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🎈026/366 | 🆔 The 'entity' in Identity
BTW - If you want to cut to the chase - Identity 2.5 is a great Substack to get your teeth into.
Identity continues to be core thinking in the work I do with people. In particular with a company down here in Aotearoa.
The Founder is a deep thinker - as are his communications. One of my jobs is to take those thoughts and write words that ordinary people might understand.
In the ‘biz’, it’s a different challenge. Like any other ‘biz’, there are words and phrases that get used and we all think we understand them. But do we? Particularly when you are trying to reset thinking. Even a little bit. Why? Because specific words have specific meanings in certain contexts and ‘the experts will hear th word and some they know what comes next.
Therefore you have to be careful when you use them. BUT, if you don’t use them, you find yourself having to keep redefining things so you don’t lose the frame of reference!
That’s the hard part, but now lets get back to the plot.
Last week I needed a ‘twofer’.
I needed to summarize the essence of what we are talking about in ‘*everyday English’. I knew the recipients were on the ‘fringe’ of the biz, so they had an understanding of ‘identity’, but our pitch was to have them look at identity in a different way. Plain English needed but reset required.
When he saw my email he wrote;
“I like the Johnising of Alan.”
… which I am taking positively and assuming I am not too off beam - recording for posterity - with a few tweaks to protect privacy.
My take on Alan’s thesis
Identity is about people - ordinary people - not devices, not technology … people.
AND
People necessarily have to deal with businesses in three main contexts
-
In person
-
On the phone
-
Online
AND
A lot of identity processes are really kluges that get bypassed all the time. (Personal experience just last month with a bank where I had to prove who I was - and every single proof that they needed I failed - since I had been out of the country and all the ‘check points’ had changed. It took me about 15 minutes together my access back - and I know I legally failed.)
Think of it as ‘theater’. Like taking your shoes off at the airport.
AND
There is no single safe mechanism that allows for all three contexts. In fact some things you need to do just cannot be done in certain contexts.
AND
The tech industry’ is mainly working on ‘number 3’. (Even though numbers 1 and 2 will not be going away. They are mainly being ignored because I suspect that the tech industry really thinks about ‘tech’ and seems to exclude ‘people’ and ‘place’. You only have to recognize that if you have someone’s device, then to all intent and purposes, you can assume their identity and place … who needs ‘place’ - we are all in one place. It’s called the internet!
OK - I am being a little unfair - but you know what I mean. Right?
AND
They are often only working on two party authentication - I am me - here is my proof that I am me - and you will believe me on providing that proof to you.
AND
The complexity, problems and potential losses are exponential when you consider three party authorization … i.e. I (party a) have an account with a business (party b) that grants me a discount at another business (party c). How do you make that work efficiently - across all three contexts?
Meanwhile
Clear use cases include KYC (Know Your Customer) .. a global process that is increasingly necessary as part of more and more laws - to ‘protect’ us. But it is theater. It’s a theory gone amok leaving with organizations that deal with people as a business have been forced to implement expensive, drawn out, and costly (for both business and customer) processes that are not really working.
There are many many more cases we will (are) work(ing) on.
Sometimes you will hear that ‘Web 3’ is going to solve it. Sometimes ‘DIDs’. Hell - even the NFT unicorns were making promises at one point. ‘Cyber’ … ‘AI’ … there is an ongoing barrage of people that talk hypothetically about the problem - but there still isn’t really a solution. They might well be the answer - maybe - but not today
- There needs to be wider adoption.
- It needs to be easy AND safe.
- There needs to be trust.
- It needs to be cost effective.
- There should be no barriers.
- We definitely should not be waiting for whatever the ‘tech d’jour’ is to grant us salvation.
We call all that Identity 3.0 - and who knows - just like Web 3.0 it may happen one day.
We call our solution Identity 2.5 - because it does not use tech that is not available - rather it sits in existing infrastructure that is already in place.
We have a working demo. We have patents. We have commitment from the NZ Govt. We believe we are unique - and nobody that has seen it disagrees.
We are moving forward.
Later
This seems to have caught attention since I originally posted it, so in order to save you time, if you are interested in what I am talking about and want to learn more, you can drop me an email - and be sure I will get right back to you. My thanks for your attention.
