Indentity Management (IdM):

Identity Management, or IdM in short, is ‘hot’ in the Information & Communication Technology branch, especially related to Government. But also related to other new developments such as Microsofts new operating system Vista.
IdM is becoming ‘big business’, and a Cash Cow for the ICT industry.

But in fact, IdM is as old as the world itself. Its simply about identifying relevant identities in a specific context… That’s it: Identifying relevant identities in a specific context. For example: a farmer identifying individual cows within his herd to determine the right food for each specific cow. And, IdM is not identifying the farmer for those cows… For that’s irrelevant; cows just don’t care. They don’t need to know…

There are good reasons for wanting to grasp that true meaning of Identity Management. For one: It will avoid calling the gathering of irrelevant personal information Identity Management. And two, more importantly: it will help you avoid revealing and supplying irrelevant personal information under the IdM pretense.

So-called IdM in present ICT systems, and in the context of 9-11, terrorism and identity fraud, is fueled by fear and based on distrust. This fundamental distrust paradoxically leads to unquestioned trust in… thousands of ICT applications, systems and solutions. A huge herd of ICT Cash Cows… But the sign reads: DO NOT FEED THE COWS.
Why? Because these systems, and the organizations that ‘buy’ these hungry cows, obviously missed the boat on ‘context’ and ‘relevance’ of ‘real’ IdM.

ICT that truly enables IdM has emerged, but in fact all the obsolete technology within legacy-ICT, as in plain ‘automating’ and as in mere ‘facilitating’, simply obstruct the application of this new, enabling technology. I must say it: for most of the established so-called experts in ICT, the world is still flat…

Also, the cash-cow feeders, or clients, are often ignorant. Or, more seriously, they are willing partners in keeping new and innovative alternatives under wraps in order to allow all kinds of Big Brothers do their invasive thing… They may recite noble causes for their doings, and even believe it themselves… But pre-empting relevance by binging on information is unnecessary, inefficient and, extremely ineffective. But above all: it is simply wrong! And it is also extremely costly, and therefore extremely ‘beneficial’ to those who serve the binging party. Hence today’s ICT Business reality in Identity Management.

Back to you: WHO ARE YOU?  (See Dick Hardt's talk on Identity 2.0)
Do you understand that the only right answer to that question is another question:
WHO AM I TO WHOM? You see: I am the father… to my children. The husband… to my wife. The citizen… to my country. I am nobody to the crowd… That is reality! At least today… Read carefully: Each specific context determines the absolute relevance of specific information, at a specific moment in time. Period. Anything more is like downloading the entire internet to your PC, ‘just in case’… and calling thát Identity Management.
No-one in their right mind does that, for obvious reasons… Yet, governments increasingly pursue the gathering of all kinds of personal information, completely irrelevant of context yet, as a noble cause all in its own right. And commercial organizations gather, store and manipulate huge amounts of personal information to be used in their own context-to-be: their future business. They may call it ‘war on terror’ or ‘customer service’, but without specific consent by the true owner of the information, by you, it is just plain theft.
And, unlike the cows: you should care!

But there is some light appearing at the end of the tunnel. Paradoxically it is in part ignited by the divide-and-conquer business-results of the established ICT manufacturers themselves. You see; the present disconnected forest of ICT solutions is starting to implode due to its sheer diversity and lack of overall architecture...
Clients begin to notice…
Slowly realization by governments and by all other organizations, that they each pay a high price for each of their overlapping systems, emerges. And also realization that each individual party will be paying an even higher price for connecting that enormous herd of isolated systems. There are also individuals and organizations that start reclaiming their birthright of controlling and managing their own information.

Most light at the end of the tunnel, piercing through that forest of ICT systems, comes from new and truly innovative concepts and information technology. These new insights and technologies, and their application within Identity Management, will even allow for distrust, the present basis for IdM, to be replaced by a completely new and revolutionary basis: REALITY. Just think about it: enabling Identity Management based on reality, instead of distrust…
Isn’t that what we all wanted in the first place???

So you, whoever you are, you can and will control and manage your information. This new enabling technology will make it so. And it will eventually replace all previous ineffective, overlapping and obsolete ‘systems’. All those cash cows will die within the next couple of years…

Meanwhile some ICT organizations truly seek to innovate. They honestly wish to educate themselves on (real) new technology, this new ‘species of cow’. Well, as long as they honor your birthrights and the needs of all those requiring information at a specific time, within a specific context and of a specific nature, they deserve our blessings.

They may even turn this ‘new species of cow’ into a new Cash Cow…
That’s OK, for then we all win and, unlike now, there will be no losers.