More on a Role...

I do a lot of work with a Fortune 5 that is the largest market capitalized company in the US and have spent a lot of time thinking about roles as they relate to identity at the micro level, i.e. inside an organization. Even at the micro level will we ever be able to replicate the intricasises of the human mind and experience in the digital realm?

At a company/employer I have a title and a role, and other static information that is associated with me, or in the case of a corporate identity, my name. My name keys off a serious of other data (currency) about me, or put another way, the different pieces of currency add up to a relative value of me an employee.

When I look at how Identity management has evolved, it started with a directory. A directory being nothing more than a place to store data; what a bank is to currency, using my metaphoric approach here. Then once the bank knows how much currency it has, it breaks it down by value or denomination. Using currency in this example is easier for me to grasp as a concept but as a practice, however there are governing bodies and organizations that help us humans protect and maintain a baseline value of currency. No such thing exists for data. However just like banks and organizations that deal in currency, we have ways to store it, carry it, move it from one location to another, secure it, use it for harm or good, and exchange it. What we don't have for data is a way to assess its baseline value as it relates to other currency. I am wondering if Identity Management is an attempt at doing this.

Then I am back to static vs. dynamic data/currency. The currency does not change but its value does. Is the value of hard currency what roles are to identity management, and the Gold Bar is our DNA or SSN? Hmmm. Something to ponder this weekend.