What’s the Travel Forecast?

“Don’t go near South Kensington tube station.” These were the words of John Starski as he grabbed my wife’s arm before she left. Various prophecies from that fortune teller’s reading have seemingly come to pass, though if you ask me, they’re all rather generic.

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April 10, 2026

Vice President, Business Development – North America

Applications Deadline: 27/04/2026 'Ģ����ý.' (YST) is a travel demand management and mobility-tech company…

Ģ����ý.

Love1

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March 18, 2026

How Ģ����ý�ý.’ Empowers Events to Lead on Sustainable Travel

Surpassing Industry Standards Major events, from mass-participation and high-profile sporting fixtures to festivals, present a…

Tom Yiangou

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Walking the Green Line

Amid the irony of international dignitaries busting the world’s carbon emissions budget by jetting around the world to talk about the climate change emergency, and the controversy around the environmental legacy of the World Cup, ‘Ģ����ý.’ continues to work with destinations, venues, and events to address sustainability, and the cost-of-living crisis, by nudging people into better travel habits.

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Careers & Suppliers

April 10, 2026

Vice President, Business Development – North America

Applications Deadline: 27/04/2026 'Ģ����ý.' (YST) is a travel demand management and mobility-tech company…

Ģ����ý.

Love1

InsightsLatest News

March 18, 2026

How Ģ����ý�ý.’ Empowers Events to Lead on Sustainable Travel

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Tom Yiangou

Love0

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March 3, 2026

Is Esports on the Sustainability Leaderboard for Events?

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‘Access for all’ as a fundamental requirement

Last night we picked up the��ITS (UK) ‘innovation award for Inclusive Mobility’, yet access to transport networks, and to many destinations, the workplace, venues and events, still remains dire.

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We courted post-quantum homomorphic cryptography, beat ourselves up about blockchain, contemplated the infinite complexities of the world’s data, and finally pulled our heads out of ‘the cloud’, around April, with the clear realisation that our praxis and modus operandi will have the greatest initial impact on the most down-to-earth of human capabilities. Movement:

Taking The Strain Off The Train

We began our second year of developing personalised data solutions with news that ‘MyJrny’, our intelligent mobility demonstrator, will be further extended as part the RSSB FutureRailways programme. ��This sees us working closely with the Arriva Trains UK and Chiltern Railways teams to explore commercially viable models for enhancing both customer experience and rail network optimisation, through the use of Internet connected sensors on trains. (view blog post)

Your Personal Travel Assistant

The FutureRailways project will leverage our MyJrny demonstrator app. The MyJrny platform is the first ever to be based on , a unique approach to personal data management developed by some of the UK’s leading Universities. The HAT personal data management architecture helps us make sense of people’s data, reason for travelling and transport requirements, so we can save them time, money and improve their overall travel experience whilst preserving their privacy.

(If you’re in the UK you can try it out by downloading the MyJrny demonstrator app, launched in app stores this month.)

Mobility-As-A-Service

We’re now developing commercial partnerships for MyJrny and an accompanying software development kit (SDK), so its functionality can be easily integrated into 3rd party web and mobile applications.

We want to deliver intuitive ‘mobility-as-a-service’. That means investing in new features and functionality that have a clear positive impact on people’s travel. We’ll be making improvements week-by-week by listening to our community of users. You’ll find the feedback form in the demo app’s main menu!

Personal Data Exchange��(for Health, Automotive, Retail, Financial Services)

Building on our work in public transport we’re also engaged in data infrastructure projects to generate customer value, loyalty and operational efficiency across the Health, Retail, Automotive and Financial Services sectors. The��Enable iD information eco-system��and strategic R&D partnerships continue to grow alongside our platform capabilities and API.

So, if the cap fits please keep in touch and continue to wear it. We’re always eager to explore new ideas and ways of working with partners to harness data for the mutual benefit of individuals and organisations.

I look forward to catching up with you during 2016.

Best regards,
Chris

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When reading through the findings of the Digital Catapult’s����study, it is clear that we in the digital industry have a major and potentially industry-stifling, problem.

As digital products and services become part of day-to-day life, they will need access to consumer data. For example a mobile health device which monitors movement in the homes of the elderly and alerts family or carers to problems cannot meet its society changing potential without access to the data which will reveal health information. To access that data, technology developers, product and service providers need the trust of the public.