At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series. A daily long-form post about something that was rattling my brain that day. And then life. For a while, I was even just dropping markers - to revisit. I came to realise that part of the problem was the complexity of the structure for each post - so that went away. Simplicity really is rather nice. As I write on 240413, I am now going back and filling in the gaps. PLUS - unless something strikes me immediately, I will not classify until the end of the day and go back to move one of the posts of the day into the 366. Also - if you are wondering how I have update the words at the bottom of over 100 posts at a stroke, well - THANK YOU Andy Sylvester and his Glossary plugin.
🎈025/366 | 🐫 Do Not Put ‘Product’ In Charge
Don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of time and respect for 🖇️ Dana Blankenhorn - as you can see … so this one caught my attention
There’s a single rule I’ve learned studying technology this last half century. Product must be in charge.
.. and 🔗then he goes on
I totally disagree, so had to comment and did. Reproduced here for posterity
I don’t disagree on taking the finance wonks out .. but not sure I agree on putting product in … I know lots of companies that lead with product .. and it doesn’t work unless there is wider purview which is often missing in product thinking. Our friends in Cupertino don’t lead with product .. though many pundits think they do .. they lead with vision, experience and story that the product delivers against.
The ‘top’ needs to be market, future market, visionary oriented. Disciplines that used to fall under marketing … though sadly not anymore .. as they are all chasing data and models and RoI .. but those people exist. In all of those disciplines. The dude at the top can still be a focussed finance wonk … their ancillary skill (beyond those three core requirements) is to listen to everyone, take advice and pay attention.
Again .. the man at the top of Cupertino is ‘operations and supply chain’ ( by history ) but to the casual observer, that isn’t so obvious. Meanwhile, the man before him was vision and experience and story .. sure he definitely had a say in product … but from an holistic viewpoint -
Just one slice of the holisticism (is that even a word)… how many ‘product’ people get what good design can do.
If they do .. I mean REALLY do .. why are there so many badly designed, poorly performing products out there?
What Do You Think?
Postscript - sometimes the Leonardo images take a few tweaks to get even close to my underlying message - but in this case - third go - and was only generating 1 image at a time. Sometimes I run out of the 150 free credits that I get every day - and have to choose from a bad lot.
This image just spoke volumes to me as ‘the house that ‘product’ built.
Funnily enough - today’s emoji was also absolutely clear.
🎈024/366 | 🍏 Tim’s Job Is Safe
🖇️ This fine piece of writing dates back to June 2016. What? 7 1/2 years ago?
It popped up yesterday when I was searching my site for something else. A few things dawned on me, not least of which … whatever happened to Scoble? Not that I care.
Don’t get me wrong. I am sure he is bouncing around somewhere - I just don’t track him. I am guessing that at some point in time I just closed him out of my mind, because he more often than not wrote rubbish.
That certainly seemed to be my opinion .. what? 7 1/2 years ago! 😃
That all said, posting this as an early (quasi) ‘claim chowder’ (tip o' the hat to @gruber) entry. I didn’t believe him (Scoble) then - and said so - and though the jury is strictly still out - I am firmly in the camp that the vision pro IS the next big thing and more importantly that it is because of ‘Tim Apple’ - not despite him. In short - I don’t think Tim needs to worry too much. Certainly not about ‘Bob’.
🎈023/366 | 9️⃣ Highlights From Yesterday
A different theme for today’s 366 … nine links to yesterday’s news - complete with pithy comment - courtesy of this author
1️⃣ 🖇️ Remember my post from a couple of weeks ago?
Well, it turns out that though he might have been expecting .. hoping for that … it might not be a slam dunk.
🔗 Tories hire coordinator to get expat supporters to vote in general election.
Who knew?
2️⃣ 🔗 Trump Says He ‘Aced’ Cognitive Test, Mind Is ‘Stronger’ Than 25 Years Ago
.. not exactly a high bar.
3️⃣ 🔗 Flanders government looks to force TikTok and YouTube to share revenue | Belgium.
Some lessons here. Most Governments pay (they don’t use that word … but that is what they are doing) to attract film production.
I think this is the right way round.
