Yes or No?

Ben Laurie of Google writes that something important was left unsaid in the recent discussion of federation and large Internet properties:

The end result of the blog deathmatch between me, Kim, Eric and Dick was a deathly silence on what I consider to be the core issue.

OK, its nice that Microsoft are developing identity management software that might not suck (but remember, it still doesn’t satisfy my Laws of Identity) but the question that’s being posed about Google applies equally to Microsoft, and, indeed, anyone else with an identity silo.

So, here’s the question: is Microsoft going to accept third party authentication for access to Microsoft properties?

How about it, Kim?

OK.  The answer to your question is “yes”.  Windows Live ID is going to accept third party authentication for access to Microsoft properties.

Let me quote from the Windows Live ID Whitepaper.  It seems like I gave the wrong link before, so I've checked that this one works.  I've also copied the paper onto my blog as I always do so my links will be permanent.  The original appears here.  The quote below is one of several places where these issues are discussed in the paper, so it's probably worth checking out the whole paper (about 8 pages).

How Does Windows Live ID Participate in the Identity Metasystem and Work with “InfoCard”?

Microsoft is working with others in the industry to create an identity metasystem that brings existing and future identity providers into a connected identity ecosystem and empowers end users to control the use of their identities. The Windows Live ID service will participate in the identity metasystem as one identity provider among many, able to accept claims from other identity providers and transform them so they can be used within Microsoft online services. This participation will include acceptance of self-issued and managed “InfoCards.” It will thus provide full support for the “InfoCard” identity model.

Roles of the Windows Live ID Service in the Identity Metasystem

Microsoft has published its vision of a universal identity solution that is inclusive of a plurality of identity operators and technologies—the identity metasystem. In such a metasystem, identity providers, relying parties, and subjects can select, request, transfer, transform, and consume identities through a suite of well-defined and open Web Services (WS-*) protocols. Microsoft is working to implement components of the identity metasystem, as are many other companies in the industry. As a result, various building blocks for the metasystem are being developed. Some of these components will be delivered to end users in the form of software installed and running locally on their computers and devices, while others will be online services.

The design philosophy of the identity metasystem is not to replace the existing identity systems in use today, but instead to bring these existing systems together by enabling interoperation among subjects, relying parties, and identity providers through industry standard protocols. The Windows Live ID service will participate in the identity metasystem as a “managed” identity provider already at Internet scale. Windows Live ID will bring a large base of end users and relying parties to the metasystem, taking us one step closer to Internet-wide identity federation and doing our part to help the industry move beyond the “walled garden” paradigm.

The Windows Live ID service will play several essential roles that are strategic for Microsoft. The service:

  • Is an Internet-scale identity provider intended primarily for users of Microsoft online services, which are all relying parties of the Windows Live ID service.
  • Is open and issues claims in a form that can be consumed by any relying party, any device, and any other trusted identity authority.
  • Serves Microsoft online services as a “claims transformer,” allowing those services to accept identities issued by third-parties. Third-party identity providers include other Internet service providers and managed-identity providers, such as the planned Active Directory Security Token Service (STS).
  • Will be the identity provider and federating authority for third party services and software built on top of the Microsoft online services platform

So now some other questions remain.  Who can federate with Windows Live ID and what are the conditions?  What will the business model be?  What services will people want to use that cause them to seek to federate? 

So don't take me as sounding glib.  There are lots of important issues that the Windows Live ID folks are still thinking about.

Meanwhile your comment that “its nice that Microsoft are developing identity management software that might not suck” is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me, and I'll treasure it.

 

Liberty, Open Space and Information Cards for Apple

Red Hat's Pete Rowley on the recent adjoining Liberty Alliance and Open Space events in Vancouver – and Apple support for Information Cards:  

The Liberty Alliance made a bold statement in Vancouver last week when it opened its doors for the first time to the hoi polloi. Now this was something interesting enough to demand a visit in of itself, but with the addition of an Open Space after the Liberty meeting, well, you knew I was going to be there right?

The first two days consisted of the regular business of the Liberty Alliance where visitors were allowed to attend any session except for the super secret board stuff. I attended many of the technical sessions which were interesting, though sometimes hard to follow as an outsider without access to the documents under consideration. I also took part in a session around privacy concerns that not only assured me that Liberty has them but that they are serious about dealing with the issues. The conversation turned at one point to outside perceptions of Liberty itself and its lack of openess to its internal process and draft documents. Somewhat ironic was the point made that nowhere was there to be found any information regarding the location of the Liberty conference, at least not to those without access to internal websites. A consequence of this being the first open meeting no doubt. In all, an interesting and worthy meeting.

The final two days were spent on the Open Space which was run in unconference format by Kaliya Hamlin and was excellent as usual. Topics ranged from SAML to Liberty People Service to how should we rename this user centric identity thing? Kim Cameron wrapped up with a lunchtime introduction to CardSpace that by popular demand lasted for nearly two hours. At one point Kim was asked whether Apple would have an identity selector like CardSpace and Kim redirected the question to me in my capacity as OSIS representative. As the newly appointed unofficial spokesman for Apple I suggested that if Steve Jobs would call me I’d hook him up.

So Steve, call me.

Gee.  That's an interesting idea.

