Category Archives: 21st Century Human

My Virtual Selfie – Avatars and Identity Security

23 Monday Jan 2023

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The creation and use of avatars isn’t a new concept, however with the growth and development in the MetaVerse and technology, they are getting better. Back in May 2020 I wrote a post about “Avatars – My Digital Selfie“, covering several avatar options and showed examples of different avatars across them. Two things came to my news feed recently that have made me re look at this topic. Firstly the news that Microsoft is closing down AltSpaceVR on the 10th March and users can now download their data before the platform closes. and secondly an email telling me of the new experiences being developed using Ready Player Me.

The explosion of MetaVerse and SocialVerse platforms is seeing lots of new platforms and older ones being shutdown, replaced or upgraded for new user experiences as well as supporting developments in technologies. Loosing AltSpaceVR is loosing a bit of nostalgia for me, but on with newer things as Microsoft are concentrating on Mesh and on October last year introduced Microsoft Mesh Avatars in Teams in preview.

I’m not going to republish all of my avatars again (see my previous post for that), however the image in this post is my Ready Player Me avatar. This can be used across a wide range of platforms, some of which I haven’t come across yet and probably won’t use, but its good to understand they are there.

Being able to use the same avatar across multiple platforms does have advantages and allows a single identity to be maintained. The amount of platforms that can or will adopt an avatar will be down to standards, cost and compatibility. Not every platform may operate at the same resolution or speed.

Whilst avatars are good fun and allow you to be represented in the virtual world by a set of pixels that look like you, there are a few draw backs (things not yet developed) that still need addressing.

Security – How easy is it to create an avatar? it’s not hard. How easy is it to create and avatar of somebody else? again its not hard. So whats stopping someone else mimicking you on a platform – nothing. This is an area that is in need of development and thinking. Although this is not a massive market at the moment, there are some questions that need considering. Here is my point of view on these.

  • Should there be a form of authentication that accompanies an avatar? – Yes, 2FA and an ID key embedded into the avatar. An avatar ID watermark to confirm its the actual person who is using it.
  • Should there be legislation covering false or identity theft using avatars? – Most probably, look at what is happening with deepfakes at the moment.
  • Should there be any specific legislation on avatar creation and detail? Maybe – This is an interesting one as avatars are getting better and becoming more lifelike. Yes there are virtual people systems today that can replicate a human without much error, but in this instance I am talking about standard avatars for everyone. Look at all the press around facial recognition. Would a system identifying a lifelike avatar be classed in a similar vane?

Avatars is an area to watch as they develop further. Do you have a view on these questions?

Our Acceptance of Modern Technologies

06 Friday Jan 2023

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I was sent a meme the other day which apart from making me laugh, actually illustrates our acceptance of modern technologies over a period of time and is the reason for this blog post.

Not sure who created the photo/meme so unable to credit at this time (so thanks internet).

We can explain Technology Acceptance through a model. How we use and perceive technology changes from person to person. There are also external factors that can effect our perception. Lets look at the meme as an example.

Previous advice from fuel vendors has always pointed at not using a mobile at the fuel pump. This information was spread through via an email stating that an influential figure in the fuel market said it was dangerous to use a mobile near a pump. This had a wide impact and the “Do not use your mobile near a fuel pump” sticker was born.

This guidance has been since shown to be a myth and was a topic of Myth Busters experiments. It was proved as busted back in 2004 and that in fact there is more danger from static electricity getting out of the car. This has in the main been accepted and in a complete turn around now and keeping up with modern banking and consumer trends, allow the payment of fuel through a mobile phone (of course you should always follow the latest legislation for use of a mobile whilst driving).

There is a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (defined by Fred Davies 1989) that can be used to look at how a technology may be accepted through its perceived use and usefulness.

The model is based on four constructs:

  • Perceived ease of use
  • Perceived usefulness
  • Attitudes
  • Actual behaviours

These constructs are linked as per the model diagram below:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Technology_Acceptance_Model.png

The model suggests that when users are presented with a new technology, a number of factors influence their decision about how and when they will use it, notably:

Perceived usefulness (PU) or (U) – This was defined by Fred Davis as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance their job performance”. It means whether or not someone perceives that technology to be useful for what they want to do.

