For what its worth, I would describe the personal data store as doing:

• Data storage
• Data protection and security, including identity validation
• Data access
• Data volunteering/input/publishing
• Data sharing

There are at many other perspectives obviously, including 2 UK and European patents in the space so I won’t waste any more of your time and mine trying to build a shared understanding on the terminology.

Alec – I’ve no idea how a question about what you say the Mine is not gets turned into attempt to dictate anything to the Mine project. To be clear, I am very much in favour of the project and will happily use it – the more stuff built in this space the better as far as i’m concerned.

Over and out.

I asked the question before at the VRM Hub and did not get an answer

That was you talking to me, I suppose

There’s a more fundamental difference between the notion of a “personal data store” than merely one of nomenclature; the Mine exists to enable people to store, poke and share their own information in a new wholly manner, and these three abilities – plus the “newness” of having them all together and in the hands of the user – to me are deserving of a new name, and we have chosen “Mine!”.

You mention “Data Warehouses” – yes I know what those are expected to perform but by a more physical analogy: a person does not live in a warehouse although they might store their possessions in part of one; however my home is not my “warehouse” by any stretch of vocabulary.

Thus at least one clear distinction between a Personal Data Store and a Mine exists: A Mine is doubly personal in that is it may contain the owner’s personal data (and indeed, non-personal stuff too) but it is also a deeply personal repository and service; there is nothing about it of the industrial bulk repository implied by “Personal Data Store”, plus the Mine exhibits much more value to the user than a mere repository.

I have (perhaps fortunately) never read anything that explicitly defines a Personal Data Store, so I can’t say what one of them does or does not comprise; however since you yourself say that the definition of a PDS lacks clarity, then I can’t see any basis for anyone to dictate vocabulary to The Mine Project.

I don’t believe capabilities enabling manupulation of data by the user are part of Personal Data Store as such – they are currently being bolted on top as an afterthought and as a response to evolving user expectations and data-management savvy that comes from the online environment.

So I disagree with your assertion that “it is commonly understood to cover the full range of input, management, analysis and output.” If that were the case, and such personal data store were common, I would not have to come up with, design and now work on implementation of Mine!. I’d like to see such personal data store…

There also seems to be a confusion about the terms in the phrase ‘personal data store’. It seems interchangeably to mean personal data store and personal data store.

The former suggests that whatever data is in the data store, it is personally owned, i.e. resides with the person whose data it contains. Normally, I’d understand that to be data on my laptop or my filofax or a filing cabinet that I own.

The latter suggests that wherever the data is stored, it contains my personal data or data pertaining to my person. This could be a CRM system, or a site where I keep my information, such as medical records in Google Health, or other places that keep my personal data such as the General Register Office.

Mine! is neither or both, depending on perspective. But the main point is that its objective is not to be a personal data store. Of course, it needs to act as a repository able to gather, capture and contain your data, personal or otherwise, but its purpose goes far beyond that. Calling it a personal data store would be like insisting on describing a car a “combustion engine on wheels”. Moreover, the point of a car is that you can own it and drive it on open roads (more or less) to the destination of your choice. As you may have seen on this blog, I do use the car metaphor to describe Mine!

Finally, the ultimate vision for your data in Mine! is distributed, doing away with the idea of a single or even identifiable location where your data resides. This would make the description of Mine! as a personal data store at best misleading, at worst potentially fraudulent.

So I don’t think it is clarification that is needed. I am pursuing the user-driven approach where my data is neither in the hands of the second party (the vendor) nor a third party (intermediary or service provider). This is a practical requirement if I am to exercise greater control over my data and autonomy over sharing it. And that is what I set out to enable with Mine! as best I can.

I asked the question before at the VRM Hub and did not get an answer, so i’ll ask it again. What reference point/ definition of ‘personal data store’ do you use when you say that The Mine! is not one?

The reason I ask the question/ make this point is that all that I have ever read/ written on the subject of ‘Personal Data Store’ makes it clear that the term is a generic one to describe a range of capabilities that actually go beyond storage – sourcing, input, management, analysis, sharing etc etc.

The parallel example I would give is the term ‘data warehouse’, which on the one hand could refer to just a dumping ground for data – but in practice it is commonly understood to cover the full range of input, management, analysis and output.

Anyway, I think a lack of clarity around this fundamental terminology does not help the VRM movement move forward – so i’ll be looking to clarify over the next few weeks.

Iain