In yesterday’s post, SXIP emphasizes the key success factors Dick Hardt believes are essential for an Identity 2.0 system:

1. Internet-scale – truly portable and not a closed circle of trust.
2. Community driven – many people should be involved in designing the solution and it needs to be able to move all types of identity data. And the transport of the data must be seperate from the payload.
3. Easy to adopt – zero footprint on the browser so that consumers don’t need to download software and simple for websites to implement.
4. Protect privacy – architected so that users don’t need to disclose more than absolutely necessary.
5. Functionality gradient – choice of security level from lightweight to highly secure, so that similar with for example Perl programming, “the easy things are easy and the hard things are possible”.

Okay, these may be necessary, but are they sufficient? I propose two other factors that must be in place:

1. Extremely large scale. Perhaps Dick intended this in the “Internet Scale” statement, but he didn’t explicitly say so. This is essential for mainstream adoption. If user-centric Identity is going to really work, it must be adopted by the big dogs – eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, Google … It must become pervasive.
2. Successful business model. For the big dogs to adopt this, the financial incentives must be just right for both Identity providers and relying partners. What will compel a Bank of America or American Express or Experian to become an Identity provider? Who pays the bill for the large scale infrastructure and operational overhead they will need to put in place? Why should the vendors like eBay, Amazon or Yahoo adopt this stuff, when they have already invested in Identity/Security infrastructures themselves?

I’m convinced that user-centric Identity is as much a business issue as a technology issue. If the compelling business demand is in place, the technology folks will make it work. If not, it will have been an interesting science fair project.

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
User-centric Identity,
SXIP

Since the recently-held Internet Identity Workshop physically closed its doors, lot’s of folks have commented about it:

• Kim Cameron: IIW 2006 Was a Superevent
• Phil Windley: IIW2006 Kudos for Unconferences
• Mark Wilcox: IIW2006 Thoughts
• Kaliya Hamlin: Reflections on IIW
• Johannes Ernst: Kim Cameron thinks IIW “was a superevent”
• Doc Searls: Sorry about Wednesday
• Pete Rowley: Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) 2006A
• John Panzer: Memories of IIW2006
• Tom Maddox: More IIW 21006

And these are just the ones I’ve read. Quite a bit of buzz for a small conference. Must have been the subject matter … and the Identity Characters involved!

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
IIW2006

I’m intrigued with the concept of Reputation as it relates to Identity. Two days ago, I posted a tongue-in-cheek series of pictures that addressed the subject, and last December discussed Reputation as a component of my Identity Map structure. Today, Johannes Ernst’s blog led me to Phil Windley’s blog, which linked to a set of slides from a presentation Phil gave at Yahoo.

Johannes summarized Phil’s pertinent definitions as:

• Identity is my story about me.
• Reputation is your story about me.

So, if Identity is a story told by a person about himself, and Reputation is a story about that person by a third party, Authentication happens when the Identity Story and the Reputation Story match. I suppose the strength of authentication is proportional to the precision of the match.

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Reputation

Sun Microsystems is a member of the EDS Agility Alliance, which is dedicated to leveraging innovative technologies from EDS Agility Alliance partners “to deliver on the promise of enabling the Agile Enterprise.”

While on the EDS campus last week, Eve Maler pointed out an article, entitled “Not Just a Spectator Sport – Identity Management in the Participation Age” in an EDS publication, Synnovation (page 80), written by Robin Wilton of Sun. Eve and Pat Patterson contributed to the article.

This excellent article gives an articulate overview of the need for standards-based Identity Management, and describes how standards-based identity federation will help the “Participation Age … become a global reality.”

Accessing the article on line is a bit awkward because you must first install the FlipViewer client, but the article is well-worth the read. By the way, a little picture of Pat Patterson is included in the article!

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Sun Microsystems,
EDS,
Agility Alliance

USA Network is currently running an advertising campaign entitled “Characters Welcome.”

It has been intriguing to follow the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) through the eyes of Phil Windley and Eve Maler. The IIW wiki was a great touch.

While the topics discussed at IIW were fascinating and educational, I couldn’t help but be intrigued with the cast of characters assembled on the IIW stage.