Perceived ease-of-use (PEOU) or (E) – Davis defined this as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free from effort” (Davis 1989). If the technology is easy to use, then the barriers conquered. If it’s not easy to use and the interface is complicated, no one has a positive attitude towards it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_acceptance_model#CITEREFDavis1989

The External Variables are factors that can effect the four constructs such as

  • Social influence
  • Design
  • Content
  • Entertainment
  • Cost

Social media is one external variable to add to the list, that has a growing impact on the PU and PEOU. Going back to the petrol pump analogy, in the video earlier referenced an influential person in the industry is quoted as saying don’t use mobiles at the pumps. In todays world the use of social media would have this message out quicker than an email, influencing how the product is used, myth or not. This has an influence on our perception of the technology.

The model however does not account for people doing things not as planned or rational. Here is a good video explaining the Technology Acceptance Model:

Top 10 Tech Podcasts for 2023

04 Wednesday Jan 2023

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Following my last post on my PKMS (Personal Knowledge Management System), where I covered the use of Podcasts as one of my inputs into the information I consume, here are my top 10 Podcast recommendations for 2023. These are mostly technology based podcasts, although some have a wider scope.

1. The Digital Human (BBC)

In The Digital Human podcast Aleks Krotoski (Broadcaster and Journalist) explores the digital world and the topics that affect, grow and change it.

2. a16z Podcast

The a16z Podcast discusses tech and culture trends, news, and the future with regular multiple podcasts. The a16Z podcast is produced by Andreessen Horowitz a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm.

3. TED Radio Hour

The TED Radio Hour podcast brings together some of the best TED talk topics across a wide range of topics. This is a great way to get to hear about the latest information about TED talks.

4. WB-40 Podcast

In the WB-40 podcast hosted by Matt Ballantine and Chris Weston they hold conversations on how technology is changing how we work.

5. Tech Tent (BBC)

In the Tech Tent podcast broadcaster and journalist Rory Cellan-Jones talks about the latest stories in the tech world.

6. FT Tech Tonic

In the Tech Tonic podcast by the FT (Financial Times) it investigates the promises and perils of this new technological age – the digital revolution.

7. The Vergecast Podcast

The Vergecast podcast is hosted by Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz, where they present a weekly view of tech news, whats happing now and in the future.

8. Tech Swamp Podcast

The Tech Swamp podcast covers global tech policy and business headlines, tidbits of tech history, and topical policy deep-dives on legislation and regulation in the U.S., EU, UK, and around the globe.

9. Tech Stuff Podcast

The Tech Stuff podcast hosted by Jonathan Strickland explores the people behind the tech, the companies that market it and how technology affects our lives and culture.

10. Back to Work Podcast

In the Back to Work podcast Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin discuss productivity, communication, work, barriers, constraints and tools.

What are your top 10 Podcasts for 2023?

Personal Knowledge Management System – Revised for 2023

03 Tuesday Jan 2023

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It has been a couple of years since I have updated my PKMS (Personal Knowledge Management System), so time to publish an updated system. Lots have changed over the past few years including a move to working from home more which has reduced my time in the car and catching up on podcasts, however it has allowed me more time to read. Some of the systems I was previously using I have removed from use and added in new ones.

I still believe strongly in separating my personal social and business social, although there is the occasional need for the two to cross.

Personal Life

Personal Journal

My go to notebook of choice for Journaling is still the Moleskine plain pocket book and I have just started journal number 35. Its quality and paper is good enough for my needs and archival quality. I still favour the Pilot ball ink pens (0.5 or 0.7) as they flow nicely on the page. See my blog post No batteries required for further details.

Social Media

In keeping my work life separate from my personal life, I use platforms such as Instagram and Facebook for friends and family with appropriate two factory and security settings in place. Even with those settings you still need to consider that once something is online, it could be public in the future.

Professional Life

Research

This is split into several areas and these are a few of the inputs that I use to grab information, feeds, data from:

  • Streaming Services
  • RSS Feeds
  • Podcasts
  • TED Talks
  • Web Searches
  • Blog Posts
  • Courses

This is a high level list of the types of content that I am consuming in my research and knowledge growth. It is important to have Growth Mindset by taking every opportunity to experiment, embrace failure, learn, change and seek challenges will enable yourself and business to realise potential and success. The term Growth Mindset comes from the study and theory of Dr Carol Dweck that intelligence can be developed. This can be applied to every person young and old to reach higher levels of achievement.

