One of the most widely used tools of the Participation Age is Instant Messaging. I have a son who can keep a dozen IM conversations going at once, somehow rapidly context-switching between IM windows as he converses with his many friends late into the night. I lead a much more mundane IM life. The best use of IM I have found is to hold sidebar conversations during conference calls.

I most frequently use AIM and Yahoo instant messaging, with the occasional MSN chat with another son, who is a diehard Microsoft software developer. To accommodate the multiple IM services, I have used the Trilllian multi-protocol IM client for the last couple of years.

However, I recently was coaxed into using the internal Sun IM network, which uses the Jabber protocol. After many unsuccessful attempts at using the Trillian client to connect with the Sun network, a colleague introduced me to the Gaim IM client. It lacks some of the features of the Trillian client, but at least I could get it to work without crashing whenever I attempted to log into my Sun account.

While investigating the Jabber protocol, I signed up for Jabber accounts at Google, Jabber.org and borderlinenormal.com. What a pain! I am now logged into seven separate IM accounts with my Gaim client. Every account has a different user name and password. This situation begs for at least a consolidated Identity system that would control each account or, at best, a uniform system where I could use one account to Instant Message across multiple networks. The current system is like carrying around seven mobile phones to be in touch with the widest group of systems. Surely, more sanity must be just around the corner.

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Digital Identity,
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Gaim,
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Jabber

My son-in-law Garry Bartle pointed out a recent small article in InfoWorld. Jon Udell proposes that nations “are expressing their unique national personalities as they move through phases of IT maturity.” He points out the stark difference in how different nations view National Identity Cards. I was pleased to find out that New Zealanders “hate national IDs even more than Americans do.”

New Zealand is a unique place, where sheep outnumber people 16 to 1. Maybe their biggest problem is that all those sheep create climate-altering greenhouse gas.

I spent a very unpleasant week in New Zealand several years ago. The country is beautiful, my New Zealand colleagues were very hospitable, but I was sick as a dog. I look forward to a time I can return in full health – without a National ID card.

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
National ID Card,
New Zealand

Some more humorous commentary from the versatile pen of Scott Stantis (September 2, 2006).

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Participation Age

Sun announced today that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Neogent Incorporated, a long time Sun partner in delivering Identity Management solutions using the Sun Identity Manager product.

This is a very positive move, in my humble opinion. Not only does it immediately strengthen Sun’s ability to provide highly-qualified expert services to accompany our Identity Management implementations, it will allow Sun to leverage the Neogent Velocity Identity Package technology, which can accelerate the implementation of the Sun Identity Manger product.

And in addition, the Neogent folks are really decent people whom are a pleasure to work with.

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Sun Microsystems,
Neogent

While we make a big deal about new software product introductions, it is easy to overlook that the real proof is in the pudding – when these software products are successfully implemented. One critical part of preparing to implement an Identity solution is training. I was pleased to learn this week that Sun Education is now offering an Advanced Deployment course that drives deeply into topics such as Active Directory synchronization and the finer points of self-service provisioning. This should be a big benefit to Sun’s customers and integration partners.

I also understand that a new admin and maintenance course is on its way. Thanks, guys. Keep up the good work.

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Sun Microsystems

For my little part in the launch of Sun Microsystems’ Identity Manager 7.0 product, which was announced at Digital ID World on Monday, I manned a display/demo table at the Executive Women’s Forum on Information Security in Fountain Hills, Arizona, last night. Because the women from the Sun Identity Management marketing team who would normally have attended this event were at Digital ID World, I was selected for service. Because I live about 30 minutes from the EWF venue, it was natural for me to be involved – except for one minor detail – I was in the distinct minority. Except for the folks who worked with the food, I was the only male in attendance!

After a career of attending male-dominated technical conferences and trade shows, it felt rather weird to be the only guy. But the people I met couldn’t have been more gracious! The attendees were exceptional contributors to the field of information security – mostly Chief Information Security Officers, Directors of Information Security from major corporations, or highly influential practitioners in the Information Security field. For example the woman who won the Sun-sponsored prize drawing at the end of the evening was Rhonda MacLean of MacLean Risk Partners, who is a Distinguished Senior Fellow with Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab. It was an honor to be including in such an elite group – even if I was the only man around.

I enjoyed announcing that Sun’s Identity Manager 7.0 product was the first in the Identity Managment market to provide fully-integrated preventative and detective compliance capabilities. Using a demo created by my colleague Nick Crown, I was able to show some interesting capabililties in the product, including creating and importing audit policies, using audit policy based provisioning, conducting audit scans, using policy based certification review and SOD compliance reporting. All good stuff!

One last thing – there is justice in the world. The recipient of Microsoft’s prize – a $500 Tumi gift certificate – was a Sun employee!

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Sun Microsystems,
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MacLean Risk Partners

In his Network World Newsletter yesterday, Dave Kearns wrote a short, complimentary piece about Sara Gates, the “Texas Whirlwind,” and her promotion to VP of middleware software for Sun:

“In a previous newsletter, I described Gates as ‘ebullient’ and said we’d have to add “peripatetic” to the description because it seemed she was popping up everywhere I looked these days. It appears that Gates and the top brass at Sun thought she had too much free time because she’s now taken on new responsibilities.”