4️⃣ 🔗 Rise in measles cases prompts vaccination campaign in England.
Oh .. so it’s ok to get vaccinated now?
5️⃣ 🔗 The Musical Instruments Market Size Is Expected To Reach $14 Billion By 2027.
Wonder what constitutes a ‘musical instrument ‘ these days?
6️⃣ 🔗 January 21, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson
I wonder if Dobbs, with its announcement that when Republicans are given power over our legal system they do not consider themselves obligated to recognize an established constitutional right, will turn out to be today’s version of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
No Comment. Yet.
7️⃣ 🔗 Thousands of Māori gather to tell New Zealand’s government: you cannot marginalise us.
Got to say .. ‘Cristopher (sic) and crew’ were warned.
8️⃣ 🔗 DeSantis Might Be the Worst Presidential Candidate in Recent Memory
Say what now?
Isn’t The Orange Clown a Presidential candidate? Problem nailed .. ‘they’ve forgotten already .. and he is in the fucking race!
9️⃣ 🔗 It seems that ‘God sent a quitter’
If his campaign is remembered at all, it will be for setting fire to a pile of money big enough to be seen from space in order to win a grand total of nine Iowa delegates.
ROTFFLOL
🎈022/366 🤖 AI Experiment
… is a picture I took this morning while I sat with a cup of coffee.
If you have been following along with these posts recently, you will have noticed that a lot of images I use in the 366 series are generated by an AI. (More often than not Leonardo.ai) I do not spend a lot of time on creating the perfect prompt. I am really just playing around and creating a little eye candy whilst learning what I can. Which got me to wondering, what would Leonardo make of my view?
I used this prompt.
“I am looking at Auckland Harbour from a balcony in the viaduct. The sun is shining, but the day is still quiet. Create an image for me that you think reflects what I am seeing.
I ran the prompt three times and these were the results.
I decided this was the closest to the right result as in ‘matching the prompt’.
- It has Sky Tower - so ‘Auckland’ - except if I was looking at the harbour from a balcony - Sky tower would be behind me.
- It is very clearly a balcony.
- I rejected the bottom left, because really - to match the prompt ‘I’ wouldn’t be in the picture.
- There were others that were as acceptable. None were ‘right’/
So - why no boats in the AI images? Because they weren’t included in the original prompt.
Just for kicks I modified the prompt
“I am looking at Auckland Harbour with some moored boats from a balcony in the viaduct. The sun is shining, but the day is still quiet. Create an image for me that you think reflects what I am seeing.”
Am I happy with the finished results? Well - no.
But if i didn’t have access to the actual image, for a few minutes of work - the results weren’t too bad.
(These are the results from the free version of Leonardo. I know they would be massively improved if I subscribed and added access to the other models they have available. First though, I want to learn as much as I can for free.)
What do you think?
🎈021/366 👮🏼♂️ The Seven Laws of Identity
I was listening to 🎙️this podcast and of course duly reminded of Kim Cameron’s 7 Laws of Identity, so replaying here for posterity. You can 🔗 read a quick summary here.
Law 1: User control and consent
Technical identity systems must only reveal information identifying a user with the user’s consent
Law 2: Minimum disclosure for a constrained use
The solution which discloses the least amount of identifying information and best limits its use is the most stable long-term solution
Law 3: Justifiable Parties
Digital identity systems must be designed so the disclosure of identifying information is limited to parties having a necessary and justifiable place in a given identity relationship
Law 4: Directed Identity
A universal identity system must support both “omni-directional” identifiers for use by public entities and “unidirectional” identifiers for use by private entities, thus facilitating discovery while preventing unnecessary release of correlation handles
Law 5: Pluralism of Operators and Technologies
A universal identity system must channel and enable the inter-working of multiple identity technologies run by multiple identity providers
Law 6: Human Integration
The universal identity metasystem must define the human user to be a component of the distributed system integrated through unambiguous human-machine communication mechanisms offering protection against identity attacks
Law 7: Consistent Experience Across Contexts
The unifying identity metasystem must guarantee its users a simple, consistent experience while enabling separation of contexts through multiple operators and technologies
Down here in sunny New Zealand, I have been helping a local man with his identity solution. More on that in due course - because - guess what - its pretty much ‘tops’ .. and expression I learned last night which is the antonym of ‘pants’ … but I digress.
