Identarati
I
chuckled at the Catalyst Conference when Mike
Neuenschwander spoke of Steve
Ballmer joining the ranks of the "Identarati" when he shared the
stage with Scott
McNealy to jointly announce a breakthrough in product
interoperability.
After Googling "Identarati"
and finding the only entry to be my blog, I pinged Mike to get his insight into
this new word.
Mike responded, "I think I claimed the identarati were those of us who
make our living in the identity industry–in other words, those of us who are
forced (or compelled) to get this stuff. I’ve thrown the term around BG for
a while. Dan
Blum named his blog after this term, although spelled slightly differently:
identerati.blogspot.com."
I really like the word. It has a bit of style and panache for this crazy industry
laden with all too much technical jargon.
It made me wonder, however — how does one qualify to bear such an exalted
title? Maybe to qualify for lower-case identarati status, one must just work
in the industry. But to attain the lofty status of upper-case Identarati, or
the Identarati Elite, perhaps there are other qualifications.
One might qualify by leading a company that produces a major Identity Conference
– like Jamie
Lewis.
Or speaking at such a conference (John
Loiacono, Nick
Nikols, …)
Or participating in a panel discussion (Sara
Gates, Bob
Blakley, …) Scroll down to see Sara’s bio.
Or leading a company that produces Identity products (Scott
McNealy, Dick Hardt, …)
Or leading a major Identity Management deployment (Phil Blank, Jarrod Jasper,
…) Sorry guys, I couldn’t find your bios.
Or authoring an industry newsletter (Dave
Kearns, …)
Or a blog (Pat Patterson,
The Identity Woman, Timothy
Grayson, …)
Or defining Identity Laws (Kim Cameron)
Or discussing Identity Flaws (Mike
Neuenschwander)
Or sharing a stage with Scott McNealy (Steve
Ballmer)
But I’d like to propose that to be really classified with the Identarati Elite,
one must be listed on the Wizard
of IdM’s LinkedIn
contact list, which reads like a virtual who’s who of the Identity Industry.
Thanks, Don
Bowen, for making it all possible.
p.s. I haven’t even met all these people – but I once shared a stage with Steve
Ballmer!
Tag: Identity