Big News in Identity Today
Project Higgins – which is being managed by the Eclipse open source foundation — is developing software for “user-centric” identity management, an emerging trend in security software. It enables individuals to actively manage and control their online personal information, such as bank account, telephone and credit card numbers, or medical and employment records — rather than institutions managing that information as they do today. People will decide what information they want shared with trusted online websites that use the software.
This is the first user-centric identity management effort to follow the open source software model, where hundreds of thousands of developers contribute — and continually drive improvements through collaborative innovation. Being an open source effort, Higgins will support any computer running Linux*, Windows* or any operating system, and will support any identity management system.
“To move online security to the next level, there has to be fundamental resolve among consumers, government and business to quickly adopt a system where the individual has more control over how information about them is managed and shared,” said John Clippinger, Senior Fellow for The Berkman Center. “Our aim is to construct an open and widely accessible software framework that puts the individual at the center of the identity management universe. With this framework in place, it will be easier for society to begin the migration to more secure online environments, where trusted networks can not only be easily formed, but effectively enforced. For in the end, security is not just technological, but social.â€
Higgins will make it simple and secure for someone to change an address across all their online accounts with a single keystroke; delegate who can see what elements of their medical records; or change a password across online banking and brokerage accounts. For example, a person can grant their insurance company broad access to their personal information and medical records, while at the same time limiting the amount of data made available to their cable company. In turn, businesses can create new channels of communication with customers – enabling information to be shared securely across networks to deliver targeted, relevant products and services.
Big Ideas
My conversation on passive authentication overheard last week.
Eric took the liberty of blogging this.
Kaliya: I don’t like Art Coviello’s thing about passive authentication. I don’t want them watching me. I want control.
Eric: ok – but passive authentication is already happening all the time – and its *preventing* identity fraud.
Kaliya: yea – but that’s not the way it should be done.
Eric: I agree, but would you have them turn it off immediately and watch fraud go up?
Kaliya: No, I’d have them change the way they do it.
Eric: I agree, but that can’t happen overnight – so in the meantime, would you have them turn it off and have fraud go up?
Kaliya: ugh.
I am at RSA today…
I am at RSA for the next few days. Checking out the ‘security scene’. If you are around and want to be interviewed for the Story of Digital Identity feel free to ping me with via IM (I now have my Yahoo! IM on/off on the side of my blog) or with my i-name.
This morning I saw the head of RSA speak – FREAKY is all I have to say. They wan to have pervasive passive authentication – checking all user behavior against our prior behavior as stored in our browser (this is our attention data) and their uberdatabses on us. They are talking about really having us loosing our privacy. I would never give access to the uber security network system they are talking about plugging us all into. This will have constant surveillance of our transaction patterns “normalcy” according to their algorithms. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!
MarcCanter: Giants must open or die
Marc Canter has had a glimps into the future of microsoft…
For sure – each of these giants will make their own decisions, in their own due time, but at the end of the day – if they don’t open up – they’ll eventually lose their customer.
At least we have a way to connect these giant worlds together (and take us small little fry along for the ride at the same time.) That’s a huge breakthough and is the foundation of us building the distributed web infrastructure. What I’ve been chanting about is our own Open Source Infrastructure and the other kinds of open standards we need…..
StructuredBlogging.org is an attempt to keep all the various formats of microcontent compatible. Our upcoming PeopleAggregator APIs will provide basic social networking capabilities – to all – and a way of inter-connecting disparate social networks into one giant distrbuted mesh.
The world of media needs standards like Media RSS and one could imagine burgeoning new standards around Tags, Reputation, Events and Musical tastes and preferences.
It is nice to see the itags included in the list of open source infrastructure. Thanks Mark.
Julian Bond was in the audience and immediately complained “they’ll never be a LAMP version of Infocards†– but what I wanted to explain to Julian was that Microsoft is in the business of taking care of themselves, just as Yahoo, Google and AOL are – as well. So don’t expect a Linux version of anything from Microsoft, but you CAN expect meta-identity compatible ID systems for LAMP – that’s for dam sure.
Julian don’t be so sure about this statement.
