Posted 8:28 AM (0) comments

Principles, axioms and laws - oh my!

Fellow Network World columnist and Burton Group senior analyst Jim Kobielus has now blogged in on the laws of identity. While complimenting Cameron for bringing up the subject, Jim does tear down the laws, replacing them with his own "four principles of identity." But Kobielus Principles have much more in common with Scott Lemon's Axioms of Identity than with Cameron's Laws.

Kim Cameron has outlined the behavior that Identity management services and applications should follow while Lemon and Kobielus are more concerned with the philosophical and societal definition of Identity itself. The difference isn't quite "apples and oranges", but it is apples and apple pie.

Posted 1:22 PM (0) comments

What is a birth certificate?

There's an interesting conversation on Carl Ellison's blog ostensibly about identity theft. Carl & Bob Blakely (Chief Scientist at IBM Tivoli in the security area) get side-tracked into a discussion of birth certificates, their origin and use. I would have posted to that conversation, but only those pre-authorized by Carl can comment.

Bob calls the birth certificate a "breeder document" which can be used to create authentication mechanisms, while Carl calls it an authentication mechanism. They speculate on the birth certificate's use as a device to either help witnesses to the birth remember details or as proof of heridity for inheritance perposes.

But the birth certificate is none of this - it's only an attribute-holding record associated with the person identified thereon. It indicates parentage, true, but it also indicates place and date of birth. Provided that the person brandishing the birth certificate can be authenticated as the person named in the document, then the data can be accepted as true. As one example, when applying for a passport a person is authenticated by a photo ID (such as a driver's license) with the same name & birth date as the birth certificate. The birth certificate is then accepted as proof of place of birth. The birth certificate itself is never used as an authenticator.

Posted 8:08 AM (0) comments

It's nice to be prescient

Oracle Corp. and PeopleSoft have reached agreement for Oracle to buy PeopleSoft for $10.3 billion. According to the IDG News Service story, "The transaction has been approved by both companies' boards of directors and is expected to close by early January."

As I said right here last June, "Oracle has also now raised their tender offer for PeopleSoft shares, a good move. Its remarkable, I think, but Oracle seems to be making all the right moves and PeopleSoft appears to be run by a craven bunch interested only in saving their own jobs. PeopleSoft shareholders, take note. Better check out the weather report for Hades!" The "craven bunch" (lead be ex-CEO Craig Conway), it should be noted, was booted by the current PeopleSoft Board of Directors in October - paving the way for today's announcement.

It's nice when sanity returns to the boardroom, isn't it?