Doc’s Life on the Edge
Posted on:: January 11th, 2003
First, congratulations to Doc and his community on their underdog victory. It’s quite a story.
Second, Doc points us to some fresh blood in the digital ID discussion. But I still disagree with his bottom line. Today he cites the first thing he wrote on the subject: browsers need features like a “purse” that contains credit card info to make online transactions easier, and a cross-site shopping cart. Both of those are good features but they can – and should – be done way on the edge of the network.
We – the market – are already solving the problems we actually want solved. DigID isn’t only a solution looking for a problem, it’s a solution that’s a problem-enabler.
Categories: Uncategorized dw
How am I suggesting anything that’s not on the edge? That’s the whole idea: a way of organizing intelligence that can only live on the edge.
Local wallet: IE/Moz users are already using Roboform, right?
Depends what you mean by “edge.” If “edge” means “doesn’t require altering the Internet protocols,” then, yes, digID is an edge app. But if digID becomes a requirement for using the Internet, then it is no longer (in my terms) an edge app.
For example, and as a thought experiment, if the gov’t forced ISPs to require biometric authentication and enforcement were strict enough so that if you want to be on the Net in the US you have to get a retinal scanner, then biometric auth. is no longer an edge app even though no protocols have changed. At least, that’s what I mean by the term “edge.”
Likewise, if whole bunches of stuff that we currently do we can no longer do without digID, then digID should not be thought of as an edge app except in the narrowest technical sense. And, regardless of what we call it, digID becomes — IMO — a Bad Thing. We will lose the anonymity that has a lot to do with why the Net is largely a permission-free zone.
So, if digID is really about the convenience of having purse-based info and cross-site shopping carts, let’s implement those features as services on the edge and forget about ubiquitous digID schemes. And if digID is actually about bringing other and bigger benefits to users, then let’s hear about those benefits and build edge apps that implement them. But let’s not implement a Net-wide digID scheme that remove anonymity as the default.
Identitification does not require literal identity. Using pseudonymous identifiers is different than being directly identifiable or anonymous. We already use pseudonymous identification everyday. When we’re at work we’re an employee but if a friend calls us we use our ‘own’ identity. It’s a shame more software doesn’t effectively handle pseudonymous behavior. We are not our jobs and it’s about time software caught up to this reality.
As for identity, life has more to it that using digital assistance for SHOPPING. I’m appalled at the speed with which everyone wants to use this as some sort of way to pimp my demographic data off into ways to sell me overpriced tennis shoes. The average person, quite rightly, is hightly skeptical of all this because it doesn’t address their number one question, how does this help ME?