I ran a session Wed afternoon that discussed how people use identity on and offline. Here are my copious notes. Please feel free to make comments. Especially if you attended and remembered additional info.
The Agenda
- How someone uses identity offline
- How someone uses identity online
Observations about Online Behavior around Identity
- I can ask questions that I might not ask in person
- A new layer of human expression
- I get to create my online identity.
- You’re not as easily recognized.
- People are programmed to be social, to have feelings for real creatures – the computer is not one of these.
- It changes when you see someone on video.
- Online is less emotionally bound
- Other people are not as strongly bound to your online identity. (Think after you have met someone, which identity super cedes the other?)
- A greater ease of changing the thing that is an identity on line.
- Online, you can create a new identity and throw the old one away.
- Identification online is fractured. It’s what I say it is. It’s who I display myself to be
Offline Behavior
- Most identities in the real world are created by other people.
- When you are online – you can make yourself.
- It’s not possible to have real friends that help you online.
- “I only need to meet you once”
- Context – once I met him, everything changed. I knew his context
- ComicCon vs Second Life: what is the difference?
- In real-life – it’s hard to change your identity - you have to get plastic surgery
- Loyalty is not revealed in real life
Identity is
- socially constructed
- a function of the investment: emotional, time
- simultaneous (in the real world you can switch identities in 2 feet (hi mom!))
How does online identity change your offline identity?
What is the Value to build your online identity?
What is the cost to kill that identity?
What was the cost to Kathy Sierra, when she killed her online identity?
On Credentials & Identifiers
- Validity is controlled by the provider
- Who creates the credentials?
- Credentials are not identity, they are an identifier
- Verification is not identity, nor the proof of the identifier. It’s just matching.
- You present your credentials and they are verified. This happens in the real world, but most of the time your credentials are verified differently (like face to face)
- Transactions are easy to talk about because they are identifiers
- Credit cards – are similar to email addresses – you can put any name you want on it
Validation in the real world
You never present credentials in the real world. Your face is a credential. You’re validated/verified just by being here in front of me. I’m authenticating you (as a real human being here in front of me – woman, dark hair, tall, language you speak, etc.)
Examples in Identity, Verification and Proof
In Person. I come up to you:
1. Recognition – you see me
2. I say: “Hi, I’m Hillary Clinton!”
3. You ask yourself: is the claim true?
In transaction terms
4. I provide the card
5. Match for verification
6. Verification is a binding between a credential and self. It shows that I am the owner of this (say a credit card). But does not necessarily prove that I am who I say I am.
Business aspect transaction are much easier to distill than social. (mostly because of matching=verifying the match is true, not proving the truth of the claim.)
On Matching, and Truth
What is being matched?
- Is the Claim True
- Do the claims match
- Match of users to credential
- Match of person to previous history
Note: It is not necessarily a 1:1 binding of person to identity. See the following examples:
James Bond is a legitimate credential.
The British Home Office have granted a real passport to actor DANIEL CRAIG under the name of his 007 character JAMES BOND. The passport was given to film production company Eon in order to add some authenticity to the successful British film. To keep with security requirements however, the document is supposed to be returned to the Home Office. JOHN REID, the British Home Secretary says, "The Identity and Passport Service require such passports to be returned and destroyed immediately after use." However a representative for film company Eon claims, "They haven't asked for it so we'll be keeping it indefinitely.
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/craig%20granted%20real%20007%20passport_1026014
Another example
Virtual persons operated by real persons aren’t held accountable to the actions of the virtual personality. In the case of virtual people owning multiple companies.
Another example:
The witness protection program
Real Identity + Cover identity
There is still some connection to the real identity. Friends/family
Movie Stars – Fame
I’m a real person and I’m famous.
A name doesn’t mean a thing named.
A corporation is an embodiment
What do people want to do?
- Decide who they are, not dependent of who they are other places. Not carrying attributes from one context to another. Both online and offline. (Hey, I’m in my work persona, don’t judge me on this suit. Or hey, I’m walking the dog, don’t pay attention that I’m not wearing make-up)
- Carry their credibility from one context to another. Ability to carry attributes from one context to another. I have good credit, I must be a good person.
- Interface behaving differently from the system (I don’t remember what this means) someone….
On Safety
Things that feel safe should be safe
Things that aren’t safe shouldn’t be safe
Cardspace is trying to match it to what is real.
And Being Online
Web of Compassionate Discretion
Privacy
Match social queues
Sneaking out to go fishing
Religions that were frowned upon – you had to be secretive to participate
If you have any other notes, or questions, please leave a comment!
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