Like Pete I took Liberty's Open Space collaboration as being a very positive step in increasing dialog and understanding in the identity community.  It was great to speak with a number of the Liberty people who have been leaders in moving identity technology forward over the last few years.  It strengthens my conviction that we are on the road to an Identity Metasystem reaching across platforms and underlying technologies.

Baby, you can watch my car

If you aren't following Tom Maddox's Opinity Weblog, now is a good time to start.  This piece made me wonder what will become of us all:

License plate recognition technology is going into the private sector, says Wired:

Watch this carIn recent years, police around the country have started to use powerful infrared cameras to read plates and catch carjackers and ticket scofflaws. But the technology will soon migrate into the private sector, and morph into a tool for tracking individual motorists’ movements, says former policeman Andy Bucholz, who's on the board of Virginia-based G2 Tactics, a manufacturer of the technology…   

Giant data-tracking firms such as ChoicePoint, Accurint and Acxiom already collect detailed personal and financial information on millions of Americans. Once they discover how lucrative it is to know where a person goes between the supermarket, for example, and the strip club, the LPR industry could explode, says Bucholz.

Private detectives would want the information. So would repo men or bail bondsmen. And the government, which often contracts out personal data collection — in part, so it doesn't have to deal with Freedom of Information Act requests — might encourage it.

So if you don't want to be under surveillance, I guess you'll just have to move out to the hinterlands, off the grid, and out of automobiles–at the very least.

You know, this whole pervasive surveillance thing is getting depressing, especially when you combine it with RFIDs and ubicomp and similar technologies. It's Big Brother, Little Brother, Uncle Private Eye, Little Snoopy Sister, and every other nosy parker you can think of.

If you're interested in these sorts of things, my old buddy Bruce Sterling, who surfaces in the blog from time to time, writes pretty often about them in his Wired blog, Beyond the Beyond, which I highly recommend anyway on the grounds that Bruce is about as on top of things as anyone can be without having his head explode.

For more samples try this piece on the recent Eric Norlin / Ben Laurie exchange (my attempted joke that Ben must have had a “bad-hair day” is qualified as incendiary).  And there is a beyond the fringe story on the targeting of Craigslist users for violent crime (hmmm, seems like we might want to know who we're dealing with before an in-person meeting – which happens to be Opinity's forte).

Finally, there is news of what Tom calls an “OpenID Bounty”.  He puts it this way:

Cool open source news from OSCON: The OpenID folks have announced a $5,000 bounty to be awarded to the first ten software projects that implement OpenID as an identity provider or relying party.

I'm delighted to say that Opinity is one of the sponsors of the project. (There is a full list of sponsors on the OpenID site.)

To qualify for the bounty, the projects must also be distributed under an OSI approved license and have at least 200,000 internet users of currently installed public instances and 5,000 downloads a month. (There are other technical requirements; those interested should check OpenID's site.)

This is a really innovative way of encouraging development of both open-source development and adoption. If someone develops OpenID implementations for WordPress or MediaWiki–both of which would qualify for the award–doing so would open the door for desktop identity management for users. And, of course, all sorts of cascade effects will likely follow. I can see, for instance, developers creating OpenID implementations for a wide range of other blog and wiki platforms.

At this point, user-centric identity management needs, above all, users. The technical guys are working like speed freak beavers to create protocols and systems, so it's time to get this stuff on the desktop and into operation.

 

O2’s FREE monthly handset teaches how to be phished

The relationships between enterprises and their “designated agents” are often pretty murky from a customer point of view.  In the old days, few people cared.  But in the world of phishing, we need a lot more clarity about who is representing whom – we need to know if an offer originates from a someone legitimate or not.

In this postBen Laurie shows just how hard the current identity patchwork (read “architectural black hole”) makes it to know what is going on – even if you're one of the top Internet security people in the world. 

Ben tells us, “O2 like phishing…”:   

They must do, or they wouldn’t do stupid things like this.

I got an email, looking just like this:

We’d like to say ‘thanks’ for being a great customer by offering you either a FREE Pay Monthly handset upgrade OR £100 credit added to your account – provided you haven’t recently upgraded.†   

And it couldn’t be easier. All you have to do is renew your contract with O2 before 31st August 2006.

If you choose to renew your contract for 18 months, rather than 12 then there’s even more on offer:

If you prefer to talk we have a range of Talker plans with Double Minutes each month*. For example, on an Online 500 Talker plan you’ll get 1000 minutes and 150 messages each month for £35.

If you prefer to text we also have a range of Texter plans which offer 50% Extra Minutes and Texts each month*.

For example, on an Online 500 Texter plan you’ll get 750 mins and 750 messages each month for £35.

To see our full range of handsets and offers and to renew your contract, click here.

And thanks again for choosing O2 .

† The information used in this mailing is based on your contract status as at 30th April 2006. Unfortunately, if you upgraded after this date your new contract means you won’t be eligible for these offers. Terms and conditions apply.

*Offer subject to ongoing connection to eligible tariff see letter for details. Promotional allowances must be used within the month. Unused allowances cannot be carried over into subsequent months.

OK, I removed some maybe-identifying data from the link, but you’ll notice the link goes to http://www.o2-mail.co.uk/. “Oho”, says I, being a suspicious sort, “that’s not O2’s website, I wonder who managed to register it?”

