A Marketer's Utopia
Speaking as a marketer, if consumers made themselves known to me so that I could market to them, it would be very useful. If consumers were able to inform me when they needed something or just wanted a little more information, that would be a marketer's dream. If I could have this in bulk for all consumers in any market at anytime that I want to serve, that would be a marketing utopia.
But as I have already discussed, marketers are already trying to build this marketing utopia so now speaking as a consumer that is everything that I don't want because it violates my privacy.
So the question I now ask is how can I as a consumer make all of this information available to marketers so that I retain control of the information? Namely I remain the single source of the most upto date information and I decide who can access that information, when and what they are able to do with it.
One Schema to Join Them All
You will find below an mark-up schema for how I could publish this information and below that, a publication of that information about me. You will observe discrete chunks of information carry a privacy tag that could be linked into an access control mechanism that would allow me to implement the control that I desire. You might also see that I am not comfortable giving away my own personal information without this control, so some of the data here is fictional.
Information that has both Value and Behavior
Going into a little more detail about the design of the privacy policy, (referring to a concept outlined in Neil Gershenfeld's book 'When Things Begin To Think') information must have behavior as well as value. Hence items of data in the schema will have a Privacy Code of its own - this will include both parent and child items - the privacy code for the child always overriding that of the parent. This case is excepted in certain instances where an item of data has no value in isolation (e.g. the Privacy Code for Drivers License Expiry Date as a standalone date is meaningful, but for the year part of the date is not). In this way, the user or the usage policy will be able to set a very specific level of privacy on any item of data.
If you understand how to read XML, you should scroll down to the schema to see how this could be implemented.
Personal Invitations To Tender
And moving onto how a requirement can be specified: This is effectively an invitation to tender and it should be as specific as possible to allow the bidder to make an attractive proposition. The Requirement specification will include some general information such as when it was posted, the period during which bids will be accepted and Privacy needs. The examples I am providing will primarily deal with products and services that are essentially commodities or fixed specification items but will also be considered purchases - where the cost and variation available will make it appropriate for a tendering process.
At the foot of the page, you will find more XML - demonstrating how a Personal Invitation to Tender could be implemented
Example of a Requirement
So how would the requirement for a flight ticket on my manual profile be coded up?
OPPORTUNITY TO MARKET TO ME: I am looking for a coach class return flight from SJC / SFO to LHR / LGW Departing 12.20.07 and returning 01.05.08. I don't mind one connection and I would prefer to travel on American, Virgin or United. I am flexible on travel dates but I want the lowest fare.
Obviously there is a lot of detail for each of each requirement type that would need to be developed in conjunction with specific vendors.
<GeneralPreference>
<Airline>Virgin<Privacy>openBid<Privacy></Airline>
<Airline>American<FrequentFlyer>37FK234</FrequentFlyer><Privacy>OpenBid<Privacy></Airline>
<Airline>United<FrequentFlyer>07434543135</FrequentFlyer><Privacy>OpenBid<Privacy></Airline>
</GeneralPreference>
<Requirement>
<Flight>
<From>SFO</To>
<To>LON</To>
<Ticket>Return</Ticket>
<OutwardDate><YYYY>2007</YYYY><MM>12</MM><DD>20</DD><Flex>3</Flex></OutwardDate>
<ReturnDate><YYYY>2007</YYYY><MM>01</MM><DD>05</DD><Flex>3</Flex></ReturnDate>
<Route>Any</Route>
<LogDate><YYYY>2007</YYYY><MM>11</MM><DD>11</DD></LogDate>
<EndDate><YYYY>2007</YYYY><MM>12</MM><DD>13</DD><EndDate>
<price>
<currency>USD</currency>
<max>700</max>
<min>0</min>
</price>
<Contact>email</Contact>
</Flight>
<Privacy>OpenBid</Privacy>
</Requirement>
A selection of valid values that I have defined for certain fields
Privacy: All|OpenBid|Closed|CurrentVendor|Acquaintance|BusinessContact|Friend|Legal|Authority|Family
Contact: Email|Phone
A Corollary: Standardized Machine Readable Information
After reading Dan Furber's recent posting, From World Wide Web to Giant Global Graph by Tim Berners-Lee, I have come upon FOAF, the Friend of a Friend project. This specification will enable me to code up this data in a machine readable form that is standardized.
