Als voorloper op een van de ontdekte trends in 2009 (personal branding) vertel ik hier iets over mezelf. Cris Caanen 2.0

Geboren en getogen in Neerbeek, en op 15-jarige leeftijd verhuisd naar Geleen. Daarna op kamers gewoon in Maastricht, Tilburg en Amsterdam om daarna te settelen in Maastricht.

In de 26 jaar die ik op deze planeet rond ren heb ik gewerkt voor Hans Verkerk Keukens (sales), Talent in Business (projectmanagement) en Geerlings Marketing (Internet Marketing consultant en COO iGear).

Ik ben iemand die veel heeft gezien: Sri Lanka, Egypte, Noord Amerika, Europa, Australie, Thailand, Laos en de Malediven. Ik reis dan ook graag rond met een backpack.

Mijn interesse voor digitale trends is ontstaan tijdens mijn universitaire studie in Tilburg (Strategic Management) waar een van mijn goede vrienden Marcel Verboom me heeft geïnfecteerd met interesse in gadgets, en de integratie van gadgets in real-life en virtual life. De rol van het internet en alles wat erop gebeurd fascineert me enorm. Toen ik echter op wieowie.nl even een testje deed, zag ik pas in welke mate we geregistreerd staan. Ik heb wellicht wel 50 gebruikersnamen en wachtwoorden binnen mijn Identity 2.0 en dat worden en telkens meer. Nu er steeds meer mensen zijn die met deze gegevens en databases internet marketing activiteiten ontplooien rijst bij mij de vraag: ‘hoe kan ik mijn online identity gaan beschermen?’ En in het verlengde van de trend voor 2009 (personal branding) ‘Hoe kan ik mezelf gaan promoten, en wat zijn daar de voordelen van?’

Wie heeft er visies of antwoorden op deze vragen en ideeën over de voordelen van personal branding? Reageer dan aub op dit blogartikel.

Groet,

Cris Caanen
site

Honesty Online was recently the subject of a flattering post on Web2.Oh…really?. A comment on this post highlighted the degree of confusion around online identity, identity verification, and (dare I say it) Identity 2.0. By way of introduction I thought it would be helpful to put what we do, which is identity verification, in the context of these identity buzzwords.

In many circles, having and using an online identity refers to the traditional concepts of authentication (you log into a social networking site, say) and authorization (the site gives you access to your account but not other users’). Untold software developer-millenia have gone into developing systems to manage identity directories, allow single sign-on to multiple systems through one log-in, and control access to online resources such as your company’s HR forms or your personal financial information.

Until recently, online identity-management schemes concerned themselves with authentication and authorization within a single organization or system. If you were lucky, you might be a user of federated systems which, through a formal arrangement, would share your identity to enable single sign-on to each system without having to log-in each time. But the Internet does not have a universal identity infrastructure — it consists of, as Kim Cameron in his “Laws of Identity” described, “a patchwork of identity one-offs.”

In 2005, Dick Hardt gave a now-famous presentation in which he defined Identity 2.0 as a universal identity-management system that allows a user to use her identity information throughout the Internet. Identity 2.0 describes a user-centric system, where the user controls what identity credentials (name? age? location? etc.) are shared with each web site, and where identity credentials can be provided on behalf of a user by any trusted identity service — or a combination of services.

Identity management systems, whether traditional or 2.0, deal with digital identity — your presence as a unique online entity. Honesty Online verifies a user’s natural identity — who you are, and what your background is, in real life. Digital and natural identity are not exclusive. Since a digital identity boils down to an entity (a user, say) with a bunch of credentials, and natural identity is a particular set of credentials, it is possible to include natural identity as a subset of your digital identity.

Honesty Online is not trying to solve digital identity problems. We are not trying to implement Identity 2.0. But when Identity 2.0 becomes reality, we fully intend to become an Identity 2.0-compatible credential provider for natural identity — whatever technology achieves the Identity 2.0 vision of universal, user-centric digital identity. In the meantime, out of the many identity issues out there, Honesty Online solves an important one, today — allowing a user to get her real-life identity and background verified for the benefit of others online.

