IDENTITY IS THE PLATFORM
Chris Messina • sLab, OCAD Building • Toronto, Ontario • October 20, 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

Photo by Mathieu Thouvenin

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 leave a forwarding address

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

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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

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

Attributes, activities, and connections

Photo by Johanna MacDonald

High school

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

A call to arms.

The end.
chris@citizenagency.com • @chrismessina • factoryjoe.com
Typeface: FTF Flama™ by Mario Feliciano