The use and disclosure of personal information for private and
business life is a major trend in information society. Advantages
like enhancing social contacts, personalising services and products
compromise with notable privacy risks arising from the
user's loss of control over their personal data and digital
footprints. Large amounts of scattered personal data lead
to information overload, disorientation and loss of efficiency.
The di.me project aims at integrating personal data in a
personal information sphere by a single, user-controlled point of
access: the di.me userware.
This tool shall be a user-controlled personal
service providing intelligent personal information
management and is targeted on integrating social
web systems and communities. It realises a decentral
communication to avoid external data storage and undesired data
disclose.
The Solution
A user-centric approach will be addressed
by adopting the three building blocks of the required technical
infrastructure: a shared vision on software architecture, an
efficient and adaptive communication layer due to flexible network
modes, and a common language and effective shared knowledge due to
semantic data portability.
An open trust, privacy, and security
infrastructure will enable the user to securely use
personal data, by giving valuable recommendations and warnings
concerning the disclosure of sensitive information to other,
possibly untrusted, parties.
Trust metrics will guide the user to
avoid manipulations and attacks, by giving meaningful warnings and
prove awareness of possible risks to the user. Anonymous data
disclosure, data withdrawal and policies will foster privacy and
trust.
A semantic core with data mining,
semantic mapping and reasoning, will support the intelligent
management of personal data and communication history, including
recommendations on how to take advantage of knowledge in the
personal information sphere.
A Context Framework will collect
context data from user's devices, enabling di.me userware to
provide advanced context-aware adaptation of the personal
information sphere.
Intelligent user interfaces on laptops and
handheld devices will promote the intuitive usage of powerful
semantic and privacy-aware technologies that will enable the user
to more effectively monitor, control, and interpret personal
data..
Validation
The project implements a human-centred design
process ensuring that the relevant private and business
users are engaged in its development, and a good user experience
and acceptance of the di.me userware. Usability and uptake are
monitored and improved by large-scale quantitative evaluations
supporting a scalable test concept. First lab study already yielded
positive results for the general di.me approach.
The application partners in the consortium will involve their
customers to validate the project's results with consumers and
professional users in three scenarios:
- "di.me for Private Users in all Life
Spheres"
- "di.me on Business Conferences and Smart
Events"
- "di.me for Enterprise Customer Relationship
Management"
Impact
di.me will develop an
advanced userware for faster and more effective knowledge
acquisition, coordination, sharing and processing in a dynamic
environment through context-aware provision of
knowledge.
di.me will strengthen EU professionals' business
networking activities, providing them with automatic and
intuitive means to organise, disclose, and retrieve professional
information, facilitating the retrieval of valuable new contacts
and the better management of existing ones. In short, di.me will
enable them to reach their objectives with reduced time and
effort.
di.me will strengthen EU leadership in the field
of advanced digital identity management tools for business and
private users, thus contributing to the creation of a more
user-friendlier environment for smarter, cheaper and more effective
networking and information exchange in business events. This will
also foster adoption of similar solutions by professionals from
outside the ICT sector.