$ whois o2-mail.co.uk   

Domain name:
o2-mail.co.uk

Registrant:
Vertis

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant’s address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.

Registrant’s agent:
MCI Worldcom Ltd [Tag = UUNETPIPEX]
URL: http://www.uk.uu.net/

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 01-Aug-2003
Renewal date: 01-Aug-2007
Last updated: 04-Aug-2003

Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.

Name servers:
ns0-o.dns.pipex.net
ns1-o.dns.pipex.net

Hmmm, a non-trading individual who wants to renew my phone contract, eh? Think I’d better check that out – but what a shame, http://www.uk.uu.net/ doesn’t actually resolve, so looks like I’m not talking to them. And, oh dear, Nominet are closed until Monday, so that avenue is out, too.

The mail itself, incidentally, purports to come from o2-email.com, a domain which they didn’t even bother to register.

So, fearing nothing, I clicked on the link – which redirects me to http://www.o2renew.co.uk/. Here we go again.

$ whois o2renew.co.uk   

Domain name:
o2renew.co.uk

Registrant:
AIS Group Ltd

Registrant type:
UK Limited Company, (Company number: 3561278)

Registrant’s address:
Berners House
47-48 Berners St
London
W1T 3NF
GB

Registrant’s agent:
Global Registration Services Ltd [Tag = GRS]
URL: http://www.globalregistrationservices.com/

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 14-Apr-2005
Renewal date: 14-Apr-2007
Last updated: 27-Jul-2005

Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.

Name servers:
ns25.worldnic.com
ns26.worldnic.com

At least this has an address, if I could be bothered to follow up, which I can’t, but this all looks a bit fishy. To compound the fun, I also got a text on my mobile with the same offer, but anyway, I phone O2 customer services. They explain that this cannot possibly be O2, it must be one of their “marketing partners” who will, if I fill in the form, renew my contract with O2, but via them. And, presumably, or maybe not, give me a new phone. I ask where they got my email address and phone number, and the answer is that at some point I left a box ticked that said it was OK for partners to send me stuff.

So, do O2 condone this practice, I ask? The answer is, apparently, that they do. They don’t even mind, it seems, that the website has O2 branding on it.

If O2 is going to allow people they have contractual relationships with to do this kind of thing, how on Earth do they expect consumers to learn what is phishing and what is not?

Ben's aproach is the only one you can take with today's web technology.  Basically, you need to know how to analyse subdomains and understand DNS paths.  Given this, one wonders why O2 condones the use of URLs worthy of the best phisher.  It is cutting the last safety line we have been able to clutch between our fingers in trying to achieve even the most marginal Internet safety.

Still, I find myself choking on the idea that for people to understand they are being phished, they need to understand subdomains and the intricacies of DNS.

One of the great advantages of the way Information Cards work is that the site the user is visiting (in this case O2.co.uk) can specify its designated agents in a cryptographically secure fashion.  In this case, O2 could specifify O2renew.co.uk as the entity the user should exchange identity information with.  The user would be guaranteed that this was an extension of her relationship with O2, with O2renew acting as an agent of O2.co.uk.

 

Soothing music all around

Google's Ben Laurie continues with a post I'd call “Cogent with cloudy periods”:

Not surprispingly, my post “Google Account Authentication” attracted some pretty instant responses, as well as comments on the post itself.

On further reflection, comparing Live ID with Google’s authentication is comparing apples and oranges. Live ID may allow people to choose who they accept authentication from, but where does it say that anyone is planning to accept anyone’s word other than their own? In particular, where do Microsoft say they’re going to grant access to Microsoft properties using identity tokens issued by anyone other than Microsoft?

Interesting. Let me explain how I see it. The Windows Live ID whitepaper is about the technical architecture of Windows Live ID, and new capabilities allowing it to be part of a standardized, multi-centered, federated identity fabric. This includes support for Information Cards. Reading the paper, it's easy to see how enterprises or groups of users could gain access to Windows Live services using their native systems federating with Windows Live ID, rather than requiring separate accounts. The business model for this would be totally straightforward.

Now, in terms of how the protocols work, a similar federation relationship could be established between a Windows Live and a Yahoo or a Google. But the business models there are way harder to figure out. You need multiple players to buy in – it needs to be a win/win/win. I don't think anyone has figured this stuff out. Basically, it's a lot easier to change technologies than to change business models.

Still, to me, it makes sense to put a safer, more flexible technical infrastructure in place that offers advantages within current business models while simultaneously laying the groundwork for new approaches as they arise. But let's try to see the two as relatively autonomous.

Ben continues:

Eric Norlin says: “Lots of people inside of Microsoft now understand *why* they must open the silo, and that learning is precisely because of their experience with Passport.” But is this actually true? What Microsoft appears to have learnt is that it can’t get everyone to accept its credentials. So, what’s the next best thing? Get everyone to use MS technology for accepting credentials. Perhaps that’ll even lead to Passport Mark II where the default is to trust Microsoft. Where does Microsoft’s work on Infocard or Live ID or whatever-the-passport-nom-de-jour is show that Microsoft has any intention whatsoever of opening their silo? What it shows is that they think everyone else should open their silo.