Streaming Services covers platforms such as YouTube. The availability of cameras and online streaming platforms, more content is being made available and recorded by people to pass on their knowledge.

RSS Feeds low my to pull updates from sites into Feedly where I can view them on my daily viewing of my feed.

Podcasts cover both Audio and Video casts that I watch/stream online or download to my Phone / Media Player (Audio and Videos) to listen to when I am on journeys in the car or other transportation methods or out walking the dog. I have spent a lot of time out walking as my family got a dog back in April 2022 and this has also improved my level of fitness as well as the ability to catch up on podcasts.

The amount of online learning available today is huge from free MOOC’s (Massive Open Online Courses) to paid for course such as Udemy. Lots of vendors now provide a good level of free training for their products and solutions. This category also covers courses that I can take through work.

Feedly

Feedly provides an aggregation tool which I use to collect the stories from blogs and web sites.  This provides a list of stories that can be scanned tin a few minutes on a single screen without going via multiple sites. Clicking on a story will bring up a snippet from the source site and provide the link to read the source article if required. Using a series of key strokes you can read the headlines, then move down the articles at a reasonable speed, stopping and opening when needed.

Sources can be categorised to allow an all view or just whats new in a category.

Thinking Time

Thinking Time covers the time that I spend absorbing the PKMS information coming in from the different sources and then also process and apply in different ways. It is also good to spend time reflecting on what I have learnt and think of different and new way to use the information and learnings.

Blogging and Being Social

Following my Thinking Time I gather my thoughts and research and write these down through my blogs and podcasts and publish these on Social Media, WordPress and GitHub.

My previous posts on my PKMS can be found below

Personal Knowledge Management System – Revised for 2020
A-Z of Digital – K is for Knowledge

Using the best of the Q Continuum

22 Tuesday Feb 2022

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Everyone should have heard of / used the term IQ in relation to Intellectual Quotient or EQ in relation to a person’s Emotional Quotient Which is measured using a standardised set of tests to measure human intelligence. A Quotient is the degree or amount of something.

If you were looking for something on the new series of Picard and Q sorry, however I am looking forward to watching it. The use of Q (Quotient) today can now be used to measure a range of things from Body to Managerial and there is a Q for most of the letters in the alphabet. Below are some of the key ones to be aware of

AQ – Adversity Quotient is used to show the ability of a person to deal with adversities in their life.

BQ – Body Quotient is used to show your whole-body health.

CQ – Cultural Quotient is used to show and improve effectiveness in culturally diverse situations.

CQ – Curiosity Quotient is used to show how powerfully motivated someone is to learn about a personally interesting subject.

DQ – Decency Quotient is used to show how a leader has the genuine desire to do the right thing and wants something positive for everyone. Ensuring everyone feels respected and valued.

EQ – Emotional Quotient is used to show the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions.

IQ – Intellectual Quotient is used to show a person’s intelligence using a standardised set of tests.

MQ – Moral Quotient is used to show understand right from wrong and to behave based on the value that is believed to be right.

PQ – Physical Quotient is used to show self-awareness and how well attuned you are to your physical wellbeing.

SQ – Spiritual Quotient is used to indicate spiritual parallels with IQ and EQ

There are many others, some not as mainstream within people’s knowledge. There are many articles around each of the Quotients and which make a rounded person. For me its all of them:

AQ + BQ + CQ + DQ + EQ + IQ + MQ + PQ + SQ = Well Rounded Person

Below are 5 Self Reflection questions to ask yourself

  • After reading the list above how many of these are you aware of?
  • Which of these do you use today?
  • Which will you use going forward?
  • Which is your strongest quotient?
  • How will you bring all your quotients up and be aware of them?

BCS Fellows Technical Advisory Group (F-TAG)

24 Tuesday Aug 2021

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I am both excited and honoured at the opportunity to be part of the first cohort for the BCS F-TAG (Fellows Technical Advisory Group). Looking forward to participating and helping to lead bringing my experience and knowledge as part of this group.

Aim of the F-TAG

BCS’ Fellows Technical Advisory Group (F-TAG) is a diverse selection of experts who will distil insights on cutting edge technologies to benefit the entire BCS membership, the wider industry and ‘UK plc’; F-TAG complements the work of existing boards and groups. Source.

