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.

A Rant on AirBnB Ratings & Pricing

Cross-posted from medium... (you can recommend and comment over there...)

 

I’m an AirBnB host. A “Superhost.” I am also a social scientist that studies and is paid to speak on reputation and the Sharing Economy.

Recently, AirBnB increased the number of questions they ask in their reviews. Especially review of hosts. When you review a host, you go through 4 or 5 screens, asking you about your experience with them, the listing and the neighborhood.

This is a big change.

What is Value?

One of the questions they ask is about the value of the listing. Who decides on the value? Is it based on money? The experience? There is no black and white on value. What I value, someone else might not. Someone might value price, and not consider detailed personalized local information as valuable.

I’m a Superhost. This means I go above and beyond to make my guests feel comfortable and at home in my home — a really special geodesic dome in the Mojave Desert. Not all guests are a good fit for my house. And I am very selective, only accepting reservations from people I think will enjoy, respect and “vibe” with the location.

I’m not AirBnBing for the money. Well, sure, I like the money, because it enables me to make improvements — like plant trees, get better sheets and new pillows, etc. But the point of allowing people to stay in the dome is forthem to share the experience of my house.

So I’m absolutely livid, that AirBnB notifies me, as if it’s a problem, that my last 3 ratings for “Value” have been only 4 stars. Like 4 stars is a problem? Like what the fuck do they mean by “value?”

Apples to what?

I have a premium listing. You want a cheap place to stay? Stay at the Motel 6, or the Hampton Inn and spend $50–80 a night. You want to stay in a Geodesic Dome? Well, there are 4 within a 20 mile area. Sure, camp in one, that’s about $85, no running water. But the other two? They are more than my current summer rate of $150, and my regular rate is right in line with those.

My listing is priced equally or cheaper to all those for the number of people at those other locations, for the amenities, and the design. Additionally, I provide detailed personalized location guidance & recommendations.

Do not dare, compare my property to other listings. Isn’t that the point of AirBnB. Unique listings? Not cookie-cutter hotel rooms? How many of them give 5 pages of local listings, telling them which coffee sucks, and where the best food is?

Unless something is dramatically underpriced, ALL guests are going to ask to pay less and want more. I had BAD experiences with guests when I priced my place too low in the early days. It attracted people who did not take care of my place, and I had damage (that I did not report because you didn’t have damage reporting functionality at the time). I raised my prices in response to these ungrateful, inconsiderate “guests” and the damage the inflicted on my unique property.

Let’s talk about REGULATION

I worked for 15 months to change the local laws and enact regulation to allow AirBnBing LEGALLY in my community while many listings in the Joshua Tree area are ILLEGAL and unpermitted. Still they remain on AirBnB and AirBnB doesn’t check this. I went through the local permitting process to become LEGAL. And I pay local taxes as well.

AirBnB provided no support, no help, no nothing during this process.

Let me state that again.

AirBnB did NOTHING, to help me, and a few other hosts, convince my local City Council to ALLOW — by accepting a new city ordinance permitting short term vacation home rentals. Me and the other locals CHANGED OUR LOCAL LAW by OURSELVES.

AirBnB takes their fee, enabling a global platform, but what do they do to support the local community? How much of their platform is a commons?

Is it valuable that I am legal, that I pay my quarterly TOT tax, back into the community? Would it be more valuable if I had listed illegally with a lower price — what AirBnB might be considering a market price, if they didn’t take into consider the additional community costs like regulation and taxation and the emotional costs like being a good neighbor and showing the city that allowing AirBnB is not going to put the local hotels out of business or there will be an increase in underage drinking at parties hosted at AirBnBs? Or damage that the city has to pay for because some AirBnB guest does… oh, I have no idea what, but that the city would have to pay for, so more insurance to ensure the city won’t have to pay any costs for some possible thing that might go wrong by an AirBnB guest. You’re not paying that cost AirBnB — I am.

Back to value

Who decides what value is? Is it the dollar value? How is the emotional/human experience valued? The value to society? The value to the future? The value to planet earth?