XML GRRL to meet Identity Woman at OpenCMS Summit
Blogs are fun….I just learned that I will be on a panel with XMLGrrl author of Pushing String on Thursday at the OpenCMS Summit. I have been reading her blog for a long time.
I just got here this afternoon already I am longing for open space process (believe me we tried to convince them to use it). I lived through one terribly facilitated session. As a few of us who were in that session settled into the next one I mentioned that I was considering putting in a proposal for this years OSCON to do a session on meeting/group facilitation skills. Several folks were very supportive of the idea so I am am going to do it.
'what is your name' – when I order coffee it is "Lu"
I went into a coffee shop here in Portland and ordered a raspberry latte. They asked me what my name was – really what they want to know is what ‘identifier’ they can call out to let me know my coffee is ready. If you have an easy name like Kate or John or Kathy – you just use that. I have ‘Kaliya’ and really don’t want to explain how to say it or spell it just to get my coffee. So I use my default “Lu”. This was the nick name I picked up while playing water polo at CAL (UC Berkeley) and believe it or not it was a derivative of Kaliya…
Kaliya
Kalua
(I had this suite with a giant orchid like flower on it (the whole front)
Lula
LuLu follow shortly
Lu
Queer Identities and discrimination online
So there is a big hubub going on around World of Warcraft
[the new “golf” in case you haven’t heard yet – I can’t wait until we have WoW day pre DIDW instead of real golf…what do you think Vince ;)].
around discrimination towards the queer community. Dana Boyd’s latest post was brought my attention to this issue and in an update highlighted why this relates to identity in particular.
As has been noted over and over again, queerness is an identity not just a set of sexual practices. By silencing people’s identities and not allowing people to have bigot-free spaces, Blizzard is upholding a level of discrimination that far outweighs the _potential_ sexual harassment that might occur if people’s sexualities were known.
More about the situation from Dana…
I’ve already heard on numerous occasions that there is intense homophobia within the chatrooms on WoW and this had already made me quite uncomfortable. But Blizzard’s response is just disgusting. How can they call a queer-friendly guild sexual harassment given that this is an attempt by the queer community to create space? Furthermore, there’s so much sexism in the chats (aside from the creatures) that no one from Blizzard can actually argue that they are preventing sexual harassment. I can’t help but wonder about the state of other forms of discrimination and prejudice within the system (particularly since “race” is critical to the narrative of WoW). That said, i don’t care enough to find out – i can’t justify spending personal money on a company with these values.
my identity precedes me at Recent Changes Camp
I flew up to portland for recent changes camp that is just beginning this morning. I have had quite a few experience that go like this…
Hi i’m (Mike, Bill, John….)
I’m Kaliya
Oh…your THE Identity Woman.
So this has been interesting. Eugene Kim (he drove up from Eugene with Tom Atlee) is here too so hopefully we will co-lead a session on identity for the wiki and other folks gathered here.
Broadband Scandal – heading towards 3rd world connectivity
$200 Billion Broadband Scandal was posted to a list I am on today.
New investigative ebook offers micro-history of Verizon, SBC, Qwest, and BellSouth’s (the Bell companies) fiber optic broadband promises and the consequence harms to America’s economic growth because they never delivered and kept most of the money, about $200 billion.
New York: This is one of the largest scandals in American history. America is 16th in the world in broadband and the US DSL current offerings are 100 times slower than other countries such has Japan and Korea. How did we go from Number 1 in the web to 16th in broadband and falling?
* Are customers owed $2000 for a fiber optic service they paid for but never received? Did towns and cities, libraries and schools, government agencies, and every residential and business customer subsidize new networks that never showed up?
* Did America lose $5 trillion in economic growth, $500 billion annually, because of these missing networks?
analog-digital Clash – HIGH transaction costs
Today I have had two analogue-digital clashes. Or perhaps digital loops that had to pass through an analogue phase
I went to the bank to get a print out of all the transactions on my account recently – so I could notify them of the fraudulent ones. You would think that i could tell a bank employee which ones are fraudulent and they would ‘mark them’ on my account electronically and then investigate. Nooo… I get a form that I must fill with a pen writing out each fraudulent transaction.
