Pardalis announces issuance of Indian patent

March 17, 2010 — Pardalis, Inc. announced today the issuance of the following patent by the Indian Patent Office:

• Informational Object Authoring and Distribution System, Patent No. 237036 issued November 12, 2009.

The issuance of this patent represents another milestone in the continued, global expansion of Pardalis' same-named parent patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,671,696, and its continuation patents and applications.

The Pardalis 696 Patent was issued by the United States in 2003 and is also entitled Informational object authoring and distribution system. Pardalis' 696 patent is the parent patent for the Common Point Authoring™ system.

The critical means and functions of the Common Point Authoring™ system provide for user-centric authoring and registration of radically identified, immutable objects for further granular publication, by the choice of each author, among networked systems. The benefits of CPA include minimal, precise disclosures of personal and product identity data to networks fragmented by information silos and concerns over 'data ownership'.

“Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, New Zealand and, of course, the United States are the countries that have so far issued one or more patents to Pardalis,” said Steve Holcombe, Pardalis’ CEO. “We also have high expectations for similar actions on our applications pending in Brazil, Canada, Europe and Japan.”

About Pardalis, Inc.

Pardalis' Common Point Authoring™ system provides the first object-oriented supply chain solution for minimal identity and data disclosures for both people and products. For more information, see Pardalis' Global IP.

Networking in Data Ownership in the Cloud

Data Ownership in the Cloud is an open networking group on LinkedIn created in April, 2009. At publication of this blog entry, there are more than 500 members who are loosely networked together under the group's current profile:

Recently the top identity management officer of a major data mining and analytics company said "that ... giving individuals control over the data that is shared ... increases the quality of the data and opens up new business models".

That's an impressive statement coming from a BigCo. But what about going even further? For instance, what about increasing the availability of new, quality data for opening up new, profitable models of data management?

The Data Ownership in the Cloud group on LinkedIn is a global venue for multi-disciplinary networking between technologists and non-technologists interested in providing thought leadership on this critical issue.

What technologies and standards (Cloud Computing, Web 2.0, Semantic Web, Enterprise 2.0, Health 2.0, Privacy 2.0, Manufacturing 2.0, Social Networking, SaaS, Security 2.0, RFID 2.0, microformat standards, identification standards, minimal disclosures, identity management) will enable data ownership in the Cloud?

What are the non-technological factors (sociological, political, psychological, legal)?

Members are heartily encouraged to post, share and discuss stories (including relevant journal entries from their own blogs) that touch upon new and emerging models for user-centric data management.

I've emphasized "between technologists and non-technologists", above, because this is a raison d'etre for the group. It has been my distinct impression that an over-emphasis on technology (primarily 'security') has precluded the free-thinking from which new and emerging models for user-centric data management must come. And though the majority of group members may be defined as 'technologists', the discussions and postings have revealed a wonderful sensitivity to an approach balancing security with risk and opportunity.

Here are some examples.

Luk Vervenne, CEO and founder, Synergetics NV, just posted to the group a link regarding work on a manifesto for the "Internet of Subjects".

The central role individuals now play in the Internet, calls for a radical rethinking of its organisation, in particular, the way the ever-increasing flow of personal data is being created, stored, connected, accessed, protected, tracked, exploited and managed. There is a need to create the foundations of an Internet where the architecture creates the conditions for the free association of self-conscious individuals, beyond the pre-defined boundaries of current information systems and social networks.

Lest you think the group to be a bit too abstract, consider this excerpt from the discussion begun by Dirk Rodgers, Sr. Consultant, Serialization & Pedigree at Cardinal Health, entitled "Who owns supply chain visibility data?"

Who owns supply chain visibility data? Does the manufacturer of a product retain any rights to track that product after it enters the supply chain? What if the product is a pharmaceutical and it is found to have a life-threatening defect? Should technology or standards availability play any role in answering these questions? These kinds of questions come up occasionally in discussions of track and trace systems design when people talk about the future of "full supply chain visibility" ....

