Software for Collaborative Use of Information Buried Behind Security Defenses

Technology and society continue to coevolve leaving the future in considerable doubt but also leaving it in our hands. One aspect of technology will make its mark on us all. That is the tension between privacy and social-connection. Citizens believe they have certain rights but the goal of government effectiveness often infringes on those rights. Tradeoffs are made. So far, the balance is against civil society and against citizens rights.

OpenBEDM aims to correct the balance in favor of citizens and civil society in at least in one area. The technology allows limited but effective use of private data while protecting secrecy generally.

This is new technology with a narrow but deep history. Implementation and scaling of the technology would be beneficial. The OpenBEDM project serves as a focus point for progress. It offers two avenues for participation.

First, there is an open source code suite that enables the technology. The code needs maintenance, extension, and distribution.

Second, issues of governance and control have frustrated rollout attempts in the past including a well-funded effort by IBM Inc. Progress demands new ideas in political science and operations research that complement the technical potential of Blind Encrypted Data Matching (BEDM). Add your ideas to the conversation by reading, correcting, extending or otherwise building on a draft book that places the technology in its social and organizational context. The book is titled “The Third Way to Data Privacy and Sharing”.

You are also welcome to use the blog. Keep in mind that the blog and this web site are currently under construction. Report questions or glitches to the email above.

OpenBEDM is new as in “not there yet” but the roots run 30+ years to the Cold War Era. Check out a timeline summary. Can you place the next milestone on the list?

“This is a work of optimism … As Darwinians, we start pessimistically by assuming deep selfishness at the level of natural selection, pitiless indifference to suffering, ruthless attention to individual success at the expense of others. And yet from such warped beginnings, something can come that is in effect, if not necessarily in intention, close to amicable brother and sisterhood. This is the uplifting message of the Evolution of Cooperation … in the cloud and on the network supported by OpenBEDM”

with apologies to Richard Dawkins who wrote most of these words in his forward to the 2006 Edition of Robert Axelrod’s book. “The Evolution of Cooperation”