http://virtualsoul.org/blog "I've proven who I am so many times the magnetic strip's worn thin" -- "Pacing the Cage" by Bruce Cockburn Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:05:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The OSIS working group of the Identity Commons is completing their third interop. In OSIS-speak, an interop is a set of features and a time period where many projects and vendors test with others’ components to ensure that user-centric identity systems actually work together. Interops have always been concluded with ... http://virtualsoul.org/blog/2008/04/19/the-bandit-live-demo-of-user-centric-identity-in-the-enterprise/ Earlier this year there were a number of interesting comments from Eric Norlin and Dave Kearns about the term "user-centric". Since reading those comments I have become more aware of some ambiguous meanings ascribed to the term. I definitely agree that "user-centric" is unproductive as some sort of vague mantra ... http://virtualsoul.org/blog/2008/04/18/getting-to-practical-user-centric-identity-systems/ If you read only one blog post this week, or this month, I recommend this one from Pamela Dingle. I know it's long, but it is well worth it to read the whole thing. Multiple times. My favorite lines: We need a way for communities to form and flourish and decay that ... http://virtualsoul.org/blog/2008/04/18/if-you-read-only-one-blog-post/ The RSA Conference this year was outstanding from the perspective of identity technology, Higgins, Bandit, OSIS, industry connections, etc. I was overly worried all week about getting enough interop testing done for OSIS and about my presentation on user-centric identity validation experiences. Yet I survived. Meanwhile, the reason I sometimes show ... http://virtualsoul.org/blog/2008/04/17/what-i-missed-while-at-the-rsa-conference/ If I wanted to get tangled up in public debate, I think that Jackson Shaw, Dave Kearns, Kim Cameron, Jeff Bohren, Eve Maler, Phil Hunt and other identity bloggers would be some of that last people with whom I would I want to argue. Then again, I do have a different ... http://virtualsoul.org/blog/2008/04/02/metavirtualdirectory-hubs-and-the-need-for-the-identity-bus/ My oldest son is away at college. He's finishing his senior year and deciding what to do next. I'm very proud of him, but sometimes I can't help compare his life to mine. To earn money for living expenses during college, I had jobs washing dishes, changing oil, stocking shelves ... http://virtualsoul.org/blog/2008/02/14/a-familiar-hacker-visits-my-home-network/ The Bandit project, like many open source projects, does not have seek to produce only one release of an application or service. Its goal is to build a number of open source identity system components that are useful in enterprise environments. In pursuit of that goal, the project has ... http://virtualsoul.org/blog/2008/01/17/changes-in-the-evolutionary-bandit-project/ I don't think I've ever met Paul Madsen in person. I have often found his blog posts to be humorous and insightful, and I enjoy it when he makes a good jab at a misunderstanding or weak spot of various identity systems. It appears to me the he really wants to ... http://virtualsoul.org/blog/2007/11/01/the-personality-of-projects/ I was rather surprised today to read a post by Ben Laurie where he writes that "there is no practical difference between Cardspace and Passport." Please read the whole post to understand the context. It's not long. He contends that Cardspace is only supported on Microsoft systems, and that, since the ... http://virtualsoul.org/blog/2007/09/28/100-open-source-information-cards-and-how-ben-might-win-an-iphone/ In the past few years there have been many times when people have told me that they really want simplification and convergence in digital identity systems. Their requests can take many forms. Sometimes it's that they want just one way of identifying themselves -- one username and password or one ... http://virtualsoul.org/blog/2007/09/17/banking-on-the-one-true-internet-identity-system/