 Identity ManagementThis newsletter is sponsored by Akamai TechnologiesNetwork World's Identity Management Newsletter, 08/08/07Help shape digital reputations at Data Sharing SummitBy Dave KearnsA bit over a year ago I wrote in a newsletter that social networking is rapidly becoming the testing laboratory for Internet technologies and identity management is no different - what's important from an identity management perspective in today's social networks will become important tomorrow in our business networks. I was talking about reputation (and, by extension, opinion) as an asset of an entity’s identity. Reputation has, in fact, been a facet of identity for quite a long time. One of the main reasons for trademark laws is to protect the reputation of a brand or company. It doesn’t just protect against someone trying to sell “Coca Coia” (with the distinctive script logo) as a cola beverage, but also protects against them selling, say, “Coca Coia Orange Juice.” The infringer hopes you will confuse the identity of their product and attach Coca-Cola’s reputation to it. But reputation can cut both ways. Early next month (Sept. 7 and 8) there’ll be a “Data Sharing Summit” held in the San Francisco Bay Area to: “get a number of the key players, developers and platforms in the social networking, blogging and associated 'social software' platforms together in one room and hash out a bunch of key issues.” One of those issues is that of data portability – being able to easily move your likes and dislikes, your friends and relationships, your pictures, music, what have you, from one social network to another. And there’s where the problem crops up.
The actual “move things around” protocols and schemas should be easy; it’s making sure the people are comfortable with it that’s the problem. As I’ve often said, the technology of identity management is easy; it’s the people (the politics, the business logic, etc.) that’s the hard part. Companies are, more and more, mining the data on social networks to discover information about potential new employees. See the recent Newsday story “Our digital pasts won't leave us alone”, for example. There’s a whole new industry growing up of companies that will find inaccurate or embarrassing data about you and, for a fee, get it removed – or buried far down on Google search results pages. And that’s just about embarrassing things that you, yourself put on the Web. What happens when the “friend” (actually someone you barely know) on Facebook up and migrates all of his data and relationships to “Kinky Kitties”? What happens when an ambitious prosecutor subpoenas Kinky Kitties’s servers and compiles lists of everyone mentioned, then calls them in for questioning – or brings them before a grand jury? Sure, you most likely won’t be charged with a crime, but will your boss (or your spouse or your real friends) really understand? Will your reputation suffer? Reputation as a digital identity attribute will be built on social networks. If you don’t get involved now, you may be too late to shape its use later on. The Data Sharing Summit, next month in Richmond, Calif., might be where you should become involved. Editor's Note: Starting Aug. 13, this newsletter will be renamed "Security: Identity Management" to better reflect the focus of the newsletter. We thank you for reading Network World newsletters! [Starting Monday some of the readers of this newsletter will begin receiving a redesigned version that we will be testing over the next few weeks. The redesign allows us to better integrate the convenience of e-mail newsletters with the immediacy of Network World online. The regular features will remain the same, the difference is that you'll be able to view Dave Kearns's column, plus the rest of the content, in full online at NetworldWorld.com. We hope you enjoy the redesign. Please let us know what you think.]
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| Contact the author: Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be found at Virtual Quill. Kearns is the author of two Network World Newsletters: Windows Networking Strategies, and Identity Management. Comments about these newsletters should be sent to him at these respective addresses: windows@vquill.com, identity@vquill.com . Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books, manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing, technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail. This newsletter is sponsored by Akamai TechnologiesARCHIVEArchive of the Identity Management Newsletter. BONUS FEATUREIT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESTo subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007 |
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