Gavin Bell from Nature just gave an interesting talk about how this OpenID stuff applies to educational institutions. To be honest I wasn't listening terribly hard as I was still pondering the conversation I had with Paul Walk during the coffee break...

Anyway. Here's Nicole Harris from JISC. She's not going to talk about OpenID at all, apparently

Nicole is making some very interesting points around the facets of identity: it's not only who we are but also what we like and what we are allowed to do. The way in which people are connected to resources is an important part of identity, but disconnecting identity from resources is important as well. 

The question about whether users are actually responsible enough to look after their own identities is an interesting one. We've all clicked through that screen (the one that asks about how much access to your data you allow) when adding Facebook apps. Ditto with the standard "certificate expired": none of us are really savvy enough to make these decisions about our data. This then brings in the question of how much responsibility the institution has in this space...

I must say, I struggle with the notion that people actually care that much about exposing (bits of) their identities online. I'm pretty sure that Facebook wouldn't be anywhere near as popular if we did. Of course, privacy is hugely important - and defining the edges of what is acceptable exposure for each and every one of us is crucial. But I'd be fascinated to see any research which defined where these edges usually occur. I'm happy, for example, to have my name, date of birth, blog address, job title, employer, country, town - exposed as much as anyone cares to expose it. I'd draw the line however at home address, email (mainly because of spam), phone number, etc.

But then, thinking about it: within the context of Facebook, I'm happy to post up pictures of my kids, my wife, etc. This implies some kind of absolute trust with the site: a trust which most FB users will also share. Ultimately, this is an unfounded trust: I have no idea who Facebook is or what they actually plan to do with my data...

More importantly, it's lunchtime...