Federal
CIO Vivek Kundra’s announcement at the Gov 2.0 Summit that the government would
adopt open identity technologies last week made shockwaves from one end of the
politically-conscious computer nerd
world to the other.
“Make no
mistake about it: this has the potential to change the way citizens participate
in and communicate with the U.S. government,” wrote Robin Wauters of
TechCrunch. Kim Cameron, Chief
Identity Architect for Microsoft, called the agreement “groundbreaking.” And
the reaction from those not versed in the jargon of information technology or
government bureaucracy? Head scratching, eye glazing, and an intense lack of
interest – if they even noticed in the first place.
But when such a lauded coterie as open source guru Chris
Messina, National Institutes of Health CIO Dr. Jack Jones (not to be confused
with The Love Boat singer), and Kundra
all insist on the importance of a technology for the future of democracy, one
best take what they say seriously.
The announced program intends to implement two different
security technologies at NIH, the Center for Information Technology and the
Department of Health and Human Services, in an effort to promote communication
and interaction between the government and citizens.
The two technologies are known as OpenID and InfoCard, and
are systems by which a user can visit different websites – linked into one
overarching ‘trust network’ – while utilizing a single online account. Under
this technology, for example, a theoretical user logs into a base account –
called the identity provider – after which he or she can navigate freely from
e-mail to banking sites to any other trusted site that requires security
information, without ever having to reenter that data.
Many people already do this without even thinking about it.
The best example might be Google or Yahoo! accounts, to which people log in
once and then take advantage of an array of services: they check e-mail,
instant message, shop, share documents, and more. Facebook, Twitter, and other
similar Web 2.0 applications operate similarly, with account info that can be
passed to other providers.
Never before has this model been used by the government,
however, a fact which has its roots in the nature of trust networks. In order
for this technology to work, there needs to exist an environment in which users
can entrust their private data to a particular identity provider.
On the OpenID website, the organization suggests that the
government is an undesirable identity provider for several reasons: that
citizens would object to turning over such private information to the
government; that building such a database would be doing work already
accomplished by private industry, and thus wasted effort; that innovation would
stagnate without the pressures of the market; that citizens should be able to
choose an identity provider they trust; and that it would be more costly for
the government than private industry. Pretty strong arguments, all.
The identity providers in this particular program would be
companies already boasting large numbers of private accounts, and open identity
capabilities. They include: Google, Yahoo!, PayPal, AOL, VeriSign, Citi,
Equifax, Acxiom, Privo and Wave Systems. Users, after logging into their
accounts through these providers, will be able to navigate their personal pages
at websites for the departments and agencies involved with the program. The idea is to provide a more personal,
interactive web experience for citizens, rather than offer the typical,
barebones text and contact info fare, derisively referred to as ‘brochureware.’
OpenID’s website touts both technologies’ ability to do
three key things. It promises to lessen the number of login screens a user will
face when navigating secure websites, to make a user’s web identity more
consistent, and to fill out forms from stock data with the click of a
button.
The next big thing in democracy, as promised by the
technoratti in the wake of the announcement? Hardly. A more efficient government
catering to a busy, harried citizenry? Certainly. And I’ll take it.
Related Stories:
[+] White House pushes open identity initiative at Gov 2.0
[+] Obama to publish White House visitor logs
[+] Gov 2.0 Expo kicks off week of ideas