Friday, December 03, 2004

Granularity of Identity I agree completely with the line of thought from Dick.  There is the concept of passing groupings of identity values, passing individual identity values, and then passing the results of comparisons.  All of this is greatly enhanced in the digital world. Identifiers Enable Discrimination. Kim Cameron posted his Second Law of Identity The Minimal Disclosure Law of IdentityThe solution which discloses the least identifying information is the most stable, long-term solution."The thesis here is that the more identifying information is released, the more a solution invites abuse by rogue (and ultimately criminal) elements. We will return to a more rigorous discussion of these dynamics... [Dick Hardt - Blame Canada] 3:13:07 PM      identity Dave's DNA I really like Dave Kearns and his "no nonsense" attitude. As I worked at Novell, he often saw right through the crap going on internally, and asked the tough questions. I'm glad to see him following this conversation ... he was one of the few that understood the value of a "personal directory" ... He recently commented on my Axioms of Identity and I have to admit ... he brought up a very interesting perspective. How ever, as he stated, "I can see we're going to disagree." ;-) He indicated that DNA is an interesting form of identity and that: Your DNA is you. You are your DNA It is not assigned to you nor can you change it. It is your identity. Everything else is simply a "handle", a shortcut or nickname for the identity that is you. [The Virtual Quill] Hmmm ... I have been thinking about this for a while. There are two issues that I see where this falls down ... 1. DNA is not 100% unique. What? How can that be? Well ... identical twins DNA. I have to admit that one of the coolest things that I heard at a recent conference was the answer to the question "Do identical twins have identical finger prints?" The answer is no ... even though they do have identical DNA. So we have a situation where DNA can not be my identity ... or at least is not unique to me ... if I am an indentical twin. 2. There is a more important issue here ... and that is that the entire model and concept of DNA is again "given to me." Yes, I do have an interesting trait that some communities measure and discuss as "DNA", however there are a large number of places on earth, where there is no such concept. DNA is something that a certain community of people on earth say that I have. However outside of these circles, it means nothing. If I met up with some people in the jungles of New Zealand who had no worldly contact, they might listen to my stories about double-helix strings of sugar-phosphates, however it probably would be meaningless to them. This is again proof of my Second Axiom ... it only exists within the context of a community that gave me that identity. When I leave that context ... it doesn't exist. Just like the DNA example ... I have a height and weight also ... but only as concepts that a community of people agree on. I am told that I am as tall as something, and weigh the same as something ... and that I have DNA that is similar to something. I am flattered by Dave's comments and the conversation ... I look forward to more of this. I also look forward to discussing more the concept of a personal directory to store all of this information ... as long as the directory supports enough of the required functionality. 2:27:59 PM      identity All in good fun I had a friend ask me if I was really serious about these "Axioms of Identity" today ... Uh ... no.  I mean, yes ... I love the conversation and have spent a lot of time thinking about this problem space.  But no ... I'm not really such a serious person.  I enjoy life too much. Even the word "posit" I picked up with a friend Bruce Grant at the Accelerating Change Conference in California last year.  During the first day, person after person would get up to the microphone and start off by saying "I posit ..." ... we both loved it.  We started using it at work all the time ... for the fun of it. So ... yes ... I love to think deeply ... and at the same time, I'm having fun! 11:33:24 AM      identity

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