All content Copyright © 2008 Honesty Online, LLC. All rights reserved.

NoMoreDoorKnocking is Changing! However it will remain the name of our blog for StepRep, the Homes Services side our new Company – MyFront Steps. Confused yet? Let me explainIn this post I will attempt to answer the questions: What is MyFrontSteps? What is StepRep, and how does it fit into MyFrontSteps?

So what is MyFrontSteps? Well, MyFrontSteps connects people over any social network allowing them to control the sharing of their home with friends, family and the world – from their front steps in. It allows them to leverage the collective experiences of their social graph – people they know and trust – to find inspiration and local service providers to improve home and lifestyle.

We have put together a video in the Creative Craft style to describe what we do.

We believe MyFrontSteps will have millions of homeowners sharing their home and home experiences on their social network of choice.

We intend to help people and companies in the real estate and home services industry to connect with these consumers via our StepRep product.

So what is StepRep and how will it work for you? Well, StepRep is going help you in at least three ways:

StepRep will help you track and monitor your online Reputation and Identity

There are lots of reasons why your online Identity and Reputation are important. Today you can monitor what people are saying about you on websites and blogs with lots of tools like Google Alerts or RSS feeds. Tomorrow, StepRep will automate that process and help you to monitor the right things. More than that, however, we will help you to monitor what people may be saying about you in places you might not even know about. Anywhere the conversation is occurring such as; Facebook, Linkedin, Myspace, Flickr, YouTube, Plaxo, Friend Feed, Twitter, Plurk , or any of the emerging platforms and services. Services that you won’t be forced to join.

It will help you manage and even build your online Reputation

Today it is a technical and time consuming chore to mange and build your online Reputation. Websites, blogs, news releases, social network profiles; the list and the work involved, is immense. We aren’t going to give you all the details just yet, but we promise to make managing and building your online reputation an order of magnitude easier.

Most importantly, StepRep will let you leverage your Reputation, via past and current customers, to gain trusted access to all the people in their social graph (people who know and trust them), on all the different social networks.

In our past lives we learned something that all technology providers should know. Real Estate professionals don’t use technology for the sake of technology; they use it to make their lives, and their customers’ lives, better. Put another way, technology doesn’t change “what” people do, it just changes “how” they do it.

We also noted phenomena in technology adoption and usage. It goes something like this. An Agent or Broker has no business so they embrace technology to attract new business. They attract new business, impress their new customers, and their new customers refer more new business. They then become so busy they cannot keep up with the use of the technology tools so they quit using them.

The key thing to note is that satisfied customers refer business – lots of it. What if you could get your customers to advertise to all their friends that they choose you as their professional of choice?

With StepRep and MyFrontSteps you will be able to do just that. StepRep will allow you to connect with your past customers as friends on the social networks where they hang out. You will be able to connect with them as “friends” on all the social networks without having to join all these networks. In short you will be able to leverage your great reputation, built by the great work you have done for past clients.

Your customers’ friends friends will see you in the context of whatever social network they happen to be on. This gives your customers a chance to connect with you as friends and hold you up to their friends as their professional of choice.

This is important, because we all know, as much as your customer may like you or your work, they aren’t going to be recommending you in every conversation. That said, today, more and more conversations are happening on Social Networks. Connecting with customers as their friend, and provider of choice, helps make you a part of the conversation when and where it occurs.

If Joining Linkedin, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Hi5, Orkut, building a website, writing and maintaining a blog sounds and feels like too much work then StepRep is for you. In fact, as your satisfied customers participate in the social networks of their choice they do the work of recommending you.