It turns out his system hits all seven laws - and that’s just how it worked out, to because he designed to them. This gives me even more confidence that we are on to something. It would be kinda like building a robot and then realizing it is ‘Asimov compliant’.
🎈020/366 | 🔮 Future Vision
Over the holidays, down in Wellington, I somehow constantly found myself in conversations about ‘local politics’ … council, city, region … and dare I even say national? (On a global scale ’national thinking’ for a small country like New Zealand is still ‘local’.) No need to talk about the topics discussed - the usual, but my recurring observation that was never rejected is that long term planning anywhere for housing, climate change, infrastructure, EV cars, bike lanes … you name it .. is never that long term because the elected officials - even if they had the vision .. and often they don’t’ (but that is a different story) - don’t think beyond their election cycle.
As a result it is a brave group of politicians that put in place 25 to 30 year plans for anything … much less real long term!
Enter 🔗 The Ministry for the Future - New Ideas From Ancient Wisdom. - with my highlights and annotations on Readwise. It’s not quite the same idea and far more ‘financially technical’ than I might ever hope to completely understand - much less explain - but it is all connected and makes for a fascinating - if technical - read.
Unless you’re a policy wonk or a certain kind of federal contractor, you can be forgiven for not knowing what the discount rate is.
BUT - so you know …
Seperately …
📼 A Long Now talk from Kim Stanley Robinson : Climate Futures: Beyond 02022 (referenced in the article, not yet watched - but is now in my queue). Also, that 02022 is not a typo - it’s a ‘Long Now’ year. I like them just from that simple switch in thinking. It positions us in time very differently to 2022. (Not sure if it is also unseen inspiration behind the numbering system of my series for 2024.)
‘nuff said for now. Suffice to say, I am going to do some further exploring around the ‘social discount rate’. This bear hadn’t stumbled across it previously - but it seems to be an excellent way of thinking about a reason why ‘our’ policies are so broken.
🎈019/366 | 🤩 Excited About The Future
You might think today’s choice of ’image’ is a little odd. I mean, is a black rectangle even an image? And what does it mean anyway? But for me it speaks volumes.
It is a similar theme to yesterday’s post … The Future … and yet, I’m talking about a totally different future. A more personal one, not a societal one.
That all said, not yet ready to talk more publicly about what is going on. I just wanted to capture this day in the ‘live journal’ to remember that the business cards were ordered yesterday, Jax catching a plane to the U.S.A. on Saturday and will be gone for the next three weeks working on this.
‘Pumped’ doesn’t even start to describe my feelings.
🎈018/366 | 🔮 A Better Future
A short one today because the 🔗 📼 Biden video speaks for itself.
For me? One of the best, passionate most comprehensive campaign speeches I have ever heard. In fact, the qualifier ‘campaign’ is probably unnecessary.
If you are reading this post on my site, you will see that this link is rendered as an embedded video at the bottom of the post. (THANKYOU @rknightuk]. It will render just fine - unless the video owner wants you to watch it over on YouTube (and to be fair - there are very good reasons for that). If that happens, click on the link above and you will be taken to YouTube. The 'error' is only because the creator wants you to got to YouTube to watch it. That said - on rare occasions, it might actually be broken. If it is - sorry about that - try sending me an email and I will check if I made an error.
🎈017/366 | 🪙 Both Sides Now
No. Not the song.
I don’t blame you if you haven’t been keeping up with ‘SubstackGate’. I have .. so you don’t have to … you are welcome.
Bottom line .. Fascism, Nazis, Support, Deplatform … you get the picture.
🔗 Why the Kākā Is Staying on Substack
🔗Why Platformer is Leaving Substack
My Thoughts?
I am on Substack and read some bit of it each and every day. Never seen a single piece by a Nazi. Never been recommended to go visit a Nazi. The fact is that they are always going to be somewhere - even in real life. On the blogging / newsletter side of the platform - I don’t see the issue - BUT - on the social side of it - yes - it COULD - and when / if I do - I will reconsider - but for now … kinda like Bernard wrote up there.
