heathervescent

Cybersecurity obsession

Well, it's official, I am obsessed with Cybersecurity. 

It all started when I was asked to write a chapter for the Cyber Attack Survival Manual. This snowballed into becoming a co-author. 

The Cyber Attack Survival Manual is a step-by-step guide to cyber defense. This book is mainly for everyday people, but security professions might learn one or two new things. My hacker genius colleague, Chris Rock (of DEF CON, How to overthrow a government fame) kindly says, “A must read for everyone from n00bs to experts, parents to pros.”

Around the time I was wrapping up that writing, a military project took a decidedly cybersecurity turn. The project focused on the military learning environment, but I needed context to show the new training technologies. Voila - the cybersecurity war game. And then, because I am a perfectionist when it comes to the details of my future scenarios, I thought about future OSs, SIEMs, vulnerabilities, attacks, and counterattacks. My obsession grew.

U.S. Army cyber security war game set in 2021. I created this video for the U.S. Army showing military training for a cybersecurity war game set in 2021. This project is what ignited my cybersecurity obsession...

A few months later, I was asked to submit a paper on "Security in 2038." I used this excuse to kick off research on The Future of Cybersecurity. 

Co-authored (with Bob Blakley) of, Shifting Paradigms: Using Strategic Foresight to Plan for Security Evolution, for the New Security Paradigms Workshop. Our paper details over 20 new security paradigms and future scenarios. 

I don't plan on stopping this obsession anytime soon. Want my cybersecurity research updates? Sign up for my non-spammy email list. 

 

90 Days of Facebook Lives

I agreed to do 90 days of Facebook lives. It's an interesting exploration of the video medium within a siloed platform. I'll update this post from time to time with the topics and a link to each video. 

• Till Death Do Us Part Relationships (Feb 14)

Third 10

• Comparing Blockchain to Nuclear technology (Feb 10)
• The Golden Goddess of Death (Feb 8)
• The Mojave Desert (Feb 7)
• Grief is an Emotion (Feb 6)
• Instagram, Night before Mr. D's definitive journey - no link (Feb 4)
• Tit for Tat: A way of Cooperating (or not cooperating) (Feb 3)
• Politics: How I went from Libertarian to Socialist (Feb 2)
• Memories of Mom (Feb 1)
• Planning or No-Planning? (Jan 31)
• What is the Upper Limit? (Jan 30)

Second 10

• Driving at Speed: Roadtrip tips from Heathervescent (Jan 29)
• Update from San Francisco (Jan 26)
• It's hard being an Entrepreneur (Jan 22)
• Let's talk about the goals you aren't doing (Jan 21)
• Birth Control is the most transformative technology since fire. (Jan 20)
• Weaponized Dating (Jan 19)
• Calm and Drama Free Lifestyle (Jan 18)
• Doors closing, The Crows of Pearblossom & Mojave reflections (Jan 17)
• Let's talk Cybersecurity: Swatting & Bitcoin price manipulation (Jan 16)
• Fantastic Planet, Ants, and the Happy Hocky Family (Jan 15)

First 10

• Self-care: A reply to Jean Russell's post (Jan 14)
• Men, I don't understand you (Jan 13) 
• Where the name Heather Vescent came from (Jan 12)
• Breaking the Glass Ceiling at the C level (Jan 11)
• Let's talk politics: conspiracy, pwnage and information war (Jan 10)
• The Collective Unconscious (Jan 9)
• The Future of Military Learning (Jan 8)
• Some Travel Tips (Jan 5)
• Let's Talk Cybersecurity: About all these Hacks (Jan 4)
• Predictions are for Amateurs (Jan 3)

Announcing: Out-Learn, Out-Think, Win

I'm excited to share my latest transmedia scenario looking at the future of military learning. This work was done for the Advanced Distributed Learning CoLab (ADL). 

Out-Learn, Out-Think, Win

Out-Learn, Out-Think, Win—tells a story about how Defense personnel may learn in the future, using complex interconnected network-based technologies. One of the main characters in the film isn’t even human—it’s the distributed learning network. The filmmakers, from Purple Tornado, created a graphic user interface (GUI) to help show how the human characters interact with that system. In the story, Army Staff Sergeant Martina Reynolds uses various distributed learning tools to practice and assess her cyber-defense skills. The video opens with SSG Reynolds reading an ebook and then progresses through her conducting VR-based pre-training, and it finally culminates with an instructor-guided group training exercise. As the story unfolds, you can see how SSG Reynolds’ learning and development seamlessly blends across different systems, which are enabled by different instructional technologies and data-driven learning capabilities.

This video is a deliverable from a larger project, called Transmedia Narrative Use Cases of Future Learning Systems That was completed for the Advanced Distributed Learning CoLab.

 

Weaponized Dating

Earlier today I came up with a new term, Weaponized Dating. It's an interesting concept I've been thinking about since moving to the Mojave. I'm making this post on the ole sad non-updated blog, so I don't forget this term.

Weaponized Dating: is exactly what you imagine it to be, you weaponize dating... this is an emotional tactic for social change. 

I should probably write more about it, and maybe I will. 

A Bitcoin Rant: Why I liquidated my BTC last year

I did this rant as a Facebook live. Check it out. 

Surviving the Cyber Apocalypse

"World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation" -  Marshall McLuhan

I've got an audacious panel proposal for SxSW 2018. Please check it out and VOTE if you think surviving the Cyber Apocalypse is important.

McLuhan's quote sums up our current situation - we are all participants in the current information war - but I suspect we're not completely aware of our roles/power or what skills we need/have to protect ourselves, our companies and our interests. I've put together an all-star panel of deep experts to explore the landscape of information war and cyber attacks including:

1. Nick Selby, my co-author of the Cyber Attack Survival Manual, cyber detective, cop and author. He wrote several chapters on wikileaks and nation state hacking in our book;
2. Chris Rock, from his Defcon fame, gave talks about digitally "killing" you, creating "shelf babies" for future hacking use and his most popular talk on How to Overthrow a Government (yes, for reals!). He's also a 20 year security expert and pentester;
3. Elaine Raybourn, is a social scientist who applies transmedia methodologies for use in the largest educator in the world - the US Military. Elaine and I have been collaborating on a foresight project since early 2016 that we will show on the panel, that is directly relevant to the topic;
4. and there's me, Heather Vescent, the futurist. I'm completing a year of deep research in Cyber security, resulting in co-authoring the Cyber Attack Survival Manual with panelist, Nick Selby; and collaborating with Elaine Raybourn on this sekret project we can't talk about yet. I thrive in the area beyond the edge of the possible - making connections between seemingly disparate research areas - cybersecurity, transactions, economies, cryptocurrencies, relationships, intimacy, augmented intelligence, humanity and more. I do scifi for real.