And a very active commenter within the Data Ownership group - Eve Maler, Distinguished Engineer, Identity Services at PayPal - has been chairing seminal activities of the User-Managed Access (UMA) working group of the Kantara Initiative:

The purpose of the UMA Work Group (charter) is to develop specs that let an individual control the authorization of data sharing and service access made between online services on the individual's behalf, and to facilitate interoperable implementations of the specs.

I'd be remiss in not mentioning other highly active commenters within the group to include Brian Hennessey, Jack Repenning, Joe Andrieu, Anthony Freed, Julian Goh, and Al Macintyre. Thanks to you guys and all of the other contributors!

But is the group having any affect on the real world being lived by any of its members? Well, that's another critical reason for the existence of the Data Ownership group - "to post, share and discuss stories that touch upon new and emerging models for user-centric data management".

One day last fall, John Bailey, the Executive Direct of Top 10 Produce LLC, came wandering into the group. One thing led to another and now our two companies - Pardalis and Top 10 Produce - have joined with Oklahoma State University (Biosystems and Ag Engineering), North Dakota State University (School of Food Systems) and Michigan State University (Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards) in recently filing for two significant funding opportunities offered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Speciality Crops Research Initiative was filed for with OSU, NDSU and MSU in January, 2010 for $4M over 5 years. The USDA Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative was filed for with OSU for $3M over 4 years. Next up is the USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative providing funding opportunities of up to $25M over 5 years. That'll be filed later this spring.

So I can unreservedly say that, yes, when it comes to Pardalis and Top 10 Produce, networking in Data Ownership in the Cloud is having a very positive affect.

Check out the group at http://tinyurl.com/datacloud and see why Dirk Rodgers says, "I believe this group could become the best source for information about the implications [of data ownership in the cloud]."

Update on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 11:43PM by Steve Holcombe

See also Top 12 Discussions - Data Ownership in the Cloud at http://pardalis.squarespace.com/blog/2010/4/28/top-12-discussions-data-ownership-in-the-cloud.html

Pardalis announces issuance of Hong Kong patent

February 2, 2010 — Pardalis, Inc. announced today the issuance of the following patent by the Intellectual Property Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China:

• Common Point Authoring System for Tracking and Authenticating Objects in a Distribution Chain, Standard Patent No. HK1096173 issued January 8, 2010.

The issuance of this patent represents another milestone in the continued, global expansion of Pardalis' parent patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,671,696, and its continuation patents and applications.

The Pardalis 696 Patent was issued by the United States in 2003 and is entitled Informational object authoring and distribution system. Pardalis' 696 patent is also known as the parent patent for the Common Point Authoring™ system.

The critical means and functions of the Common Point Authoring™ system provide for user-centric authoring and registration of radically identified, immutable objects for further granular publication, by the choice of each author, among networked systems. The benefits of CPA include minimal, precise disclosures of personal and product identity data to networks fragmented by information silos and concerns over 'data ownership'.

“Australia, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand and, of course, the United States are the countries that have so far issued one or more patents to Pardalis,” said Steve Holcombe, Pardalis’ CEO. “We also have high expectations for similar actions on our applications pending in Brazil, Canada, Europe, India and Japan.”

About Pardalis, Inc.

Pardalis' Common Point Authoring™ system provides the first object-oriented supply chain solution for minimal identity and data disclosures for both people and products. For more information, see Pardalis' Global IP.

Data Identity & Supply Chains

I attended the Internet Identity Workshop #9 (IIW9) in early November at the suggestion of Silona Bonewald. She read Banking on Granular Information Ownership and we made a connection regarding her mutual data ownership approach to 'open banking'.

My attendance at IIW9 was strange and familiar. Surreal and real. It was like 'coming home' to a home I'd never seen before. A kind of deja vu.