🎈016/366 | 🌴 Greener Grass Over There
Somebody else’s grass is greener. Always.
Just finished a conversation with a Turkish gentleman who has now lived in New Zealand for 10 years. Came here to learn English. He has. Now moving to Perth …
You can earn twice the money and buy twice the house for half the money. What can go wrong?
Indeed, what can go wrong? So much, but then doing nothing solves nothing and it still can go wrong. Plus his journey time ‘home’ will be halved - as will the cost of the flight.
If people leaving their own country to get a better life in New Zealand are leaving to get a better life in Australia - is it any wonder that so many Kiwis do exactly that?
I hear of this talked about amongst people - a lot. At the policy level - not so much.
If you think housing is expensive where you live, consider New Zealand - where a ’tradie’, a doctor, a teacher, a nurse, a coder, a … pretty much any skill class you can think if can emigrate across the Tasman sea, earn twice the money and buy a similar property for half the price - is it any surprise that they are?
Meanwhile, I know a few Kiwis who have lived abroad for most of their life and will be ‘coming home’ to retire.
Does anyone else see a problem?
🎈015/366 | 🚶♂️They Walk Amongst Us
“We are all going to be saved by King Harry.”
Don’t’ you mean King Charles?
“No no no. He is the evil one. Like his son William. The dynasty is evil. Harry has seen the light. He will come back and save us - together with the son of the Shah. Palestine will once again be reunited with Persia and the descendants of the devils that destroyed us will be no more.”
The son of the Shah?
“Yes yes - he is ready. He has been tutored to show the way. God is on our side. He is the light in the darkness. God, the son of our Shah and Harry are our saviors.
I paraphrase .. but this was roughly the flow of a ‘conversation’ in a ‘rideshare’ the other night in Wellington.
I elected to not engage too deeply. I am far from a mid Eastern scholar, much less of Persia. Although I am pretty sure that for Palestine to be ‘reunited’ with Persia would also require some fundamental changes in countries such as Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq? But what do I know?
Here’s what I do know.
His vehicle was spotless. His timing punctual. Hair neatly cut, his glasses giving a façade of ‘accountant’ were you to meet him at a party. That is what I know.
🎈014/366 | 💩 The Gamekeeper Is The Poacher
An excellent show from the mighty John Oliver taking on McKinsey in this one. You know … the company that advised Purdue on how to sell more Oxy. Spin through to 15:50 … to hear this one.
Mr. Sternfels they didn’t have experience - they were the identical humans working for both at the same time.
💬 Katie Porter
Cleaning out the swamp, stopping the revolving door of public service and corporate interest … it really doesn’t matter what you call it - what is clear that the swamp / cesspool / revolving doors are very much alive and well - no matter what anyone claims.
🎈013/366 ⌨️ Typewriters .. and more
A quite lovely story which I have chosen to share through my Readwise account, so you can speed through my highlights if you so wish.
Alternatively, 🔗 this is the original New Yorker article, written by Ann Patchett.
It’s from 2021, it’s mainly about removing clutter from your life, but sharing it here because of the ending which focuses on the typewriters in her life, and thought this was quite beautiful.
.. and beyond beauty …
After he died, Tavia found two laminated cards.
‘He’, being Kent, ‘Tavia’s father’, who had seemingly continually transformed his life, leaving behind a veritable museum of artifacts .. and yet these two laminated cards tell the entire story.
I don’t know .. it just stopped me in my tracks.
🎈012/366 | 🎂 Cake By The Ocean
It’s true. My ‘under the rock’ habitat continues into 2024.
I asked a six year old yesterday if he liked music … yes … so what’s your favorite song?
I hadn’t heard of DNCE - but liked this one enough to poke around … wait … it’s Joe Jonas?
Personally, never a big fan of the Jonas brothers - but adding this to my list of (two so far) singers that switched me. The other one is Harry Styles (never a big fan of One Direction).
If you are reading this post on my site, you will see that this link is rendered as an embedded video at the bottom of the post. (THANKYOU @rknightuk]. It will render just fine - unless the video owner wants you to watch it over on YouTube (and to be fair - there are very good reasons for that). If that happens, click on the link above and you will be taken to YouTube. The 'error' is only because the creator wants you to got to YouTube to watch it. That said - on rare occasions, it might actually be broken. If it is - sorry about that - try sending me an email and I will check if I made an error.
