Greg here.

I thought I'd blog a bit about the issues that Glynx is trying to address, and our approach to the solutions. As it happens, the issues fall into three main categories:

• online privacy
• online identity management
• new world communications

And so it maks sense to break this into three parts.   So here goes - the first part discusses the issues surrounding internet privacy today.

Google get over it: the internet can be private

Privacy matters. From making a phone call to browsing the internet, to updating or viewing a social networking site, social communication today exposes the fundamental weakness of the current online world: it is mediated and monitored. And this increasingly inhibits productive activity online.

Glynx is the first product to provide real-world-like private search, sharing and communications online. It uses patented technologies to provide privacy that complements today's online world.

Glynx brings about a mind shift in social communications, and affects all online interactions where privacy matters.

Proponents of web 2.0 insist that services need to be supplied from the 'centre' and consumed from the 'edge'. For them it's all about web-sites and browsers; e-mail services and clients; centrally switched telephony and personal devices; and central directories of all flavors - search engines, social networking sites, web shop fronts; auction sites; services listings etc. Even advertising is targeted and supplied from the centre to consumer devices or software. However, these services are not passive; they actively restrict, record, report, and correlate user interactions in order to satisfy a variety of business models.

Ultimately this is a customer losing proposition. By forcing all online interactions into 'one-size-fits-all' non-private, mediated and monitored paradigm, current services are not satisfying customer needs. There are large demographics that cannot and do not use existing services due to privacy or confidentiality concerns. And there are increasing numbers of customers who are tuning in to the issues, and turning off by not accepting arbitrary constraints, and dropping out from the 'my life as public content' world. This is a growing potential customer base which has recognised the gap between real-world experience and pale, online imitations.

Everything that users do in the web 2.0 world today has the potential to be restricted, observed, recorded, exploited, leaked or stolen.

Glynx makes the internet private.

Glynx addresses fundamental weaknesses in the web 2.0 paradigm with a platform comprising:

• A unique peer-to-peer-based directory lookup service which enables online connection and exchange of information without observation or interference,
• A distinctive unmediated trust framework whereby participants can be confident of the identities of those with whom they communicate; and
• An encryption layer which ensures all interactions in the Glynx network are private and all content and directory entries are fully encrypted and/or obfuscated before sharing.

In particular, the patented Glynx lookup service is the antithesis of the web 2.0 approach. It is a directory - and it is private. It enables users to find others and connect - but it cannot be harvested for SPAM. It allows user interactions on the net to be private. And, no-one can observe or overhear users looking for others, searching for information, introducing themselves, forming relationships, or exchanging information.

It is just like the real world.

Even Our OpenID implementation is modeled on the real world. Rather than being forced to use an existing web login as an OpenID credential, we allow you to choose any verifiable credential and keep control of it. The Glynx OpenID gateway checks in with you directly if someone tries to use your credential.

Our intention is that the Glynx platform will support a portfolio of applications which provide truly private and unmediated content search, social discovery, advertising and communications.

Even though we are building these applications, we do not aspire to be the source of all Glynx-based applications. To this end, the Glynx APIs will enable any complying end-user software and any user to participate directly in unmediated relationships.

Glynx is freedom in social communication.

Glynx is software that enables online freedom: freedom to publish and search, and freedom to associate and communicate - all without observation or interference by third parties. Glynx facilitates these freedoms. As such Glynx represents an ideal bigger than the business or its artifacts.

Glynx provides freedom to search and discover others online; freedom to associate with others based on user controlled trust; freedom from unsolicited online communication and freedom to exchange information with others - all without observation or interference by third parties.

It provides the freedom to post information and determine who views it based on user controlled trust levels; and

It provides the freedom to search for information that may be stored on user devices or the web - again without observation or interference by third parties. Glynx enables people to control their online identities and really take advantage of the power of personal consumer devices to optimise their social communication.

Google get over it.

A private internet is more than possible. It just requires that the web 2.0 blinkers be lifted.

In the same way that Microsoft changed the definition of computing to mean "a computer on every desk and in every home" and Skype propagated the meme "voice communications should just work and be free on the internet", we hope that Glynx will bring about a shift of perspective towards "the internet should be private when you want it to be" or "you should be in control of every aspect of your social communication".

To go to the next instalment click here