My experiences with 'identity' have been in the registration of radically serialized data objects (i.e., data elements with GUIs) that are authored, published and distributed by supply chain participants to supply chains. The focus has been about giving product supply chains the opportunity to know more about the products by providing more permissions control over the shared data. This was first theoretically applied to supply chains for chemical products, and then actually engineered and deployed in 2003-06 to the U.S. beef livestock supply chain following the 2003 'mad cow' case. The developed system was - and is - in the form of a multi-tenant, enterprise class system (we marketed it as a 'data bank') that appears to fit well into the cross-section of the Venn diagram in the September, 2008 blog Venn and the art of data sharing by Eve Maler. That is, with one significant exception. The 'identity movement' was essentially non-existent in 2003-06 (IIW #1 was held in October, 2005) and so we did not at that time have the benefit of client-side or browser-side or smartphone-side means, functions and standards related to data identity.

In lieu of identity standards what we did was bake in our own patented business rules for shifting the capabilities of a relational SQL server toward the registration of objects; objects that would then be granularly revealed, traceable, and controllable to the nth degree of sharing among the tenants of the data bank. Then we thought we would be in a good position to tackle integration with other data silo's driving standards for universal data tags. But then a funny thing happened on the way to the coliseum - the USDA's efforts for introducing mandatory animal identification to agriculture collapsed in late 2006 predictably affecting every supply chain company who had bet that the USDA would do what they said they would do. Since then my company, Pardalis, has essentially been anchored in a 'safe harbor' called North Dakota State University.

Earlier this year I had discussions with Microsoft-Fargo, and then Microsoft-Redmond, that led up to Microsoft's then Worldwide Director of CRM, ERP and Supply Chain Solutions. What I was saying to Microsoft was that neither Dynamics CRM nor SharePoint were relevant outside of the federated or vertically integrated parts of supply chains. But what was broadly used by SMBs - where CRM and SharePoint were not - was Microsoft Excel. And so the logical next step was to connect supply chains end-to-end with a 'data bank' blah, blah, blah. Honestly, I didn't begin to tune into InfoCards and what Microsoft's Chief Identity Officer, Kim Cameron, had been up to until later in the summer. Cameron is touting the application of transactional "claims" to provide "minimal disclosures" about persons which has now evolved into the Windows Identity Foundation. There's no doubt in my mind that the ERP folks inside of Microsoft should talk to Kim Cameron and the Identity folks in Microsoft but that's something they'll have to figure out on their own, right? :-)

Now traceability is 'sexy' again. Pardalis is moving forward with major land grant institutions (North Dakota State University, Michigan State University, Oklahoma State University) and supply chain participants (like Top 10 Produce) in seeking $5M/5 year USDA funding for a Coordinated Agricultural Project under the Special Crops Research Initiative. This initiative supports research for methods to prevent, detect, monitor, control, and respond to potential food safety hazards in the production and processing of specialty crops, including fresh produce. Central to this research will the development/introduction of item-level means and functions for interoperably connecting agricultural supply chains from 'farm to fork'. The goal is to provide real-time access to the supply chain participants of the total system of data - not just the data presented in GS1 labeling -  relative to product safety, taste, quality, appearance, environmental responses, tolerances, transportation, marketing, storage characteristics , etc.

Like I said, my attendance at IIW9 was strange and familiar, etc. What was missing for me was the application of identity and social networking to supply chains. I suppose one could argue that the term 'supply chain' was there, so to speak, particularly in the IIW9 sessions covering Vendor Relationship Management, but in my opinion it was way in the background waiting to be brought to the forefront. I'm definitely planning on attending IIW #10 in Mountain View in May, 2010, to do my part in helping raise the visibility of supply chains in this mix. I'm really glad to have found my way to the identity movement.

[The foregoing is substantially reprinted from previous contributions made by the author to the Data Ownership in the Cloud group on LinkedIn.]

