The Future Laboratory Interview Questions

With Steven Graves

1) How has the Personal Information Economy developed over the last few years?

2) Where do you see it going in the next few years?

3) Who owns your online identity, and who owns the profile of you that’s been compiled? Is it possible to reclaim that identity?

4) You’re gradually starting to see baby steps in that direction, such as reputation management…

5) What brands, products and services are doing interesting things in the Personal Information Economy space (such as enabling users to take possession of their own data or monetize it)?

6) There’s a clear benefit for corporations at the moment for owning users’ personal data. What are the benefits for corporations in enabling users to take possession of their own data?

7) What do you see as the social implications of the Personal Information Economy in the medium term? As the children who’ve never known a world in which information-sharing isn’t the norm come of age? Are we going to be changing our frameworks of interaction?

8) Do you subscribe to the notion that children should be able to purge their personal data when they reach adulthood? To get rid of their embarrassing past?

9) Google+ is gradually moving towards the notion of separate online identities – with Circles – but at the same time they’re all tied to a single real-world identity. Do you think they’re taking the right approach?