Using The Source

In a talk last October about digital identity issues, Doc Searls spoke of the need for something to "catch fire" at the open source level. As I paraphrased him from the audience, "Identity infrastructure will be built around sovereign, individual IDs." "Once we empower the customer to come to companies with more ways to relate, we will have the ID structure we want." See also Andre Durand's Three Tiers of Identity: Tier 1 is Personal Identity, "both timeless & unconditional...your true personal digital identity...owned and controlled entirely by you, for your sole benefit." Doc thinks "a killer T1 'Mydentity' app" still is needed, and Andre thinks it won't fully develop until "companies begin to rely upon the integrity of the T1(maintained by the individual)."

As a step in this direction, and a spark to the fire discussed by Doc, Andre and friends are piloting Source ID, which seeks, through open source discussion, experimentation and development, to "enable quality assured and privacy enabling identity interchange between businesses and consumers." It's good to know these efforts are being undertaken by folks who seem to appreciate the critical role of a robust, secure, private and individually controlled "Tier 1." (Still skeptical? It's tough to quibble with the priorities of an outfit that occupies space on Chris Pirillo's chest...)