I believe in the power of the human race to not just solve our problems, but create new ones. I'm dedicated to sharing a positive alternative view of addressing wicked problems, inspired by this Richard Feynman quote:

"We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on."

I promise this panel will blow your mind intellectually as well as give you practice advice for participating in the future global information war. I appreciate your vote. Thank you!

Announcing my new short film

Announcing my my latest film: Not Just Who They Say We Are: Claiming our Identity on the Internet,” is a short film introducing a stealth community of “Identirati” as they define and refine digital identity at their bi-annual Internet Identity Workshop (IIW).  

“We’ve had 10,000 years to work out identity in the physical world,” said Doc Searls, an IIW co-founder and co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto. “But online, we’ve had a generation or less to work it out.”  

Not Just Who They Say We Are from Phil Windley on Vimeo.

I’ve been part of the IIW community since 2007 so I’ve seen first hand how this group works together - beyond corporate borders to improve internet identity for everyone. IIW has been the incubator for multiple identity protocols like OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 and Facebook single sign on was inspired by what they learned at IIW. 

 

I’ve worked to make this film since 2012, and both the film and the event are a labor of love in a world full of businesses trying to make a buck off identity.

 

With the near constant hacks and the Internet of Things data security issues, secure online identity is important now more than ever. (I also co-wrote a book on CyberSecurity, so I know first hand how important this topic is today.)

 

Read the press release for more details.

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.

How to Review on AirBnB

Recently, a couple friends, who are also AirBnB hosts, have asked me about leaving negative reviews for their guests. 

It's a difficult conundrum. You want to expect the best from people. You expected the best from them (otherwise you wouldn't have accepted their reservation). Even when they are far from the best, you still don't want to harsh on them. But you have a responsibility.

$1k Damage

I'd like to tell a little story about one of my guests. I had had a cancelation over NYE for health reasons, so my place was unexpectedly open (had been booked a month prior). I got this request that sounded good, and as I always do, I checked out his reviews. They were ... ok. Nothing horrible, but nothing stellar. If anything, I thought he might be a high maintenance guest, so I made sure to communicate extra clearly about house rules, set expectations properly, etc.

Another thing, the booking came on Christmas Day. Needless to say, I was not so focused on AirBnB and had had several glasses of wine. But AirBnB gives you 24 hours to accept or reject a reservation. Even though something about him didn't seem ideal, there were no major red flags and I was keen to book NYE. Plus, AirBnB has the host guarantee. If a guest does damage, the host guarantee will kick in. I had never used this, or asked a guest to pay for damages (with the exception of my very first AirBnB guest, which a film production company booked, and I never again allowed anyone to book my place for someone not actually staying there.) I treated this guest the way I treat all other guests, giving them information, checking in with them, etc. They were very responsive before they checked in, and afterwards, they went radio silence and did not reply to my infrequent query to make sure they got in, were settled, etc. I didn't stress, because not all guests reply. 

However, because I had a strange vibe about the guest, I made sure to get out to my place to personally check it the day they checked out - in case of problems... and yes, there were a lot of problems. Problems that ended up with $1000 in damage to furnishings - which the guest denied and refused to pay.

Thanks to AirBnB's host guarantee, my stuff was replaced. But only after at least a month, documentation, attempting to clean chairs that were ruined, etc. I had to turn down at least 3 AirBnB reservations due to the place not being ready and having ruined items. Oh, and it took another month to order the new stuff and get it out in the dome. (To add insult to injury, this guest added my email address to his business email list - talk about a spammer on top of it all.)

The Emotional Toll

Going through this process took a lot of emotional toll. It took time and energy that I was not compensated. These guests broke my trust, which caused me to distrust ALL other AirBnB guests. (It took a couple months of good guests again to rebuild my trust. And I told all my subsequent guests about the bad guests and my currently on shaky ground with trust. All were awesome and compassionate about this.) I'm really grateful to those great subsequent guests that helped rebuild my trust.

Warning & Reviews

As I went through the AirBnB dispute process, time was running out to write a review for this guest. (You have 14 days to write a review, which you can not see until 1) they write one for you or 2) the 14 days runs out.) I was really worried they would write a bad review and rate me low because they destroyed $1000 of my stuff. A low rating would remove my Superhost status. 

Then there was the conundrum of writing them a review. Even though they did $1000 damage to my property, and broke my trust, I was hesitant to give them a bad review. Sure, I was emotionally angry, but there were also the facts (and photographs). I thought long and hard about what to write. I decided to be honest and stick to the facts. I needed to warn other hosts, and give honest feedback to the guest.

This is the advice I gave my friends when reviewing bad guests:

Be honest, stick to the facts. Be as dispassionate as possible and try not to make people read between the lines.

There are other things that need to be considered when writing and reading reviews

• Emotional Aspects: People have different levels of emotional engagement, intelligence and expectations. 
• Implicit vs Explicit expectations: In the early days of AirBnB you could be more relaxed about rules set because the community was comprised by people who shared the same values. As AirBnB became more successful, the community grew, and more people who did not implicitly share the AirBnB value set became part of the community. To allow for this, I had to become more explicit about things I could previously gloss over.
• Comparisons: Guests and hosts are not easily compared to each other - and that is a feature, not a bug. Not all places are appropriate for all audiences, and this is a feature, not a bug. 
• State the Facts: I am honest about my experience. I add emotional flourishes when I was especially delighted or happy. I am dispassionate and clear when things did not go well. I state my experience and let others learn (or not) from it.
• It's a Learning Process: Everyone: Hosts, Guests and event AirBnB itself is learning from this process. There is no "right way" set in stone. Everyone (including AirBnB) is making it up as they go.