F-TAG is made up of 25 BCS Fellows selected from diverse demographic and professional backgrounds; their expertise ranges from software testing to smart homes. Source.

Find out more at : https://www.bcs.org/policy-and-influence/bcs-fellows-technical-advisory-group-f-tag

F-TAG Members: https://www.bcs.org/policy-and-influence/bcs-fellows-technical-advisory-group-f-tag/f-tag-members

Logical and Creative Thinking

22 Thursday Apr 2021

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Right Side vs Left Side of brain

Our brain is an amazing organ of that learns, remembers, controls, moves, repairs a complex body. It is in control of lots of functions and as part of that it is also responsible for our Logical and Creative Thinking. There are lots of articles that talk about the left side of the brain being responsible for Logical and the right side for Creativity. This was first researched by Roger Wolcott Sperry with his work on the split brain.

There are lots of articles that talk about people being left or right dominant on the brain, hence being more logical or creative, however more recently published articles and research show that the activity in the brain is similar on both sides of the brain regardless of how dominant they are “An Evaluation of the Left-Brain vs. Right-Brain Hypothesis with Resting State Functional Connectivity Magnetic Resonance Imaging“.

Either way the brain is still an amazing thing and you can learn to use both Logical and Creative Thinking techniques, you just need to apply a growth mindset.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

Logical Thinking

Logical thinking helps us to make “sense” of things, coming up with solutions and in decision making.

The five W’s and 1 H are commonly used as questioning to help form logical thinking. These are

  • Who
  • When
  • Why
  • What
  • Where
  • How

Some add another H – How Much to the list as cost can play an important factor in decisions.

Creative Thinking

Creative thinking helps us approach things with an out of the box approach and an ability to look at things through different lenses to discover new solutions.

Balanced View

Taking a balanced view across Logical and Creative thinking, the Six Thinking Hats written by Dr. Edward de Bono starts to provide a balanced view by using the idea of parallel thinking to plan and use thinking more effectively. This can include logical and creative thinking.

Blue Hat – Process

  • manage process
  • action plans
  • next steps
  • reviewing thinking
  • summary

White Hat – Facts

  • data
  • facts
  • information needed
  • information available

Red Hat – Feelings

  • feelings
  • hunches
  • instinct
  • intuition

Green Hat – Creativity

  • creativity
  • solutions
  • ideas
  • alternatives
  • possibilities

Yellow Hat – Benefits

  • positives
  • brightness and optimism
  • value
  • benefits

Black Hat – Cautions

  • difficulties
  • potential problems
  • weaknesses

Build on the Skills

Learn different ways of thinking

Learn some new ways of thinking that you have not used before.

Practice and mix it up

As the phrase goes “Practice makes perfect”. Using different methods of thinking can bring different views and possibly different solutions to the problem/challenge.

Personally I have created my own set of cards based on several ways and methods of thinking that I use when I am looking at a problem. See my blog post Playing a Game with Innovation and Thinking.

Work with others

There is nothing better than working with others to bring in different views and ways of thinking that you may not have thought of previously. This is a great way of seeing how other people approach the problem/challenge and help identify if there are areas you can improve/learn on.

Be creative

Spend some time on creative hobbies that will help you build you creative thinking.

Learning a new skill

Learning a new skill will help you develop your thinking.

Further Reading

Experimental Mindset

10 Wednesday Feb 2021

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We have all at sometime done some sort of experiment, from maybe from a young age as to see which cry and actions resulted in the reward of milk to test driving cars to find which is best suited to your needs before you buy it. These are experiments that produced results from things we have tried and may not have thought about it as developing an Experimental Mindset. In this article I am concentrating on how this applies to data.

Here are my notes from my research into the topic.

The main areas for an Experimental Mindset are:

In order to constantly learn you need to be open to learning and develop your Growth Mindset. I have covered this in another blog so wont repeat here: Having the Right Digital Mindset: Business (Change, Agility and a Growth Mindset).

Having an Experimental Mindset is one of the key traits in being a Data Analyst or Data Scientist and it is not a new term. This has been around as long as the field of science and research has. These arena have developed methodologies that have been adopted and taken forward by many other areas such as business and computing that can be used for testing and evaluating.

