Interview with Drummond Reed, connect.me

Okay. Drum and Reed, you are here in Munich to do the worldwide launch of connect me. Could you explain to our viewers what that is? Yes. Connect me is introducing a new network, a new type of network.

It, it layers on top of the existing social network. So we call it the person forum and the, the primary reasons to introduce this layer is to introduce a way for people to have control of the personal data that they're sharing over the internet in, in a network and an environment that they can trust that operates across all their social networks that will extend out to all of their business relationships, with different websites and, and, and allows them to create their own personal trust networks across the internet. Is this just another social network or is it something new?

It is something new. It is.

We, we distinctly do not call it a social network because again, it operates across social networks. It is a personal network, and that means people are at the center in order for people to be at the center to actually have control of their information.

It is, it requires a new legal infrastructure. So people actually have a contract with the network and with the providers on the network that acknowledges that they have that control. It also requires technical infrastructure to connect them across those different systems in a way where they can keep that Control. But I don't need to sign a contract before I can contribute.

Well, you, you, when you enter the network, just like with a social network, you do enter into contract. This contract is quite different, legally enough. So that it's called a trust framework. It's been registered with the open identity exchange, which is the worldwide home for open identity trust frameworks. It's called the respect trust framework because the core concept is it, it acknowledges from the network and all the providers that everyone in the network respects your control of your personal information. Okay. How can I join, connect me? And what can I do?

Where do I go to sign up right Away today? So you can go to connect.me. That is actually the, the domain. And you can sign up there and starting here today at, at, at European identity conference, you can start a very simple process of tweeting nominations for other people that you respect. And you literally just tweet their name and some hashtags for what it is you respect about them. And we're using that to seed the network. The actual network will open in about 30 days once there's enough of a seed population. And that's when the respect trust framework will be finalized.

And everyone who joins the network says, I agree to this trust framework, I'm gonna live by these rules By recommending someone and sort of signaling my respect. I am essentially vouching for them Arent. I That's exactly the word we use. You're vouching for them.

You know, you, you friend today on social networks where you follow, you know, Facebook and Twitter, we're introducing the, the, the ceremony of vouching. It's a gift. You are gifting to them. You can't actually invite someone to the network. You can only vouch for them. And then they decide if that makes sense. And they see how that works. Then they vouch for others. It grows that way. Each of those Vos is a link in your personal trust network.

Could I, how do you control that? Could I theoretically decline a VO? Yes.

You, you could decline a vouch. If someone who, you know, you don't want publicly on the record is vouching for you. You can Do that. Okay. How do you expect connect me to grow over the next year? What will we be talking about next year at EIC? So first it will, it will grow organically across people. Just the way vouching has started here.

Now, another key difference between connect me the personal network and social networks is it is being designed from the outset to be a multiprovider network. That means it's much more like the banking system, the credit card system, or the, or the telephone system in that there's not one provider, the services on the K me network.

It is, it will be. And, and initially telcos are the most interesting, but also the banking industry is waking up to what's happening here, ISPs portals.

So we see, I think one of the key things we'll announce long before next year will be the first providers coming on the network. And by this time, next year will have whole sessions on the providers and what services are being offered on the network. So are you going to found the next Facebook? Is that it, We, again, we believe that it has the potential for networks like Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn, and, and it's absolutely being designed to grow. It is a personal network of the people on the internet. And by the way, they are the trust anchors.

They are the ones that are in which trust is rooted. You know, when it will grow to that size, you know, we'll have enough chance to talk about that. Thank.