The Bottom Line

You have a responsibility to warn hosts about bad guests. Be clear, honest and to the point. Avoid emotional language and instead state the facts. Allow those reading the review to make their own decision. For example, in the review of my example guest, my review included, "this guest did $1000 worth of damage to my furniture, but refused to take responsibility for it."

Don't dilute your five star guests by giving guests higher ratings than they deserve. In addition, it should not be a bad thing to receive less than 5 stars, if the experience is not 5 star. This whole idea that anything other than a 5 star rating is cause for concern needs to be eliminated. (more on this in another post.)

Allow for Change

The final thing I want to mention is that people change, and this can be a good thing. Reputation and reviews change over time. The FICO score is based on current relevant data. My AirBnB superhost is based on the past 4 months of activity. We need to allow mental space that bad guests learn from their experiences and become better guests. And it would be great to reward good guests for good behavior.

A Commons

Reputation is based on the context in which it is created. Reputation should be somewhat portable - I would like to use my AirBnB reputation to seed my reputation in other communities. But not all aspects of my AirBnB reputation may be relevant or useful, and that's ok. 

Finally, AirBnB doesn't create reputation. People do. AirBnB has created the platform that people use to connect with each other, but reputation data is an abundance byproduct of the financial transaction. That non-financial byproduct is owned by the "commons" and should be freely available for all to use. 

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?

Rethinking Payments in the Sharing Economy

Rethinking Payments in the Sharing Economy was presented on May 11, 2016 at the Total Payments and Retail event in Melbourne, Australia.

In this talk, I explain how the sharing economy combines traditional financial transactions and also includes emotional experiences. It goes on to explain how technology facilitates trust through a payment platform, with local regulations and global reputation systems. (Blockchain comment at the 10 minute mark.)

Heather Schlegel researches and reports on the global changes occurring in payments and transactions. Looking for a provocative future focused speaker? I'm available for keynotes, panels and corporate events. Get in touch.

Thanks to Brad Court, Melissa Ching and the team at Total Payments and Retail. Very special thanks to Dave Birch, Ian Danksin for audio production and Sarafina Rodrigeuz.

 

Payments in the Sharing Economy, Total Payments, Melbourne, Australia from Heather Vescent Schlegel

Cyber Security and the Future

National Fintech Cyber Security Summit, Sydney on May 3, 2016

A recap of my remarks from the Future scaping panel, which I was honored to share with Lynwen Connick (far left, First Assistant Secretary Cyber Policy and Intelligence, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet) and Dr Carolyn Patteson (middle, Executive Manager, CERT Australia)

 

Last week I was at the Internet Identity Workshop, interviewing people for a documentary I am making on Internet Identity. Kim Cameron, who does Digital Identity from Microsoft was there. He reminisced about the early days of the internet, and revisited the 12 laws of identity. In reviewing the early days of the internet, Cameron observed the best business models, were fraud. Criminal activity was the best business model with 1000% growth rates. You could say criminal activities and fraud are currently the best business models, despite improved security technology.

We will have new technology & it will still get hacked

Fraud prevention technology will continue to get better. And criminals will also get better at finding ways to exploit new technologies. So we must plan that our best new technologies will be subverted. Some technologies have flaws built into the security method – for example biometrics. Biometrics are promising, but if we follow the above thinking, we must prepare for the inevitable biometric hack. How useful are biometrics if your finger print, iris or face recognition database is hacked and sold on the black market? You can reset a password, but how can you rest your fingerprints or change your face without an expensive trip to the plastic surgeon. It is near impossible to “reset” a biometric.

If you expect this inevitable hacking of your security systems, you will be able to monitor and understand when the new technology stops being powerful.

Technology will blend and extend

We will have a more intimate relationship with our devices - wearing them on - and in - our bodies. This technology may also make decisions on our behalf.

In these kinds of discussion, most of our focus is about the technology – and less about the human. Technology is an extension of humanity, and it needs to work with the human form and within human mental constructs. Kim Cameron says, “People have protocols too.” Relationships, of any kind, are about emotions.

For example, I can set up automatic payments through my bank. Once set up, I forget about them. I can set up alerts before the payment goes out or when it clears. For all purposes it is a piece of dumb technology that works once set up. And I, as the human identity, have authorized it to execute the transactions. I think of this kind of technology as a proto-agent that completes transactions on my behalf.

As we develop smart agents that blend artificial intelligence, data analysis and personal preferences, it’s not so far fetched that I might have an automous financial identity (agent) making transactions on my behalf. That agent might even be connected to a smart object – a solar set up, and authorized to sell energy back into the grid and deposit the sales in an account.

And it won’t be just single objects, there will be combined identities, made up with a combination people and objects.

Identity is at the core

Our understanding of identity is changing - especially as we have agents acting on our behalf and as we surround ourselves with smart objects.

We will begin to use a combination of verified pieces of identity. No one company, government or organization can own 100% of someone’s identity. Identities are contextual with some aspects self asserted and verified, and others based on contextual behavior and reputation.

This as a huge space for opportunity because people are looking to have their financial resources secured. Companies have the resources and initiative to develop systems, products and services that protect people from criminals.

In conclusion

“We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.” ― Richard P. Feynman

Humans and technology need to work together. Consider a strategy that uses technology to do what technology is best at, while enabling humans do what we are best at. Understand limitations – both the human and technical limitations. Your new systems will get hacked. Technology will become outdated. People will act irrationally. But know you will come up with new technology and new solutions. Our work will never be done – and that’s a good thing for business.

AirBnB's Invisible Payments

AirBnB's payment platform helps hosts focus on the travel experience. In this excerpt from a talk I gave in Toronto, at Tomorrow's Transactions, I show their invisible back end and how it enables the sharing economy with solutions for payments, currency exchange and tax management.

 

Thanks to Dave Birch & Consult Hyperion for the invitation to speak at the conference.