This mish-mashes so many orthogonal ideas together that it gets a wee bit looney. If the following sounds disconnected, it's because the way Ben connected things doesn't make any sense to me:

  • It's true that a lot of us at Microsoft want to “open the silo”. That doesn't make it easy, or make it obvious what to do.
  • WS-Trust is not Microsoft Technology, unless IBM is now part of Microsoft – not to mention the hundred or so other companies who have worked on the WS specifications.
  • Information Cards are not Microsoft proprietary for two reasons: first, the protocols are in OASIS standardization and available royalty-free; and, second, because there is a consortium building real open-source implementations today (OSIS).
  • I don't understand why Ben wants to confuse a service offering like Windows Live ID with a cross platform technology initiative like the Identity Metasystem.
  • I'm even more mystified at the implication that our Cardspace implementation of Information Cards is a plot. It doesn't offer special advantages to Windows Live ID. Services like those offered by Google get equal billing with services that might come from Microsoft. What is the sin here?
  • Given the difference between services and open cross platform technology, why call Cardspace “the-passport-nom-de-jour” – except to be naughty?

Anyway, I'm just going to assume Ben had a bad hair day, which everyone has a right to.

Parhaps the flurry of postings made it look like people were ganging up on Google – not at all my intention – I still think that on identity our interests converge and we're all in similar places.

At any rate, Ben concludes thus:

Fred asks: “could you explain why Google shouldn’t allow their accounts system to be accessed by Yahoo credentials?”

All I can say is what I already said: there isn’t a widely used, mature, reliable, secure identity federation mechanism available today. Whether Google wants to do this or not, in practice, they can’t. Such decisions have to wait for standardised mechanisms to emerge, in my view.

Dick is “suprised to see this post given conversations we had”. Well, Dick, if the fact that I don’t always agree with you is surprising, then you’d better stock up on soothing music or something.

I think the situation calls for soothing music all around. How about Iggy Pop?

Eric Norlin and Dick Hardt hold firm

Eric Norlin responds to the Ben Laurie post I addressed here

Ben Laurie, an employee of Google who is quite clear about the fact that he does not represent Google itself, is responding to my earlier post contrasting Google and Microsoft. Ben's pushing back on my contrasting of Google's Account Authentication versus Microsoft's Live ID, and my treatment therein. Specifically:

1. Ben states that “everyone knows” that Google only annnounces what they've already done (as opposed to what he sees as Microsoft's urge to announce what its going to do).

2. There is no “mature, reliable, secure identity federation mechanism” that's widely used (thus, implying that there's nothing for Google to use).

3. That the release of Google Account Authentication does NOT deepen the existing internet identity silo.

4. That I have (somehow) fallen into the “newspaper trend” of writing articles that are “critical regardless of facts.” (ouch)

Let me try to respond:

1. I guess that subconsciously I knew that Google only announced what it had already done, but that really wasn't the point of my piece. My piece was a contrast meant to highlight an observation that I was making — namely, that Microsoft had learned a lot of important lessons from Passport; lessons that companies like Google may not have learned. Now, at the end of the day, I'm dependent upon my ability to observe based upon my available information. Since Google's PR department is — shall we say — a little opaque, most of us journalist-blogger types are left to discern what we can from what Google has done or is doing (precisely as Ben says). Furthermore, since no one from Google contacted me to correct me about my observations regarding Google's Account Authentication (I'd be glad to be officially corrected), and since Google has not changed what they're doing in any significant way, then I have no new information to change my mind.

2. Ben's right that there is no “internet scale” identity federation mechanism. SAML has gained widespread adoption, but is not suited for “internet scale.” Same goes for Liberty. There are, of course, a TON of people working on this problem — OSIS, YADIS, Sxip, the identity gang, Microsoft, etc., but I won't argue with Ben on this — there isn't a mechanism that's widely used.

3. We disagree on point number 3 — and Dick Hardt presents why. In response to Ben's statement – “What kind of credential did you expect to present? Your Yahoo login?” – Dick responds, “Uh, actually, yes.” This points out the fundamental problem at the heart of all of this “identity 2.0” stuff that I've been talking about: the existing silos (Google, Yahoo!, eBay, etc.) have *no* immediate business reason for opening their identity silos (at least, not that they can see). Lots of people inside of Microsoft now understand *why* they must open the silo, and that learning is precisely because of their experience with Passport. At the end of the day, Google is reinforcing its identity silo. That was the ultimate point of my post – and the one that I wish Google would respond to openly and directly.

4. I actually don't think I have fallen into some “newspaper trend.” If anything I am (and Digital ID World is) a member of the larger identity community. My post relied solely on the facts that Google has given me. If they change the facts (i.e., correct me), then I'll change my observation. At the end of the day, this is a communal exercise, and if I somehow have a misperception of what's going on (from Google's or Ben's point of view), then I'd bet that *lots* of people in identity have the same misperception. And if that is true, then its Google's PR department's job to change it.

Let me close with this: I'm not trying to start some “vendor war,” or make Google “evil,” or take shots at the big kid on the block, or anything. We started Digital ID World because we knew that identity was a huge problem that crossed all boundaries, and we wanted it to turn out okay. It could go badly. It could not turn out okay. Its quite possible that the silos only get deeper, the walled gardens return, identity never has its “browser moment” (where it explodes into common usage). Do I want to see identity succeed? You bet I do. I don't think I've ever hidden that. As such, I try to call things as I see them.