Here are two presentation videos that have been filling me with joy lately – you might notice how old they are… yeah that is how far behind I am

http://identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/

http://www.benhammersley.com/images/the_semantic_web-hinted.mov

Enjoy, you can thank me with flowers

Zach Martin, editor of CR80 News recently published an article about the identity and age verification issues we are facing in social networks. You definitely should check it out but in case you don’t have time here are some important highlights:

When trying to get into a bar or club there is typically someone at the door checking IDs. But on social networking sites there is no bouncer, which means there’s no way to tell whether you’re corresponding with a 15-year-old girl or a 32-year-old man.

It’s the same no matter where you go. MySpace, Facebook, and professional networking site LinkedIn, do little to make sure people are who they claim to be. “There is a general feeling that social networking is the wild west of identity management and a lot of bad things happen because proper controls haven’t been put in place,” says Roger K. Sullivan, president of the Liberty Alliance Project management board.

The stories range from the tame to the tragic.

A student not happy with an administrator at school creates a profile on a social networking site. Even though the student is a woman she creates a profile that is a man and then flirts with the administrator in order to cause her embarrassment later.

At a Catholic school in the Chicago suburbs, an administrator monitors the popular social sites on a regular basis just to make sure nothing out of the ordinary is happening. She has run into instances where students create accounts in other peoples’ names – people who actually exist – and then make false statements. For example, one student set up an account as a real person from another school and made statements about the student’s sexual proclivities while giving out her real phone number.

In 2006, a fake profile led to the suicide of a 13-year-old Missouri girl. A classmate’s mother originally created the profile to find out if Megan Meier was saying anything bad about her daughter. But then it was used to gain Meier’s confidence and then to tear her down. Angry messages went back and forth, and it ended with Meier hanging herself.

There’s also the need to prevent pedophiles from contacting children online. MySpace has agreed with different states’ attorney generals to adopt better technologies that will help identify underage users so they can be protected from predators, but the social networking site hasn’t figured out how it’s going to do it.

The vast majority of sites don’t do anything to try to confirm the identities of members. The sites also don’t want to absorb the cost of trying to prove the identity of their members. Also, identifying minors is almost impossible because there isn’t enough information out there to authenticate their identity.

But this may all change. As sites become more scrutinized they will have to take steps to make sure people are who they say. “There will be a trend to use a third party that leverages database information that will be able to vouch for you and provide a more certain level of identification,” says Eric Skinner, chief technology officer at Entrust, an Addison, Texas-based digital identification vendor.

There are a handful of vendors that are offering online identity vetting. Most are working with financial institutions, but they see business opportunities with the social networking sites.

The article goes on to describe some social networks and their use of identity verification including one of our clients FunkySexyCool and their use of our system. It also discusses the privacy concerns related to age verification of minors and provides a possible solution the Liberty Alliance is discussing essentially related to ID 2.0

Liberty Alliance’s Sullivan, who is also vice president of Oracle Identity Management, says it’s only a matter of time before social networking sites offer tiers of identification assurance, which could be used to confirm a minor’s identity. For example, if a 14 year old wanted to sign up on MySpace without a parents’ permission they would be placed on the lowest ID tier. “They would be put into a question mark bucket,” Sullivan says.

But if one parent went online and confirmed his child’s identity they would be raised up a tier. If both parents did it they would go up two tiers. The parents would be authenticated through public records and online databases.

Eventually there would be a fourth tier as well. A minor would physically go to a trusted source with documents that prove their age and identity. These identity assurance sources don’t exist, but it’s something the Liberty Alliance is working toward, Sullivan says.

The next task force meeting will be later this month and I’m looking forward to seeing how the conversation progresses. I firmly believe we can find several ways to combat the issues at hand including both an educational approach and technological approach.

On another note, I’m off to the RSA Conference next week. IDology has a booth this year so if you are in San Fran, stop by and see us.

