same framework developed for B2C equally applies, and acknowledgment that there will be many businesses within the B2C value chain that are B2B and sit between the collection and value-adding outputs. The implications are that businesses have to decide what business they are in, no one business can do it all and how those businesses involved in creating value for an end user act together for each other’s benefit (co-operation). The business models and frameworks are designed to make you think and are not prescriptive for any specific industry or economic model but embraces cross-subsidiary; two sides and freemium model are examples.

Whilst what I believe in is unimportant, I do subscribe to these points of view.

“The digital divide will not always be about access, but those who engage and participate and those who do not.” Tony Fish, June 2009

“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.” Beverly Sills

“Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it.” Marvin the paranoid android. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

To those who have helped refine the story

In 1996, when I read Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte, I kind of understood the idea of the slug trail. Since then MY DIGITAL FOOTPRINT, shadow, virtual identity, digital identity, digital exhaust, social revolution has been in and out of discussions with many of my social crowd. Many people have helped define and refine  MY DIGITAL FOOTPRINT and continue to do so at the website. I am, however, indebted to: David Birch (Consult Hyperion); Nicky Hickman (Inglis Jane); Daniel Solomons (Pond Consulting xBLYK); Lord Erroll; Tom Ilube (Garlik); Jerry Fishenden ( NTOUK xMicrosoft); Gary Gale (Yahoo!); Jouko Ahvenainen (xtract); Alan Patrick (Broadsight); Peter Cochrane (CA Global); Vic Keegan (Guardian), Professor James Woudhuysen, Peter Miles (subTV), Martin Leake (footprint graphic design) and Ajit Jaokar (blogger and publisher).

Tony Fish (AMF Ventures, mashup*)