Bottom line: I'd love for someone who does represent Google publicly to correct my horrible misperception of what they're doing in identity. In fact, they can come be on the Digital ID World keynote panel — “What do the largest internet sites think about identity?” –and make sure the entire identity community understands them (that's an open invite). Google, will you join us and set us straight?

Meanwhile, Dick Hardt says:

Ben Laurie from Google responded to my post on Google Account Authentication: two steps forward, one step back. A few comments that I’d like to respond to:

Duh, of course you have to provide a Google credential, you’re going to access a Google service. What kind of credential did you expect to present? Your Yahoo login?

Uh, actually, yes. That is the idea behind Identity 2.0, that I could use my Yahoo login to authenticate to Google and to access Google services.

How does allowing applications to access a user’s Google services deepen anything? Did Dick actually read what these services do?

Yes, I did read with great interest what the services do. As for why this deepens the identity silo, these new identity APIs make it easy for non-Google applications to consume Google services, but it is tied to the user’s Google credential, increasing the value of that Google credential, but creating a bigger barrier to services similar to Google’s, and increasing the users reliance on the Google credentials. Good for Google, but starts to reduce user’s options.

As of right now, what are the options? Is there any mature, reliable, secure identity federation mechanism that’s widely used?

Ben is correct, there is no mature, reliable, secure identity federation mechanism that’s widely used. But that has not stopped Microsoft from working to create one and announcing that they will be using it in their products in the future. Google could participate in defining Identity 2.0 architectures and make them widely used because they are Google.

Personal Identity Mesh

Identity Open Spaces are always interesting – uninterrupted hallway conversations that let you get to the nub of things – but this week's was different from the others because it was held in conjunction with a meeting of the Liberty Alliance.  This threw us all together with a bunch of people we hadn't met before, and frankly I think it was very useful.  We all got to present and discuss our work, interests and concerns.

It's hard to explain – or even imagine – what these meetings are like, because people are coming from such different places that their take-aways differ dramatically.  I'm sure a number of people will blog about this, but I'll just start by quoting Marc Canter of Macromedia fame.  One of the interesting things about Marc is that he just wants results – identity he can use in his products.

As I sit here in the blazing heat, periodically jumping into my pool – I’m feeling good about the last few days I spent in Vancouver.  It was great for me to get away from answering sales calls, improving user interfaces and dealing with Angel investors.  I found myself right back smack dab in the middle of an evolution of technology, where enterprise, mil spec encryption, security and privacy technology was being deployed for the purposes of each and every one of us to be able to control our content and meta-data.

Moving and controlling profile data is important, but we ALSO gotta control access to our content – based upon our relationships to the viewer.  Apparently Vox does this pretty well – but I haven’t checked it out – yet.

A lot of time and energy was spent up in Vancouver trying to define and speak clearly of all the different platforms and their nuances.  It was an Open Space effort, designed to correspond with a Liberty Alliance meeting, so lots of loosely structured meetings occurred where real work was accomplished.

One on hand you had all these academic and enterprise researchers and experts who are managing bank accounts, mutual fund accounts and health records, debating on details like ‘is it THIS or really THAT.  Then a bunch of the open folks – like Neustar and Cordence were there – more or less hawking their goods.

So in other words this was the “open user-centric folks” meet the SAML/Federated trust enterprise wonks fest.

I’d say it came off pretty well – espeially with Kaliya Hamlin leading the organization, facilitating the conversations and keeping things lively. I did my best to also “keep folks awake” – while only dosiing off a few times myself, during those insipid debates on “do you mean WHAT you mean or is that a semblence of meaning in your declaration?”  It was that bad.

As a vendor I went to this meeting knowing that I was a downstream participant, some one who’s issues are allot different from the folks who are tryign to stake our real estate around ’standards’.  You see – we (by defintion) have to support ALL the standards, so my only real motivation is to get as many of them to work together and adhere to each other’s standards.

And that’s what I did.  There was a whole session on ‘Protocols Converging’ (led by Dick Hardt) and that led to a few private meetings out in the hallwway, which is where al the real work gets done. I myself am excited about what Dick is gonna show and unveil at OSCON next week,but I can’t tell yah about it.

Or else I’d have to kill you……

Anyway – based upon what I heard at this meeting, here are some issues that are pretty easy for me to make:

  • At best we’ll get 2% of the populace using this stuff – even within the next few years
  • But many more people WOULD/COULD use it if it was readily accesssible, easy to use and they understand what the fuck it meant
  • Doesn’t really matter if it implements authentication, if that’s ALL it does
  • I agree with Kim Cameron – there will be two approaches to this area – card based and address based

And that’s the best way we can describe it to the humans.

The Identity space is really complicated, and our clients expect me to be an expert at it.  So I nerded out over the past few days and have the next generation acrhiutecture for PeopleAggregator designed with it in mind. 

It’ll make sure that real value can be delivered to humans – real soon now- regardless of whether or not they’re (the humans) willing to jump through all the hoops and grok all the nuances of the Identity puzzle.

