Primer on Functional Identity
At Rebooting the Web of Trust I found this very nice Primer on Functional Identity that explains Identity Systems, also from the layman’s perspective.
It defines Identity as:
Identity is how we recognize, remember, and ultimately respond to specific people and things.
On Identity Systems:
An identity system is a collection of tools and techniques used to keep track of people and things.
Every person uses an identity system. It is used to discern friends and family, people we trust from complete strangers, for instance. It comes natural to us. Yet on the internet there exists no good system to determine identity yet. With our pervasive use of the internet it is vital that we get such a system in place, and a system that implements identity the right way, as:
“[There] are legitimate abuses of identity feared by civil libertarians and freedom-minded people everywhere. When we talk about identity systems, we are necessarily talking about how we keep track of people and things. Do it badly and we risk accidentally building our own Panopticon prison. Fortunately, by understanding how identity functions, we can avoid, mitigate, and minimize such abuses.”