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Archive for November, 2008

Google Apps: Problems with Identity

November 20th, 2008
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CNN is running an article, The hidden cost of Google Apps, which describes a familiar problem. Seems that due to the combination of cookies, “remember me” settings, and other hidden recall devices, users have a hard time using Google Apps for more than one user, more than one account, or more than one application. This is a serious problem!

The author laments:

The confusion gets worse if you share PCs. For three months, Google Talk was convinced that I was Nick, my assistant. We finally figured out that we had shared that test computer – he had once logged in as himself on the machine that I was now using, and logging in as myself to Google Apps hadn’t cleared out that setting in the browser’s memory. We had to fully wipe the cache to allow me to switch back to … well, me.

Linda, my head of operations, had her personal Google Calendar account swapped for her business identity on my Google Calendar about the same period. Until we figured out the goof, she missed a bunch of meetings. And to this day, after more than six months of using Google Apps, I still get e-mail invitations addressed to Dan, our intern. Somehow, Google thinks I am him. He missed last week’s meeting in part because he never got an invitation.

This problem represents a shift from using your own computer to do all things, to using your computer to do context-sensitive things. For example, are you doing things for work? Personal use? for someone else? You had better remember to stop and log out each time you want to change your context, or better yet (as in Google’s case), never use more than one computer for one user and one purpose. (Ouch!)

Coaching moment: This is another example of a push to define and keep separate our relationships between home and work computing. In practice, our lines are blurred. Have you ever checked your home email while at work? Many people have. Has it ever happened that someone that you know sent an email message from the wrong account? While the learning curve is steep and harsh, the separation isn’t always a bad thing.

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Authentication

November 18th, 2008
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When something is authentic, that means the claims made about it (or by it) are true. To authenticate something or someone means to gather evidence sufficient for you to believe that it is as claimed.

For example, I may be authenticated by seeing and talking to me (if you know me), or by my DNA (if there is some reason to require that level of certainty). A driver’s license will also work as authentication to prove I have sufficient privileges to drive or buy adult beverages.

In the case of ATMs and debit cards, you need to prove who you are by providing your card and a secret PIN (personal identification number). Similarly, when you log into most online services, you have a user name and a password. This is called two-factor authentication. That means you need two pieces to prove who you are.

Two factor authentication is supposed to be more secure than single factor (one bit of information). However, many of us use the same user name and password for many or all of our online sites. In this case, it is easy for others who know (or learn) your combination to access many of your services. Is this a risk you are comfortable taking?

Contrast that with people who use different names, passwords, birthdates, and other data on each site. These people may have a hard time remembering all of the different data that they’ve provided, so it might be hard for them to prove that they are who they say they are. Has this ever happened to you?

Coaching moment: There are tools being developed to help you maintain and control your passwords. You might be interested in checking out Vidoop or Sxipper for two browser-based approaches. In a future post we’ll also look at OpenID as a different approach to authenticating yourself.

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How much of your identity do you own?

November 14th, 2008
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Credit card companies (Visa, Mastercard, et al) have long held that they own your purchasing data. It’s your purchase but it’s their data. Moreover, they can buy/sell/trade/compile/organize/use it in any way that makes them a profit (providing it’s not explicitly illegal).

Similarly, the telephone companies consider the phone numbers you dial and the numbers from people calling you to belong to the telephone company. That’s why they can charge you extra for publishing a “caller ID.”

At the Internet Identity Workshop I attended earlier this week, some people were pointing out that your fingerprints are not really yours either. They are considered “public” because you leave them all over. Your fingers are yours, but as far as using prints for identification they’re more akin to, say, a signature.

What other little bits of you are you leaving behind for others to own?

Coaching moment: There are people who have been working for years on each side of this problem. The efforts are still early, but some of the people I met at the IIW conference are working on ways to let you take control of some of the bits of “you” that you leave behind. Watch this site for more information.

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Digital Identity and PodCamp Hawaii

November 12th, 2008
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Last month Hawaii saw it’s first PodCamp/WordCamp. Roxanne Darling of Bare Feet Studios rallied an amazing line-up of sponsors. Over 400 people (including some representing their businesses) came to learn from a diverse and talented group of speakers, who were talking about WordPress and blogging, tweeting, Podcasting (video and audio-casting), Social Media, and Business Uses of these concepts.

What does this have to do with identity?

Everything. The tools we learned about are all tools for self-expression. The Web, audio and video are tools to help us show and explain the world that we are part of. They give voice to the beautiful, the ironic, the funny, and the learning parts of life. We have the power, expanded by these tools, to share our own stories.

What did PodCamp Hawaii have to do with business?

Everything.

Businesses have an identity and express themselves too. Marketers call the business identity a “brand,” and protect it with intellectual property laws (copyrights, trademarks, etc.). Sounds so cold, doesn’t it?

It doesn’t have to be. Businesses can (and many do) use social media tools to express themselves in a more personal way with their clients and customers. Businesses are “reaching out” and learning to interact. Just like any learning process, some are better at this than others. It takes practice.

Coaching moment: we use language to show or withhold respect for others. Before your business engages in using new tools, check your language and metaphor defaults: have you “won” your customers because of “successful campaigns” on the marketing “battlefield?” Or have you welcomed your customers to help make your business successful? The former is closed and hostile. The latter opens doors for all kinds of beneficial conversations.

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Scattered!

November 11th, 2008
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This last month has been hectic. I helped with PodCamp and Wordcamp Hawaii, the first podcamp held in Hawaii. It was all-consuming, and wildly successful.

I have several posts in the queue. Notably, I’m at the Internet Identity Workshop right now, so you’ll be seeing notes from the conference soon.

Coaching moment: Sometimes we are not ourselves. Despite our best intent, other priorities get in our way. It’s often helpful to take a few deep breaths, observe our state of mind, another few deep breaths, and get on with business. We’ll be back to “normal” (as it is for each of us) soon enough.

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