🎈011/366 | 🔮 Indie Publishing - Future Vision
A couple of click throughs in this morning’s review triggered this post.
It started here … 🔗 Substack Barely Does The Bare Minimum
which linked to here … 🔗 gilest.org: Make the indie web easier
which then linked to here … 🔗 gilest.org: More on the easier indie web
TL;DR
A few links to interesting places that are about the indie web - but with an undercurrent of something that I have been banging on about forEVER …
If we truly want to open up the web for everyone to publish on, we have to make it easier. Let’s give people choices. Let’s give people options for tools they can set up and use, with no more knowledge than the knowledge they already have.
💬 Giles Turnbull'
YES
There are a few - and indeed MicroBlog is one such example (that is not listed in those links) … although even MicroBlog has its challenges.
I think the overall challenge is two fold;
1] It is not easy.
- so requires significant resources to make it a reality.
2] Does ‘everybody’ care enough?
- because if they don’t - I feel the TAM might be pretty small - and will include a large number of people already in the camp of what we have is good enough.
🎈010/366 | ✍️ Rewriting Future History
🔗 Interesting piece from Om today.
I think he’s right about that up there. What I am not so sure about is this down here.
Why?
Because it will bring all those ‘EEJITS’ out of the woodwork, who maintain that ’Steve’ did everything and Tim has done nothing, isn’t innovative, riding the coat tails etc …
(Count me in the camp of the people that believe that had Tim NOT done what Tim did when he did it, that there wouldn’t even be a significant enough Apple to do what he is doing now.)
🎈009/366 | 👀 The Irony Continues
… at least I think it will.
The furor as to the how and why ’The Facebook' are ’allowed’ to do this will continue unabated as people continue to post these questions on Facebook … and Instagram … and WhatsApp … and Threads.
🎈008/366 | ❓ Solving The Right Problem
Today’s Sketchplanations resonated, even though I had never heard of the ‘problem’ being ‘🔗 The XY Problem
Back at Group Partners we would help people ‘avoid solving the wrong problem really well’
Others talk about ‘peeling back the onion to get to the root cause’ (think a doctor treating your hip to solve your back pain), etc etc.
Whatever it is known as, this is what anyone should do to solve a problem. Never treat the symptom.
If you don’t agree, comment below.
If you do agree - do you have other names you use?
🎈007/366 | 🚣♀️ The Pace of Change
A couple of days ago I wrote a little (very little) about Stewart Brand’s 🖇️ Pace layer. It’s worth clicking through - not just to my short piece, but in turn the links in that post.
Still - to the point.
Andy Hamilton dropped a post on LinkedIN a couple of days ago referencing an Australian report called ‘Barriers to collaboartion and commercialization’ asking if there were lessons that can be learned fro New Zealand. And so ‘the people’ weighed in - with the inevitable group waxing lyrical about business and government working hand in hand to innovate and become world leaders in ….
Pipe dreams - and ‘Pace Layers’, illustrated above explain why.
The model was developed by Stewart Brand and Brian Eno of all people. A quick study will reveal why government involvement in innovation is flawed. If you are still missing the challenge comes down to the
The order of a healthy civilization. The fast layers innovate; the slow layers stabilize. The whole combines learning with continuity.
💬 Stewart Brand
It reminds me of something 🔗 Venkatesh Rao wrote about many years ago - and which I in turn referenced in my 🔗 book a couple of years ago.
Bottom Line
I have always had a fundamental problem with government being joined at the hip with business. In principle, it sounds lovely. It can work. It does work … but not if you want to be fast, innovative, different, leading edge, using new technologies - all of these things are not part of a government’s DNA - the pace layer model reveals why it won’t work.
Whatever speed government works at, it still wont be fast enough for business and if you slow down business to more readily accommodate government, then others will beat you to market.
Just three case studies out of the hundreds if not thousands just in the software industry; Uber, AirBNB and Facebook.
And don’t get me started on Tesla, The Boring Compnay, SpaceX, X, xAI, Neuralink and the rest of the ‘Musk Suite.