Identifier

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Full Title or Meme

An identifier is basically a name that is assigned to a digital Entity or even to a single digital interchange (like a Session ID or cookie).

Context

  • In this wiki all Identifiers apply only to digital entities which includes data base entries, like User Objects. Real-world names are considered to be merely Attributes.
  • There is no meaningful distinction between a name and an Identifier.

Problems

  • There is a very real confusion in the real-world as to the meaning of terms used in Identity Management.
  • Lots of the energy spent by philosophers revolves around verbalism, or arguing about the meaning of words.
  • The page on Knowledge discusses these problems in more detail. (tl;dr)
  • The connection between digital entity identifiers and legal, or real-world identifiers is typically hazy.
    • The concept of Levels of Assurance (LOA) was introduced as a measure of the likelihood that a digital identifier really was the same as a real-world identifier.

Asymmetry

Clearly any large corporation has an immense advantage in every part of their relationship to a single human being. It is only the rule of law that prevents then from dictating every aspect of the interchange between each party. The wiki page Trusted Identifier drills into the impact of this asymmetry.

Solutions

This wiki seeks to have a common understanding. So terms are given more precise meaning in order that the statements made here can be more logically precise.

These should all be testable on at least one of:

References

  • The wiki page Trusted Identifier addresses the use of digital identifiers that carry some level of trust with them.