It's time, once again, to come up with your favorite deprovisioning disaster story. You may remember that last year Business Layers launched a contest to find the most outrageous tale of unrecovered assets when an employee leaves an enterprise. It was so much fun, that the company has decided to do it again.

My favorite is the story about the exec who had a company-paid high-speed Internet access at his home (in the days before DSL and cable-modems) that wasn't disconnected when he left the company. Years later, after the house had changed hands multiple times, it was still being touted as a "built-in feature" on the real estate agents' specification sheet.

Sharon Tolpin, Business Layers' senior director of corporate communications, was so overwhelmed by the response to last year's contest that she is expanding it this year. Not only are deprovisioning stories welcome, but also any provisioning setup stories along the lines of "when provisioning goes wrong." I think of the Sprint commercial in which the farmer claims to have ordered 100 head of oxen, but gets a herd of dachshunds!

Business Layers says that not only will the winner get a fabulous prize ("Show them what they can win, Sharon!"), which I haven't seen yet but visiting the contest page on Business Layers' Web site should let you know. The peripatetic Ms. Tolpin is going to gather together the best stories into a book, tentatively titled "101 provisioning disasters" (but she's open to suggestions). So not only could you turn a gaffe (either your own or someone else's) into a valuable prize, but you could also get published while doing it. Sharon has promised to grant you anonymity, should you be too embarrassed (or, worse, your boss be embarrassed) by the story.

The contest runs from now through the end of April with the winners to be announced at the InfoSecurity conference in London on May 1 with the book to be distributed at Gartner Group's SECTOR 5 Summit during the first week of June. You don't have to be present to win. No purchase necessary.

Take a look at last year's winner, runner-up and honorable mentions (http://www.businesslayers.com/contest-winners.asp) to see how your story might stack up. But even if you aren't sure, send your story anyway. Sharon loves to read them during her commute time on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Dave Kearns is a consultant and editor of IdM, the Journal of Identity Management.