Een term waar we nu toch al een paar jaar mee doodgegooid worden is Web 2.0. Wie nog nooit gehoord heeft van Web 2.0 heeft een paar jaar niet geleefd denk ik. Maar ondanks het feit dat je het woord zo’n beetje overal tegenkomt, zijn er nog steeds heel erg weinig mensen die weten waarover het precies gaat als je spreekt over Web 2.0.

Eigenlijk weet ik zelf ook niet precies waarvoor Web 2.0 nu juist staat. Een ganse hoop toepassingen opnoemen kan ik bijna zonder nadenken (Twitter, Wikipedia, weblogs, del.icio.us, Flickr,…) maar wat is de exacte definitie juist? Met dit bericht hoop ik een inleiding voor dummies te schrijven over de wondere wereld van Web 2.0, en door mijn research voor dit bericht zelf een hele hoop bij te leren. Want ik ben er van overtuigd dat 99.9% van de mensen die regelmatig het internet onveilig maken, minstens 1 toepassing van Web 2.0 gebruiken, zonder dat ze het zelf eigenlijk goed en wel beseffen.

Waarschuwing: indien je totaal geen interesse hebt in de wondere wereld van het WWW, begint te gruwelen van de term “informatica” of je pc enkel gebruikt om weblogs te lezen, sla je dit bericht best over Voor de dapperen onder jullie, klik op “More”!

De term Web 2.0

De term Web 2.0 is in 2003 bedacht door Tim O’Reilly, bekend van O’Reilly Media, Inc., de uitgever van talloze bekende (computer)boeken.

De 2.0 is een verwijzing naar fase 2 van het Web. Zonder 1.0 geen 2.0 uiteraard. De eerste fase van het Web is volgens velen de periode waarin het WWW écht populair begon te worden.

De definitie van Web 2.0

Zoals steeds is het ongelofelijk moeilijk om een sluitende definitie te geven aan een term die heel breed gebruikt kan worden. Er bestaan dus ook heel wat definities omtrent het hoe en wat van Web 2.0.

Ik heb voor jullie wat goeie definitief opgezocht:

• De verandering van een verzameling websites naar een volledig platform voor interactie webapplicaties voor eindgebruikers (Wikipedia)
• Software die men alledaags gebruikt, maar naar het web heeft gebracht (Doran)

To Ajax or not to Ajax?

Web 2.0 en Ajax, 2 termen die vaak in 1 zin genoemd worden. Wat is Ajax juist? Wat doet het?

Als men het over Web 2.0 en Ajax (Asynchronous Javascript And XML) heeft, spreekt men niet over de Web 2.0-compatibele website van AFC Ajax, maar over een groep technieken om interactieve webpagina’s te maken, waarbij gegevens opgehaald worden van de server. Ik hoor jullie al zeggen, gegevens ophalen van de server, dat is niets nieuws toch? Dat is gewoon wat elke browser doet? Juist, maar Ajax haalt gegevens asynchroon op van de webserver, waardoor pagina’s niet volledig opnieuw ingeladen moeten worden. Ook het uitwisselen van data tussen verschillende pagina’s is mogelijk. Op zich kan je het bekijken als een applicatie in de browser, alsof je bezig bent met een offline applicatie.

Ajax stuurt een aanvraag naar de server waarop een scripting taal geïnstalleerd is, die een antwoord in XML of(X) HTML stuurt. Het gedeelte van de pagina dat veranderd is, wordt dan aangepast met behulp van JavaScript.

Een voorbeeld van een bekende en complexe AJAX-applicatie is Gmail van Google.

Web 2.0 voorbeelden

Een aantal bekende voorbeelden van Web 2.0-toepassingen zijn Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, Google Maps, Last.fm, del.icio.us, Twitter…

Een knelpunt: Web 2.0 vs Identity 2.0

Web 2.0 toepassingen, allemaal goed en wel, maar voor elk van die toepassingen moet je aangemeld worden. En je aanmelden betekent een gebruikersnaam en paswoord invoeren. Als je dan ook nog eens verschillende gebruikersnamen en wachtwoorden gebruikt heb je een probleem. Wat was nu ook weer mijn gebruikersnaam voor Wikipedia, en heb ik op Last.fm een ander wachtwoord uitgekozen?

