WEBOLUTION!

"Increasingly, we are living double lives. There is our physical, everyday existence. And there is our digital identity, the sum of all the digitally available information about us. As this information grows in volume and variety, the picture of us that it creates is becoming surprisingly complete. And valuable.

 

For organizations, the opportunities digital identity presents are enormous. Applications that leverage personal data can boost efficiency, help focus research and marketing efforts, and spur the creation of personalized products and services that, in turn, spur revenues. For consumers, the benefits are compelling, too: faster service, lower prices, and products better suited to their needs, to name a few."

 

Comment: the Boston Consulting Group did a survey among 3000 customers. The main conclusions are that, although the economical benefits can be enormous, they will not be realised if people do not want to part with their data. And increasingly people do not want to unless sufficient privacy controls are in place and the benefits are clear to them. This, I am sure, also applies to organisations that provide learning opportunities, such as universities. They too need to act responsibly, in transparant ways and, most importantly, give the user control over his or her data. Universities and commercial elearning providers talk more and more about learning analytics, wanting to know all they can about learners online behaviour, but I hear nothing about privacy other than offhand remarks. (peter sloep, @pbsloep)

 

 

Via The Learning Factor, David Hain, Peter Bryant, Peter B. Sloep