O’Reilly’s Brief on Identity
March 9th, 2002 by jiri
O’Reilly’s Brief on Identity
“Today’s Internet may be likened to a vast neighborhood of speakeasies, its citizens boggled by the plethora of usernames and passwords they’re forced to juggle. Ideally, users would pass through a single sign-on point to assume their online identity.
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The holy grail is a unified, decentralized, simple-yet-flexible, secure, pseudonym-centric identity, membership, and preferences fabric for the Internet.
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Online identity promises consumers convenience and control over their interactions with online destinations and with other consumers. For vendors, an identity system provides clearly-identified marketing “targets” with open online wallets. Identity providers are the real winners, poised to collect partnership fees and/or a percentage of each transaction.
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The success of an identity system hinges on uptake.
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We expect the emergence of a clear leader (whether player or standard remains to be seen) as more far-reaching solutions are introduced in 2002-2003. ”