Then I have to come back tomorrow when the guy who can notarize them is there to mail the documents into the bank. It will then take them 15 days to even look at my claim – more time to investigate and no money is returned until they complete investigating…potentially a month or more away. Meanwhile I am out $2800.
Second clash. I did some work for PR company. They call me last week and leave a message that says…call us back. I really don’t like voicemails like that you have to write the number down. Then punch it back in to call them. I figured it was about my SSN for taxes. I changed my voicemail message that said if you really want me to call you back you have to e-mail me and left my e-mail address. So today I get this e-mail that is a W9 that i have to fill out and sign and fax back to her. Shouldn’t you be able to submit this to the company in some electronic way and then be assured they destroy this information (revocation) so it is not floating around forever in there accounting system. Not yet apparently. So first I fill out the PDF boxes then print it out to sign it. I don’t have a fax machine. So Then I scan in back into my computer and send her the JPEG.
Ross Mayfield said at an event last year that 50% of the economy was transaction costs. These experiences both have a lot of cost associated with just doing the transactions. We as a digital identity community need to address real costs baked into the system that are not working for people or organizations.
Youth, Identity and Technology
Dana Boyde is working on her PhD at at UC Berkeley. She is about to move to LA to do field research with youth. I read her blog regularly and a lot of what is happening is that youth, there use of technology and exploration of identity. I wanted to share this highlight from her post yesturday and if you are interested in these things you might want to subscribe to her blog.
I am currently more interested in understanding the theoretical and historical underpinnings of youth and identity. That said, what i am doing is not removed from social software. Most youth today use social technologies as part of their coming of age processes. They have far richer social lives than most adults. What they are doing with technology is far more complex. Furthermore, they are really focused on the act of socializing, not collaboration or any other work-centric model. Youth have a lot to teach us about social software – about its strengths, weaknesses and where innovation should go. Obviously, i’m biased – this is the root of how my research is applicable to technologists.
I hope those of you building technology will enjoy my journey to the depths of youth. I certainly am. If not, i’m sorry.
Declaration of Network Independence
Rick Ringel (yes this is his real name) presented this Declaration of Network Independence at etel that will resonate deeply with the user-centric identity community.
Declaration of Network Independence
that among these are
Identity -> Existence -> Life
Mobility -> Movement -> Passage -> Freedom -> LIberty
And the pursuit of Innovation
Unalienable Right to Identity – Independent of devices, modes, service providers or access networks – Equality
Unalienable Right to Identity – Create, destroy and transfer ownership – Property
Unalienable Right to Identity – Control When, How, What and With Whom – Privacy and Association
Unalienable Right to Mobility – Move between services providers while retaining identity – Liberty
Unalienable Right to Pursue Innovation – End Users have a right to creat applications that interact with the Network on their behalf, or on behalf of many Users – Individualism.
We mutually pledge to each other our Vision, Our Standards, and our Interoperability.
super portable oldschool phone
So Brad Templeton brought his portable phone.
More pictures here…with it on the cart with folks actually making calls….
(go on and look…they are worth it for the chuckle)
[I would post them in my blog …can’t drag and drop into ecto and get it to actually publish though – sorry]
FLUIDS…they are just names
This is a post IDs: where do they lead … ? by Bill Anderson that is great.
Bill and I were introduced by Jerry Michalski – (sociate) and have had quite a few great conversations over the past year. He did this post in early December that I just found. I though you would enjoy the humor and point he is making.
I’ve been noticing that I’m getting more and more behind on the online identity conversations, implementations, ruminations, and exploitations (?). But I try to keep track of what pops up on the weblogs of Mary Hodder and Kaliya Hamlin, for starters.
I was looking at the acronym “ID” and that triggered the following set of associations:
IDs = identifiers, could even be names, but seem to be more formal, as in “Show me your ID.”
UIDs = unique ones of these ID thingys. These show up sometimes on software modules.
GUIDs = globally unique ID thingys. I’ve seen these being applied to globally identifying species, and again to software (where it’s sometimes spelled UUID).
and this led me to yet another acronym:
FLUIDs = which I’m defining as familiar, famous, or favorite local, unique, identifier thingys. These, I think, are also known as names.
