I hear you, loud and clear. These are some of the voices that we would like to hear in regard to this issue. Please fill the questionnaire for your voice to be (heard and) counted.
However, let it not be lost on us that we daily share our personal details by the activities that we engage in knowingly and unknowingly: swiping that electronic card in a shopping mail, paying for purchase of goods online, surfing the Net among other instances. The question that this research is trying to answer is: who is in charge of all these personal data details of our lives? Visa, the Shopping mall etc? What do they do with our data later on? What does Google do with our browsing data that it collects on a millisecond basis? Where does the user come to the picture? Can we consolidate all these data and give the user
permission to manage it - grant access to it as s/he deems necessary? How does the data in government systems contribute to your personal data completeness? Can the government or another party be entrusted to manage your data on your behalf? Or, are you the one best placed to manage it?
These are some of the questions that this research is endeavouring to find answers to. And the answers are with you..
Lastly, do note that having control of your personal data does not at all, and in any way, hinder the development of a free and open internet. In fact, being in charge of your data can help to develop confidence in using the Net knowing that nobody is going to scour your data for any malicious use. In this regard, consider a classic case of a first time internet user. S/he needs to be assured that the internet is safe enough and no Big Brother is sniffing (and phishing) around to collect his/her data without express permission from
the user. How to do this? This research objectives....................
Regards and many thanks, Davis M Onsakia
'The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.' - Maureen Dowd
From: Charles Oloo <oloo6382@gmail.com> To: isoc@lists.my.co.ke Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 4:05 PM Subject: Re: [ISOC_KE] isoc Digest, Vol 10, Issue 9
Dear Onsika
Thanks for informing us about this initiative
Indeed it has been noted that one of the factors affecting development/research in Sub Saharan Africa has been lack information, or access. Majority of researchers/scientists have not been willing to share or provide their publication freely. This has led to duplication of efforts as well as limited citation of reference material while publishing.
It is in this regard that Forestry Research Network for Sub-Saharan Africa, with acronym FORNESSA, http://fornis.net/ of which Im a Webmaster,. with the assistance IUFRO / GFIS set an on-line documentation repository that provides full text forestry documents, addressing 4 themes. intellectual Property rights notwithstanding, there are other avenues that contributors of publications benefit.
If individuals are encouraged to manage their own data/information without freely sharing, user centricity, I think the trend will continue to stifle intellectual development/capacity which is the driving factor of economic development, and as a result I think likewise the authors might not gain much from their work either.
In as much as we respect the voice of WEF as stated, I stand to slightly differ. As we move towards free open Internet and society, is it better to articulate virtues and ideals that will encourage and Invigorate
the desire to share whatever we have with those who might be fervently looking/searching for them to do research,or rather than keep it ia a drawer to pile dust waiting to earn from them for years.
Onsika, this is just to appraise you of the other angle in this subject.
ISOC places a lot of weight on user centricity in terms of individual users being in charge of their personal data when online. There have been concerted efforts worldwide, led by the World Economic Forum (WEF), to empower individual users to manage their personal data so that third parties and companies cannot access and use people's data wrongly (without notifying users or rewarding them?accordingly).
In this regard, I'm carrying out a survey to gauge the citizenry's perception on this very important 'commodity', as per the WEF. The target for this survey is majorly the Kenyan citizenry although other citizens (from other countries) are encouraged to give their feedback.?
It is my hope that the survey findings can help ISOC Kenya (and Global), among other?entities, to lay better strategies when it comes to online data?security?and privacy.
Feel free to forward to your colleagues.
For any queries, do not hesitate to get in touch with the undersigned.
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Regards and many thanks,
Davis M Onsakia