It’s no secret the AirBnB wants to get into the reputation management business. AirBnB collected lots of data about us — user generated reviews.

How will they use their review data?

Will they monetize this data? Selling an AirBnB FICO like reputation score? Who will decide what these FICO like AirBnB ratings mean or how they are puzzled together? Will it be a transparent process? Will there be oversight and regulation?

Both the users and hosts pay a fee to use their service already? How greedy will AirBnB get?

I’m concerned that these additional questions, and this pressure on hosts (like me) to drop my price because of … 3, 4 star value ratings... will have a negative impact on my AirBnB host experience? And ruin or at least minimally dilute my ability to provide the best, most unique experience I can — at the cost of their homogeneity.

How do they come up with their “recommended price?” Are they comparing my listing to other comparable listings — like other unique Geodesic domes with star projectors in the loft, great stereo systems, two fire pits and 5 pages of personalized local directions, restaurant and hike recommendations? I doubt so. I have worked hard to create my listing incomparable. The dollar value is but one small aspect of the entire experience.

—

Finally, I will say, I have hesitated to bring up these criticisms. Who is to say, AirBnB won’t bury my listing, or hasn’t already? I mean, that’s kind of Silicon Valley’s reputation these days. And my trust with AirBnB is eroding.

pps. I would also like to rate AirBnB’s features, and their “releases,” which are frankly too frequent. Can I also rate the product manager who came up with the shitty pricing idea? What about the engineer who introduced a bug that caused me to have a communication error with my host in Melbourne? Where are these ratings AirBnB?

It’s a slippery slope isn’t it?

The Future of Identity at PII, Sept 17 in Seattle

I've spoken on Identity and participated in the Identity community for a long time, going back to my work at AOL on Account Linking for Instant Messenger (circa 2002). With that background, I'm speaking at Privacy, Identity, Innovation in Seattle on Tuesday, September 17th at 5pm. 

The Future of Identity

Like privacy, the term “identity” means different things to different people. In this conversation with Mozilla privacy engineer Monica Chew and futurist Heather Schlegel, we’ll discuss those nuances and consider what the future of identity might look like. What role does contextual identity play in protecting privacy and how can companies like Mozilla enable individuals to manage their various personas? How is use of a real-name identity changing the digital experience? Will pseudonymity and anonymity as we know them exist in the future? Or, as Seinfeld’s George Costanaza might say, are our worlds colliding as our online and offline personas merge?

If you're interested in attending, you can register for the event with at 15% discount using this link.

The Stars My Destination

"I took. I went and took. What did I leave in return? My change."

Tornado powered me 15 thousand miles. Across the great plains into the concrete jungles of New York. Across the North Atlantic to European countryside with fields, cows and wind power windmills. Skirting the edge of Europe and Africa before traversing the Atlantic once more, to the Southern Hemisphere to a favorite dream land. 

In darkness I landed. I remembered my first (terrified) time in this airport almost 20 years earlier. Different this time. No fear walking the Copacabana midnight streets. In Rio the tornado changed, shifted, transformed. A phoenix rose from the tornado calm: a blue stone wrapped in silver gold, etched with a symbol. Symbols.

The tornado powered me once more; from the South American Atlantic to the Pacific. Walking the streets of Lima with a friend, a one who is unlike any other, crystallized the fate of the tornado. Transformation, but not death. A symbol, for one and many, appeared in the calm center.

It's this symbol I returned with to Los Angeles. A symbol Los Angeles is most know for. Full circle perfection. 

The Present vs The Future

Eckhart Tolle's work and the concept of being present has come up in my network from several places recently. For several weeks, I've been percolating upon my issues with this work, trying to reconcile my negative associations with it - while practicing and living in the present moment - something I have spent years doing with various successes. I wondered, why does something about his work rub me the wrong way, while I generally agree and practice the concept?

It's important to note that I've spent years business/life planning as well as professional training to be a futurist (using scientific and creative methods to explore future possibilities).

And I've spent more than three decades understanding, decoding and reprogramming my own programming.

