Manage your own identity

Having dispersed pieces of information stored around the internet is one thing, but having crucial information like address and telephone numbers is another one. How should we make sure that these are always true? Also as systems become integrated companies start facing a problem: Who keeps the master of identity data? - as long as data is kept within the company's control they can throw it into one single address-repository... but what happens when e.g. HR wants to communicate with Unions? - who has the correct data then?

The answer is pretty clear - you and I do... That is why good news today appeared that IBM, along with Novell, IBM, Parity Communications and Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society had come up with a possible solution which can enable us to manage our own identity. Higgins isn't an application, nor is it a service or a protocol. Rather, it's a description of an architecture - a framework - that, if implemented would provide an abstraction layer to make it easy to manage identity information (including rich profiles, presence, etc.) and social networks across multiple heterogeneous (new or existing) computer mediated "contexts." This allows interested parties to tap into every individual's identity profile to gather updated information. This way we change our identity management situation from a PUSH to a PULL situation, we also regain control of which information we want to retain control over.

There are a few drawbacks though - one is the need for critical mass - we really need to have people. as well as software suppliers backing this thing to make it work. Another is the illusion that this will give us total control over our identity information. This information can still be aggregated on the web and it only takes one dubious company to get your updated information before it's spread to a all it's affiliated - knowing the behaviour-pattern related to phishing this is not an unlikely idea.