New data type - Family!

There is personal data - data that is useful only for an individual. One person has complete right and control over it and the person may want to keep it private and confidential, or may share it with the world. (S)he may be the only person that has stake/interest in that data.

And then, there is business data - the data may be useful for an individual or group but the ownership and control may be with employer or institution or business user is associated with. The person may still manage the confidentiality/sharing of the data but there are multiple stakeholders in it.

Behold! as there has always been a third type. It has often been ignored, probably because it is a little convoluted. It has characteristics of both individuals and groups. It is the FAMILY DATA.

The pictures that you take in family events, travel.
The old photo albums of your childhood, wedding, grandparents that you'd want to digitize and keep.
The not-so-funny home videos of your child's first steps.
Family Member's Insurance and other documents of importance.
The proud collection of music that you'd like your kids to inherit.

All these stuff have lots of emotions and memories associated with them and that's what makes family data PRECIOUS.

At the same time family data is different. All members want to access it, all want it to be safe. But, most are lazy to organize it or like to organize it in their own way. Also, not all want to keep all of it. They have their own preferences and priorities. This is where family data is DIFFERENT from business data.

The best available solution to safeguard any data is to digitize it and stash it in the cloud. But for the families, they need the ability to refresh it with new data, access it on-demand, organize it per their own liking, share it within the family or with the world and finally purge it with consent of every member. Technocrats need to take a holistic view of family needs and design solutions that cover storage, access, organization and sharing in a way that is easy to adopt by everyone.
       
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer or any organization, institution or business I am associated with. 

The Era of Family...

This is going to be about clouds, mobile apps and technology in context of Families.

The technology was historically created to make individuals powerful until the last decade which saw a realization in the power of tribes. Technology was then focused in bringing distant people together, creating virtual societies and then leverage their synergies. As with all technologies it seems 'random social' has seen its peak and given way to more specific virtual socializing. Instead of "groups" now there are "groups for <a reason>". At the same time, some real social institutions like Friends, Class, Family have transformed to virtual networks.

A lot has already been done about friends, alumni, business, dating, need-based networking. Family has often found space as a subset of larger technologies created for networking people. But, Families are DIFFERENT. Families are special. Unlike other relationships that you choose to make, you are born in to a family and most likely have an option to create one. Families are uniquely heterogenous and still one closely knit unit.

This is the era of technology focused on Families.
Everything from Car makers to Mobile app developers are trying to tap this potential niche. There are several challenges, special considerations and attributes to products/services that need to be addressed while thinking about developing any technology around families.

Challenges

Heterogeneity - Families are as different as they are similar. There are members of multiple generations and due to which they have different technical understanding and cultural prejudice. The variety of tastes and liking may be very wide in a small closely knit family. This is unlike other flocks that usually are of same feather.   

Sensitivity - Relationship and bonding are often more intimate and more sensitive then other relationships that are based on choice. 

Buying behavior - Dynamic of making purchase decision is quite different when consumers purchase for family as compared to when they purchase for individuals or business. It is often driven by choice of younger members, influence of extended family and neighborhood, emotional concerns. 

Drivers

Connection - Families always need better ways to stay connected. There have been a lot of technologies that provide for better connectivity and help even spatially distributed families feel 'at home'.    

Security - The emotional connect and caring for each other makes security of family often the number one consideration for choice of technology, products and services. While businesses are more aligned towards securing data of their employees and customers, families tend to align more towards life, health, happiness and general well being of its members.  

Privacy - Families often strive to strike balance between what is private and what is shared. The more individuals feel the need to share. the more they need the urgency to maintain privacy and individualism intact.        

Being part of the small fragment of this technological progress, I am quite excited to see the changes happening around mobility and cloud technology. I'm just starting to compile and present all that I'd find useful in this space as we gear up for the new year. 2014 - I am sure would see more technological advances in family niche.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer or any organization, institution or business I am associated with.