Eva Galperin on Privacy

Eva Galperin is the Global Policy Analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In today's episode, recorded on June 26, 2015, we discuss consent and control of your data and privacy. Privacy is not dead! Follow Eva on Twitter @evacide.

A lifelong geek, Eva misspent her youth working as a Systems Administrator all over Silicon Valley. Since then, she has seen the error of her ways and earned degrees in Political Science and International Relations from SFSU. She comes to EFF from the US-China Policy Institute, where she researched Chinese energy policy, helped to organize conferences, and attempted to make use of her rudimentary Mandarin skills. Her interests include aerials, rock climbing, opera, and not being paged at 3 o'clock in the morning because the mail server is down.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Brett King on the augmented experience

Brett King is the author of Augmented and Breaking Banks. In today's episode, recorded on June 24, 2015, we discuss contextual experiences with wearables. Follow Brett on Twitter @brettking.

Brett King is the founder of Moven, the world's first downloadable bank account, a four-times Amazon Bestselling Author, American Banker Innovator of the Year (2012), named as "King of the Disruptors" by BankingExchange and voted as one of the Top 10 coolest brands in banking. He has spoken to more than half a million people in 40 countries on the future of technology, banking and consumer behavior. His latest book is Augmented.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Sean White on 20 years of Wearable Technology

Sean White is the CEO & Founder of Bright Sky and has researched wearable technology since the mid-90s. In today's conversation, recorded on June 23, 2015, we reflect on 20 years of wearable technology. Follow Sean on Twitter @seanwhite.

Over the last 20 years, Sean White has been leading and collaborating on creative explorations of the technologies, systems, and experiences that connect us to each other, our environment, and our information through entrepreneurial, executive, advisory, management, and maker roles.

His work and expertise ranges from building successful start-ups to research and products around wearable devices and sensors, augmented reality visualization and interfaces on handhelds and glasses, HCI, AR games, environmental sensing, botanical species identification, large scale information architecture and networks, online communities and growing carbon nanotubes for fuel cells and solar cells.

He is on the Steering Committee for IEEE ISMAR. 30+ peer reviewed publications and 20+ patents granted or filed and was a 2009 Tech Award Laureate for his work on a system for botanical species identification on mobile devices. 

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Ramez Naam on the Freedom of Wearables

photo by Christopher Michel

Ramez Naam is a technologist and science fiction author of the riveting SciFi trilogy – Nexus, Crux, Apex. In today's episode, recorded on June 23, 2015, we discuss the freedom wearables can give you. 

Ramez Naam was born in Cairo, Egypt, and came to the US at the age of 3. He's a computer scientist who spent 13 years at Microsoft, leading teams working on email, web browsing, search, and artificial intelligence. He holds almost 20 patents in those areas.

Ramez is the winner of the 2005 H.G. Wells Award for his non-fiction book More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement. He's worked as a life guard, has climbed mountains, backpacked through remote corners of China, and ridden his bicycle down hundreds of miles of the Vietnam coast. He lives in Seattle, where he writes and speaks full time.

• Follow Ramez on Twitter @ramez.
• Be sure to check out his books, Nexus, Crux, Apex!
• Ingress, is the game Heather mentions (& obsesses about) 
• Ringly, the well designed wearable for women

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

The Future of Cars and the Open Road

I’m not ready to give up the feeling of being behind a wheel, wind blowing my hair, driving at speed on the open road.

I contacted Alex Roy to talk with me about the future of cars. I learned about Alex years ago when he broke the Gumball 3000 record – driving from NY to LA in about 31 hours. I have to admit I was a little jealous of that road trip. I wanted to know Alex’s opinion about augmented driving technology. Was he willing to give up the wheel to a robot? Because I wasn’t.

Here's our podcast talking about the Future of Cars. We had so much fun discussing the future, this podcast inspired a SxSW panel submission which we provocatively titled: The Automotive Singularity is Not Near. If you want to hear more - vote for it! 

Our panel will discuss what we lose – and gain – when we switch to autonomous driving cars. What the transition might be like, and new problems and unintended consequences this technology might bring. 

Fatemeh Khatibloo on Data Ownership

Fatemeh Khatibloo is a Principle Analyst at Forrester Research. Our conversation, June 18, 2015, explores device interoperability, including the god box problem, data ownership and our deep emotional connection to our devices. Follow Fatemeh on Twitter @fatemehx2. 

Fatemeh is an analyst at Forrester Research where she leads research about personal data, privacy and identity. Her focus is on the emerging systems and processes that will put us -- individuals -- in charge of how we manage and share our personal data.

Her seminal research on personal identity management (PIDM) describes how consumers will soon manage the sharing of their personal data with each other and with businesses. Her report "Adaptive Intelligence" further defines a framework for privacy-compliant data sharing between organizations to gain insight, reduce risk, and increase profitability.

Fatemeh's research has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, AllThingsD, CNBC, and AdAge. She has contributed to the Harvard Business Review and Financial Times, provided commentary on NPR and the BBC, and been credited in the World Economic Forum's "Rethinking Personal Data" report. She is a frequent speaker at industry and client events, including SxSW, DataWeek, and PrivacyIdentityInnovation.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Liza Kindred on Textiles and Wearable Tech

Liza Kindred is the founder of Thirdwave Fashion. In today's episode, recorded on June 9, 2015, we discuss textiles and wearable technology. Follow Liza on Twitter @lizaK.

Liza Kindred, the founder of Third Wave Fashion, has been writing and speaking globally for many years. She is considered a top expert on fashion tech – and she’s literally writing the book about designing for wearables and connected devices. Audiences love to hear her speak; she’s been called “inspiring” and “courageous”, as well as “fabulous and informative”. She has keynoted, spoken at, and moderated panels for dozens of conferences and events. 

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE. 

Ben Waber on Wearables in the Corporation

Host Heather Schlegel talks with Ben Waber, President and CEO of Humanyze.

In today's interview, recorded on May 18th, 2015, we discuss wearable technology and behavioral analytics to improve work environments.