The Full XML(ish) Schema
<PersonalData>
<Title><Privacy></Privacy></Title>
<FirstName><Privacy></Privacy></FirstName>
<MiddleInitial><Privacy></Privacy></MiddleInitial>
<LastName><Privacy></Privacy></LastName>
<Suffix><Privacy></Privacy></Suffix>
<DateOfBirth><Privacy></Privacy></DateOfBirth>
<Nationality><Privacy></Privacy></Nationality>
<IDNumber><Privacy></Privacy></IDNumber>
<DriversLicense>
<Country>
<Number><Privacy></Privacy></Number>
<State><Privacy></Privacy></State>
<Expires><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD><Privacy></Privacy></Expires>
<Privacy></Privacy>
</Country>
</DriversLicense>
<Passport>
<Country><Privacy></Privacy></Country>
<PassportNumber><Privacy></Privacy></PassportNumber>
<ExpiryDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD><Privacy></Privacy><ExpiryDate>
<Privacy></Privacy>
<Language></Language>
<Currency></Currency>
<Locality>
<Address>
<StartDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD><Privacy></Privacy></StartDate>
<EndDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD><Privacy></Privacy><EndDate>
<Street1></Street1>
<Street2></Sreet2>
<City></City>
<State></State>
<PostCode></PostCode>
<Country></Country>
<ResidenceType><Privacy></Privacy></ResidenceType>
<Status><Privacy></Privacy></Status>
<Privacy></Privacy>
</Address>
<Privacy></Privacy>
</Locality>
<Employment>
<Employer>
<Organization></Organization>
<StartDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD><Privacy></Privacy></StartDate>
<EndDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD><Privacy></Privacy><EndDate>
<JobTitle><Privacy></Privacy></JobTitle>
<Salary><Privacy></Privacy><Salary>
<Currency><Privacy></Privacy></Currency>
<SalaryPeriod><Privacy></Privacy></SalaryPeriod>
<RefName><Privacy></Privacy><RefName>
<ContactEmail><Privacy></Privacy></ContactEmail>
<Privacy></Privacy>
</Employer>
</Employment>
<Education>
<school>
<StartDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD><Privacy></Privacy></StartDate>
<EndDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD><Privacy></Privacy><EndDate>
<Qualification>
<Type></Type>
<Level></Level>
<Subject></Subject>
<Grade><Privacy></Privacy></Grade>
<Privacy></Privacy>
</Qualification>
<Contact><Contact>
</School>
<Privacy></Privacy>
</Education>
<Transportation>
<Vehicle>
<StartDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD></StartDate>
<EndDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD><EndDate>
<Make></Make>
<Model><Model>
<EngineCC></EngineCC>
<VIN><VIN>
</Vehicle>
<Insurance>
<Insurer><Privacy></Privacy></Insurer>
<PolicyNumber><Privacy></Privacy></PolicyNumber>
<Privacy></Privacy>
<ExpiryDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD><Privacy></Privacy><ExpiryDate>
<Insurance>
<Privacy></Privacy>
</Transportation>
</PersonalData>
<GeneralPreference>
<airline><FrequentFlyer></FrequentFlyer><Privacy></Privacy></airline>
<store><LoyaltyCard></LoyaltyCard><Privacy></Privacy></store>
<brand><Privacy></Privacy></brand>
<color><Privacy></Privacy></color>
<size>
<item></item>
<value></value>
<scale></scale>
<Privacy></Privacy>
</size>
</GeneralPreference>
<Requirement>
<LogDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD></LogDate>
<StartDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD></StartDate>
<EndDate><YYYY></YYYY><MM></MM><DD></DD><EndDate>
<Product>
<Flight>...</Flight>
<Vacation>..</Flight>
<Hotel>...</Hotel>
<CarRental>...</CarRental>
<TravelInsurance>...</TravelInsurance>
<AutoInsurance>...</AutoInsurance>
<HomeInsurance>...</HomeInsurance>
<HomeRental>...</HomeRental>
<CarPurchase>...</CarPurchase>
<Television>...</Television>
<MP3Player>...</MP3Player>
<MobilePhone>...</MobilePhone>
<Camera>...</Camera>
<VideoGameConsole>...</VideoGamConsole>
</Product>
<Privacy></Privacy>
<Preference>
</Preference>
</Requirement>
Interesting Gam...
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