While I have eschewed much geekery in the vain attempt to convince you that I am really a rock star (and, thus, somewhat cool), there are things that make my nerdy little heart go thumpety-thump-thump (or pitter-patter pitter-patter, depending on the amount of caffeine I’ve ingested). Identity Commons is one of them.
After reading this article by Doc Searls, I have seen the light at the end of the spam tunnel, and yea, verily, it is good.
In a nutshell, Identity Commons is a grassroots movement to provide a universal private address for all your transactions in both cyberspace and the “real” world. Your i-Name is yours forever and can be used as your unique identifier in all sorts of ways.
For example, since your phone number, address and other contact information is stored with your i-name at your i-broker, you can tell them to automatically notify all of your contacts when something changes. And since the only way someone can e-mail you is to be authenticated through a “contact link”. All anyone knows is your i-name, not your e-mail address. In order for them to send you something, they have to tell you who they are. You can even require them to use their i-name in the contact form. No more spam!
For bloggers, I can see an i-broker account being used to automatically allow/deny comments, too. You won’t have to force your friends to sign up for your blog. Once they’re in your address book, they can be given the green light to post. And it won’t even matter if you change URL’s every six months.
Calm down, Beavis. They’re just getting started. A lot of these portals and nifty features aren’t built yet. The price of admission is $25, and it’s Christmas. So, it ain’t happening for me today. But I’m registering =solonor as my i-name, as soon as possible.
[ via slashdot ]
Ugh. More virtual stuff to deal with.
I suppose it is becoming a necessary evil. yet this one requires $$$, so I’m not all that excited, yet.
ooo my geeky senses are tingling.
I read the Doc Searles piece, and found myself agreeing with the two guys he mentions at the end who basically said “Ugh, not *another* namespace”.
Remember how excited everybody was about “keyword browsing” a few years ago? This sort of smells like that. I also find it very hard to believe that even a small handful of “i-name providers” couldn’t be persuaded with enough cash to start selling off access to the namespace without the explicit approval of the people registered. And then you’d be spammed for all eternity, no matter where you went, because that “i-name” would be able to follow you anywhere. (Which, by the way, is what the marketeers really want in the first place)
Party pooper! ;p
Yes, I thought of those things, too. But I stifled my naturally cynical tendencies for the sake of keeping lit the dim flicker of candle flame that is my faith in humanity. Thanks for snuffing it, ya bastid!
=branfuc*ingtastic …is also feeling the “GROAN not *another* namespace” vibe.
(though i’ve obviously already chosen my future i-name, should i be forced into using one by the same folks who popularized the abhorrent use of bandwidth known as “trackback”.)
Sound pretty promising… it’s a good way to ensure folks can find you even if you change URLs or email addys constantly.