Yesterday afternoon was a fascinating introduction to digital identity management. Today: discussions on creating "newbie" documentation to the field, interests of data silos, and shortly: videos, use cases, sandbox development, and more!

I'm going to take things a bit out of order here. First speaker: Ryan Jenssen, who has a very informative blog that's been tracking this space for the last 6 months. He provided a very nice overview of digital ID management, pointing out that our digital ID is "the stuff you assert about yourself."

There are site-centered and user-driven identities that you use to establish an "account" with entities that you want a relationship with. The biggest problems include 1) the need to repeat information each time, 2) managing our multiple identities and personas, and 3) each entity you connect to may not have any need or desire to protect your information. More of me in more places, shared with more entities.

In the case of a user-driven ID, sites can vouch for their users to other sites (relevant terms: identity providers, relying parties--good def needed). Your identity has several aspects: you connect with your friends, you have specific preferences, you develop a reputation, and you have assets associated with who you are. Taking this one step further, your assets are related to you by a personal broadcast service, and your reputation becomes a reputation engine for recommendations.

Here's an overview of some of the players in the ID Commons space:

The challenges at this point come from people who use software, need to develop compelling business models or funding sources, and the need to respect the people who have been working in this field for a long time (foundations, early adopters and developers, etc.)

Ok, give me some time to digest this.

Labels: IDmanagement, privacy, relationships, self-determination

¶ 10:52 AM