* What is identity and what constitutes an identity?
In the introduction to the television show in the 1950s, the line “disguised as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter” is used to describe Superman. But isn’t it Clark Kent who has all the attributes of identity, all of the credentials – such as a driver’s license, social security number, employee ID, etc.?
Would it be just as valid to say that Clark Kent is occasionally disguised as Superman in order to fight crime?
At last week’s Internet Identity Workshop the questions of what is identity and what constitutes an identity were always an undercurrent of whatever discussion was going on.
It was a fascinating meeting of about 75 or 80 people, including proponents of/vendors of lightweight identity schemes (such as LID, OpenID and iNames), as well as “heavy” identity, such as the Liberty Alliance and Microsoft’s Infocard, and those somewhere in between like Sxip.
Discussions ranged over how these very disparate systems could interoperate and there were even announcements of interoperability agreements – such as that between LID and OpenID (see http://www.yadis.org), which was announced the previous week. As the meeting was closing on Thursday the folks involved with iNames were exploring joining that effort, and even Microsoft personnel were seen in conversations about interoperability between the lightweight identity schemes and its Infocard system. Of course, the whole idea of the identity metasystem Microsoft is describing (but not owning or operating) is to enable interoperation between and among disparate identity-based systems.
For well over a year many people in the identity sphere have talked about the need to converge the protocols of the Liberty Alliance and the WS-* camp. What last week’s discussions showed me (and hopefully the others who were present) was that convergence isn’t necessary for interoperability. We don’t need a single protocol, just a way for them to talk to each other – or for a third party to talk to both.
The meeting itself was a fascinating look at the state of the identity “business” today, and Phil Windley, the driving force behind organizing the sessions (ably aided by Doc Searls, Drummond Reed and Kaliya Hamlin) has promised to do it again. I’ll let you know when it will happen and if you’re at all interested in the identity field you’ll make the time to be there.
We never did decide if the true identity was Clark Kent or Superman, but in the long run, we decided it doesn’t matter. Both personas are valid, neither is controlling. I’m interested in what you think, but I’m even more interested in hearing you express those thoughts at the next Internet Identity Workshop.
