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We live in a world where data is currency and for too long, most of us have been spending without knowing it.Every click, search, and transaction generates information that shapes the products we see, the prices we pay, and even the opportunities we’re offered. Yet the people generating all that value, individuals like you and me, rarely get a seat at the table. Empowering people with control of…

For years, many of us have been making the case that giving people control over their own data isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s an enormous economic opportunity. But “enormous” isn’t a number, and if you want to move decision makers, you need numbers. The Dock, Accenture’s innovation lab, recently completed research that explored the opportunity for Ireland to lead Europe’s digital…

One of the most frustrating things for those of us that have been working in the decentralized identity space for years is the level of confusion that surrounds it. We can’t even agree on what to call it. Is it self-sovereign identity, decentralized identity, identity 3.0, or (how I think of it) self-sovereign data exchange? So, in this blog post I wanted to quickly correct three misconceptions…

Accenture’s Tech Vision 2023 “When Atoms meet Bits” paints a future that fuses the physical and digital, moving away from isolated digital experiences to realize a digital society that seamlessly converges the physical lives we’ve been leading with the digital ones we’ve been rapidly expanding, allowing integrated and personalized experiences that will change how we live our lives. To quote…

This is an elevator pitch level for the uninitiated, because the more folks that understand the basic principles of self-sovereign identity, the more adoption we will see, and the more value it will realize to individuals, governments, and corporates.

In my last blog post I shared Accenture’s Tech Vision 2023 “When Atoms meet Bits” which paints a future that seamlessly converges our physical and digital lives, powered by AI models that will fundamentally change our world. It calls out digital identity as the first of the four foundational trends driving this new reality and shared some exciting news about the levels of interest. However, all…

Excited to announce the launch of Digital Health Pass, https://github.com/digitalhealthpass, an open source project that we hope can help contribute to the growing demands for a robust, secure, enterprise-ready credentialing eco-system. #identity #selfsovereign #privacy #healthTweet In 2022, IBM Watson Health became Merative, a new healthcare company committed to building a more connected future…

The end of an era…

On October 1st I will be leaving IBM and I wanted to mark this occasion with a blog post to book-end what was a challenging, rewarding, and stimulating time in my career. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster at times, but one that has allowed me to work on a wide variety of projects and make friendships that I will hold with me long after I leave the company. I was fortunate enough to spend my…

Can bigdata analytics rewrite history?

On May 30th the Kule Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Alberta is hosting a live-streamed Around the World Symposium on Technology and Culture, a forum that will bring together scholars from around the world to talk about digital culture. Imagine a 24-hour conference that winds its way around the world bringing together leading institutes in the digital humanities. Trinity…

IBM Digital Health Pass goes live!

I’ve been talking, for what seems like forever, about decentralized identity and the democratization of the data supply chain, so I’m super excited to announce that the IBM Watson Healthcare decentralized identity solution, IBM Digital Health Pass, is now available. You can find out more on the IBM product page, https://www.ibm.com/products/digital-health-pass, and over the coming weeks I’ll…

Principles to consider when building a decentralized identity solution

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but building on the new.”, Socrates (470-399 BC)

As I shared in my last blog post, Empowering individuals to be active participants in the global data ecosystem, over the coming weeks I will be writing a series of blog posts that broadly discuss my work on decentralized identity and one output of that work, the IBM…

Is self-sovereign #identity the solution to Ireland's Public Services Card nightmare? #data #privacy #ethics #SovrinID

Let’s start with a quick explanation of self-sovereign identity (SSI) for those not already familiar.

Well, as the name would indicate, SSI a philosophy for managing personal data which puts control into the hands of the individual. It has been embraced by standards bodies, such as w3c with Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials, and open source projects, such as Hyperledger…

Can blockchain solve Data Privacy so that everyone wins: Individuals, Corporations and Governments?