Ben Waber is a senior researcher at Harvard Business School and a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab. He is also the president and CEO of Humanyze, a management consulting firm that uses social-sensing technology to understand and improve organizations. He received his Ph.D. from MIT for his work with Alex “Sandy” Pentland in the Human Dynamics group at the Media Lab. Waber’s work has been featured in major media outlets such as Wired, The Economist, and NPR. He has consulted for industry leaders such as LG, McKinsey & Company, and Gartner on technology trends, social networks, and organizational design. Follow Ben on Twitter @bwaber.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Self-Driving Cars

Me and my dream car on Mt Wilson

I've watched the autonomous vehicles space for some time. I love my cars. I love driving. I love going fast over the speed limit, while considering the other drivers on the road. There is an emotional connection I feel when driving. I don't see this emotional aspect addressed in autonomous driving.

Cars were the first piece of technology that was an extension of my self. My hand on the stickshift, I feel the subtle vibrations of the road, the rpms, the engine. My fingers become the tires on the road. Sticky to the pavement. Don't even get me started on the diversity of road - concrete, blacktop, asphalt, gravel, sand and variety or gratings - metal or grooved, if you're lucky a railroad tie covered bridge in Iowa.

I drive a manual. I like having the control to place the car in a specific gear. Downshift for more power. Upshift to give the engine a break or for long roadtrips. My manual turbo has been good to me. I could take better care of her.

Recently, I focused my interest. As happened with money, relationships, intimacy and wearable technology, I am consuming everything on autonomous cars. Crystalizing my thoughts by talking with people. A few weeks ago, I interviewed Alex Roy for an upcoming podcast. I first heard about Alex from his notoriety blasting the Coast to Coast record. NY to LA in 31 hours.

(Sidenote: I deeply longed for those late nights on the unofficial Malibu track - Piuma, Stunt, Mulholland. Although I have not (and would not) attempt a cross-country record, I have a few speed stories of my own. Sidenote to the sidenote: speed with safety.)

If you're an early reader of this blog - you know I've written many words on my love of driving and roadtrips.

It will be no surprise, that I am skeptical about autonomous vehicles. Where is the passion? Why so much the focus on safety? The use case is, people want to get from A to B as safely as possible. I get that. But this whole paradigm forgets the passion, the identity, the experience of driving. It's part of America.

Will a self driving car give the same feeling I have when driving out the 62, 10pm, Milky Way overhead, a cool 78 degree wind whipping my hair? My hand on the stick, I feel the power engage as I downshift, and express itself as my foot presses the accelerator. Not to mention the sweet pause of disengagement when I engage the clutch and placing the gear softly in place, like falling into my temperpedic bed after a long day.

I concede that autonomous vehicles will be safer; but I'm afraid they'll kill the passion - the emotional experience I so deeply love.

How can we balance the benefits of technology to extend these emotional experiences?

 

Brenda Laurel and Rob Tow on Virtual Environments

Pioneer power couple Brenda Laurel and Rob Tow recount their work in Virtual Environments, Emotions and Robotics at Interval Research in the 90s. Today's interview, was recorded at their home, Locus Voci, in the Santa Cruz mountains on March 27, 2015. Their ideas and prototypes are relevant now more than ever. I hope you enjoy listening.

• The Placeholder Project, video (Interval Research). 
• More about Brenda, Brenda on Twitter @blaurel.
• More about Rob, Rob on Twitter @robtow.
• Visit Interval Research's original website via the Wayback Machine.

About Brenda 

Brenda Laurel has pioneered interactive media as a game designer, researcher, writer and teacher. In 2006, she was a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems Labs.

For more than 20 years, Brenda has worked as a programmer, game designer, software producer and researcher for companies including Atari and Atari Labs, Activision and Apple. Based on her research in gender and technology at Interval Research, she co-founded Purple Moon in to create interactive media for girls.

She pioneered Virtual Reality as co-founder and President of Telepresence Research (1989-91) and as co-designer and producer of the VR project “Placeholder” at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Brenda served as a professor and founding chair of the Graduate Program in Design at California College of Arts, the Graduate Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and professor in Computer Science at U.C. Santa Cruz focusing on games, interaction design and design research.

Her books include The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design (1990), Computers as Theatre (1991), Utopian Entrepreneur (2001), Design Research: Methods and Perspectives (2004), and Computers as Theatre: Second Edition (2013). She is currently launching Neogaian, a new consulting service specializing in interactive media that incorporates progressive values. 

About Rob 

Rob Tow is an ex-Xerox-PARC computer scientist and part-time abalone diver. He has worked at small start-ups (Skully Helmets, Compression Labs, ParcPlace Systems) and major research labs (Northrop Aviation Advanced Systems, Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, Xerox PARC, Interval Research, AT&T Labs, NASA Ames Research Center) over the course of a career that spans 38 years.

He has thirteen U.S. patents that cover amorphous silicon, image processing, robotics, wireless sensor networks, and UI. He likes to invent and build things, and is currently part of a team prototyping an embedded Android device that sees for the visually impaired. He lives with his wife Brenda Laurel at their home Locus Voci in the forested Santa Cruz mountains, high above Silicon Valley. 

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Rachel Kalmar on Data and Wearable Technology

Rachel Kalmar is a Data Scientist, previously at Misfit, is known for wearing the largest collection data tracking devices. In today's interview, recorded on May 7th, 2015, we discuss data standards, data ownership and passively collected biodata. You can follow Rachel on Twitter @grapealope. 

Rachel is a data scientist, previously at at Misfit Wearables, where she wrangled noisy data and quantifed anything and everything she can. A Stanford neuroscience PhD, she's spent over a decade using data to explain, predict and influence behavior. She is active in the Bay Area hardware community and runs Sensored, a 1000+ person meetup group for people working on sensor devices and applications (meetup.com/Sensored). Rachel is an alum of the d.school, Singularity University, and Rock Health, and her favorite hashtag is #geekparadise.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Expanding Emotional Capacity

I began studying emotions in earnest after my mom died in October of 2012. Up to that point, I thought emotions were messy, illogical and got in the way. I pushed mine down as much as I could. I remember explicitly shutting them off one night when I was 16. I couldn't continue with the intense emotional pain in my life. I could not let myself be hurt anymore. Since I couldn't change much in my life then, I changed myself, eliminating my emotions.

