This session features an odyssey across the landscape of conceptions and practices of “Identity” starting from the pre-internet history, through early digital identity approaches of the Internet´s insular inception, the abstractions of institutional identity centralization and leading to today’s decentralized identity innovations. All of this sets the stage for anticipating radically distributed interaction and identity futures for an Upgraded Reality where hybrid digital and analog forms support functional identity.
Panelists and participants will offer multiple practical perspectives on identity to help guide you through the historical developments of Digital Identity. The historical perspective reveals at least 4 main periods.
- The earliest simplified forms at the inception of the Internet reflected data-centric identity patterns derived from human relationships in pre-Internet physical spaces.
- A second stage saw identity structured to address the needs of powerful but siloed commercial and governmental institutions and the rise of centralized Identity & Access Management Systems.
- A third (and current stage) is driven by the recognition and realization of the scalability benefits of user-centric and community-based forms of “Decentralized Identity.”
- Finally, we will explore potential Identity futures that may see radically distributed and localized identity forms of identity supported by various forms of powerful AI and computational intelligence.
In all periods, “identity” systems have been designed, developed and operated to provide highly reliable and adaptable systems through which we all recognize, remember and respond to each other and other entities. This next stage of digital identity will help foster the mutual hybridization of people with AI systems and host the systems of spatial computing, where analog and digital worlds merge to an upgraded reality.
Engage with us as we analyze how current and future forms of Decentralized and Distributed Identity are gaining adoption in global standards in various business, operating, legal, technical and social domains. These historical trends will help reveal interventions through which we can all work towards reliable, predictable, trustworthy, user-centric, and privacy-aware practices and ensuring robust protections of individual rights in a future dominated by AI and other forms of computational intelligence.
Let’s explore together:
- The Foundations of Digital Identity: Examining the initial structures of digital identity in the early internet era and the business, operating, legal, technical and social (BOLTS) factors that drove its evolution.
- Centralized Identity & Access Management Systems: An evaluation of centralized frameworks, their advantages, and the associated challenges related to control, privacy, and security.
- Decentralized Identity – Unleashing a New Era: Exploring the mechanics, potential, and critical role of Decentralized Identity in creating a more secure and user-centric digital world.
- Extending Identity and Safeguarding Privacy in the AI Era: Discussing how Decentralized Identity will evolve radically distributed forms that will be pivotal in protecting privacy and empowering individuals in a world increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence.
- Envisioning the Future - The Global Impact of Functional Distributed Identity Infrastructures: Looking ahead, understanding how these privacy-aware standards are transforming into fundamental rights in our interconnected digital society.
We hope that you will join us and contribute to this journey of exploration tailored for innovators, thought leaders, and advocates of a high integrity, functional, secure and private digital future. Uncover the complexities, challenges, and untapped opportunities of Digital Identity with KuppingerCole Analysts, guided by the provocative inquiries of Dr. Scott David.