Hiervoor werd ook een nieuw concept in het leven geroepen, Identity 2.0. Een nieuw authenticatieconcept waarbij je niet langer voor elke Web 2.0 toepassing een nieuwe “identity” moet aanmaken, maar dat je van een Identity Provider een “digitale identiteit” krijgt, die je kan gebruiken op alle Web 2.0 toepassingen.

Hierbij een mooie figuur om duidelijk te maken wat men nu juist bedoelt met Identity 2.0, want 1 beeld zegt nog steeds meer dan 1000 woorden…

Voor de mensen die nog steeds niet genoeg gehoord hebben over Identity 2.0 kan ik zonder twijfel onderstaande briljante presentatie van Dick Hardt aanraden! Zelfs de moeite waard om te bekijken als je helemaal geen interesse hebt in Identity 2.0… Zijn manier van presenteren is werkelijk fenomenaal! Waren alle lessen op school maar zo…

Ik hoop dat ik jullie hiermee toch een klein beetje heb kunnen duidelijk maken waar Web 2.0 en Identity 2.0 nu juist voor staan. Ik heb er in elk geval heel wat van opgestoken.

Voor de mensen die het Web 2.0 graag nog eens uitgelegd zien op een visuele manier kan ik volgend filmpje aanraden! Werkelijk subliem!

En ik sluit af met een quote:

Web 2.0 is linking people …

… people sharing trading, and collaborating …

(© Michael Wesch)

Gebruikte bronnen:

• http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2
• http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_2.0
• http://www.oreillynet.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2

- Opmerkingen, correcties en aanvullingen zijn steeds welkom -

Identity is a topic we don’t hear discussed a lot in the real estate space.   At the past Inman Connect conference in New York, Brad Inman mentioned the need to bring more transparency to the real estate transaction.  Identity plays a part in that transparency and it plays a huge part in overall online transparency.  We’ve been thinking hard about identity over here and how an identity model will work into our solutions.  If you are new to the discussion or haven’t thought about how identity affects your online efforts, here is a great video that provides some background and context to Identity2.0.

Since, i’ve been thinking about identity a little, I was reminded that Brendan meme’d me.   So if you want to know more about my identity, you can catch up over on my blog.

Posted by:  Jeff Tomlin

What a month. I’ve been back from DIDW for (almost) three weeks and I still haven’t had a chance to blog about the show (or anything else for that matter).

Overall I thought the show was good. I was very pleased to see that there are a lot of smart people at smart companies focused on the issues of identity and working together to take steps toward a solution. Granted Id 2.0 has some hurdles still to overcome (like finding the right economic model for everyone!) but it is good to see that progress is being made because the identity issues we are facing are not going to just go away.

It was nice to finally put a face with some of the names in the identity space too. I’ve added a new name to my suggested links –Doc Searls – who was one of the keynote speakers the first day and very good (both in content and in style).

Since I’ve been back, I’ve been buried with work so I’m keeping this blog post short. I hope to post again soon.

Watching the video on identity with Dick Clarence Hart was enlightening. He defines idendy as “Who you are.” I never thought about it  the way he describes the many aspects of who we are.  Most of the time when we think about identity  we think in terms of – Name, date of birth, place of birth, address, sex, Social security number, and drivers’ license. In this video, he proves that identity is much more. It involves our likes, dislikes, relationships and activities. In our class discussions  there’s a lot to be said about people hiding their true identities.  We watched as lonelygirl deceived the world about her true identity.  In the MUDs people lie about who they are using all types of character names. In class people even felt secure about talking about or saying things that they ordinarily wouldn’t say in person.Hart’s Identity 2.0 is just another step into the future of technology. It sounds as if it could be beneficial for security purposes. At the same time it could also take away from the fun of just being free to express oneself. People have to use common sense when they are corresponding with strangers or conducting business. Who knows, maybe one day there will be sites that collect your  DNA or uses, retina/voice  recognition or even …… …collects fingerprints?   petisa            