As we move towards an increasingly digital world, the data we generate is rapidly growing in volume and in value; influencing our lives in ways that are often hard to predict and seemingly impossible to control. Data is becoming the fuel that runs our corporations, our governments, and ultimately our society; with the potential to drive innovation and transform how services are delivered to us,…

Why I’m a #blockchain convert…

Every since the blockchain hype started a few years ago, I’ve been sceptical that it was just another shiny toy for techies to play with; we’re like magpies. It’s become buzzword bingo, where every product strategy needs to add the word Blockchain, whether it makes sense or not, which in many cases has left me scratching my head and asking myself why? Recently I joined a new Blockchain Incubator…

Will companies start to take #data #privacy & #ethics seriously? At last…

This weekend’s Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandal is shocking but not surprising. The privacy and ethics of data science has long been the elephant in the room. I was rooting through my blog archives and it was depressing to see how many posts I’ve written on this topic over the years, particularly since we’ve made little to no progress as an industry.

Will this latest Cambridge Analytica…

On a professional level, the event was a great opportunity to meet with a diverse cross-section of technologists and data scientists from the region and to get to hear their perspectives on the challenges that face our industry, specifically as it pertains to female participation. The event was extremely well organized and structured in such a way to give lots of opportunity for conversation, with the inspiring talks contributing to passionate discussion. I was also lucky enough to join a round table, hosted by Dr. Dima Jamali who is representative of the Global Compact Network Lebanon (GCNL), to discuss the role of data science in furthering progress of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It was fascinating to engage with a broad cross-section of interested parties to explore this intersection of technology, data, analytics, and global development.

On a personal level, this trip to Lebanon resulted in so many great memories that will stay with me a long time. I have to confess that when I was initially invited to attend this event I was a wee bit nervous. I had never visited the Middle East (aside from Dubai) and what with all the negative news these days, it is not too surprising that we all freak out at the idea of visiting the region. However after speaking with the organizers, I decided to stop being a baby and just go… and I am so glad that I did.

Lebanon is the most amazing place to visit. The people are so friendly and welcoming, the food is to die for, and the history of the place is just outstanding; especially if you are a sucker for the history of ancient civilizations, which I am. Do you know that Lebanon as been conquered by 17 civilizations since the Phoenicians 3,000+ years ago? You can’t dig a hole in Beirut, but you hit on the ruins of half a dozen civilizations, all layered on top of each other. During my stay I went on 3 different tours, all recommended by my new friends at that American University which covered North, South, and East of the country. Every place I visited was amazing, however if I had to pick the top 3 places, they would be the following:

Baalbek: This has the largest and best preserved Roman temples in the world, they are truly spectacular.

Beit ed-Dine: This is a palace built during the Ottoman period and is really very beautiful and gives some sense of how they would have lived during that period.

Byblos: This is a Phoenician town and also has ruins from the Crusaders. Since the Phoenician period is much older than the Roman or Islamic periods, it’s not as well preserved but still gives a feeling of how they would have lived, and the town is also very quaint.

One extra “must visit” is the Jeita Grotto which comprises two truly beautiful (and huge) caves that are just spectacular. Unfortunately you can’t take photos inside the grottos, so here is a link to a photo on the Discover Lebanon website.

So I’ll finish up by extending a huge thanks to the folks from the AUB who organized everything and ensured that my visit was productive, both professionally and personally, with a special call-out to Fida Kanaan and Mirna Mekdashi. You guys are awesome. I also must make good on a promise I made to my Nakhal tour guide Natasha, which was that I would tell everyone I meet that “Lebanon is a great place to visit and a place you should all have on your Bucket List”.

As data becomes a new currency, why should we care?

In my previous blog post, “Let’s please stop talking #privacy“, I talked about the proliferation of personal data collection and why we needed to shift the conversation from preventing data being collected, something that I would argue is impossible to implement in practical terms, and instead focus on data rights for the individual. In this post I want to examine the way data is evolving as a…