advising on IT-business alignment
IT-business alignment about us blog our services articles & reports resources your profile exposure
blog
blog
Monday, March 06, 2006

An interesting spin on user-centric identity

One of the issues I highlight in our recent report on identity management is the need to bridge the gap between enterprise- and user-centric identity. This issue is at the heart of Kim Cameron's 7 laws and the identity metasystem, and IBM and Novell's embracing of the Eclipse Higgins initiative.

This morning I met with a PAOGA (Disclosure: PAOGA is not a customer), a UK-based company (hardly a start-up as the company has been operating for 4 years but is nonetheless a possible example of James Governor's much-sought-after British innovation and one moreover which is addressing a key issue at the heart of Web 2.0) which has already seen some success with the likes of BT, the UK National Health Service and UK local government.

The company's core offerings are the PAOGAplatform and the PAOGAnet service. These provide a runtime platform and development environment targetted at web-based service providers to allow them to develop and deploy user-managed identity solutions, incorporating automated workflow and compliance logging and auditing. Identity data is hosted by PAOGA, in what the company refers to as the PAOGAperson database, with identity data exposed to the service providers under the direct control of the user. It is this latter capability which is particularly innovative: PAOGAperson puts identity data in the direct control of the individual.

There are clearly some overlaps with the work of the Liberty Alliance and Microsoft's InfoCard but Graham Sadd, the CEO, recognises the need to interoperate. The company also needs to look at what is happening with the likes of OpenID, NetMesh's LID and i-names (as well as the YADIS interoperability work) in the world of user-centric identity, as well as Opinity with its work on reputation.

Certainly interesting stuff but not without it's challenges, not least of which is the chicken-and-egg problem: how to get individuals to sign-up without a decent number of service providers and how to get service providers to sign-up without a decent number of subscribers.
PAOGA is also going to have to work hard to overcome the concerns of service providers and users alike when it comes to trusting a comparative unknown quantity to control and manage what is incredibly valuable data. Service providers will also have the same concerns regarding control of user data which lead to the downfall of Microsoft's Hailstorm (which Dare Obasanjo of Microsoft alludes to here). Graham is under no illusion here either.

The company is definitely attempting to address what I, and I am certainly not alone, believe is a key issue going forward as individuals transition more and more of their day-to-day activities to an online world and, as they do so, begin to recognise the importance of taking control of their identity, rather than leaving it to a multitude of service providers (commercial or public sector).


Burn this feed
Burn this feed!

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Blog home

Previous posts

Breathless hyperbole
Higgins, InfoCard and conspiracy theories
Ecosystem vs egosystem
More on the 'P' word - back to basics
Insight on information security - well worth a read
Beware the 'P' word
Nick Carr isn't always right - but ignore him at y...
Microsoft vs EC - adequate response, but who remem...
It must be that time again... more software announ...
HP and Outerbay - packing the storage portfolio

Blog archive

March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009

Blogroll

Andrew McAfee
Andy Updegrove
Bob Sutor
Dare Obasanjo
Dave Orchard
Digital Identity
Don Box
Fred Chong's WebBlog
Inside Architecture
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
James Governor
Jon Udell
Kim Cameron
Nicholas Carr
Planet Identity
Radovan Janecek
Sandy Kemsley
Service Architecture - SOA
Todd Biske: Outside the Box

Powered by Blogger

Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com

Enter your email address to subscribe to updates:

Delivered by FeedBurner