The organizers – Kaliya Hamlin (aka Identity Woman), Phil Windley,
Doc Searls.

The speakers – Eugene Kim,
Paul Trevithick,
Johannes Ernst,
Dick Hardt,
Eve Maler,
Mike Jones,
Doc Searls,
Gail-Joon Ahn,
Chuck Mortimore,
Kim Cameron,
Drummond Reed,
Andy Dale,
Dale Olds. My apologies to those I’ve missed.

The intellect, experience and passion of these dynamic characters drew them all onto the same stage to collaboratively nurture the progress of the Digital Identity industry. Now the conference is over, but these characters and others will repeatedly re-assemble and disperse in person and in cyberspace as time flows forward, seeking to establish their respective points of view and learn from each other in a fascinating drama of technological and social progression.

Characters are always welcome, both on USA Network and the Digital Identity stage.

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
IIW

Some time ago, I wrote about Identity Reputation – what someone else says about a person. The following visual sequence illustrates how reputation may change, depending on one’s point of view.

This is your house, as seen by:

Yourself
Your Lender
Your Buyer
Your Appraiser
Your Tax Assessor

And you thought you had a good reputation!

Thanks to my good friend Brent Payne, who sent me this photo sequence.

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management

Sun Microsystems announced today that Gartner positioned Sun as the clear leader in both completeness of vision and ability to execute in the just-published 1H06 User Provisioning Magic Quadrant report.

In the rapidly moving market of Identity Management, this accolade also brings a challenge — to continue superb innovation and to constantly improve execution. It is not time to rest on our collective laurels. We must constantly seek ways to improve both what we offer the Identity Management market and how we deliver value to that market.

But it is a great time to be on board.

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

I just recorded a training session entitled Best Practices in Identity Management for a Sun Microsystems “Tech Talk” series. It was an interesting process — sitting at my desk in my home office talking to no one in particular, knowing that someone, at some time in the future, might listen to what I had to say. This is the first time I’ve given that presentation without a live audience. The lack of instant feedback was a bit unnerving.

But I guess it was a little bit like blogging — throwing words into cyberspace with the hope that someone, somewhere, might read, and care.

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

In today’s Network Computing event, Sun Microsystems unveiled a “Systems Approach to Identity-Enable and Simplify Management of All Data.”

A key component of this strategy is that Identity is built-in: “Via Sun Java System Identity Manager software, Sun provides the industry’s first complete user provisioning and identity data synchronization solution to help manage identity profiles and permissions throughout the entire identity lifecycle, helping to reduce storage costs, strengthening compliance and making data more valuable as it can be made available securely to more users. Sun Java System Access Manager is also integrated into the Sun StorageTek Enterprise Storage Manager portfolio to ease access and improve data integrity.”

Mark Canepa, Sun’s executive vice president, Data Management Group stated, “Traditional approaches to storage are not enough for enterprise customers to compete. Sun is setting a course to change the way customers and the industry look at data, from building-in identity management and security to enabling a world in which self-aware applications can discover data wherever it is in its lifecycle.”

I liked the quote from Bob Massengill, Manager of Technical Services, Wake Forest Baptist University Medical Center: “Sun’s data management expertise, complete portfolio of storage and systems products and identity management leadership provided us with the end-to-end, secure and easy to manage storage environment our business operations require.”

Identity-centric, end-to-end solutions to big, real-life problems. That’s what I really enjoy about being at Sun in 2006.

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

A few days ago, I posted an interesting phrase, “Entity Identity.” In response, Dave Walker drew my attention to his own musings on the subject – his post entitled Identity Unbound.

He stated, “While identity can clearly be applied to human consumers of services – and expressed as a subset of information held about them in various places – I’ve started wondering how the concept of identity could be used for various other entities, and indeed how the properties of identity as applied to humans could potentially be mapped onto them.”

His first-cut attempt at examining identity attributes for non-human objects is worth the read.

Or, if you’d rather, take a look at his “Adventures in Bachelor Cookery.” I wonder how Identity maps to “Beef Ramen, Dave Style”

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Dave Walker