Digital ID World (DIDW) is next week in San Francisco and I’m really anxious to attend since I was unable to get there last year (gasp!). Different from the RSA show which is focused on security (with identity being a subset), this conference is completely centered on everything identity – from Identity Management (IdM) to Authentication to identity verification (IdV) to ID 2.0. With so much happening in identity these days, I’m looking forward to catching up with some of the best minds in the business to see and hear about all the progress.

First things first – if you want to see our identity proofing technology at work, visit the Symantec booth # 207. Like at RSA, we are again helping to power their Identity Service demonstration by incorporating our knowledge-based authentication process within their demo to show how Identity Providers are establishing trusted identities online. However, different from what was shown at RSA, this demo is more focused on the practical application of the developing identity 2.0 framework and what happens after a trusted identity has been established. Meaning, what is possible for consumers to do with their identity and how to share specific components with a Relying Party (business). Specifically the demo will focus on how to use Cardspace and Open ID technology through Symantec’s Identity Service to interact and conduct business with one of our wine merchant clients. In other words, how identity silos can be broken down.

Along the same ID 2.0 practical lines, I’m really looking forward to seeing and talking with Ping Identity who is partnering up with ACI Worldwide, the world leader in retail payments, to show how:

“Information Cards has applications beyond pure authentication. For example, Information Cards could be excellent for supplying payment data to an e-commerce merchant during a purchase.”

I’d say both these practical use demonstrations are starting to show how much closer we are to enabling Identity 2.0.

It looks like OpenID & user centric identity principles are gaining momentum. Check out this good article on the NOSE Blog

NetIDme OpenID, NetIDme CardSpace

A few posts back I mentioned our partner Identity Rehab…well they’ve changed their name and are now called ID Watchdog.  Check out today’s story in USA Today by Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz which features a scary case of identity theft and just how complicated it can be when your data is compromised and your identity is stolen.

And while you are in the news reading mood, InformationWeek’s cover article this week is titled “Web Credibility:  Hard Earned, Harder to Prove.“  It’s a must read for those interested in the issues driving Identity 2.0

ITmedia News：自己紹介＋RSSリーダー＋Twitter　ニフティ「アバウトミー」
http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0705/17/news083.html

を読んで、早速登録してみた。
で、感想をTwiってみた。

Twitter / NAKANO Hajime: Twitterとアバウトミーと、あと何かあればmixi…
http://twitter.com/nakano/statuses/66818842

twitterとアバウトミーと、あと何かあればmixi要らない悪寒

Twitter / NAKANO Hajime: Twitterもアバウトミーも別にmixiの「ノスタル…
http://twitter.com/nakano/statuses/66839162

Twitterもアバウトミーも別にmixiの「ノスタルジー」じゃないんだよな。少しずつコミュニケーションの位相がズレながら関係再構築だもん

Henry Halff, Larry’s dad, makes a very interesting comment:

It’s been proposed (sorry that I can’t dig up the reference) that we humans in our earlier days formed bonds amongst ourselves through mutual grooming and that these grooming circles were limited in size to about 50.

It’s also said that, as we evolved, our hands became far too, well, handy, to fritter away in grooming. So, our ancestors came to maintain their social bonds by inventing speech and yammering at each other whilst they were using their hands to make tools, stir pots, change diapers, whatever.

It turns out, in fact, (again, sorry I can’t dig up the reference) that our conversations are still dominated by inconsequential blather, what some might call “noise.” This noise, as you point out, is ideally suited to maintaining social bonds.

