heathervescent

Introducing a series of short films on Internet Identity

This year, I completed a series of films documenting over 10 years of work on open Internet Identity standards and protocols, through the Internet Identity Workshop. I produced eight short films overall (not all were for public consumption). While, I'm still putting on the final touches of the IIW Documentary, here are the ones that are currently available. 

IIW Documentaries, 2016

• What is IIW?
  An introduction to the Internet Identity Workshop - the most important technical conference for identity experts.
  
  
• The Backbone of Open Internet Identity - OpenID Foundation 
  
  
• The Importance of User Managed Access (UMA)
  
  
• Covisint and the Internet of Things

See others at my Vimeo profile.

Flowers for Grandma

Flowers for Grandma shows an emerging concept called Intentcasting, spearheaded by Doc Searls. Lots of information on his site at Harvard. The idea is a paradigm reverse that enables shoppers to request fulfillment. Retailers respond to the request. As shown in the video, a 5 second request results in 12 responses. 

Watch.

 

There are a few things I'd like to draw attention to. While the main focus of the short is on Intentcasting, several other concepts are braided into this design future. 

• Transparent screens: This is more and more becoming a reality. h/t to Sam, my technical advisor for these product designs.
• System Currencies: The intentcasting application (Syncbidz) uses it's own currency.
• Computer as Transaction device: I used the same SecureCoin from Fly Me to the Moon, integrated into the hardware. It's no secret the SecureCoin is based off Bitcoin, backed by a central transaction infrastructure.
• Voice recognition: The voice recognition was inspired with Windows Live Mobile - an application the predated Siri by at least 2 years. The APIs for voice activated commands exists.
• Seamless sharing: While merely touched upon, specific pieces of data can be share with pre-authorized devices. It's an invisible example of the internet of things + digital asset grid control management with real time changing data.
• Beautiful mobile connective hardware: In both, Fly Me and Flowers, the physical objects that interact with the technology infrastructure must be beautiful from a traditional aesthetic. That smart bracelet is also pure silver. From a personal perspective, I'm not interested in using a bluetooth device until it looks like a beautiful piece of jewelry. I am not interested in looking from Star Trek. 
• Video Cards: This idea came from a conversation with my Technical Advisor, Sam. As video cameras and screens become more flexible and disposable, it's going to be easier than ever to send a video card. 
• Finally, and in my mind, most importantly, this shows a future with the customer/individual in control of their data. The world of the digital data transfer (which is shown in Slices of Life) is hidden and we see only the user experience. It's a positive, delightful, happy experience. There is no fear about who is using or mis-using personal data. 

The technology to make this vision real already exists.

If you're interested in the inspiration for this short, it's from my real life. I really send my grandmother flowers each month. Because that's the kind of world I want to live in.

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Updates: Rob's Hummingbird comment reminded me to share the shooting story behind it's cameo. It was a Sunday morning about a year ago, and we were shooting at the house. There were these two hummingbirds that would not leave us along. Over and over they would zip around the crew. One was particularly bold. He dive bombed up several times. We kept rolling, something wrong with each take (a shifting overcast Los Angeles sky). Finally, the lighting was perfect and we rolled. It was during this take, Mr Bold Hummingbird zipped into the frame and paused right in front of the camera for more than a split second. I was watching from the porch and my heart almost jumped out of my chest. 

There's also an inside joke for a certain Internet Identity community. ;)

Slices of Life

My latest design future, Slices of Life, is about personal data, personal clouds and how we might have our data work for us in the future.  I'm really proud how this came out. 

I hope you enjoy it.

 

The Digital Asset Grid

After 6+ months of work, I'm finally able to talk about this amazing project I've been part of. The Digital Asset Grid is a new platform to enable safe and secure transfer of personal data assets. With control of personal data assets with the individual. It's a paradigm shifting idea. 

Here's a short documentary I did about the project, and the video, Slices of Life, that describes the scenarios will go live on Wednesday. 

Enjoy.

The Power of Planning

The crew was prepared to go until 10pm. I was hoping we'd be done by 8pm. Or 6pm best case scenario. We had a lot of material to shoot. Two days compressed into one. We had to get through it. We did it in lightening speed. The crew started leaving at 3pm. Most of them were gone by 3:30. I was home at 4:30pm. We got amazing footage. Gorgeous, magical footage. More footage than we excepted. At our usual exemplary quality. 

That is the power of planning. 

When I talk about planning, or try to do it on projects I am not the leader of, or suggest it to a team /individual that doesn't think highly of it I often get pushback about it's value.

There is this (mistaken) assumption that if you plan, you have to stick to the plan. Having a plan does not equal that you will never change it. I believe, and my experience shows that having a plan opens one up to more possibilities than without one. You not only have the possibilities that you explored systematically (and either agreed to implement or not) in the planning phase, but you also have all the possibilities that emerge magically, synchronistically of their own accord. 

In other words, when you have the baseline for success planned for execution, it's a lot easier to reach for superawesomeness. You can reach higher, farther, faster. Do more with less. You've got a plan to hit your goals, achieve what you need to achieve, and the resources to do it. But who likes to rest on their laurels? (Not I, and not the people I work with/hire.) We like to push it. We like to do more. We like to stretch. 

And you can push it, do more and stretch farther after you create a plan.

Sure you can chuck the plan out the window. Sure I know the quote that it's not about the plan, it's about planning. And I am 100% behind going with the awesome magical unknown.

My plans and planning gives me the flexibility, the efficiency and the resources to diverge from the plan - at any point and for any quantity. They give me peace of mind to do my best, to allow the people I work with/hire to do their best. I've thought about every last corner case and I'm open to the new, novel, innovative solution, idea or other perspective.

The movie magic that always happens. 

Those are the things I live for. That magic. The things you can't plan. Emerged perfection. The stuff you would never think of. I find those things happen a lot more when I have a plan. ;)