This new way of managing identities is what I call "The Next Identity Model," and it turns the current and archaic identity model on its head by divorcing one's identity from the data.
Confused? Don't be. Soon, In the Next Identity Model, consumers and businesses alike will align with an identity broker to ensure the validity of each other in a transaction.
Think of it this way: your identity, often one of many username and password combinations today, is tied to each site you visit, each transaction you make. The Next Identity Model dictates that your identity will live outside of any site, any transaction, and become a thing of value, an actual asset, unto itself.
Think also of what happened in the banking industry. In the past, people had to physically walk into their specific bank to obtain cash. Today, with ATMs, all one need do is, with a simple four-digit number and a piece of plastic, prove their identity from virtually any point on the globe. Armed with this proof, the bank follows the bank customer, instead of the other way around. Unlike with the early years of credit, the ATM user is not required to carry scores of different money machine cards. The identity of the ATM holder, the bank customer, is divorced form the bank that originally issued the ATM card.
The Next Identity Model works much the same way. It is the only sensible answer to slaying the identity dragon and preventing Costanza-like problems within your own identity wallet. In this brave, new world, your identity will follow you and not be inherently linked to whatever specific transaction you're performing at the moment.
The benefits of this will be plentiful. It will be simple, flexible and easy-to-use, and you will control your identity; not all of the companies with which you do business. Of course, you likely will be subjected to small, monthly fee and businesses will be charged a small percentage of the transaction, for example, but isn't that much better than the current and onerous system?
Change is coming. Listen to "Your Inner Jerry." When it's all said and done, identity really will be a "problem about nothing." The Next Identity Model promises to be an "Identity Festivus for the rest of us."
Yada, yada, yada.
David Miller is Chief Security Officer for Covisint, where he is responsible for internal and external system architecture security issues for e-business exchange. In addition, Miller directs the identity management offering at Covisint, which currently secures access for automotive, healthcare and government customers.