Here's the rub. It's not either/or. It's not a choice between the intertwined past, the present or the future. One must move fluidly between these states; mining, acting, learning and creating.

I should be honest here, my intention is not to live a life of happiness, to get my needs met, gain power or money. My intention is to consciously be - create who I want to be/am. Which is both creation and be-ing. It's a "goal" that is never met, always met, never changing, always evolving.

The present moment is about action (or inaction). It's where the shit happens (GTD baby!). It's the moving spark in time of manifestation, creation, action, re-action. It's where choice occurs. It's where one can jump from one quantum branched reality to another. (Which I have done upon numerous occasions.)

But how does one decide how or what one wants to act, or call in the programming (e.g re-act)? Is there is a preferred branch to jump into? How does one know what to look for? To read the signs? To understand the impact, the ripple of one's actions? In the pregnant present - a moment just barely into the future.

One decides how one wants to consciously act by mining the past and visiting/seeing future possibilities/implications.

Of course, it's not as simple in practice. 

Living solely in the present is as much a trap as living in the past or dreaming always about the future. 

Tolle's work, and the mantra to be present in the present moment is too simplistic for me. It's missing a magical world of manifesting, creating the world, creating the future (for accurate work once must know the past). I'm not saying, don't live in the present moment - but to live in the conscious present - you must regularly visit the past and the future.

A Contrarian's View of Identity: Only Real Names

When I was at IIW earlier this week, I held a session called, "A Contrarian View of Identity: Envision a World with Only Real Names."

The ground rules of this session were:

• There is no discussion. We are starting with the assumption that real names are the only reality.
• No dystopian or negative perspectives (relieved this for last 5 minutes of info gathering)

I then asked those in the room to close their eyes. Take a deep breath. Envision all of the identities that you use online and out in the world. See them moving to the middle and coming together, becoming one identity, and that name is your real legal name. If there is any negativity coming up with this, just put it aside for the moment. Sit with this vision of your identity as your real legal name. Take another deep breath. Pause. Now open your eyes. 

Here's what we came up with. 

• Make it easier to decide what I won’t do online, simplify decisions
• Stop doing things on line. 
• I changed my name to one I like. 
• Transparency:  More empathy because I see you 
• Easier to find connections between people and create opportunities, because you see all capabilities. E.g. not only limited to see me as someone who just does this...
• People would be nicer to each other if tied to a single ID. 
• Alleviates Simplifies – don’t have to manage multiple personas don’t have to know the context of relationships. 
• Better connected to the real you – See multifaceted people. 
• Less Victimization, but sociopaths will always be sociopaths. There could be the chance that some people could really hurt and manipulate people. 
• Sociopaths will not stop/be deterred,  people will find easier victims. 
• ** More protections for our privacy because we are more vulnerable.  It’s an everyone problem so maybe governments act more.
• If you can tell who I a:
•      easier to vote with the internet
•      eliminate Fake Public Policy Groups
•       literally find people easier (physically) 
• You own you -> others can’t impersonate you, lie about you as easily, harder to be impersonated, defrauded, protected. 
• Better connected to your history.  (could be a pro or con)
• Short Term vs. Long term effects (e.g less watching porn but ok to watch porn no stigma) 
• There would be fewer IIW Working Groups because Less work to do, save work. 
• Reaching your full potential w/o being able to explore ID. I would not have reached my human potential if I had not been able to explore with various IDs, even though I may not have/be/use them anymore.
• Highly repressive governments would have a much easier time.

After 15 minutes of information gathering, I released the "No dystopian or negative perspectives" rule and all comments were welcome.

After the session, one person remarked that by requiring us to start with positive perspectives, we came up with some really interesting and creative responses. (That was my goal. ;) ).

I highly enjoyed taking on the contrarian view of Identity. It was refreshing to put my judgements and assumptions aside and try on a new, usually discarded view. Everyone who participated found the session highly interesting and at least one person mentioned they were going to try this technique with other topics. I found it a great way to see around my blind spots.