Crowdhacking, meet Identity Management…

I LOVE Wired. It’s the only magazine I read on regular basis (every issue, actually) for which I DON’T have a subscription. That would deprive me from the pleasure of buying it as soon as I spot it on the shelf, thing that happen with other magazines (I am subscribed to Business2.0: when I see it on the shelf I can’t buy it no matter how appealing the cover story is, because I know I’ll get a copy in the mail). I did this only for another publication in the past, “I cavalieri dello zodiaco” (u may know them as Saint Seya or 聖闘士星矢), so it’s truly a big deal for me:-). 
I also love neologism, when they capture an important concept that didn’t have a name yet. “Crowdhacking” is one of those.

Back to the case on point. In the last issue there is a great article that explores the value of online reputation… and ways of subverting current mechanisms of attributing it/using it. I won’t make here the long dissertation you may expect on how Windows CardSpace and user-centric identification schemes can be of immense help there… first, because I’d like you to read the article first (so I don;t have to recreate its context here before saying my thing); second, because when you are writing a book every moment you spend writing something else makes you feel guilty for falling behind schedule 🙂 The latter is also the reason for which I’m not being very prolific lately, but I promise I’ll try to do something about it in the coming weeks.

There’s really a lot to say on the subject! How reputation is the paradigmatic example of a value that must be retrieved from the IP every time (claims, anyone?), how using token based authentication may suddenly make unattractive to the bad guys a number of botlike attacks, how being able to package a reputation statement in a handy token could truly allow promt reuse across many services (user centered federation, anyone?)…  I’ll make a followup post, but if you have thoughts on the above feel free to comment and start the conversation. Be bold 😉