Dave also introduced Rob Beauchamp as the “new top guy for Sun identity” who reports to Sara. I agree with Dave that Sara and Rob make a dynamic pair.

Note: Thanks to Pat Patterson, I corrected my earlier goof when I said “Sara and Dave” make a dynamic pair. Oops!

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Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Sun Microsystems

On the surface, you might chuckle to learn that a Sun guy exploited a Microsoft guy’s website. But I think there is a deeper lesson to be learned.

Last Tuesday, while I was away from my computer, I got an urgent instant message from my colleague, Rohan Pinto, “Could you please contact Kim Cameron for me and let him know that his blog was not hacked, but a mistake on my part of not informing him prior to testing an infocard exploit … please …”

Rohan had just posted a brief message on Kim’s blog by logging on via CardSpace and then exploiting a little security hole in WordPress. Oops!

Well, Rohan got in contact with Kim before I got the message. Kim’s explanation and Rohan’s response make an interesting read.

The lesson? No matter how inpenetrable the security veneer wrapped around an application is, the application itself must also must withstand exploitation. When we talk about Identity Management as a necessary component in an Information Security strategy, we must address system security holistically, not as just a point product or technology. It is one thing to correctly authenticate a user, but it is quite another thing to make sure that the authenticated user is not able to access more functionality or data than authorized.

One more thing … I just learned about another connection between Rohan and Kim. Kim grew up in Canada; Rohan lives in Canada now. Could there be signficance? Nah, I won’t even go there!

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Sun Microsystems,
Microsoft,
Rohan Pinto,
Kim Cameron,
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WordPress

Early this morning, while my family was still asleep, I played some inspirational music on iTunes and joined the OpenSSO and OpenDS communities on java.net. These two communities, formally launched within the last month, illustrate Sun Microsystems’ accelerating commitment to make the open source concept an integral part of the corporate software strategy. The Identity Management community will be a large beneficiary of this movement. I invite you to join me as a participating member in these open communities.

“The Open Web SSO project (OpenSSO) provides core identity services to simplify the implementation of transparent single sign-on (SSO) as a security component in a network infrastructure. OpenSSO provides the foundation for integrating diverse web applications that might typically operate against a disparate set of identity repositories and are hosted on a variety of platforms such as web and application servers. This project is based on the code base of Sun Java System Access Manager, a core identity infrastructure product offered by Sun Microsystems.”

“OpenDS is an open source community project building a free and comprehensive next generation directory service. OpenDS is designed to address large deployments, to provide high performance, to be highly extensible, and to be easy to deploy, manage and monitor. The directory service includes not only the Directory Server, but also other essential directory-related services like directory proxy, virtual directory, namespace distribution and data synchronization. Initial development of OpenDS was done by Sun Microsystems, but is now available under the open source Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL).”

Technorati Tags: Identity,
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Metaphor: “A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them.”

A couple of months ago, I was invited to attend a meeting of the Identity Gang during the Burton Group Catalyst Conference. We had quite a heated discussion, without resolution, of what metaphor should be used to represent a digital identity. I argued on behalf of “iCards,” reasoning that we humans intuitively understand the concept of using cards to represent bits of our personal Identities.

Well, I bought a virtual identity card last week, actually a “Prepaid Card Account,” from AT&T Knowlege Ventures. I wasn’t issued a piece of plastic that I could put in my wallet – just a “prepaid card number” that I could subsequently use to pay for WiFi sessions at the Denver International Airport or other places that accepted that form of Identity. That is about as “virtual” as you can get.

That got me to thinking more about the value of using a “Virtual Identity Card” as a metaphor for Identity. I have 11 different Identity cards in my physical wallet – 2 credit cards, 1 debit card, 1 drivers license, 2 grocery store affinity cards, 1 auto club card, 1 insurance card, 1 shopping club card, 1 hotel key card and 1 business card. I use these in different contexts to represent my Identity. By presenting these cards for the intended purposes, I establish my Identity and receive services in return – all the way from purchasing something to opening my hotel room door.

It is interesting to note that all but my business card has an encoded magnetic stripe attached for ease in reading my Identity. In reality, it is not the card that is important, it is the virtual representation of my Identity stored in some computer system that counts. It isn’t much of a stretch to think of all digital Identities as Virtual Identity Cards – virtual in the sense that I can’t hold them in my hand, but just as real as the cards in my wallet.

Well, some might say, “You’re an old fogey. The new generation doesn’t need a metaphor to describe digital Identities. They are so familiar with online adventures and Myspace.com that ‘cards’ cease to have meaning.”

My 17 year-old son and 12 year-old daughter apparently think otherwise. Drivers licenses (real and yearned for), student ID cards, library cards, gift cards, iTunes cards — Identity cards are very much a part of their everyday lives and wallets.

So, I think that a “Virtual Identity Card” is a useful metaphor to describe a digital identity. It is certainly as useful as the pervasive “desktop” and “folder” metaphors we use in user interface vernacular. Whether or not you favor the Microsoft CardSpace implementation of Virtual Identity Cards or not, I think you must admit the Redmond folks chose a useful metaphor.

By the way, I just learned of a virtual identity card to protect children from pedophiles that went on sale a few days ago. Useful? I certainly hope so.

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