| | JAN - FEB 20269EUROPEEUROPETECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS THAT DRIVE EDUCATION SECTORPredicated on blockchain technology, a sovereign identity offers the digital equivalent of an ID that belongs to you, not a third party.in with Apple.' As this SSO sprawl moves into the enterprise, we are tasked with figuring out what happens when staff mistakenly link to a personal Gmail, or how to maintain multifactor across authentication mechanisms. Still less painful than hundreds of unmanaged user accounts and separate passwords, but lots to sort out, nonetheless.Ironically, we are making choices in our personal lives as to which tech company will represent our identity, while lawsuits and news about how those same companies fail us in privacy and security are commonplace. And in the enterprise, the calculus is much the same, balancing privacy and security with the convenience of fewer passwords. But it prompts the question of why. Why do we need massive tech companies guaranteeing our personal identity?There are examples of government-backed digital IDs. The European Union, typically more progressive in the areas of digital privacy, is moving forward with a Digital ID wallet for member states that aims to provide digital identification starting in 2023. Both the concept and possibilities are equally interesting, but the execution of a digital ID is what I think most about. It elicits the sovereign identity movement that organizations like CIRA have highlighted the potentiality of. Predicated on blockchain technology, a sovereign identity offers the digital equivalent of an ID that belongs to you, not a third party. Blockchain often evokes thoughts of bitcoin and NFTs, and the corresponding scratching of chins as to the long-term relevance. It is a fair criticism. Keep in mind the early web was synonymous with animated GIFs and brightly-colored blogs. The underlying technology showed promise even when the execution was questionable.The key feature of a sovereign identity is the same reality you have had in your wallet since you were 16 years old. You get to control who sees your ID. You grant and revoke access to your digital ID in the blockchain (like you would for bitcoin or NFT) in the same way you decided who among your friends got to see your embarrassing driver's license photo. Yes, there are many issues to work out, such as privacy, anonymity, and security. Yes, the news is filled with bitcoin heists and NFT strangeness. But the underlying technologies and ideas behind Web3 seem to have real promise. Skepticism is understandable, but how straight is the line from GIF-peppered GeoCities sites of the 90s to modern online banking? Perhaps young IT pros of today will be the seasoned IT pros of a future when for-profit identity providers seem as ridiculous as the GIF-laden Myspace pages the current seasoned pros built in the 90s.And for those curious, the SSO maxim held true. We did not end up going with the software that required a separate username and password. In an interesting plot twist, I got to employ a second maxim, 'only build what you cannot buy,' and we ended up writing our own assessment software, complete with SSO and LDAP for teacher, student, and class rostering with PowerBI for reporting. A somewhat rare win/win for credos.
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