Here in the UK 2008 will probably go down in history as the year that the general population realised that there data was being lost by... well mainly by the Government.

The Open Rights Group ( www.openrightsgroup.org ) is an organisation here in the UK that:

The Open Rights Group exists to preserve and promote your rights in the digital age.

And by all accounts we need them!
This week they released a short web questionnaire that gives you an idea of how much of your personal data has been or could have been lost. It is quite scary, so if you are brave take a look over at http://www.openrightsgroup.org/dataloss

The accompanying blog post is interesting reading too: http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/12/ ... your-data/

Finally, you might also consider supporting them financially.
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/support-org/

For me the most annoying thing about all the data that is being lost is that it is that most of it was preventable. Mainly (and I don't have all the facts of course), the problems seem to be caused by poor design. The fact that people were able to copy data to CDs and USB sticks is the issue, not that people did it.

As far as I am concerned, the "system" should not have allowed people to do things that would result in the data being lost. So for example the databases should only be able to export into encrypted formats. PCs in these places should perhaps have the USB ports removed/disconnected and no CD drives installed. At least they should have software installed to prevent the use of CD and USB drives.

But the databases and database driven applications themselves should have prevented it as well. The client software should only be able to export to a encrypted format. The data inside the databases could/should have been encrypted.

The issue I suspect is that these organisations are trying to use the lowest bidder and there probably has not been enough informed leadership on the projects. So we end up with insecure systems being implemented that allow staff to innocently (or not) to act in insecure ways like copying data onto CD or USB stick.

I don't think we should blame the poor "grunt" who was told by some supervisor to "get this data to so and so". Nor should we probably blame the supervisor. We could blame the people saying that government departments need databases and to share data between departments quite so much. But most of all we should be blaming the project managers who implemented solutions that allowed insecure actions to occur.

There seems to be an approach of allowing sharing by default in these data loss situations. As opposed to the systems being designed to prevent any sharing by default.

As Britain accelerates towards ID cards and larger and larger databases about the general population, we can but hope that some of these projects start having better leadership and better more secure design.

So here we are mid December, outside the office window it is cold, greay and foggy.

It has been an interesting couple of weeks (since the last personal update), I have been quietly beavering away on www.envirtua.com and it is starting to come to life.

I have both paying customers and a "pipeline" of potential work. The site is getting some attention and I have even been asked to speak at a Cloud Computing event next year (details to follow).

2009 is starting to look pretty good now. Of course 2008 is still suffering from a cold, wet, credit crunch look.

I am starting to get a rhythm to my working life again.
Obviously when I first said "Sayonara" to my previous job the gt reaction was to slack off and being at home more than I have in about 5 years is taking some getting used too.

On the plus side, I have been able to be engaged with my kids in a way that I have not been able to enjoy when I was stuck working in Basingstoke. I now have the flexibility to attend their Christmas play at school during the day. I enjoy my walking them to school before work. I enjoy seeing them more and wish I had decided to go it alone earlier.

It is not all plain sailing of course, it takes time to build a client base and the "Cloud Computing" stuff in particular takes time. So income is limited, as are savings, especially around Christmas. So I am trying to be "thrifty" and sensible.

For example, the heater on the car gave out. A common fault on Ford KAs I gather. So rather than send it to the garage and pay 150-200 quid to get it repaired, I did it myself for the sum total of 16 pounds for the spare part I needed.

Sure it took an hour of my day, and much of my swearing ration for a month, but I did it. I also am enjoying the benefits of being able to have lunch at home not a sandwich bar. I must be saving at least 15-25 quid a wekk there alone!

Next step is to get exercising again. This has really slipped with the change of job and the ill health. I have not been on a Judo mat in ages and I am itching to get out and throw some people about.

I also have not been for a run in ages, which I really have no excuse for now. Except I am lazy, and lookingat the proximity to Christmas and New years, I don't see myself getting into it again till next year.

So again, looking forward to 2009.

Lance

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo.

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In my previous post I mentioned I had ordered "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko".

So I read it this afternoon.

I loved it! Now this, like Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother", this is a book I would love to be able to give to teenagers everywhere. This is a great bit of guidance for younger people.

Much like Little Brother, this book grabbed the 18 year old that lives inside my mind. Together these two books are a little guide as to how to think in the modern world.

Recently I have been talking to people about coaching Judo to Digital Natives. Both these books would be on my official reading list if I was to run a course. :-)

So, yeah, buy the book. read it first, then give it to a young person you know as a gift.

Finally, thanks to Dan Pink for commenting on the previous post about his book. How cool is that!

Lance

Linkage:

http://www.johnnybunko.com/
Buy Johnny Bunko from Amazon UK, or Amazon USA.
Buy Little Brother from Amazon UK or Amazon USA .
Cory Doctorow's website.

The No2ID campaign has released a video this week called "Take Jane".
You can watch it here: http://www.no2id.net/TakeJane/ where there is more information on the video and the campaign. To save you a click here it is embedded in this post:


I at one point faced the possibility of being involved in delivering the ID card scheme from a technical perspective. I tell ya, I was please when the firm I was looking for did not get a contract. For a start it was a huge project that SCL could never have delivered, secondly I had pretty serious moral concerns about being involved.

On that topic... employers involved with the project, please talk to your employees about if they actually feel comfortable working on the ID card scheme.

Two reasons for this. One, you don't want to have employees working on a project that they disagree with. The reasons for this are various, they are not going to give their all for a start.

Two, unhappy employees are more likely to make the system even less robust, either unintentionally or intentionally. The system is pretty risky anyway, we really really don't want flaws in the technical side.

Anyway, watch the video consider the points being raised and decide what you think about the ID card scheme.

Want more info: http://www.no2id.net/TakeJane/

I have just ordered this book "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need", it looks great. In fact it has it's own video trailer:



How can you not love the idea of a career advice book in the style of a Manga comic! They have a website too, http://www.johnnybunko.com/ you should take a look.

The book contains 6 rule for a career in this day and age, and the website is kind enough to share them, and here they are:

1. There is no plan.
2. Think strengths, not weaknesses
3. It’s not about you.
4. Persistence trumps talent.
5. Make excellent mistakes
6. Leave an imprint.

Rule number 6 grabbed my eye and imagination. It echoed some of the stuff Seth Godin talks about in Tribes. Doing a dull 9-5 is not going to leave an imprint. Working a 9-5 CAN leave an imprint, but you have to be in the right environment.

You need to be working somewhere that you are excited about, that has the potential and vision to leave an imprint on the world. If it offers that then 9-5 is great; if not then time maybe to move on?

Perhaps rule 6 is also why people get involved in charities, clubs and open source?

Anyway, if you have read this book and love it, let me know.
If you hated it... well tell me, though I have already placed the order.

If you want to get a copy, you can get new and used copies from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.


Lance