Robin Wilton's esoterica

« Previous day (Sep 12, 2005) | Main | Next day (Sep 13, 2005) »

13 Sep · Tue 2005

Where have you been (2)?

I noticed the other day that my previous link to this site was broken, so I have re-done my 'places visited' tally. It gave me the opportunity to add Jordan (although strictly speaking I could have claimed that beforehand, having been to Jerusalem in the early 60s before the borders got rather summarily re-drawn). As you'll see, ticking "Russia" credits me with visiting about half the globe, right across to Kamchatka, Sakhalin and other exciting places. That's not quite the case, though I have been to Moscow, and once spent a week in Irkutsk, which is so far East that it's roughly due North of Singapore.

create your own visited countries map

Posted by racingsnake @ 03:51 PM GMT+00:00

Correction to Sept.8th. entry...

I think this comes under the heading of 'picking my own nits', or something similarly unsavoury. 'It has come to my attention' that I misremembered Orwell's 1984; he didn't actually use the term "Doublespeak". Correction duly appended to the entry in question.

Posted by racingsnake @ 12:08 PM GMT+00:00

Identity Day at Salford University

I was up at Salford University yesterday for an Identity Management seminar hosted by their Information Services Division (ISD). The day started with a little excitement, as one of my co-presenters was fog-bound at Heathrow airport... so at very short notice the audience got a double dose of me instead. Ah well... into every life some rain must fall, and yesterday it was their turn ;^) That said, I must thank the ISD folks, especially Tony Lewis, Martine Carassik and Tom Gordon, for doing a great job of hosting us and putting on an event which I think all the attendees found useful. There was a good level of open discussion, which is always heartening. There were two things about ISD which left a particular impression: the first was the thoughtfulness which had gone into their project strategy for the Identity Management (IDM) initiative. All the signs were that they have done a great job of aligning the IDM project with the enterprise-level objectives of the University as a whole. That's something it's easy to spout as a mantra, but let's be honest... it's a recommendation more often flouted than followed. As a result, they share (with their board and finance people) a clear view of what benefits the project is expected to deliver over what period, and that gives them a lot of positive buy-in from their decision-makers. The second was the similarly thoughtful approach Tom Gordon brings to the principles of identity management as well as the practice. You can read some of Tom's thoughts here. It's well worth a look, because I think he articulates some principles which are only going to grow in relevance. Tom also pointed me at Stephen Downes' blog, particularly this piece on identity, which has just soaked up a good chunk of my morning (so thanks, Tom ;^). One last 'footnote' to the trip; as I was driving out of central Manchester I quite unexpectedly passed Strangeways prison (unexpectedly for me, that is... I didn't know it was there). It's surprisingly close to the city centre, and is quite large and grim. For those who like to make connections of this kind: Strangeways was designed as a set of radial 'spokes' spreading from a central round tower. The name given to this design at the time was "panoptical" (i.e. where all is visible) - Stefan Brands and others currently use that term to describe identity systems in which too much data about the individual is exposed whether they consent to it or not.

Posted by racingsnake @ 11:02 AM GMT+00:00 [ Comments [2] ]

« September 2005 »
Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

Today

Such views as I express in this blog are based on my own opinions, experience and judgements. They do not necessarily represent the policy or views of my employer. It is not my intention to offend readers in any way. If you find anything on this blog offensive, please contact me in the first instance.
Robin Wilton

www.flickr.com

Links to recent entries

delicious

Valid XHTML or CSS?

Theme by Rowell Sotto.

What's this?