New identity blog: John Madelin of RSA

John Madelin of RSA joins the Roll of Honour of supplier experts ready to open up the deep questions of identity. He has started a blog

The social, cultural, commercial, political and technological forces which are conspiring together to collapse the world down to the big question of identity are now the subject of wide-reaching conversations.

I have started a blog at RSA, in an attempt to try and surface some important contexts which are often overlooked; the latest of which can be found at http://www.rsasecurity.com/blog/entry.asp?id=1038

This posting (also attached in Word) is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek attempt at bringing some emphasis back to the question of how much an Identity is “worth”, commercially and politically. I believe that an explicit conversation about this dynamic is overdue, otherwise the Paradigm shift of “Identity” will waver as the tug of war continues.

Now is an interesting time to start the conversation. After years of PKI and Directory based emphasis on Identity management, all of which has been characterised by cynical attempts at “owning” the high ground of Identity, the pendulum seems to have swung the other way. The 7 Laws discussions are a positive step forward, but may be accused of conjuring up a fairy-tale world where we will all happily own our identity, thereby taking control of the “power” in our online relationships. This is a laudable vision, but perhaps unrealistic if the impact of the profit motive is factored in. Real cynics might subscribe to the somewhat dark conclusion, that architecting the panopticon of identity is all about subtly manufacturing Identity Asymmetry.

I think the new-age vision of identity overlooks the important ingredient of commercial and political self-interest which I have expressed in the function explained. The more you apply this function to Identity card debate, service provider models, retail offerings and so on, the more depth it has below the surface. For example, thinking about the Telco offerings, and how the SIM is a proxy for “you”, and how they are aggressively aggregating content to combine with the SIM-identity. In this case my function would result in a relatively lower value for “V”, thanks to discounting for the “proxy” effect of a SIM not representing the real you. The counterpoint to this is in the attempts by the Telco service providers to aggressively scale content relationships. Similarly, a Directory entry is not a “valuable identity” thanks to the fact that in most cases it is a poor proxy for the real thing - you.

This function is a simple statement with powerful implications and great relevance for almost every discussion around identity. Can the democratic vision of Web 2.0 ever truly materialise? In my experience the aggressive land grab to gain the high-ground continues to bend collective best interest out of shape and is almost never directly referenced. I’ll leave you to play with many of the other implications of this simple function. I would be most grateful for your comments (which you can attach to the blog at the end of Part 2 of the blog here: http://www.rsasecurity.com/blog/entry.asp?id=1039 ).

Some questions that this has forced me to grapple with include:-
How much will this force of nature determine the big question of “who owns me”?
Will there be a small handful of “Identity Owners”, or is dynamic federation (supported by an Identity Metasystem) a possibility given this powerful dynamic?
How much of the standards fragmentation and political infighting has to do with the richness of business intelligence in the identity, and who will own it?
Is the key to the whole question of Identity really related to Pseudonymity rather than true Identity?
Why is Biometric such a big topic despite being “just another binding mechanism”? (is it because it is the critical transition from Pseudonymity to Identity, and therefore the key to “V”?)
Is the counterpoint to Identity “ownership” actually identity “responsibility” and therefore a good thing?
If we get over the comfort zone of talking about standards and technologies, what is the next big topic to help move “forwards”? Privacy?

Unravelling this theme quickly moves on to the implications for Anonymity, Pseudonymity, Privacy, and the sparing use of a real or “Golden Identity” in tomorrow’s business models. That will be the subject of the next blog, in the meantime your comments (at http://www.rsasecurity.com/blog/entry.asp?id=1039 )are very much appreciated.

Published by William Heath on 25/11/05 at 3:49pm

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