There’s one inherent tradeoff for this.  If you don’t want to jump through all the hoops of getting a card or sigining up for an address (of just hacking one yourself) then you CAN’T COMPLAIN if you don’t get a phishing proofed, crypto encoded, secruity tight, hacker proof, scalable, long term, persistent unique identifier.

But if all that really gets you off, then you won’t mind jupning through all the hoops.  Those hoops require opting in, sharing, moving and adhering to all these rules – about Personal Identity Mesh. 

Getting a info card to be compatible with Kim Cameron’s Info Cards system, which will be built into Vista and is available for XP – right now – will be about getting something called a .crd fileKim showed using Info Cards to log into WordPress – just to prove that it works on a LAMP stack, open source platform.

David Recordan (of Verisign) led an excellent session on OpenID and talked about its status.  Drummond Reed was there to talk about XRI and XDI.org and inames.  All the major players in this space were there and talking to each other.

Dick Hardt had a session on coming up with a name for the unique thing we’re doing.  Its not a traditional federation, or circle of trust – its recognizing that inviiduals rely upon portals (or fancy webapp) software to get their services and that they’re probably dealing with LOTS of these services.  Each o these portals have all sorts of assertions, backend technology, web services, aliance partners and otehr infrastructure.  But what we SEE is the portal or NetVibes or PageFlakes or MySpace or Vox.

The human is then supposed to confer and rely upon (what’s known as) an identity provider or identity broker – which is usually an objective 3rd party – to verify their claims, assertions and transactions. We debated upon what to call it – but we all agreed that its something new and unique. I call this the “Personal Identity Mesh” – cause anybody can use any Identity broker – yet we’re all supposed to trust and believe in these ‘reputation systems (especially is Auren Hoffman has his way – with Rapleaf.)

Whatever the term is – its the universe that PeopleAggregator is going to support and help make happen. But we need LOTS of vendors to participate and the big boys – too.

I really like the term “Personal Identity Mesh” that came out of the “naming” discussion led by Dick Hardt.  It sums up what a lot of us are trying to do. 

I should also make it clear that I don't think there are very many who see information cards and URL-based identities as being opposed to each other.  A card can represent a URL-based identity, and a URL can be used, in a number of use cases, to represent the identity that would be conveyed through a card.  This doesn't work in all cases, but it works in enough important cases that it is very useful.

Finally, I think Marc's estimate of 2% over three years is overly pessimistic.  The big sites and big players can accelerate adoption a whole lot with the flick of the switch.  I've already had people tell me they are going to enable hundreds of millions of accounts with Information Card support.  If they do what they are saying they'll do, and if people like the experience as much as I think they will, there can be a serious network effect here.

Bad journalism or bad communication?

Identity master Ben Laurie of Google pushes back on me for picking up Eric Norlin's recent piece on Google Authentication.  Ben writes:

I’ve been trying to resist the temptation to comment on posts such as Dick Hardt’s “Google Account Authentication: two steps forward, one step back” and Kim Cameron’s “GOOGLE’S AUTHENTICATION VERSUS MICROSOFT’S LIVE ID” (which is mostly Eric Norlin’s “Google’s authentication vs. Microsoft’s Live ID“), since I work for Google and such comments might be misconstrued. However, bad journalism is bad journalism, even if you’re a blogger and I’m a Google employee, so I’m going to comment anyway. Note that, like everything I blog here, this post does not reflect Google’s views, nor does it use any knowledge I may or may not have as a Google employee.

Firstly, as everyone who pays attention knows, Google doesn’t announce what it’s going to do, only what it’s already done. So, what does it mean to contrast thus (from Eric Norlin’s piece)? “Of extreme importance is the fact that Windows Live ID will [my italics] support WS-Trust, WS-Federation, CardSpace and ADFS (active directory federation server).” vs. “Contrast all of this with Google’s announcement: create Google account, store user information at Google, get authentication from Google — are we sensing a trend?” – well, yes, the trend I’m sensing is that Windows Live ID does much what Google does today. Tomorrow they both may do something different. As of right now, what are the options? Is there any mature, reliable, secure identity federation mechanism that’s widely used? I think not. Note, BTW, that Live ID is currently vapourware, you can’t even get SDKs for it yet, let alone actually use it.

I need to begin by responding that I didn't know “Google doesn't anounce what it's going to do, only what it's already done.”  This must sound incredibly naive on my part, but it's true.

I guess I don't have a good enough understanding of the cultural differences between various companies.  I'm used to being required to share a roadmap with enterprises and large organizations.  They need that to facilitate their planning.  But in retrospect I can see that Google may not need to function this way.  I'm probably not the only one who hasn't understood this, so I appreciate Ben's explanation of how we should interpret Google's announcements.

Secondly, I agree that neither MSN nor Google nor AOL nor anyone else has a federation mechanism that's widely used outside their own properties at internet scale. 

Above all else, I agree with Ben's statement that, “Tomorrow they both may do something different.”  So peace, bro’.

Speaking of peace, Ben on Liberty:

Some have argued that Liberty is the answer to this, in that it’s mature, reliable and secure. But it isn’t widely used, partly because of complexity, partly because in its early days it royally screwed over people who might have driven adoption, like the Apache Software Foundation, and partly because of complex IPR issues. At least, I’ve heard, the IPR might be getting fixed. I watch that space with interest.

