By Mark DiFraia, IDESG Secretary and At Large Delegate; Senior Director of Market Development, MorphoTrust
This has been quite the week in identity. The Global Identity Summit brought many of the leaders in the identity space together in Tampa to hear from experts, share ideas and see what’s new and promising in the world of identity. Right on the back of that, the Identity Ecosystem Steering Group converged on the convention center to pick up our critical work during the Plenary meeting. On Tuesday morning I gave a talk at the opening of the Global Identity Summit pointing out that “It is our time” to “Rise up” and become the greatest generation for identity. It is our time because the revenue growth of our industry is on the rise fueling innovation… It is our time because we have the industry organizations that can lead the way (IDESG included)…It is our time because we have the talented and skilled people we need to do the work and… It is our time because we have a challenge worthy of our collective best efforts. It is our time to lead the way here at IDESG and our soon to be launch ecosystem framework is a big part of the story.
As a board member here at IDESG I couldn’t be happier with the level of effort, professionalism and tenacity I am seeing from our organization. The online community needs the guide posts we are providing to inform their efforts in protecting identities and we are close to giving them exactly that. What I am especially proud of is the mature adjustments in work streams that took place to transform this Plenary into the in-person workshop event that it has become for this specific gathering. This change is giving the pilots and our committees the time and space they need to work through the areas that need more review and discussion prior to publishing version 1 of the framework. I know that will result in the best possible product and is a fantastic use of our time here in Tampa together.
Selfishly, as an NSTIC pilot (now multiple pilots thanks to this week’s announcement by NIST) we want the guidance the framework provides to ensure we are truly delivering on the NSTIC principles. It is also important to us that we are making investments aimed in direction that our industry is going. We need IDESG to be successful and we need the market to orient itself around our framework to be sure our investments in the future are well placed. Version 1 of the framework is critical to setting that direction in that it will pave the way for our first self-attestations. With those first listing examples clearly visible to the identity marketplace, we will have set the ground work needed to drive the NSTIC principles into the mainstream.
As I wrap up this post I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that we are headed into perhaps the most critical time in our organization’s history. Delivering “Real Value” will ultimately determine our future as an organization. Even more important, it will determine whether or not we will be able to deliver on our goal of embedding the NSTIC principles into the online world. I know we will be successful because we have the people, the work products and a challenge worthy of our best efforts. Thank you all for “Rising Up” to the challenge and setting the identity direction our world desperately needs.