60% of consumers said they are uncomfortable sharing personal data, with 14% refusing to share any personal data at all. That is almost nine million people, based on the current UK population, who will not share their private information with businesses. We talk about the potential of smart technology and the Internet of Things to change the way healthcare, education and all other parts of society function. How can it achieve that if a portion of the population does not trust organisations?

Telling Consumers Why We Need Data

A big part of this problem comes from a lack of communication between organisations and consumers. In this study, 79% of consumers believe the main use of personal data is for organisations’ own economic gain. Looking at what would encourage them to share data, the majority (43%) said they would share information if it was clear it would be used to improve society.

So the very reason the public say they would share data is the reason the vast majority of organisations want access to it. Why is there a problem? ����’s because consumers don’t trust that businesses have their interests at heart. This is why open, transparent communication is so vital to the future of digital technology.

It is also why it’s important to let consumers control their data – for 76% of those questioned in the Digital Catapult’s report, the main concern around sharing data is that they have “no control over how data is shared or who it is shared with”.

Enable iD’s data management model ensures personal information is only ever combined and transformed as specifically requested by individuals. In short, we give consumers control of their data and we give businesses the data they need to develop their products but we do so in a controlled way. But we alone cannot solve the data trust challenge.

We need to work with technology developers, government organisations and academia to build trust with the public and create an open, transparent forum for the controlled sharing of personal data. Digital stakeholders must act now to create this and make it clear to the public that they can control their data but also share it to benefit their own future. Without this, the digital industry will never reach its huge potential.

A Call To Arms!

I’m proud to be leading the����Digital Identity group.

Taking corporate social responsibility for customers and workforces by helping them to develop a healthy digital identity is becoming a key driver of efficient service delivery, competitive advantage and profitability. As our lives become more interconnected, it often requires cultural shift and the careful management of transformational organisation design. Progressive enterprise mobility, personal device access and social media policies have become business critical, with many companies finding themselves bound by third party terms and conditions in these areas.

By joining the PD&TN Digital Identity group, organisations can actively put respect for individual preferences with regard to the exploitation of personal data at the top of their corporate agenda.

They can help to define terms and conditions that enable rather than disable their business models. Whatever the size and shape of your organisation or its respective operating market(s), the Digital ID group aims to open up new opportunities for it to work with government, service providers, market stakeholders and customers to implement the practical steps needed to ensure responsible personal data management and privacy control.

To get directly involved please visit����and register your interest.

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Brands that empower consumers to openly access and use data related to their products and services will gain a competitive advantage in their market. Why? Because it is the context, the when, where and how we use a product that allows us to truly buy into its benefits.

Weather physical, in the case of people being healthier by wearing a device that tracks exercise, practical, in the case of Nest making people more energy efficiency through remote control of an ‘intelligent’ thermostat, or emotional, in the case of the public vote on a reality TV show, our confidence and engagement is dramatically increased when we are empowered to react based on data that we have contributed to.

It is critical to remember that in all these cases it is not product data but personal data, the when, where and how we as individuals interact with the product, that allows us to calculate its value. Because it’s��ours, it is data we can trust to inform our behavior and identity. And as humans, ‘identity’ is critical to our modus operandi.

Identity Hacking

Since the dawn of consumerism marketers have always capitalised on identity, our sense of self and the basis on which we compare ourselves to others. Be it through the clothes we wear, the cars we drive or the rituals we take part in, it seems we are suckers for validation as members of groups that affirm our societal status. Last year 85% of the eligible UK population voted on the hotly debated issue of Scottish Independence, compared to only 66% in this year’s UK general election. Of course the data they contributed, along with the alleged statistics that informed their vote, was an aggregation of personal, private data. Along with the much-hyped revelations of��, not to mention recent domestic privacy hacking disgraces, the electorate’s turnout on the Scottish question is yet another example of identity being exposed as perhaps the most salient and motivating issue in modern society.

