Author Archives: Drummond Reed

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About Drummond Reed

Internet entrepreneur in identity, personal data, and governance frameworks

The Personal Cloud, Take 3: Thomas Vander Wal's Personal InfoCloud

Posted on 2/14/2011 by Drummond Reed

When I first heard the term “personal cloud” from Mark Plakias at C3, I knew it sounded vaguely familiar, but it wasn’t until I started this series of blog posts that Kaliya Hamlin (Identitywoman) reminded me that Thomas Vander Wal … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Cloud, Personal Data Ecosystem, Personal Data Server, Personal Data Service, Personal Data Store | 2 Comments

The Personal Cloud, Take 2

Posted on 2/12/2011 by Drummond Reed

There’s been a wonderful discussion of “personal cloud” on the VRM mailing list this week. So far feedback is running about 80% positive on the term. But if there’s one point on which everyone has consensus, it’s that our collective … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Personal Cloud, Personal Data Ecosystem, Personal Data Server, Personal Data Service, Personal Data Store | 2 Comments

You wanna see what killer technical support looks like?

Posted on 2/10/2011 by Drummond Reed

It’s when you send a three line email and within 24 hours you get a reply back like this: TextExpander Support Hi Drummond, Regarding a), we do hear from users occasionally with this issue, although nothing has changed or is … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer Service, Reputation | 2 Comments

The Personal Cloud

Posted on 2/7/2011 by Drummond Reed

The hallmark of a rapidly growing new space is new terminology. Craig Burton goes so far as to posit that the growth of the space will be constrained until it has a lexicon that successfully incorporates its key concepts. All … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Personal Cloud, Personal Data Ecosystem, Personal Data Server, Personal Data Service, Personal Data Store, Social Web | 24 Comments

VRM moving from theory to practice

Posted on 2/5/2011 by Drummond Reed

Just back from the Conversational Commerce Conference (C3) in San Francisco. I congratulate Dan Miller and Greg Sterling at Opus Research for pulling together a strong set of speakers on the real meat of social media (not just the buzzwords … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Data Ecosystem, Personal Data Server, Personal Data Service, Personal Data Store, Social CRM, VRM | Leave a comment

Perfection vs. Mastery

Posted on 2/2/2011 by Drummond Reed

This isn’t a retweet so much as a “reblog” of Sarah Allen’s post about perfection vs. mastery and the 5 minute video there (originally from Abhishek Parolkar). It’s very moving.

Posted in Blogging | Leave a comment

Walter Murch on Why 3D Won't Last

Posted on 1/25/2011 by Drummond Reed

Roger Ebert’s journal has an outstanding letter from film editor Walter Murch that makes a rock-hard case as to why 3D is a film fad that will fade (let alone catch on on TVs). As much as I loved Avatar, … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Leave a comment

Conversational Commerce Conference Feb 2-3

Posted on 1/23/2011 by Drummond Reed

With my focus on the intersection of VRM and the Personal Data Ecosystem, I’ll be at the first Conversation Commerce Conference February 2-3 in San Francisco. See you there.

Posted in Personal Data Ecosystem, VRM | Leave a comment

I am so ready to get rid of these

Posted on 1/19/2011 by Drummond Reed

I have used Akismet blog spam filtering on this blog for several years now, but at least one or two blog spams get through every day and generate an email like the following: A new comment on the post #365 … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Privacy | 1 Comment

Where Good Ideas Come From (Video)

Posted on 1/15/2011 by Drummond Reed

This four-minute video, about Steven Johnson‘s book of the same name, is so brilliantly illustrated that it would be worth watching for that reason alone. But Steve’s underlying point that it illustrates — that when it comes to creativity, “chance … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, VRM | Tagged , | Leave a comment

True Data Portability

Posted on 1/12/2011 by Drummond Reed

I’ve been on the board of Dataportability.org since its founding three years ago. The concept made quite a splash when it was first announced, but I knew that after the hype wore off would come all the hard work of … Continue reading →

Posted in Data Portability, XDI | Leave a comment

Why You Shouldn't Freak Out about NSTIC

Posted on 1/10/2011 by Drummond Reed

Kaliya Hamlin (aki IdentityWoman) has posted a superbly written and documented article on Fast Company about why no one should freak out about NSTIC (the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace). If only all dialog about digital identity infrastructure … Continue reading →

Posted in Identity Commons, Information cards, Open Identity Exchange, OpenID, Personal Data Ecosystem | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Singular Focus in 2011

Posted on 1/5/2011 by Drummond Reed

I made only one New Year’s resolution this year: to maintain the singular focus necessary to succeed with a startup. There’s no need to pontificate on that subject of focus when it comes to startups — it’s an industry cliche … Continue reading →

Posted in Data Portability, Personal Data Ecosystem | 2 Comments

The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge

Posted on 12/15/2010 by Drummond Reed

The moment I read the name of that TechCrunch article by Devin Coldewey I was certain it would articulate the subliminal feeling I’ve been having ever since I bought my iPhone that I am committing less and less to memory … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, iPhone | 1 Comment

Personal Data Ecosystem podcasts

Posted on 12/9/2010 by Drummond Reed

Kaliya Hamlin and Aldo Castañeda have posted their first six podcasts about the emerging personal data ecosystem. If you want to watch this space, it’s a great way to do it.

Posted in Personal Data Ecosystem | Leave a comment

Finally, a truthful privacy policy

Posted on 12/9/2010 by Drummond Reed

For anyone who’ been dealing with Internet privacy, Dan Tynan’s The First Truly Honest Privacy Policy is a scream. (Don’t tell anyone, but it’s much closer to the real truth than anyone really wants to admit.)

Posted in Blogging, Privacy | Leave a comment

127 Hours

Posted on 12/2/2010 by Drummond Reed

Don’t be put off by the appalling truth of the story! Danny Boyle is a genius, James Franco is terrific, and Aaron Ralston is more of a true hero than you could ever imagine. You will be so glad you … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Leave a comment

The Social Network

Posted on 12/2/2010 by Drummond Reed

The book was frankly a “tech soap opera” as one industry friend put it, so when I saw that the Tomatometer for The Social Network was 97%, my jaw was on the floor. After I saw the movie the first … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Social Web | Leave a comment

The real de(tai)l

Posted on 12/2/2010 by Drummond Reed

Techcrunch had a link to this simply excellent blog post about the details behind the readability of Google Maps. It’s like a mini-Malcolm Gladwell essay devoted just to showing why it really is the details that make the difference when … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, XDI | Leave a comment

Google Accounts Getting Easier

Posted on 11/15/2010 by Drummond Reed

I think Google is listening. I did a 3000+ word post last Christmas about the Google Account Problem. Now I’m pleased to report they’ve added Google Account Switching. I’m using it now, it works wonderfully, and it even works across … Continue reading →

Posted in Accounts | Tagged | 2 Comments