* Context in identity transactions
I can’t seem to get away from the concept of “context.” I like to use “context” as a way of looking at identity transactions – the who, what, when, where, how (and perhaps why) of an authentication or authorization.
Michel Prompt, founder of Radiant Logic uses “context” in reference to the identifiers associated with a particular identity. He refers to different contexts where others might say different “identities,” or personas, aliases, pseudonyms, avatars, or roles.
Archie Reed, HP’s director of strategy for identity and access management reminds me that he’s used “context” since his days at Trulogica (which was acquired by HP) to encompass both the context of identifiers and the context of transactions.
And just last week the concept came up again. I attended the inaugural Where 2.0 conference (https://conferences.oreillynet.com/where/) sponsored by the O’Reilly organization, where I spoke with Stephen Lawler, general manager of Microsoft’s MapPoint Business Unit. He’d just presented a demo of the recently announced, but not yet released, MSN Virtual Earth Web product (see https://www.virtualearth.com/ for an introduction, then come back when it goes live. It’s really, really neat!).
He and I discussed his plans for the technology, data sources and personalization. The latter he illustrated by proposing that a search for a good restaurant might need to be within walking distance for some users but would need to have adequate parking facilities for others. I countered by saying that when I’m in Boston, Manhattan or Chicago I’d like restaurants within walking distance, but that this was an alien concept in Dallas or Los Angeles, where driving is de rigueur in order to get anywhere. That’s when he mentioned “context.”
According to Lawler, context, within the Virtual Earth project means not only personal preferences, but also personal preferences modified by location, time, and other factors – the entire who (e.g., me, me and my wife, me and business associates, etc.), what (restaurant, Italian restaurant, coffee shop, Starbucks, etc.), where (Boston, Harvard Square, Massachusetts, etc.), when (lunch, dinner, Sunday, Spring, etc.) and how (walk, drive, mass transit, etc.).
Both Google and Yahoo also presented new functionality for their mapping services at Where 2.0. All three companies unveiled plans for easier to use programming interfaces so that the entrepreneurial hacker could leverage the services to create new, exciting products. Location services, mapping services, local search – these are the consumer-based “killer apps” for Web services. And it appears that the real neat thing is that the most effective services will be built on an identity-based platform. We do live in interesting times.
