HyperScope Talk at Planetwork

I’ll be giving a brief presentation on HyperScope this Thursday at the Planetwork Forum, 6-9pm at Stanford University (450 Serra Mall, Building 460, Room 126). The event is free, and the other talks look great as well:    (L6D)

Please stop by if you’re nearby!    (L6H)

Also, for those of you attending EuroOSCON, Brad Neuberg will also be presenting this Thursday. His talk is entitled, “Douglas Engelbart’s HyperScope: Taking Web Collaboration to the Next Level Using Ajax and Dojo.”    (L6I)

Congratulations, Kaliya!

Congratulations to Kaliya Hamlin, aka Identity Woman, for winning the Digital ID World yearly award this past week. You’ve likely met Kaliya, although you may not know much about her. In short, Kaliya is one of the most unique individuals I’ve ever met, and she’s a template for how to be successful in life. The template? Pursue your passions unabashedly, barriers be damned. She’s neither a technologist, an academic, nor an entrepreneur (although she certainly has an entrepreneurial spirit). She made Digital Identity (among other things) her field not out of ivory tower interest, but because she realized that it would have a tremendous impact on the things she cared about in the world: spiritual activism and saving the world. How does she do it? Pure doggedness. She’s not afraid to learn, and she’s not afraid to be persistent, qualities that have helped her succeed.    (L61)

I vividly remember the first time we met at a Planetwork Forum meeting in 2003. Jim Fournier had asked me to help integrate Collaborative Tools into the 2003 Planetwork Conference experience, and I gave a brief talk at the forum describing what I was about and what my plans for the conference were. Kaliya approached me afterwards and gave me the names of three people I had to talk to. It’s been like that ever since.    (L62)

It’s been fantastic watching Kaliya grow and succeed over the past few years. Everyone in this community knows who she is, and I’m thrilled that she’s getting this recognition so that the wider community realizes it as well.    (L63)

OpenID 2.0 Developer Day, August 10

Two important OpenID developments to announce. First, there are a bunch of $5K bounties available for folks who integrate OpenID into Open Source projects. You heard me right — you can get some cash for doing something you probably want to do anyway. Second, Kaliya Hamlin announced an OpenID developer day in Berkeley next Thursday, August 10, from 6-9pm. The lineup includes David Recordon, Andy Dale, Mary Hodder, and Scott Kveton. I’m going to try to show, and I hope many of you do the same.    (KWN)

Identity Commons Sessions Summary (June 21, 2006)

There were two sessions on Identity Commons on the Open Space day (June 21, 2006) at the Identity Mashup at the MIT Media Lab last week. The first session was an open status meeting for the community at large. We described Identity Commons‘s purpose, told the history of the organization, then explained how the organization could serve the community today and why the existing organizational structure wasn’t adequate. We then announced that the current trustees had authorized a brand transfer, assuming that the new organization adopted purposes and principles consistent with the current purposes and principles.    (KQL)

Both sessions were well-attended, and there were a number of new faces. Interest in participation seemed strong.    (KQM)

In brief:    (KQN)

  • There are a number of grassroots community projects that involve multiple stakeholders and that are happening independently of any centralized direction.    (KQO)
  • These decentralized efforts could all benefit from some shared infrastructure, which could be as simple as a shared, neutral brand (i.e. “Identity Commons“) or as complicated as a set of rules that help ensure fair participation and governance among multiple parties.    (KQP)
  • Our strategy is to build an organization organically that addresses the needs of these different community projects.    (KQQ)

Current projects/interests (and stewards) include:    (KQR)

These projects could benefit from things like:    (KR1)

  • Shared name. The importance of this can’t be understated. It demonstrates solidarity, implicit community cooperation, which is particularly important for this community. There’s also an implicit reputation (hopefully positive) associated with a shared name that encourages participation in the community.    (KR2)
  • Bank account. Several of these projects need a bank account. A great example of this are the various community gatherings, which need the ability to accept registrations and spend money on things like space rental and food.    (KR3)
  • Online community space. Many of these groups are already using mailing lists and Wikis for discussion and group authoring. It would simplify things for new groups if these resources were easily available to those who wanted them. It would also benefit the community at large if some of these groups had their discussions on a shared space as opposed to separate silos.    (KR4)
  • Governance and process. Some fundamental guidelines can help all groups facilitate cooperation and participation from all stakeholders.    (KR5)

Eventually, what we’re currently calling “Identity Commons 2.0” will need:    (KR6)

  • legal entity w/ bylaws and membership criteria    (KR7)
  • financial model    (KR8)
  • intellectual property agreement (potentially using Apache Software Foundation as a model)    (KR9)

Our strategy for addressing these needs is to attack the low-hanging fruit first and to let the projects drive the priorities of the organization. We will start by forming an organizational working group consisting of the stewards of each of the working groups described above as well as anyone else from the community who wants to join. Its first meeting is a teleconference tentatively scheduled for next Thursday, July 6 at 9am PT, pending confirmation from the different stewards. (Details to be announced on the community mailing list.)    (KRA)

Organizational policy should be as lightweight as possible, giving each working group the option of customizing them to fit their needs.    (KRB)

We will use the community mailing list for discussion. We will also setup a Wiki, leveraging the work Jon Ramer did for Identity Mashup. We will look into merging some of the other Wikis, such as Identity Gang, into this new Wiki.    (KRC)

Who will decide what working groups form or what collaborative tools we’ll use? In general, if someone wants to propose something that’s consistent with the purposes and principles, the answer is “yes” — provided someone is going to steward the proposal.    (KRD)