It didn't work. My emotions would come back up anyway - usually in a volcano of expression. Most of the time I managed this privately, but not always.

I have always been criticized for being "too emotional." I hated that criticism. I hated being emotional. I hated myself. Having these problematic emotions. I learned - especially in business - emotions were bad. Except for positive emotions - like passion for the product - that was desired. But don't you dare show a negative emotion.

But, Emotion is Human.

Bruce Schneier said, at his 2015 SxSW talk, "When we interact with machines, data is created." I'd go so far as to say, when anything interacts with a machine, including other machines, data is created. But what happens when you interact with humans?

"When you interact with humans, emotions are created." -moi

It in the year after my mom's death, decades of fermented emotions uncorked. Like a slow hiss of escaping carbonated liquid, they foamed to the top and coagulated in the air of 2013 and 2014. Facing these decades of rawness, I, dove deep into the fetid effervescence. 

It's hard to believe it's 2015 sometimes. Those months from October 2012 till March 2013 burn darkly - fresher than reality.

Earlier this year I interviewed Brenda Laurel. At the end of our two hour conversation she said something I can't stop thinking about. I'll paraphrase. You can listen to her words directly in a few weeks on our upcoming podcast.

"People think technology is the other. But technology is people!" -Brenda Laurel

She goes on to explain that technology is not separate from ourselves, but another aspect. To distinguish it as "the other" is to deny it is part of us.

I was reminded of this the other day, when I was on the phone to change my phone plan. Being frustrated by the robotic voice phone chain. I took a deep breath. This was not a robot. This was a human aspect - the technology so limited, it required me to modify myself.

How much more pleasant it was to interact with the human man through the technology. If I pulled back perspective, I was talking to myself, helping myself - with technology and other humans. It was kind of amazing!

Technology today lacks emotional touch points. That will change. It is already changing. It's this change that drives my interest in wearable technology - some of the most intimate technology we have available to us today. And it's why I did an interview series on the Future of Wearables. 

As technology becomes better at emotional interactions, we humans will expand our emotional capacity. We've already augmented our logical intelligence. Emotions are next.

John C. Havens on Ethics and Wearable Tech

John C. Havens, author of of Hacking Happiness. In today's interview, recorded on April 29, 2015, we discuss ethical robots, nonhuman companions and the wearable experience.

Follow John on Twitter @johnchavens.

John C. Havens is a contributing writer for Mashable and The Guardian and is author of, Hacking Happiness - Why Your Personal Data Counts and How Tracking it Can Change the World (Tarcher/Penguin, 2014). His new book, Genuinely Human - Making Peace with Artificial Intelligence in the Age of the Algorithm comes out from Tarcher/Penguin in February, 2016. John is a consultant, global keynote speaker, and former EVP at a Top Ten Global PR firm where he worked with clients like Gillette, HP, Merck, and Monster.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

 

Jay Iorio on Mixed Reality and Wearables

Today's interview recorded on May 6, 2015 is with Jay Iorio, Director of Innovation at IEEE. In it, we discuss mixed reality, the Internet of Things and wearables as the bridge between computing of today and the future. You can follow Jay on Twitter @jayiorio.

Check out Ingress - the mixed reality game mentioned. 

Jay Iorio is the Director of Innovation for the IEEE Standards Association and a 28 year veteran in emerging technology. His focus centers on virtual worlds, augmented reality, and serious gaming. Iorio built and currently manages IEEE Island in Second Life and has worked extensively with advanced publishing technologies, multimedia, and 3D user interfaces. He is also a composer, machinimatographer, Occulus Rift developer and creator of the Etherfilm studio complex in Second Life. He is currently working on a future cities project that promises to demonstrate how the convergence of technology will impact the city of the future, through a real-life, comprehensive prototype design in cooperation with a major city in the US. Iorio is based in Los Angeles.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Anthony Stevens on Machine Learning

Today's interview recorded on April 30, 2015 is with Anthony Stevens, Solutions Architect on the IBM Watson Team. In it, we discuss fitness trackers, transhumanism and machine learning. You can follow Anthony on Twitter @biosopher. 

Anthony Stevens is a Solution Architect for the Watson Ecosystem where he works with partners to create solutions built on Watson’s cognitive computing services. Anthony is an expert in transforming complex problems and datasets into elegant mobile and web solutions. He has done this for life science, health, consumer, and multimedia companies by bringing deep expertise in both software development and product management. He has led the process to design, architect, build, and launch products for startups and Fortune 500 corporations. As a top 20 winner of the first Android Developer Challenge, Google awarded him $125,000 for building an innovative product that showcased Android. In short, you can consider him a Master Builder.  

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Silona Bonewald on mesh networks and private data ownership

Today's interview recorded on April 27, 2015 is with Silona Bonewald, OpenBio Advocate. In it, we discuss mesh networks, private data ownership and social contracts. On the spicier side, we discuss a few sticky situations when data trackers collect sexual activity. Follow Silona on Twitter @silona.

A badass transcending definitions, Silona has worked at the edge of tech and decentralized systems. She recently completed work at Emotiv Lifesciences. She is now involved in the OpenBio movement. Among her accomplishments, she coined the phrases Citability and Codeathon that are widely recognized throughout various dictionaries and Wikipedia. A social media early adopter who organized the best parties ever thrown at SxSW. 

• Check out Jott Messenger: A Mesh Network
• Sweden's Condom Positive campaign video

 

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Kyle Mathewson on Flexible Electronics

Today's interview recorded on April 29, 2015 is with Kyle Mathewson, Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta. In it, we discuss flexible (and edible) electronics, new interfaces and machine learning. He blew my mind talking about Scifi like applications that are being built in labs today!

Kyle Mathewson is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Science’s Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta. His field of research is the cognitive neuroscience of visual awareness, attention, learning and memory. He is currently directing the Name to be Announced (NTBA) lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta (Departmental Page). 

The lab uses human behavioural studies, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological recording to gain understanding of the visual attention system. They are also developing new technologies to non-invasively monitor physiology and brain activity. 