Ben on Dick Hardt:

Dick Hardt: “Google has just released Google Account Authentication. My initial reaction: great technology for rich clients and web sites acting acting on behalf of the user, but deepens the Google identity silo.” What does this mean? How does allowing applications to access a user’s Google services deepen anything? Did Dick actually read what these services do?

“The Google Account Authentication for installed apps is a bold move to standardize an API for working with installed applications. Unfortunate that it is domain centric. The user has to provide their Google credentials. Clearly the easy, safe choice that creates more value for the user’s google credential. Also makes it harder for any identity management technology to manage the Google credential.”

Well…

  • Duh, of course you have to provide a Google credential, you’re going to access a Google service. What kind of credential did you expect to present? Your Yahoo login?
  • Why does providing an API to allow applications to use user’s credentials make it harder for software to manage those credentials? I’m obviously missing something, but I can’t see what.
  • “Google Account Authentication for Web-Based Applications looks like it is opening up the SSO mechanisms that Google has been using across their various properties so that other properties can get a token to act on behalf of the user.” Hmmm … that sounds just like something an identity management technology could manage. But that problem was from a whole paragraph before, hopefully the reader will have forgotten about it by now.

Ben on the pack of us:

Its sad to see blogs following the newspaper trend, where the only articles worth writing are critical, regardless of the facts. Readership is king! To hell with accuracy!

Yikes.  Do I slither forward in a river of yellow journalism? 

I hope not.  The story I told was, “this is how Eric Norlin sees what's happening.”  He influences a lot of people, and his views are themselves important.  If Eric has drawn the wrong conclusions, it's important to get that message out – including to Eric, as has happened here.  Both Eric's piece and Ben's response have helped that happen.  I for one understand things better than I would have had none of this discussion happened.

And in case it matters, my own conclusion was actually different from Eric's.  I wrote, and I don't think it was at all critical:

.. I personally hope that Google embraces federation, Information Cards and the identity metasystem. They have enough smart people who understand these issues that I expect they will.

I see lots of room for us to work together, lots of agreement on the big picture, and  lots of good people doing the execution. 

Marcus Lasance on Information Cards

Identity heavyweight Marcus Lasance is Managing Director of U.K.-based MaXware.  He wrote this piece on E-commerce and User-Centric identity management in ITSM Watch

New ID schemas are emerging that will, hopefully, ease IT's management burden while fueling e-commerce, writes ITSM Watch guest columnist Marcus Lasance of MaXware.

Enterprise organizations and governments view customer relationship information as a key asset and are fiercely protective of this asset. Fortunes are spent on maintaining customer’s personal information and protecting this information from prying eyes as mandated by data protection legislation.

CIOs are relying on meta directory technology to solve one of the industry’s thorniest problems: how to maintain information about the same individual scattered over different databases and directories nevertheless perfectly synchronized. Corporate-managed updates are effectively replicated using standards based connectors and schema mapping between systems.

However, what this technology cannot solve is the ability to provide updates we don’t know about. In the real world, our customer’s circumstances are constantly changing, yet businesses and (most) government agencies are not automatically alerted. This is an ongoing problem, because no matter how good we are at synchronizing data across platforms and applications, it doesn’t matter when the data becomes rapidly obsolete.

No call center can solve this problem. As an industry, we need to find a more logical way to manage this; namely through user-centric computing which puts individuals back in charge of their own identities.

Today, CIOs are watching two different user-centric solutions rise in popularity: InfoCard from Microsoft and Project Higgins from the open source community.

Conventional wisdom indicates that, with the advent of Vista on countless PC desktops, InfoCard will become the de-facto way users will manage their identity information. CIOs need to take note: On a global scale, employers are expected to issue InfoCards to their employees, governments to their citizens, etc.

Greater acceptance to InfoCard is due, in part, to InfoCard’s being based on WS-Trust and providing a much more “open” solution than Microsoft’s previous and suspiciously received Passport offering. InfoCard is not designed to run exclusively on Microsoft servers or Microsoft owned networks, which means that, in principle, every home PC connected to the Internet can become an identity provider.

What will be the business implications of a huge uptake of InfoCards as a mechanism to replace good old username-password logins to most e-commerce websites? Is it another expensive hype that hasn’t lived up to its expectations like PKI, which was predicted to fuel e-commerce like a out-back fire storm?

Well-known companies like eBay and Amazon are most likely to be early adopters of user-centric computing and other e-commerce sites will soon follow suit or be left behind. Cost savings combined with better security should follow naturally.

I can see a future in which most users will have between three-and-six InfoCards that can regularly used for different types of public or private transactions. The chore of maintaining personal information relating to those cards now resides with the individual, making it easier for organizations and consumers both.

With user consent and by subscribing to change alerts from identity providers companies don’t have to waste tremendous financial and human resources managing data with a rapidly deteriorating life span. Individuals don’t have to worry about maintaining endless silos of personal data.

When consumers can assign preferred identities to trusted vendors and more anonymous identities to things like chat rooms we will eliminate the need to enter reams of personal information on webpages we don’t necessarily trust; organizations will reap the financial rewards by cost savings and better quality of information.