Who is that Person? Firefox extension
I just found out about this Firefox extension by Ted Rheingold of Dogster Fame called who is that person.
I posted my first Firefox extension. It’s called ‘Whois This Person’ and it’s a simple little right-click menu item which will query any name you’ve highlighted against LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Technorati, GoogleNews, Yahoo Person Search, TailRank as well as some family and address sites. It’s not gonna change the world, but it may save some seconds here and there.
Identity Speed Geeking @ etel – Great Sucess
Johannes and I put together the Identity Speed Geeking BOF at O’Reilly Emerging Telephony. It was a great success we had about 20 folks and 5 demonstrations.
Another standards body related to identity
The Digital Living Network Alliance is working on standards for cross platform interoperability. They are focused on delivering an interoperability framework of design guidelines based on open industry standards to complete the cross-industry digital convergence.
DIY – Port-o-Rotary: The Rotary Cel Phone
I saw it actually work today at lunch. Here is the photo from lunch.
This is the link to their site Spark Fun.
Going 'to' the interent
Last weekend I was hanging out in a cabin with ‘no’ internet. There is internet about a mile down the road…Liz and made pilgramage there and described it as ‘going to the internet’. This way of framing the outing is interesting because the metaphor we use to describe it…a place worthy of protection of freedom of speech.
Identity Gang 2 – How did John get involved?
This was the big identity event that I missed while I was away. The good thing about podcasting is that you get to listen to it after it is recorded. There was a question that Doc asked John Clippinger about where he really got involved with the identity conversation…he really was a bit stumped and was like PCForum…John Clippinger and Paul Trevethick came out the Planetwork in 2004 where identity was a big topic of discussion. I met them there.
I knew that Harvard was critical to get involved in the discussion so when I found out about the conference on Internet and Society I flew out there specifically to talk at length with John about what Identity Commons and i-names. We had a great meeting in the Charles hotel for about two and a half hours. I also on that trip spoke at length with Paul and Mary.
Then when we were out at PCForum for a pre-Forum identity gang. John couldn’t make that but got there late in the day. I set up a breakfast meeting with Owen Davis, Drummond Reed and John Clipppinger to talk about identity matters including how to get support from the big players for the kind of research and dialogue needed to address the social concerns. It seems the subsequent conversations went well and they secured some funding.
So…Doc that is part of the story about how John Clippinger and the Berkman Center got involved in the identity conversation.
Zen, Silent Holidays, TransPeople, Back in the World
I abstained from Christmas for the second year in a row. It was fun to watch it all go buy and not participate. I had a few flashed of positivity that made me think next year I could get into the season again. I had papers in hand for the first time in 4 years to go to Canada and back but my aunt said I couldn’t sleep in her basement so… I just declined to return.
I found a retreat to go on at Manzanita Village for 10 days. I was not quite thinking it would be about 6 1hour+ sits each day – this with meals and a work shift left little time for myself. All that meditating and eating in silence was GREAT though. Of course they didn’t mention Christmas at all (Even though I was there for Christmas) but we did all 8 nights of Hanukkah and 7 of Kwanzaa. I should add that not mentioning Christmas at all was sad for me – I generally think of myself as a happy Episcopalian and I get tired of inter-religious meaning ‘everything but christianity’ in California.
I got thinking about our community around identity while there because there was several non-binary-gender choice folks who were also meditating. Are we going to build identity systems that are inclusive of non-binary gender choices?
I sat beside a young Transwoman named Hanah, beside her was a woman named Fred who by the end of her stay was wearing a bright orange button that said I might be transsexual. There was a Transgender Man named Jaran. It is not to surprising that there would be some transgender folks at the treat because Caterian Reed one of the Dharma teachers there is a Transwoman. In the end sitting there meditating – people are just people.
It is good to be back now. Everything is moving just a bit slower. I am breathing more consciously and overall refreshed. I just did a sidebar revamp that includes events that I am going to or might go to all the way to October (you have to scroll down to get it).