Genesis of a Dynamic Data Economy
Introduction to a Dynamic Data Economy (DDE)
"Data is like electricity. It has value when it flows; it is costly when it stagnates."
The convergence of technology and data is propelling us into an era of instant access to information. Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to broaden the scope of our fascination with final frontier exploration. “Data” is the fuel behind these quality of life advancements, bringing a deeper level of insight, knowledge, and value to civil society. In conjunction with these insights, and in reaction to the growing mistrust in information technologies, we are witnessing the birth of a decentralisation movement that will empower a Dynamic Data Economy (DDE) where prosperity, freedom, fairness, and education can be enjoyed by all.
Throughout 2020, the Human Colossus Foundation will publish a series of blog posts and contributions from experts that, as a collective body of work, will provide a synergistic primer for a DDE in the works. We begin that story here!
The birth of the current data economy: A sad introduction
Internet-related services and social media companies founded in the late ’90s and early ’00s triggered a digital hoarding revolution with large amounts of personal data captured and stored in corporate data silos under centralised control. Profitability skyrocketed at Silicon Valley’s largest technology companies courtesy of deployed marketing tools that would enable third-party vendors to target individuals through dynamic criteria searches without explicit consent to do so. An unparalleled corporate drive for data ownership was driven by revenue models relying heavily on targeted advertising mechanisms.
Corporate responsibility regarding data privacy should have escalated in parallel with this relentless spiral for increasingly intrusive profiling. Responses by sovereign entities were local and loosely coordinated at best. Until the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in May 2018, strong legislation at scale (e.g. European Union) had not yet been enforced to prevent the unethical distribution of personal data. With trust in Internet-related services eroded, the data economy started to decelerate. As a result, we now find ourselves at a crucial societal juncture regarding data privacy and surveillance.
Back to the roots of success: Decentralisation
Designed for data sharing, universally decentralised protocols were always at the core of Tim Berners-Lee’s original vision of the World Wide Web back in 1989. Today, over half the world’s population is connected to the Internet. In conjunction with the exponential rise of data capture, Satoshi Nakamoto’s groundbreaking 2008 white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” triggered a peer-to-peer (P2P) computing revolution where files and transaction proofs could be shared directly between network nodes without the requirement of a central server. In 2009, Bitcoin became the first cryptocurrency to utilise a decentralised ledger to keep a record of all transactions taking place across a P2P network. In July 2015, Ethereum used that foundational “blockchain” technology to feature smart contract functionality giving rise to a golden age of distributed ledger technology (DLT) solutions that continue to mould the current decentralisation movement.
Born from technological innovations in immutable data capture, authenticable data entry and trusted consent, the DDE concept restores the equilibrium between centralisation and decentralisation. It supports data usage and privacy expectations in the digital world where prosperity, freedom, fairness, and education can be enjoyed by all in the absence of data silos. It is also an umbrella term for the encapsulation of components required for a safe and secure data sharing economy. It empowers individuals by improving their right to self-determination regarding personal data.
A DDE dynamises the re-birth of the data economy
The post-millennial generation has witnessed an explosion of captured data points, which has sparked profound possibilities in both AI and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. This has spawned the collective realisation that today’s current technological infrastructure needs new interaction paradigms to support de-identification and to entice corporations to break down internal data silos, streamline data harmonisation processes and ultimately resolve worldwide data duplication and storage resource issues.
Data-centric innovation leads to a future society where new values and services will be created continuously. Governed but not controlled, these advances will make people’s lives more conformable and sustainable.
In line with the decentralisation movement, the Human Colossus Foundation founders have conceptualised a new privacy-by-design data sharing model to act as a roadmap for a DDE. We are heading into an era where siloed data ownership will be superseded by consented access to subsets of decentralised data where the primary economic resource is not the data itself, but consensual data flows. In data dynamics, a stagnation point is a point in a flow field where the local velocity of the data is zero, which leads us to our citation, “Data is like electricity. It has value when it flows; it is costly when it stagnates.”
In conclusion, and with the re-birth of the data economy in mind, we can complete the initial paragraph of this blog with the expected benefits of a DDE. Instant access to information continues to broaden our fascination with final frontier exploration and rich fauna and flora diversity here on Earth. Alongside other human-centric parameters, a DDE facilitates improved personal healthcare through inclusive and accurate data flows. This enables the development of life-changing cures for rare, chronic, and fatal diseases through fluid yet trusted data sharing. Through a DDE, “data” is upgraded from the digital economy’s “fuel” (energy) to its “lifeblood”, carrying the elements necessary for these quality of life advancements by bringing a deeper level of insight, knowledge and value to civil society.
As part of the DDE Primer series, our next featured blog post will highlight the crucial semantic distinctions between “data capture” and “data entry” as we begin to shed light on key components of the Master Mouse Model (MMM), our roadmap to a DDE.
The Human Colossus Foundation emblem
Note: The main goal of the Human Colossus Foundation is to facilitate the creation and development of a DDE in a new paradigm of web interaction where innovative human-centric business models can be tested and developed by leveraging user-centric services, data aggregation, decentralised identity and distributed trust frameworks. Our aim is to support communities, businesses and individuals who are looking to integrate with (and participate in) this new ecosystem on equal terms.