However, in my opinion, the really big money will be made by a few, select organizations with the financial clout and public-trusted brand names to become the default public identity providers. Remember an InfoCard does not store the actual information, just the links to it. The information itself has to be stored and secured and backed up somewhere. Some kind of identity meta system will emerge, backed by a few powerful players. Organizations will emerge with similar roles that Swift, BACS, MasterCard and VISA now perform for financial services network.

It’s possible that giants like AT&T, Nokia or BT might be able to make a few pennies every time a user selects their InfoCard (from a stash of many InfoCards) stored on a desktop or IMS mobile terminal. Imagine the total world wide economic value of such e-commerce mediators.

With the individual in control and new technologies that will soon take the pain out of logging on the new services, user-centric computing could once more revitalize the e-commerce industry, and the market opportunity to become an identity service provider might mean even bigger business for a lucky few.

Interesting thoughts, though I actually think, in the fullness of time, Information Cards will convey subtle aspects of identity like reputation in various contexts, and be much more bottoms-up than Marcus suspects.

EXTENDING THE BRIDGE BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANS

Brad Judy, from the IT Security Office at the University of Colorado at Boulder, attended one of the recent conferences where I discussed the Information Card as a way of reifying identity, and where I went on to characterize the identity metasystem as an “abstraction layer” above existing identity systems. The fact that I referred to the same thing as being a reification from one point of view and an abstraction from another captured his interest. Later he shared these comments:

During a presentation on Infocard and Cardspace, Kim Cameron made a comment about the reification of identity. During a question, I noted that it was interesting to hear a layer of abstraction being referred to as reification. Kim noted that he was mixing contexts and that Infocard/Cardspace was reification for the end-user and abstraction for the IT personnel.

One human's abstraction is another human's reification.

If abstraction can be considered indirection, the old computing saying from David Wheeler may apply: “Any problem in computer science can be solved with another layer of indirection. But that usually will create another problem.” The benefit of abstraction as reification is that the additional problems created might be ones that we are already adept at addressing (we know driver's licenses quite well).

There has long been a gap between technology and humanity that many have worked to bridge. I would argue that for most of the history of computing, the user has had to meet the computer more than half-way – was it ever the natural inclination of humans to punch holes in cards to accomplish a task? Kim gave the example of sending people off for extended periods of word processor training in the early days of word processors, and the virtually non-existent training needed now (a combination of greater ease and early exposure). He also gave the example of explaining command line file management to users and how the visual file folder reified digital file management for the end user. Such GUI concepts certainly opened up the PC to a much broader audience as the bridge between technology and humans passed the half-way point.

Not having been a software architect over the past twenty years, I can't say if the ongoing gap has been the result of the limitations of technology or a mindset that users must meet the computers half-way. The lesson of the PC is that true accessibility by the general population requires technology to meet them 90-95% of the way. (Perhaps this should have always been expected, after all, we never expect This seems to be occurring through the adoption of existing human models/paradigms/methods of use and interaction to software and hardware. While it wasn't the focus of this recent event, two presentations brought this home: tablet PC's and Cardspace.

Tablet PC's, particularly software like OneNote represent the adoption of a long standing human activity to a digital medium. It isn't the first tech to tackle the note-taking and handwriting space, but it reifies and extends in a way that may complete the bridge between the personal computer and the person. A direct representation of paper and pen (a method institutionalized over hundreds of years), extended with the ability to categorize, search, transmit and more. I'm reminded of a statement by a co-worker (not directed at me), “Stop giving me #$&@ing hardcopies, you can't grep paper.” The platform has a lot of possibility with interesting software like MagicPaper/Physics Illustrator. The limited success of “true” tablets (aka. Slates) indicates that decades of computer use with a keyboard, and sometimes mouse, have developed an institutionalize method of use that must be hybridized with traditional methods for the greatest progress.

CardSpace exists to reify the experience of digital identity in a way that links it to an existing model for identity familiar to most users: an identity card. From the visual representation to the concept of identity providers and multiple ID's. The identification “card” is also hundreds of years old, although they have evolved greatly from hand-written letters authenticated by signature or stamp, to the modern passport and drivers license, authenticated by physical attributes and electronic validation. The InfoCard will also likely be a hybrid of this old paradigm and a common computing experience: the password. Although the concept of a password predates modern technology, its use has truly exploded in the past several years. Because InfoCards aren't single, physical objects that can be tightly controlled, they will largely rely on the ubiquitous password for protection (perhaps other techniques will be used, but I expect passwords will protect most InfoCards).

So the IT industry continues to build the largely one-sided bridge, abstracting their way across the gorge. Years of software and hardware have provided the proverbial water under the bridge (not to mention a landscape scattered with half-started and falling bridges). For their part, many people have stretched far from their side to make contact and have found a combination of productivity and frustration. Hopefully not many have fallen into the gorge. Perhaps the golden age of computing is truly just around the bend as the bridge is completed and proven stout (an important point raised by Scott Charney, also at the event).

I'm struck by Brad's perception of Information Cards as a bridge between user perception on the one hand and a technological abstraction (metasystem) on the other.  That's completely right, and it's important to put it in the wider context of other attempts to do the same thing.