At a high level this methodology can be shown as:

Observations –> Hypothesis –> Scientific Law

Overlaid with the areas for data this can be shown as:

Observations (Learning) –> Hypothesis (Testing) –> Scientific Law (Evaluating)

or as:

Observations (Data) –> Hypothesis (Product/Service) –> Scientific Law (Predictive Model)

Using this methodology, one of the more common types of Hypothesis Testing is A/B Testing. This sets out a framework for a simple controlled experiment against two versions (A and B) to look at the impact of changes to a thing or product. Some useful articles on A/B Testing are listed below that go into the details of it:

Udacity host a course by Google on A/B testing.

There are some risks to A/B Testing that should be considered when reviewing the results:

  • Sampling Bias
  • Study Population
  • Target Population
  • Segmentation
  • World Time Zones
  • Target Population
  • Data/Privacy Laws

I will go further into the realms of A/B testing in a later blog post.

Further Reading

Journaling my Daily Musings

12 Tuesday Jan 2021

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I am now nearing the completion of another Personal Journal (Number 30). I was at number 13 when I last wrote about my journalling (No Batteries Required: My Personal Journal) and I am still going strong on writing daily.

My normal journal of choice is a Moleskine Plain Pocket Notebook and all of my journals have followed this type so far. I have found them to be robust enough for my needs and use.

My journal normally has a mix between a Journal and a Scrapbook with inserts/stick in’s of tickets, pictures etc where I think its journal worthy. Journal worthy is mainly things that will help anyone reading the journal to get a feeling what we did and as reminders to us.

“The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.”

― Chuck Palahniuk

Although in recent times the amount of inserts has reduced with the stay at home messages.

My pen is normally a pilot V7 Hi-Techpoint which I find flows well over the pages in the journals. I have tried other pens and inks (fountain, ball point, etc) and found these to be the best.

Why do I keep a personal journal:

  • Daily routine of writing – keeps my mind fresh in writing skills
  • Keeping my writing skills up in an age of keyboards and touchscreens
  • Memories so the family can reflect on events
  • Keeping notes and remembering events
  • Not everything you do has to be online
  • My journal doesn’t need a battery
  • My pen doesn’t need to be cabled or wifi’d to print with it
  • My journal doesn’t crack when I drop it (although it can get wet)

Downsides of keeping a journal:

  • No Delete Key – just cross out a word/sentence
  • Physical Storage of journals rather than virtual

So what does a collection of 30 Journals(2007-2021) look like………

Two reused large shoeboxes full containing around 13 years of journaling ove 4,888 pages.

I would encourage anyone to start journalling – A great view of what you have achieved during a lifetime.

Too Much Reliance on SatNav and online maps?

23 Friday Oct 2020

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Knock on the door from a person with a delivery said “Took ages to find your house, is your postcode correct?”. Not quite what I expected to hear. Having lived in the house for a number years and the post office delivering to my house with the same postcode I have had since moving in nothing has changed on my side.

So what’s happened. After some simple checks it appears Google Maps have somehow shifted my postcode over a few roads. That does explain a lot as to why some people have found it hard to find my location in the past such as taxi drivers, takeaways and delivery drivers etc.

I have raised a case on Google Maps to have this corrected

It does raise the question though about how reliant we are becoming on technology to find our way and give locations. Following a map on your phones and devices and not refering back to a map or even looking at the street names (Are you on the right road!).

How much trust do you put into your device and gps to advise your location? There are some great and fairly accurate (GPS dependant) tools/apps such as What 3 Words to find a location, but when relying on a postcode, how much trust do you put in it? For me a SatNav or Online Map will get you to the general location. Now you need to use some detective work to find the place your meant to be.

When finding places there is nothing like carrying map. I still have and use an A-Z Street Map when going to some new places and an OS Map. A road atlas in the car to help plan my route and gain my sense of direction for where I am about to travel to (when not in lockdown of course).

I teach navigation as part of my Scouting and Bushcraft activities in my spare time and always start with the basics of maps and compasses. These navigation methods are very relevant and needed, however the reliance on technology to find a way is still the instinctive urge. Using devices to find your way on an online mapping tool will only be as good as your signal and battery life. Saying that, it is always useful to help with traffic information and other things that could delay your journey. As long as someone with a hand cart full of mobiles isnt ruining your journey.

Online maps do have a place and are useful. Backing that up with a paper based map is always a good option. You may find places you didnt know existed locally!