In a number of cases, as our trio of learned whistleblowers has shown, notwithstanding their own personal integrity, the recorded data that defines our identity has become a black market currency, captured and traded between institutions and corporations. But who is really to blame? By and large, with a carefree click, swift swipe or tap of the screen, we casually surrender individual responsibility for the regulation of our personal data. This problem (or opportunity) is set to develop exponentially. As more and more ‘smart’ devices connect our bodies, vehicles and homes to the internet, the complexity and volume of contextual personal usage data is fast becoming an extraordinarily valuable and sought after commodity.

The ability inform our identity through interconnected smart environments, the ‘Internet of Things’, is driving the emergence of a new personal data economy.

The Personal Data Economy

There are already a handful of innovative services that to some extent allow us to ‘hack’ into and take control of our identity.

��(IFTT) is a good example. It allows people to create ‘recipes’ that combine a trigger and action. For example, IF THIS [I’m at home] THEN [turn off mobile data on] THAT [my smartphone]. Of course this functionality requires compatible devices and so far IFTTT triggers are limited to pre-integrated����sources, or ‘channels’ as they are termed. This means the platform, whilst a notable example of innovative user experience design, is less than user friendly, and of limited value to people who are less confident with social media platforms and mobile apps. But the market for personal data management reaches far beyond social networks and smartphones.

Healthcare, home automation, entertainment, transport and tourism are perhaps a few of the more obvious sectors where data can be combined to deliver intelligent personal resource planning.����the value of the personal data economy across Europe has been estimated to rise from €315bn in 2011 to €1Tn annually by 2020. However, for this to be realised and for the personal data economy to thrive, control of data exploitation needs to extend beyond niche services, such as If This Than That, and go mainstream.

People need to be able to manage access to their digital personas with a flick a familiar switch by the front door, in the car or indeed on their device. They need to be able to do so in the safe knowledge that they ‘own’ and are volunteering selected personal usage data in return for a tangible benefit. For this to happen the Internet of Things arguably requires three staple elements:

1. A common technical and legal framework
2. Permeation of public knowledge about the framework
3. A self-regulating code of practice

The HAT

The����(HAT) is a research collaboration led by professors from leading UK University’s. It is a framework, in the form of a relational database schema, designed to give individuals control over their data. It gives people a central role in the design of products and services that are based around their behavior and identity. ��The HAT is one of several emerging technologies that embrace the concept of a personal digital store (PDS) as a repository for data, not just content data but data about interactions with content, generated and owned by the individual.

The notion of personal data as an individually owned digital asset, as opposed to the preside of institutions and corporations, creates a profound shift in position when we consider our privacy. The more data we contribute the more valuable an asset our digital persona becomes. With the tools to manage its exposure, to control our level of digital visibility and who can access our data-based persona, we become socially and economically empowered. The HAT project presents a common technical framework that can perhaps deliver the first step towards a publically owned and managed personal data economy. A publically owned and managed personal data economy, one could argue, is a significant step-change, representing the next phase of our technological and constitutional evolution.

HATs With Brands On

As with any such step-change HAT based services will take time to settle in. The legal framework, public awareness and codes of practice needed to bring the personal data market to life will evolve, no doubt driven by potential shareholder returns. It will accelerate faster in some territories than others, dividing those who are connected and those who are not. However, through the delivery of HAT based services brands, institutions and corporations have the opportunity to manage the growth of both their enterprises and overall stakeholder value, by taking the corporate social responsibility to entrust personal data management to individuals.

Due to the origins of the Hub-of-All-Things, University students have been amongst first to experiment with their HATs. That being the case, whilst they may not be branded as such, my guess is that it will not be too long before we start to see a new paradigm of HAT’s with brands on.

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OK there is devolved government funding but therein lies the rub. There is no management structure, no actual service. Just tax payer’s money that for the most part has been dished out in the name of political gain. The money is most commonly allocated in the name of ‘innovation’, as though some unprecedented idea is going permeate the non-existent infrastructure that connects our wellbeing to the not so omnipresent wisdom of those trained in medicine.

I’m all for research and development but my contention is that there is no omnipresence in the form of a national infrastructure to disseminate it. Self-diagnosis via ad-funded platforms now takes precedence over booking an appointment with a GP. There is no single ‘national’ health service, just a disparate collection of regional services unsurprisingly consumed by their own local battles. And at the heart of it, there isn’t even a single recognised format for health and social care records.

