Digital Citizenship | Ep. 152

Welcome to another informative episode of the Data Gurus podcast!

Today, Sima is happy to have Singe Deakins joining her on the show. Singe is the London-based CEO and Founder of CitizenMe.

In this episode, Singe shares his background and talks about how the ecosystem is changing and shifting data processing out to the edge. He also discusses how Citizen Me is combining economic impact with social value, bringing more civility to the internet, and helping people to manage their data and choose what they want to do with it.

Singe’s background

Singe has a background in digital innovation that goes back about two decades. He spent the early days of his career putting newspapers online and helping British Airways get their booking systems online. In about 2000, he started using multi-digital channels and using mobile at the center of everything.

Asia

He spent the next twelve years in Asia, based in Singapore, doing open internet work. He helped several hundred million individuals get on the internet with the platforms he was building up in the emerging market of telco systems.

The next problem to solve

After selling his last business to an American private equity company, Singe started looking for the next big problem he could solve. Looking at how the internet and the digital world were evolving, he realized that it should be about people, and the core transactional value would be about the data about the people.

An internet that works for everybody

It became clear to Singe that we need an internet that works for everybody. That is easy to imagine, but the actual mechanics could be disruptive and require an evolution from where the internet currently is.

An issue

One of Singe’s biggest issues has been working out how to govern across the internet in terms of data. He would like to find a way to get to where we all have rights regarding our data and how it gets used.

Consumers

Singe has been on a long journey of getting to understand how people interact with their data. Consumers understand much more now than they did before about what they are giving away with their data. We are moving into a different space around what people want and do not want with their data.

Ephemeral data

Ephemeral data digital tools give people a choice and help them manage how their data gets shared.

Sharing data

There is a big marketplace worth trillions of dollars exchanging everyone’s data all the time, but none of us can participate in it. By using their smartphones, people are constantly sharing huge amounts of their data without even realizing it.

Solving the issue

At CitizenMe, they are looking for the best ways to solve that issue. Their job is to represent citizens, help them manage their data, and find ways to do what they want with their data.

The CitizenMe app

The CitizenMe app allows people to access the insights that already exist about them. It lets them generate their own insights, have a real-time opportunity to transact with those insights, and get paid for it.

Combining economic impact with social value

At CitizenMe, they currently have about 350,000 people on the app. People can either transact their data for cash or share it as a donation towards medical research.

Real-time

CitizenMe is fresh, participatory, and open in the way it works. It allows businesses to have real-time interactions and real-time digital conversations with their customers.

End game

CitizenMe.com is a working example of edge data (zero data and zero data tech). Their end game is to change how data gets handled on the internet, and their mission is to shift the data out to the edge and let people partic...