If you've ever heard Bill Gates speak, you know that he has the vocal charisma of a frog serenade accompanied by chalk on a blackboard. Yet he almost always speaks to standing room only crowds as he did at last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Back in 1998, when Gates keynoted Comdex in Vegas, I asked the first people in line how long they had been waiting to get in - they had been there a full 7 hours before the speech just to be sure of getting "a good seat." If it isn't his presence, or his deathless prose or even the cadence of his delivery - what is it that keeps people waiting in line to hear him?

Oddly enough, it’s the content. Usually the press is well informed about what Gates will say, and usually we broadcast that information to all and sundry long before the event. But there is still a thrill, some magic even, in hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth. When Gates speaks, people listen. Users listen. Vendors listen. Kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers listen. And his keynote at CES was being billed as Gates’ last major event, his valedictory address. As the general press headlined it: “Gates' CES swan song focuses on technology's human touches” (San Francisco Chronicle).

So in this, his last great speech, what did he have to say about identity?

Absolutely nothing.

Go ahead, watch the reply, or read the transcript. What you won’t find are any of these words:

* Identity
* Directory
* CardSpace
* Authorize, Authorization

Authenticate was used once, early on, in the sentence: “…if you just pick up the device and authenticate who you are, then you'll connect up to your information.”

That’s a pretty sad showing, I think. Some will say that CES is really a show for end users and personal devices; that it’s about entertainment more than productivity. But with identity fraud (a.k.a. “identity theft”) getting almost daily banner headlines, and with “user-centric identity” being so much a part of our discussions, you’d think that it would at least get a mention from the “ubergeek” - “he’s your geek’s-geek, and thus every geek’s favorite idol!” (Canada Free Press).

Gates never has warmed up to identity issues and it looks like he never will. Perhaps, as he gives up his day-to-day activities with the behemoth of Redmond, someone else with a 21st century appreciation for identity issues will begin to guide the ship. We can only hope.

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