{"id":121,"date":"2008-04-22T13:44:11","date_gmt":"2008-04-22T21:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/netmesh.info\/jernst\/uncategorized\/the-problems-of-explaining-user-centric-identity"},"modified":"2008-04-22T13:44:11","modified_gmt":"2008-04-22T21:44:11","slug":"the-problems-of-explaining-user-centric-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/the-problems-of-explaining-user-centric-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problems of Explaining User-Centric Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the User-Centric Identity Track<\/a> that I’ve been putting together for the European Identity Conference this Thursday, I decided we really needed a reasonably compehensive introduction into the topic first, before we go into the experience reports, and the big panel. But boy, did that "introduction to…" presentation turn out to be hard; it was much harder and more time-consuming to create than I had thought.<\/p>\n

First, I looked around for presentations that others already have made on the subject. I found lots that explain how gory protocol XYZ works, and lots that say "wouldn’t be nice if we could simply do ABC instead of DEF?" or why empowerment is (perhaps morally?) important. That clearly includes some of my own… which wouldn’t have been bad if it hadn’t ended there.<\/p>\n

But I came up totally empty when looking for presentations that make the case "this is why my business should do it" for reasons such as reasons that businesses do things for, such as making money. The kind of presentation you can take into a management meeting, and you will not only still have a job afterwards, but have your user-centric identity project funded instead.<\/p>\n

So instead of attempting to recruit a speaker for that slot in the track, I decided to do it myself. After all, how hard can it be? Well, that’s where the "boy, was I wrong" above comes from. It took me at least 3 times longer than I thought, and all that my presentation now needs is about a year or two of refinements to turn it into a good presentation. And only part of me is joking.<\/p>\n

Why? Because we all in user-centric identity land, and I’m including myself very much that group, have not made our case at all in a manner that makes any business sense. That was not clear to me before; the bits and pieces that we do have do not a winnable case make.<\/p>\n

I know I’m going to offend some people by saying this out loud. Truth be told, I’m a bit offended myself (which is doubly offensive …) I’m not saying this to be critical (if so, I’d be criticizing myself first) but as a call to action: if we ever want this market to be a market — one where real value is created, some of which is measured in real dollars and euros that exchange hands for value delivered — we gotta fix that as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

Let me make a litany of things that we all keep repeating like a mantra, but that don’t work to make a case, and in fact likely do the opposite:<\/p>\n