Vendor Relationship Management: welcome to the citizen-centric future

by Tara ‘missrogue’ Hunt

The direction of signals has changed.

2.0

1.0

• passive audience• very little information

gathering (generalized)• mass messages• silos of data (where

there is any)

• interactive audience• a great deal of

information gathering• mass messages (but

targeted)• silos of data

• interactive audience• information/data

gathered by all parties• personalized messages• citizen-centric• transportable data

3.0

Current issues with signals

• noise wins over signal - as more content is produced, it gets harder and harder to wade through the messages

• lack of trust - what is truth? who has a stake in it?

• data silos - nobody is sharing important information that could help people discover the right messages

• data ownership - who owns the data? where does it go? can I access it? can I bring it with me? I don’t want another silo.

needed: a framework that works to cut through the noise, gives citizens autonomy/choice and allows for data to travel with the user.

VRM (vendor relationship managment): the reciprocal of CRM (customer relationship management)

customer control

vendor control

tran

sact

ions

relationships

VRM

vendor-controlled + transactional (today’s market)

mass mediaimpersonal

little measurementpassive users

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkOHsjZKBB0

vendor-controlled + relationships (minority report)

personalizedtargeted

very measuredpassive users

scene from minority report

customer-controlled + transactional (me-ville/free-ville)

customer in controlno loyalty (what’s in it for me?)

no measurementactive users

customer-controlled + relationships (VRM)

VRM intends to improve markets and their mechanisms by giving customers tools to have more control over their buying

decisions so that they are no longer at the mercy of the vendors and other parties on the supply side of the

marketplace.

Project VRM at Harvard: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/projectvrm/Main_Page

customer drivenloyalty/relationships

measured (with permission)active users

Current day marketing

No specified needbroadcasted...

random noise. so much filtering that we ignore even the useful messages that are trying to get through.

In the Minority Report

“I need a haircut”

still too much noise. defensive filtering wastes time + energy. decisions are impossible.

me-ville/free-ville

“I need a haircut”

VE

ND

OR

S

bidsmade

based oncustomer

worth

Ichoose bestbid

good for me, but not scalable for vendors. also not great for people who lose the coin toss. those with more status/money will get better deals + a new type of ‘social class’ will be born.

vendor relationship management

“I need a haircut”

myfilters:

*social*price

*reviews*taste

*popularity*past

experience*my

particularneed

*trust orvaluesetc.

clearchoice

VE

ND

OR

S

good for me AND for vendors.

VRM good for business & government:

• much better understanding of market (real-time, accurate to behavior data); ability to collect data as preferences change (long range relationships)

• 100% opt-in of customers/citizens increases attention and trust as well as all-around accountability

• focus on innovation

• discourages monopolies (allowing for more businesses to grow); no more ‘too big to fail’

• citizen/customer information isn’t locked into silos; redundant systems make way for interconnected systems

VRM good for customers/citizens

• personal needs served better

• healthy competition means that customers get treated better and companies work harder to win attention

• no more filling in forms over and over and over again

• convenient

• autonomy - identity travels with the individual - authentication is opt-in

• two way handshake means much fewer mistakes/less fraud & identity theft/smoother transactions

VRM good for countries

• decrease in overhead associated with paperwork and missing information

• more democratic; decreases the power of lobbyists and interest groups, giving a more representative idea of the country

• reduction in fraud and identity theft also reduces the costs everyone bears, which was 7 cents of every dollar spent in 2006[1]

• accounting for intangible wealth and costs (social, informational, health, etc) driving the GDP

• citizen-driven encourages engaged, informed citizens (filters set up personally help the right information get through)

[1] http://www.sas.com/news/analysts/mercator_fraud_1208.pdf

VRM has wide-reaching possibilities

• Media

• Shopping

• Knowledge management

• Government services

• Healthcare

• Transportation

• Employment services

• Education

• Border & Customs Agencies

• Census, & more...

VRM building blocks

• PERSONAL: portable identities (controlled by the individual)

• Identity

• Official (validated by official/state entities)

• Social (validated by social interaction)

• Preferences

• Authorization

• GENERAL: standardized data

John Clippinger on Customer-Centric Identity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_CdsopNc9Mhttp://www.ideasproject.com/idea_person.webui?id=4423

“Official” Identity• Birth Certificate• Driver’s License• Insurance Records• Health Care Card• Health Records• Credit Records• Passport• Nexus Card• Social Security

Number• Education• Marriage Records• Birth Records• Work History• Published Works

(ISBN)• Address (& history)• Phone number (&

history• etc.

