Convenience: “anything that saves or simplifies work or adds to one’s ease or comfort.”

In a meeting at Sun’s Executive Briefing Center last Friday, one of our telco customers volunteered the mantra driving their implementation of Identity Management to enable delivery of online services. “It’s all about convenience for our customers,” remarked one executive.

Convenience implies making life easier, simpler or more comfortable. Identity Management principles and technology can indeed simplify the process a subscriber uses to interact with an online service provider. While the visible process is simplified, people can also be more comfortable they are interacting in a safe way, with privacy and security concerns appropriately addressed.

An interesting thing about Identity Management is that if it really works, it is almost completely hidden. The building blocks that operate behind the scenes just go about their work without users even being aware of the complex protocols and processes required. But it is that very real, but unseen “magic” that really delivers value to a company whose mission is “Convenience for our Customers.”

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Telecommunications

“Words, words, words” said Hamlet, in response to Polonius’ question, “What do you read, my lord?”

I love words. Their meanings and origins fascinate me. That a few written symbols or brief intonations in verbal conversation can convey powerful concepts or subtle nuances of meaning is a remarkable testament to the intricacies of the human intellect and richness of our culture.

One of my favorite daily email subscriptions is the Visual Thesaurus Word of the Day. I enjoy spending a few moments each day reading about the meaning and origin of some new, obscure word. Last week, up popped a new word that was sublime in its apt description of itself.

“Sesquipedalian” means, literally, “given to using long words.” It was derived from the Latin word “sésquipeda-lis” = “measuring a foot and a half.” Quite descriptive of itself, don’t you think?

So yes, I do have a predisposition to using “foot and a half” long words. In the words of my daughter Heidi, who also suffers from the same malady, “Why use a long word when a diminutive one will do?

Technorati Tags: Words,
Language