• Is it a duck or a bunny?
• What might an immersive VR experience feel like?

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Eliza Strickland on practical health applications

Today's interview recorded on May 4, 2015 is with Eliza Strickland, Associate Editor of IEEE Spectrum. In it, we discuss Health, Wellness and the hardware collecting our data. 

Be sure to explore IEEE Spectrum special issues on The Human OS, mentioned in the podcast.

Eliza Strickland is an associate editor for IEEE Spectrum, the magazine and website for technology insiders. She currently covers the biomedical engineering beat.  Strickland writes about the new technologies enabling personalized medicine, such as mobile health tools, machines that sequence genomes on the cheap, and the implantable devices that may eventually turn us all into happy cyborgs. Her current passion is reporting on neural modulation techniques that researchers are using to tweak patients’ movements, moods, and memories. This year at SXSW Interactive she moderated a panel discussion on “DIY brain hacking.” 

Strickland has reported on science and technology for 15 years, writing for such publications as Nautilus, Discover, Wired, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, Salon, Mother Jones, and The New Republic. She also contributes radio stories to NPR’s midday talk show, Here & Now. She tweets from @newsbeagle.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Boisy Pitre on the Emotional Side of Technology

Today's Future of Wearables interview recorded on April 28, 2015 is with Boisy Pitre, Mobile Visionary at Affectiva. In it, we discuss the emotional side of technology and intelligent mobile apps.

Check out the Emotion Tower mentioned in the podcast.

Boisy G. Pitre is Affectiva’s Mobile Visionary and lead iOS developer. His work has led to the creation of the first mobile SDK for delivering emotions to mobile devices for the leading emotion technology company and spin-off of the MIT Media Lab. He is a speaker at various technical conferences focused on Mac and iOS development, and authors the monthly Developer to Developer column in MacTech Magazine. Boisy holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and resides in the quiet countryside of Prairie Ronde, Louisiana.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Eve Maler on Trust Frameworks

I'm very excited to introduce a new series on the Future of Wearables. 

Today's interview recorded on April 17, 2015 is with Eve Maler, VP of Innovation and Emerging Technology at Forgerock.

In it, we discuss trust frameworks, redefining consent and the architecture of data ownership.

Eve Maler is a renowned strategist, innovator, and communicator on digital identity, access, security, and privacy, with particular focus on creating successful wide-scale ecosystems and fostering individual empowerment. Eve drives Identity Relationship Management innovation for the ForgeRock Open Identity Stack; she also directs ForgeRock’s involvement in related industry standards, particularly for access control and privacy and their impact on the Web and the Internet of Things, to which end she leads the User-Managed Access (UMA) and Health Relationship Trust (HEART) standards efforts.

• Learn more about Eve on her blog.
• Follow her on twitter as Xmlgrrl. 
• Find out more about Forgerock's OpenUMA project 
• Check out Eve's involvement in the IEEE Workshop on Privacy Engineering.

This interview is possible thanks to the support of Sourcebits, Human Factors International and IEEE.

Payments and the Sharing Economy

Last week I was honored to give the keynote at Tomorrow's Transactions on Payments and the Sharing Economy. 

I spoke about my experiences as a Los Angeles AirBnB host, focusing on the emotional experience of the transaction and back end payment features. I shared my experience creating regulations allowing AirBnB style rentals in my Mojave Desert Community of 29 Palms. For 8 months, a team of 15 active citizens and members of the 29 Palms Planning Commission discussed and debated community concerns and crafted a set of regulations. ** Audio available on request (use contact email on contact page)

• How do payments and the Sharing economy interact?
• What is the difference between the sharing and utilization economy?
• Case Study: AirBnB Host Experience (payments, records, taxes)
• Case Study: Regulations for the Sharing Economy in 29 Palms, California 
• What can we expect in the future of the Sharing Economy?
• What are business opportunities?
• What can we expect for the future?

Thanks to Dave Birch and Gloria Benson for inviting me to keynote at Tomorrow's Transactions last week in London. 

Interested in more? I can help you

• Learn about the future, based on what's happening today.
• Bring your teams together to discover unusual solutions.
• Create your custom forecast with strategies to create your future.
• Build prototypes of your future ideas - and share the visions with the world (or keep them secret if you prefer)

Payments and the Sharing Economy from Heather Schlegel (aka heathervescent)

Biometrics & Identity: Beyond Wearables

If you missed my SxSW talk on what to expect beyond wearables, slides are below. Contact me directly to get audio of the talk (via email on contact page).

Note: this was a joint panel with Dr. Leslie Saxon of USC and John C. Havens of the H(app)iness Project; however these slides are only of my portion. 

Thank you IEEE for a fantastic speaker series and promoting technology for the benefit of humanity! 

Interested in more? I can help you

• Learn about the future, based on what's happening today.
• Bring your teams together to discover unusual solutions.
• Create your custom forecast with strategies to create your future.
• Build prototypes of your future ideas - and share the visions with the world (or keep them secret if you prefer)

Biometric & Identity: Beyond Wearables - Sxsw 2015 from heathervescent

Do *you* create the future of money?

Image by Anna Metcalf, Dinner with Friends Shoot

I have a strong belief we co-create the future through our everyday actions. In the world of banking
and finance; we have banks, technology and financial companies that have created the transactional systems we mostly use. But "users" don't always use the systems the way their creators intended.

For 5 years, I have actively observed changes impacting money, economies and transactions. I share these observations to increase our conscious power to create the future. Network effect is stronger than technology standards or company/brand affiliation. Together, we *can* influence global systems and create the future.

The Future of Transactions survey is a dialog - you with me.

You are nodes in the global economy, and your your experience of the Present Moment of Transactions and Money is important. What is the future *you* desire?

I'm listening. Tell me.

Share the survey with friends, family and colleagues. Everyone's voice matters. We all create the future everyday in each present moment. So we can make it the future we really want.

Thank you for taking the survey

Interview with Heather Schlegel

The tables are turned for me in the final 2014 episode. In this special Future of Money podcast I am interviewed by Joyce Bettencourt. Joyce backed the Future of Money Kickstarter with the Conversation with a Futurist pledge. 