Organizing Letter of Intent of the Agricultural Data Coordination Consortium (Ag DCC) – Work in Progress

Organizing Letter of Intent of the “Know your Food, Know your Farmer” Agricultural Data Coordination Consortium (Ag DCC) – Work in Progress

WHEREAS, today’s numerous agricultural and food supply chains are being called on more and more to provide two products. One, the traditional plant, animal, processed food or other commodity. And, two, authenticated, traceable data products identifying the source, age, and processes applied to the traditional commodity. While agricultural and food supply chains have been highly efficient in providing traditional commodity products foods, they face numerous technological and sociological challenges in effectively providing authenticated, traceable data products. There is a disconnect between the local farmer and consumers; there is too much distance between the average American and their farmer.

WHEREAS, in recognition of the foregoing, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has commenced a nation-wide effort to create new economic opportunities for supporting local farmers, strengthening rural communities, promoting healthy eating, and protecting natural resources by better connecting consumers with local producers. This effort is the “Know your Food, Know your Farmer” program (http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/knowyourfarmer?navtype=KYF&navid=KYF_MISSION)

WHEREAS, new advances in unambiguous product identification (e.g., radio frequency identification – RFID), the deployment of massive data centers around the world (i.e., “the Cloud”), the concurrent rise of virtual machines for maximizing digital spaces in the Cloud, the increasing available of low-cost software as a service (including social networking sites like FaceBook, Twitter, etc.), and new, technological means and functions for minimal data disclosures and granular data sharing by end-users, provide a convergence of technological opportunities for creating economic opportunities by better connecting consumers with local producers consistent with the USDA’s “Know your Food, Know your Farmer”.

NOW, THEREFORE, we, the undersigned, in recognition of the foregoing, do form the “Know your Food, Know Your Farmer” Agricultural Data Coordination Consortium ( Ag DCC).

THE INTENTS AND PURPOSES of the Ag DCC shall be for the networking of individuals, private entities, and public entities, all meeting and exchanging information in like-minded support of agricultural supply chain data coordination for the furtherance of the USDA’s Know your Food, Know your Farmer program.

The homepage for the Ag DCC shall be a sub-group to the ‘Data Ownership in the Cloud’ (http://tinyurl.com/datacloud) networking group on LinkedIn.

[Editor's Note: This is a work in progress and may be updated without notice. Membership in the Ag DCC is by invitation only. Membership in the Ag DCC requires (1) a LinkedIn profile and (2) membership in the Data Ownership in the Cloud networking group on LinkedIn. Only members of the Ag DCC may be signators to the final, organizing letter of intent for the Ag DCC. For further information, please contact the Editor or leave a comment.]

Update on Friday, January 8, 2010 at 11:14AM by Steve Holcombe

Due to the lack of activity with this LinkedIn sub-group, I closed it in January, 2010. But that's OK because, interestingly, the activity I was hoping for is actually occurring in a separate LinkedIn group called the Agricultural Funding Opportunities (AFO).

The Agricultural Funding Opportunities group is a collaborative research group originally established for coordinating activities in relation to the preparation of a grant application for USDA-NIFA-SCRI-002672 due 14 Jan 2010. The essential premise of the just filed $5M/5YR SCRI application is that providing supply chain participants (including consumers) with more control (i.e., traceability) over their data will increase the availability and quality of product data, and open up new, sustainable business models for both large and small companies. Now further agricultural funding opportunities are being examined by members of this group in the context of the large Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) RFAs solicited by the USDA on 22 March 2010.

This is an invitation-only group. But if you think you would be interested in joining this group to ACTIVELY search for ag funding opportunities, please let me know.

Best,

Steve Holcombe, Owner
Data Ownership in the Cloud
Agricultural Funding Opportunities
http://www.linkedin.com/in/steveholcombe
http://twitter.com/Steve_Holcombe

Update on Monday, October 17, 2011 at 8:40AM by Steve Holcombe

The group identified above has now evolved into the Whole Chain Traceability Consortium™. The WCTC is comprised at its core of researchers and collaborators from Oklahoma State University, North Dakota State University, Michigan State University, the University of Arkansas, and Pardalis, Inc., an Oklahoma advanced technology company. Whole Chain Traceability Consortium™ is a trademark of Pardalis, Inc.