Vivek Kundra, the D.C. CTO who’s rumored to be a possible US CTO, and I are writing a book titled “Democratizing Data,” (“Democratizing data makes it automatically available to those who need it when and where they need it based on their roles and responsibilities, in forms they can use, and with the freedom to use it as they choose — while simultaneously protecting security and privacy.”) about how innovations such as XBRL allow us to change from the old way in which data would flow into a company or government agency and only small parts would eventually emerge, into one in which there would be real-time sharing of information with the entire workforce and, in some cases (Id argue the bailout would be one of these) with the general public, to rebuild faith in companies and government through transparency. I recently wrote a piece in TechPresident arguing that automatic reporting via XBRL should be part of the stimulus package and any more TARP spending: http://tinyurl.com/88go3l

I assume the code can be used as a type of RFID tag to verify the existance of fund.
Most hedge funds want to retain their privacy, and therefore claim they
can’t divulge total transparency due to investment privacy issues.

If the code could be used to simply verify that Assets + Cash = reported balances
weekly, there would be privacy argument from the funds and this should be adopted. Of Course , many of these funds are dealing with non-marketable securities, that would make the process a bit trickier. They could default to 45c on the $ for reporting puposes thoug.

Someone needs to develop a system to verify the funds are really there while providing the privacy the funds seek!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.