“Social” Identity• Social Network &

Connections• Followers/

Audience• Published Works• Authority• Influence• Attention• Trust• Nicknames• Images• Notable

contributions• Social History• Volunteerism• Activity on SN’s,

blogs• etc.

Verified byOfficial Agencies

Verified bySocial

Connections

Identity

two-wayhandshake

The makeup of a person’s identity is more than what’s on paper. It also includes their social currency.

Q: how can we validate social currency?

OpenID.net + OpenSocial?

• Music played• Music shared• Movies/television watched• Movies/television shared• Purchase history• Returns• Price range• Payment type• Articles read• Articles shared• Articles bookmarked• Articles linked to• Search history• People paid attention to (connection/

read/shared/conversations/etc)• Subjects paid attention to• Books read• Books liked/shared• Places traveled to• Airlines frequented• Hotels frequented• Jobs searched• etc.

Preferences

Our preferences are what we produce ourselves, explicitly, through choice or voice, or implicitly, through lack of attention. Taste data can be recorded actively or passively.

Q: our preferences are what are truly stuck in silos, but shouldn’t necessarily be tied to our identities (only need to be validated by one person - me). What incentives can we give to free our taste data?

hTaste? OpenTaste?

• Birth Certificate• Driver’s License• Insurance

Records• Health Care Card• Health Records• Credit Records• Passport• Nexus Card• Social Security

Number• Marriage Records• Birth Records• Work History• Published Works

(ISBN)• Address• Phone• etc.

• Social Network & Connections

• Followers/Audience

• Published Works• Authority• Influence• Attention• Trust• Nickname(s)• Images• Notable

community contributions

• Social History• Password• etc.

Authorization

+ preferences

The biggest issue around authorization is education. There is a high risk of fraud and this is a complicated subject. Confusion will limit adoption.

Q: how do we educate the public about authorization as well as put in anti-fraud protections without making it too complicated?

OAuth?

myauthorized

data

goods/servicesjust right for me+ updates to my

history/preferences

In order for this transfer to occur smoothly, the data needs to be standardized.

Q: can we agree on standards as a community (grassroots efforts, not top-down)?

Microformats? RSS? XML?

International implications (mobile)

• KENYA - Safaricom’s M-Pesa: "Within two weeks of the launch over ten thousand account holders were registered and more than $100,000 had been transferred" Michael Joseph Safaricom CEO

• UGANDA - Cell phone credit transfers (Ethan Zuckerman)

• FrontlineSMS:Credit - free and open source phone modules (DC)

• IRAN - The ‘Green Revolution’ transmitted worldwide via mobile phones (using mobile phones to gather/protest/report goes back to 1999)

• Worldwide, we are seeing citizens disintermediate systems with cell phones (economically and politically) to creativelyget things done. Imagine what they can do with more powerful tools...

Future international visions (and questions)

• Is the ‘digital divide’ an issue when we jump from mobile to 2018 versions of technology that will be part of our bodies? (presumably inexpensive and intuitive - eliminating both the economic and knowledge gap - Compaine (2001))

• With portable reputations, law abiding, hard working, community contributing citizens from all over the world can move about freely - will the idea of borders change with this mobility? If so, what will they look like?

• As we are able to seamlessly integrate our interactions in the offline world with the online world (becoming ‘One world’ as Kevin Kelly, Wired.com, says), how can we prevent science fiction like Total Recall, Enemy of the State, Minority Report, etc (all representing worlds where citizens and governments are at war) from happening? A: 100% opt-in (like a driver’s license or a passport)

sixth-sense: wearable gestural interface

http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/

Questions? Answers to questions I posed?

Where credit is due:

• Doc Searls (founder), Christopher Carfi (vrm diagram), Judi Clark, Joe Andrieu, Elias Bizannes, Elliot Noss, Kaliya Hamlin, Bart Stevens + everyone who works on the VRM project that I lurk in daily: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/projectvrm/Main_Page

• The OpenID.net foundation, OAuth.net and the many people who have contributed to and been part of the discussion around these important projects.

• Scott Kveton for inviting my former agency, Citizen Agency, to help form the early ramblings on Open Taste (no longer online)

• Microformats.org, the W3C and Tim Berners-Lee for all of their thinking around the semantic web and standardized data.

• Alistair Croll, who I discussed this with at length and who pointed me in smart directions so I could come to this conclusion.

• Alexandra Samuel who recommended that I speak here. HUGE thanks!

licensing:

share/remix/spread ... but don’t forget to attribute.

http://slideshare.net/missrogue

contact me:

Tara ‘missrogue’ Huntauthor, strategisthorsepigcow@gmail.com@missroguemontreal, quebec, canada514-679-2951

http://www.horsepigcow.comhttp://thewhuffiefactor.com