The Business of Personal & Public Data

The Business of Personal & Public Data:

Creating Value and Protecting Privacy<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

Our digital fingerprints are widespread and they are valuable.  Creating and protecting personal information on the web is a growing new industry as our past, present and possibly future personal profiles are fair game for review, comment and syndication on the Internet. 

The last decade saw the explosion of e-commerce.  Sir Francis Bacon said that, "Knowledge is power" and this current age of information commerce is discovering how invasive, pervasive and persuasive it can be.  At the same time, information transparency provides opportunities for new value chains to be created that can potentially benefit us as consumers, professionals and citizens.

Here is a chance for a unique look "behind the curtain" to explore the information commerce industry.  Learn about the new business models built around value-enhanced personal and public data on the Internet, information ownership, management of privacy and remediation options.  Hear directly from the providers of these services about what they are doing to create value, build business and sustain consumer confidence.

Join us for a spirited discussion that will explore:

• The state of the digital information industry, its current position and future opportunities  
• Data ownership - who owns data about us, said about us or inferred about us?  
• Privacy - what is "data privacy"? What can we expect?  
• Accuracy, remediation, recourse and regulation around our data - issues and opportunities  
• Which business models, strategies and companies are likely to prosper inside this industry

Moderator:      Janis Machala, CEO Paladin Partners, Co-Founder Seraph Capital Forum

Panelists:        Mark Britton, CEO, Avvo 

                         Jason Carmel, Senior Optimization Manager, ZAAZ                

                         Joe Giordano, Founder, PayScale         

                         Naveen Jain, CEO, Intelius

Speaker Biographies

Moderator: 

Janis Machala, CEO Paladin Partners

Before founding Paladin Partners in 1995, Janis Machala served as President and CEO of Pinnacle Publishing, a leading provider of component software and technical newsletters for developers.  After seven years of operating losses, Pinnacle achieved profitability for seven straight quarters under her leadership.

Prior to Pinnacle, Janis held senior management positions in marketing and business development at major technology companies, including Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Wang Laboratories, often working in a mentoring or start-up capacity. 

She also helped form Seraph Capital Forum, a woman's angel investing group, and FWE Seattle, which supports women entrepreneurs.  From 1994-1998, she served on the board of the Washington Software Alliance and is currently on the board of the Northwest Entrepreneur Network, which helps advance entrepreneurship in the Northwest.

Janis received an M.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Iowa and a B.A. in English and Psychology from Augustana College in Illinois.  In her spare time, she plays bridge, reads voraciously, and travels as much as possible

Panelists in alphabetical order:

Mark Britton, President & CEO, Avvo

Mark is the founder, CEO and president of Avvo.  Mark is a 16-year lawyer with deep experience in the legal and e-commerce industries.

Prior to founding Avvo, Mark was the executive vice president of Worldwide Corporate Affairs of InterActiveCorp Travel (IACT) and Expedia, Inc.  In this position, Mark oversaw all finance, strategy, corporate development, legal, human resources and government relations functions for the IACT companies, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Classic Custom Vacations and Interval International.

Before Expedia's acquisition by InterActiveCorp, Mark was Expedia's senior vice president, general counsel and secretary and in this role built Expedia's legal and government relations teams from scratch.  Prior to joining Expedia, Mark was an attorney and equity partner-elect of the law firm Preston, Gates & Ellis LLP (now K&L Gates).  Mark also has worked as an attorney and clerk for small and medium-sized law firms and served as senior counsel to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mark received his law degree from George Washington University.  He also holds a degree in Finance from Gonzaga University and has served as an adjunct professor of Finance for Gonzaga in Florence, Italy.  In 2007, Mark was named one of Seattle's "Top 25 Innovators" by Seattle Business Monthly Magazine.

Jason Carmel, Senior Optimization Manager, ZAAZ 

Jason is a Senior Optimization Manager at ZAAZ, one of the world's largest and most recognized strategic web analytics consulting firms.  As a practitioner of behavioral targeting, Jason guides ZAAZ policy on the practicalities of data collection and use on behalf of clients, and his point-of-view on the Federal Trade Commission's Proposed Principles on Behavorial Advertising were recently quoted in ClickZ and MarketingVox.  With more than 10 years of web marketing, analytics and optimization experience, Jason strategically manages Optimization and Behavioral Targeting programs for ZAAZ clients such as Ford, Microsoft, Helio and Alaska Airlines.  Prior to ZAAZ, Jason built the analytics and optimization programs for eFax.com, and has authored privacy policies for a variety of web properties.  Jason received his law degree from the Washington College of Law at American University, and has spoken at eMetrics and Omniture summit conferences.  He blogs on Optimization and Behavioral Targeting at blogs.ZAAZ.com.

Joe Giordano, Founder, Chairman and VP Product Development, PayScale

Joe Giordano founded PayScale in 2000, with twenty years of experience in designing technology and managing its development.  Prior to establishing PayScale, Mr. Giordano served as Director of Program Management at drugstore.com where he led website development and helped to rapidly grow the company from inception into the leading online drugstore.  Earlier in his career, he served as Director of Product Development at InfoGear Technology Corporation (acquired by Cisco) where he led project design and development for the iPhone Internet appliance, which won various industry awards such as Internet World's Best of Show and was awarded a U.S. Patent for user interface design.  A Microsoft veteran, Mr. Giordano also led the design and the development of initial versions of the award-winning Microsoft Works product during the 1990s, and he later became the program management lead for the original version of The Microsoft Network (MSN), Microsoft's first online endeavor.  He holds various user interface and technology design patents, served on the board of directors of iSyndicate, Inc. (now YellowBrix), and serves on the board of advisors of several other Internet companies.  Mr. Giordano has a graduate degree in Music Composition from Whitman College.

Naveen Jain, President & CEO, Intelius

Naveen Jain is an entrepreneur and a technology pioneer.  He is a founder and CEO of Intelius, a company that empowers consumers with information to make intelligent decisions about personal safety and security.  Intelius is best known for its award winning Identity Theft Protection Service and Background Check services.  Intelius recently filed for its initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange.  Prior to Intelius, Jain founded InfoSpace and took it public in 1998 on NASDAQ.  He served as CEO of InfoSpace until December 2002.  InfoSpace is best known for providing instant information on cellular phones.  Before starting InfoSpace, Jain was a senior executive at Microsoft Corporation.

Jain grew up in Utter Pradesh, India and earned his engineering undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of technology (IIT, Roorkee) and went on to earn his MBA from Xavier Institute of Management.  Jain left India 25 years ago to explore the emerging U.S. technology market.  He arrived in the US with nothing more than a dream to build a future in the country.

Jain has been awarded many honors for his entrepreneurial successes and leadership skills including "Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year", "Albert Einstein Technology Medal" for pioneers in technology, "Top 20 Entrepreneurs" by Red Herring, "Six People Who Will Change the Internet" by Information Week.  His success with Intelius has earned such accolades as "Best New Company" by the American Business Awards, Puget Sound Business Journal's "One of Washington's Top Three Best Workplaces", "Rising Star" in Deloitte & Touche's Technology Fast 500 Program, "America's Top 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies" by Inc. Magazine and has been listed amongst the top 15 Corporate Philanthropists in the greater Puget Sound area.

If you would like to volunteer to help with this program, please contact Lorry Ruml or Lori Richardson.