Originally published August 22 2005
New "digital lifestyle aggregator" streamlines online dating, blogging, picture-viewing and bookmarks
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
GoingOn, developed by Macromedia founder Marc Canter and Tony Perkins, promises customers that they are releasing a system that will need one login and password in order to access news feeds, blog posts, social networks, photo and music swaps, and many other services.
Between Friendster profiles, Flickr photo streams, LiveJournal blogs and del.icio.us bookmarks -- not to mention e-mailing, instant messaging and Skyping -- the much-ballyhooed "social web" can feel like a slippery slope to multiple personality disorder.
But if a still-under-development service called the GoingOn Network lives up to its hype, our online selves may soon enjoy a long-overdue digital reintegration.
GoingOn, announced last week and slated for release in the fall, is the brainchild of Macromedia founder Marc Canter and Tony Perkins, the founder of business media site AlwaysOn.
Calling it a "digital lifestyle aggregator," Canter promises that individuals will need just one login and password to check news feeds, publish blog posts, manage social networks and swap photos or music online -- all while being able to access the same services they currently use.
GoingOn will also have its own social-networking component built in, but Canter is adamant that he's not trying to get other products to run on his platform.
As online shoppers know, we are expected to part with significant amounts of information to process even simple transactions online -- from names and addresses to credit card numbers and mothers' maiden names.
According to Dick Hardt, CEO of Vancouver-based Sxip Identity (pronounced "skip"), this reflects a fundamental discrepancy between the way identity is handled in the online and offline worlds.
As an alternative, Hardt and others have proposed a system that is more transparent to the user, based around individuals maintaining their own repositories of personal data.
Instead, you, as the would-be purchaser, would offer Amazon whatever information you feel comfortable giving out -- such as your name, address and payment details -- and the retailer would be put in the position of accepting or rejecting your purchase.
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