How did we miss that?

Such is the brilliance of our collective wit that we’ve managed to get so carried away with the need for newism that we’ve completely forgotten the need for a common language.

“We’ve got more pilots in the NHS than the RAF”, declared Ray, an accomplished delegate at the recent health and social care data integration workshop I attended. He really summed it up. The lack of any system, process, integration or indeed interoperability that barely constitutes our state care ideals left me almost lost for words. Not just me. Another delegate comment from the same .Gov sponsored Digital Catapult event, was that no matter how clever the latest technology, it won’t address the almost absolute disenfranchisement of the health and social care workforce. This is perhaps not surprising given that devolvement of power to local authorities has led to so much blind spending with no clear overall objective. In short, it’s a complete mess!

So do we leave short-term of market economics, quarterly shareholder return and a 4-year national constitution to determine our wellbeing, or should we look for a shift back to common identity and a sense of belonging?

Slides from the Digital Catapult’s Integration 0f Health & Social Care workshop, where we began to address the practicalities of integrated care:

Whatever your political persuasions, vocation, be it public or private sector funded, surly you see value in in shared knowledge. If so please consider this: We desperately need to cut back on satellite projects that compound the problem. We desperately need to rethink continuity of service, region-to-region, healthcare to social care, person to person. As a practicing innovator I propose less innovation and more collaboration. Let’s constitute a form, yep a form, a single wellbeing record that we own from cradle to grave, preferably adopted across the EU or even wider. Sure, it can evolve to accommodate new needs specific to individual states but without a common central language and data repository, all the budget reallocation in the world will fail.

Facebook has proven we can get over the privacy issues. I’m not suggesting Facebook as a solution but it is a precedent that shows we do share what we believe is worth sharing, especially if we are given a user friendly ‘form’ to enable us. For better or worse it highlights what we value. Take the concept of ‘social networking’ and apply it to the idea of ‘personal care networks’ and we have a potential model that could break down the segregated information silos that so many ever-so-clever innovation initiatives have created.

����’s our data and sharing is caring. Healthcare doesn’t need more money – it needs managers at all levels to adopt a single-minded approach to integrated care.

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This time around however, I’m motivated not only because I have an amazing set of business partners, but because the problem that we’re setting out to help solve has become one of the most important issues facing the whole of modern society.

How to successfully manage your digital identity.

It sounds so ‘American’ doesn’t it. But it’s not. Far from being contained by geographic boundaries or patriotic rhetoric, the tangled web of contemporary identity has little respect for nationalism. It is a world wide web. Through the unfettered dissemination of personal data, individuality itself has become globalised. Intrinsically connected to culturally agnostic ‘smart environments’, we are forced to reassess our sense of self.

By and large I consider myself a pretty open character. I was uncomfortable though, each time my wife and I voluntarily shared our children’s personal data, signing up for the the try-before you-buy samples in the Bounty Health Network newborn pack, at the bedside on the ward in the hospital when our little ones had just arrived. Franky I was astounded that the Bounty Health Network even knew we existed but when the kindly nurse-esq rep produced Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs child benefit form alongside the freebies, how could we say no? The children were barely one day old.

Talk about right message, right time, right place!

More recently our eldest, now 6, asked me if she could jump online to update her avatar on the Class Dojo, the web app used by her school to communicate with both pupils and parents. When I asked why, I was treated to a pre-teenage, “I’m so hard done by”, list of all the amazing features her friends had managed to add to their avatars. In contrast my early insecurities were very much face-to-face, based predominantly around my national health specs. Had I had to grapple with my virtual avatar I dread to think of the ensuing ‘trolling’ and the impression it might have left. At just 6 years old my daughter is already becoming defined by her online identity, rather than her identity online. That’s scary.

As I proposed to the audience at the Digital Catapult Centre last week, where we announced��Enable iD, whilst the technology will change, in order for our children to keep up with and make good on Moore’s Law (the widely cited observation that computing power doubles approximately every two years), it is essential that we strive to create an ethical and sustainable framework for people to understand and manage their digital identity with confidence. If we can do that I believe we can give our children a head-start in shaping their futures. Circumstance notwithstanding, this is something I’m convinced by, and a challenge I’m thrilled to get the chance to help address.

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