What is interesting about all this is that what with all the twitter posts from mobile phones and keyboards is that we apparently have returned to using our hands to maintain social bonds. Perhaps its because we don’t want to waste our voices on such mundanities.

Yesterday I attended the Technology Association of Georgia’s Annual Summit. Based on the presentations I saw and the number of attendees at the event, I’d say Georgia’s technology community is alive and well. And especially here at IDology, since we were named one of the Top 10 Innovative Companies of Georgia during the event!

The keynote speaker was Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired Magazine and author of “The Long Tail.” A few comments in his speech struck me. First is the concept of not limiting choice, but measuring it. To me, this is what Identity 2.0 is all about for businesses– it’s not limiting the choice consumers have but rather measuring (and adapting to) what consumers are comfortable and willing to provide about themselves, given the activity being conducted. Also interesting were the “new scarcities” he defines for the new economy which are attention and reputation, where the past scarcities related to manufacturing and distribution. The currency of these new scarcities is traffic (attention) and links and page ranks (reputation)…of course, most anyone in marketing already knows the value of these scarcities so I’m not sure they are necessarily “new,” just a lot more important.

Admittedly, I haven’t read the book…yet. but I now have a copy which was free in exchange for turning in my name badge. It was the cherry on top to sum up the point of Chris’s whole speech — which discussed Carver Mead‘ s counterintuitive 1980 call to “waste transistors.” In this case Chris is “wasting books,” to create abundance, gain more attention and build his reputation.

Was thinking… wouldn’t it be kind of interesting if there were an attention aggregator for your friending behavior? I mean, being able to see who you’ve friended at many social networks and then inferring other folks you might want to meet would be pretty useful — and as we tend to say — would accelerate serendipity.

And this would go beyond simple XFNing someone — this would actual include identifying and measuring your behavior with and towards each friend over time… for example, do you message them often? Do you recommend links? Who do you always invite or add first?

Anyway, I think I’d like to be able to get friend recommendations and make new connections — kind of like an accelerated LinkedIn… oh well, maybe that’s just me.

So sunny San Fran turned out to be not so sunny this week. But the outlook for identity is definitely very bright!

There were definitely some significant events at the show. First, Symantec’s announcement at DEMO the week before to provide an Identity Service and their demonstration (with our technology supporting it I might add) at RSA definitely made the Symantec booth a place to visit. Symantec’s approach to being an identity provider is fairly comprehensive in terms of helping consumers and businesses tackle the identity problem. And they certainly have the distribution to get consumers behind it approaching the much debated chicken and egg scenario from the analyst community.

The biggest buzz of course was from Microsoft’s announcement to support OpenID. There is much being written about this announcement and the significance it has for Identity 2.0. This definitely indicates that the collaboration of technologies is being embraced by all to create a more open management system for public identities. If you want to read more about this announcement check out this article from the Seattle Post Intelligencer which explains the significance in great non-technical terms for any non-techie readers. You should also check out Kim Cameron’s blog for a more behind the scenes view from Microsoft and technical discussions.

Perhaps one of the most significant things to me was the General Session Panel Discussion on “Pandora’s Box: Youth on the Internet”. Clearly with this high profile focus, the security industry is starting to see the importance age plays in our online world and how we need to provide better ways to protect our children. I think anyone with kids gets this quickly but impressing on the huge dangers the Internet presents to children to those without kids is still very much needed based on a few personal discussions I had at the event.

No matter how good a parent is, the danger is still present. In fact, before the panel discussion began, we learned that 70% of kids ages 10-17 have received sexual solicitation over the Internet and only 27% have told a parent or guardian about it. There were other scary things discussed which you can read about here in the recap article from CNET. But one thing I was a bit disappointed about is the lack of discussion on age verification in social networks. However, I was very encouraged by a comment from Facebook’s Chris Kelly who referred to the fact that we need to develop technology solutions that help provide the same protection standards online as in our bricks and mortar world. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

So, my bottom line on the show? Eventful and worthwhile.