NetworkWorldFusion's piece on the laws of identity really sent me for a loop since it started with:
If Kim Cameron, Microsoft's architect of directory services, had been a physicist, there might be one or two fewer buildings in Redmond today, and more holes in the ground – or maybe the world would be a lot better off.
I had to meditate to get past this paragraph.
Whoa… that must be Dave Kearns… and the man really does know how to write – with a sardonic wit that I enjoy. Let's just say that his virtual quill has a point on it.
He startled me again with the idea that I want to be the Asimov of Identity, bequeathing laws similar to the Laws of Robotics. I had been thinking of myself as more of a Newton action figure. It sure would be nice if going forward, when someone proposes some goofy invasive scenario, we could just say, “Uh uh uh… Don't even bother because it violates Identity Law Number 4. Here's the URL so you can figure it out yourself next time.”
Dave says the laws “seem like simple truths that any application or service which purports to handle identity management should follow.” And I agree. Too bad so few have done so to date.
The only bad news here is that we have seven laws rather than three. But they're very small laws. So they should take no more space in the brain than three large laws. Anyway, maybe by the time they get through Craig's Crockpot we can “reduce them”.
Dave characterizes me as “organizationally challenged” in terms of my blog, and warns how hard it has been to follow the laws on my site. I have added the “recap of the laws” to the right so people can drop in and out as time permits. I'm really a server geek and don't know much about html, so I hope people will be gentle with me as I figure this stuff out.
