By
doing so, we might not get an instant solution, but we can certainly
obtain precious and unbiased insights into what an acceptable
solution may look like. At least as important, we can
also learn to recognize nonsolutions. By understanding what the
properties are we can??™t do without, we gain a valuable compass
for navigating the problem space toward a solution.
Kim Cameron, an architect at Microsoft, tried to do exactly that.
In 2004, he created a blog, www.identityblog.com, from which
he elicited discussions on identity management. The focus was
on understanding what worked and what didn??™t in current and
past identity management efforts, with an accent on understanding
the deep reasons for why things went one way or the other.
Issues were examined from multiple angles: technology, social
considerations, usability, and privacy. Vendor differences were
suspended in the name of understanding the problem from a
broad industry perspective. No topic was off limits; in fact, one
of the most studied topics was the shortcomings of the most
ambitious universal authentication scheme attempt at the time,
Microsoft Passport. Cameron successfully involved key industry
players and thought leaders from the entire community in the
dialogue, gaining consensus even from the least expected
sources, such as prominent ?¬?gures in the open source world.
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