IDENTITY IS THE PLATFORM

Chris Messina • СПбГУ ИТМО • St Petersburg, Russia • October 12, 2009

W H O I THIN K I AM
@chrismessina
etc.
WH O D O Y O U TH IN K YOU AR E?
“ D A TA C AP IT AL”
Death of a Web App
 Kevin Rose

Daniel Burka

Leah Culver

Photo by Mathieu Thouvenin

We’ll be closing down the main Pownce website two weeks from today,
December 15th. Since we’d like for you to have access to all your Pownce
messages, we’ve added an export function. Visit pownce.com/settings/
export/ to generate your export file. You can then import your posts to other
blogging services such as Vox, TypePad, or WordPress.
1. No export of relationships

2. No way to tell my friends where to find me

Logo collage by Stabilo Boss
Logo collage by Meg Pickard
S O C I A L OB JECT S
All this data that we’re creating has value!
A C TI V I TY S T R EAMS
icons by Fast Icon
 Add contact

Dave Recordon Add subscriptions

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Inspired by Jyri Engeström

activitystrea.ms
Identity and data capital matter

icon by Seedling Design

A NE W P L A TFOR M WAR
 VS

Facebook Connect OpenID

“The Internet was built without a way to know who and what
you are connecting to.”
—Kim Cameron, Problem Statement, The Laws of Identity
The Power of Facebook Connect
Establishing a presence on the social Web requires fundamental building
blocks. Facebook provides these essential tools, including identity for a great
registration system, and immediate access to 300 million active global users.
Photo by Mike Wooldridge
 The problem with Facebook Connect is that it
eliminates choice and restricts your digital freedom
O P E N ID
Photo by Teresa Stanton
So, who thinks they have an OpenID?
 Usual suspects

• Google
• Yahoo!
• AOL
• MySpace
• WordPress
• etc
Where can you use your OpenID?
 *Source: Janrain

OpenID adoption across the web continues to grow

UserVoice Identity Providers
Source: Janrain - Why Websites Should Accept Multiple Third Party Identity Account Logins
Interscope Identity Providers
Source: Janrain - Why Websites Should Accept Multiple Third Party Identity Account Logins
sulit.com.ph Identity Providers
Source: Janrain - Why Websites Should Accept Multiple Third Party Identity Account Logins
“We launched OpenID in March 2008 with Highrise.
About 15% of the logins are now using OpenID.”
— David Heinemeier Hansson, 37Signals
“Deployments for their customers – Twitter and
Songbird – are seeing OpenID utilization of 20% or
more.”
— Eric Eldon, VentureBeat
YOU A R E THE P LAT FOR M
These traits make the browser the logical tool for a user -centric
(“you-centric” ??) world.
I DE N TI TY I S TH E P LAT FOR M
 Overview

I. Me at the center
II. Smarter user agents & filters

III. Faceted identity

IV. Data is capital
 I.
Me at the center
Photo by miss:anthrope
Photo by amanda kelso
 Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs

morality,
creativity,
spontaneity,
problem solving,
lack of prejudice,
Self-actualization acceptance of facts
self-esteem, confidence,
achievement, respect of others,
Esteem respect by others

friendship, family, sexual intimacy

Love/belonging
security of: body, employment, resources,
Safety morality, the family, health, property

breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion

Physiological
Growing comfort with real identity
Identity
“My account has now been held hostage for a week,” another reader wrote.
“Some of my friends think that I have deleted (my profile) or even blocked
them... None of my friends or family can see my profile or even find it in
search. It’s as if I simply deleted my account or blocked all of them from
seeing it without even a word.”
 Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs

morality,
creativity,
spontaneity,
problem solving,
lack of prejudice,
Self-actualization acceptance of facts
self-esteem, confidence,
achievement, respect of others,
Esteem respect by others

friendship, family, sexual intimacy

Love/belonging
security of: body, employment, resources,
Safety morality, the family, health, property

breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion

Physiological
 II.
Smarter user agents & filters
Image credit: Mashable
 III.
Faceted identity
Facets, activities, and connections
Photo by Johanna MacDonald
 High school

After high school

Photo by Brian Herzog
 IV.
Data is capital
Photo by Ben Ward
 Overview

I. Me at the center
II. Smarter user agents & filters

III. Faceted identity

IV. Data is capital
 nevacamp nevacamp!

chris@citizenagency.com • @chrismessina • factoryjoe.com

Typeface: FTF Flama™ by Mario Feliciano