I hope you enjoy this fly on the wall listen of our conversation from January 2014.

 

Colin Rule on Contextual Reputation

Today's interview recorded on October 29, 2014 is with Colin Rule, Founder and COO of Modria. In it, we talk about reputation systems in the early days of eBay and the need for contextual reputation.

You can read more of Colin’s writings at colinrule.com/writing. Follow Colin on Twitter @crule. 

 

Ted Werth on Reputation based Advertising Models

Today's interview recorded on October 29, 2014 is with Ted Werth, Co-founder and CEO of TenGrade. In it, we discuss reputation as a new advertising model, optimizing for happiness and the kind of economy needed to support middle class working artists.

Learn more about Ted's projects: Injenius, Disorient and follow him on Twitter @tejawe.

Duena Blomstrom on Banking Business Models

Today's interview recorded on October 31, 2014 is with Duena Blomstrom, Chief Marketing Officer of Meniga.

 

In it, we discuss new Banking business models and emotional banking. Follow Duena on Twitter @DuenaBlomstrom.

Enjoy!

Johnny Dilley on Bitcoin

Today's interview recorded on October 30, 2014 is with Johnny Dilley, Venture Associate at Pantera Capital.

In this episode we talk about five of Bitcoin’s major use cases, ways Bitcoin has already innovated the industry and what the future with Bitcoin might be like.

You can subscribe to Johnny’s Bitflash Letter here and follow Johnny on Twitter at AdmiralLeviathn.

 

 

Guillaume Lebleu on Crowdfunding Local Food

Today's interview recorded on July 18, 2014 is with Guillaume Lebleu, founder of Credibles, a crowdfunding application for local food producers.

Follow Guilleume on twitter at @giyom.

 

Jean Russell on Scaling Trust

Today's interview recorded on August 7, 2014 is with Jean Russell, Author of Thrivability. In it, we discuss what has changed with Alternative currencies the past 10 years, how we are currently scaling trust and shame we feel around money.

Find her online at www.jeanmrussell.com. Follow her on Twitter at NurtureGirl.

Bradley Leimer on the Future of Lending

Today's interview recorded on June 25, 2014 is with Bradley Leimer. Bradley was Vice President of Digital Strategy at Mechanics Bank when we recorded this conversation. He’s now Head of Innovation at Santander Bank.(Congrats Bradley!) In it, we discuss crowdfunding and other changes in investing. 

Please enjoy this fascinating conversation on the role of Banks, security and wearables.

Ferananda Ibarra on Invisible Economic Architectures

 

Today's interview recorded on July 30 is with Fernananda Ibarra from VillageLab. We discuss collective intelligence and how the invisible architectures in our economic models are changing.

Ferananda is co-founder of The Collective Intelligence Research Institute and team player of the Metacurrency project - which seeks to build a platform and protocol standards that will allow for multiple and interoperable currencies to exist on the Internet.

It's a fascinating conversation. I hope you enjoy it.

You can follow Ferananda on twitter.

Ray Podder on Trust

I met Ray Podder, founder of This is Grow earlier this year. 

In this Future of Money podcast, Ray and I go deep down the rabbit hole and discuss trust, resilience and our underlying assumptions about our economic paradigm. It's a conversation from a holistic systems perspective.

Systems thinking is an approach to understanding complex ecosystems. I consider deep understanding of systems a prerequisite to solving any big human problem. It's from this holistic perspective that we can gain fresh views to our economic "problems." I hope you enjoy this week's podcast.

Check out more of Ray's work

• Bottom Line to Full Circle
• The UnManifesto: For a unified Humanity
• Ray on Twitter

 

Tara Hunt on Social Capital and Reputation Currencies

Tara Hunt

Tara Hunt and I met back in the early web 2.0 days through Barcamp, blogging and tech conferences. She's an old school internet marketing pioneer and was the author of the Wuffie Factor - one of the first books on social capital. We caught up a few months ago to talk about those early days of web 2.0 social capital, authentic brand, what's changed in the past 10 years and more. 

If you're interested in online marketing, social capital or want to hear one of the smartest women talk, you won't want to miss this Future of Money episode with the talented Tara Hunt. 

Learn more about Tara at her website. Follow her on Twitter, Slideshare, Instagram and YouTube.

 

Karthik Jayaraman on Decentralized Currencies

Today's Future of Money podcast is with Karthik Jayaraman of the Peer to Peer Foundation. In it, we talk about decentralized currencies, economic crisis and value. Enjoy! 

Why Climate Crisis is critical to our Success beyond Earth

(Note: this is an idea I’ve been thinking about for months, it is hastily written, poorly researched and submitted to the internet as a provocative idea. I encourage respectful, constructive, non-judgemental dialog.)

The Mojave Road

 

Space exploration and climate crisis have more things in common than you might initially think. Common conclusions might say we've got to get off this planet before we destroy it.

Well, indeed that is one view, that feels to me irresponsible at best. (There are far better reasons for space exploration and it puts a huge burden on space exploration to include life support for initial journeys.)

Climate Change is a critical step towards positive space exploration/development - not because we’ve fucked shit up bad enough to dirty our home environment - but because we now know for certain that we puny humans can influence something as big as our home climate.

I think that’s pretty awesome.

I’ll repeat that - I think it’s awesome that humans can influence the global biosphere through our small, individual actions.

Ruth Grayson on Lyft - Future of Money Podcast

This week's Future of Money podcast talks with Ruth Grayson, longtime Lyft driver and winner of this year's MVP Golden Mustache Award. 

Ruth Grayson - center in pink wig

Ruth was one of the first LA Lyft drivers - experiencing first-hand the changes as Lyft grew and then when Uber started poaching Lyft drivers. (She broke this story to me months before it was covered in the mainstream news - which I included in my Reputation Currency brief.) 

We talk about the early days of Lyft, general thoughts on the Sharing Economy and I have an epiphany - 

Abundance is everywhere, it’s just not evenly distributed. -Heathervescent

Tune in!

Episodes, RSS feed, Soundcloud, iTunes (search Future of Money podcast)