Robin Wilton's esoterica

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04 Nov · Fri 2005

Politics and identity

I was talking to a colleague the other day about just having blogged on the subject of Mr Blunkett. He rolled his eyes with a weary resignation and said "why d'you want to go poking around in politics...?". It made me think. I don't really consider myself to be a very 'political' person; although I always vote, I've never joined a political party, and have been generally exasperated by such contact as I have had with political dealings at the local level. Looking back through my blog, though, quite a lot of it has been political fulmination on one topic or another, somewhat to my own surprise. What's behind it, then? Have I reversed the evolutionary process and regressed into some kind of politico-rantosaurus, driven only by instinctive aggression and a hind-brain the size of a walnut? Possibly, but I think there are a few other factors too. First, I have to acknowledge the seductive power of blogging itself. Not only does it delude you into thinking that you have a devoted readership and that what you say is somehow significant, it also exposes you to genuinely influential people who actually move things forward. I'm thinking, for example, of William Heath's Ideal Government blog, which broke new ground this week by becoming the first blog ever to host Ministerial participation in an online discussion. Blogging is more than just a modern form of vanity publishing; it is also a true instantiation of the Participation Age. Second, my preoccupation with all things identity-related genuinely raises issues which are far more accurately classified as political than technological: issues of privacy, consent, trust and so on. What architecture for ID cards best preserves citizens' rights? Are strict laws on 'breach notification' the best defence against identity theft? Do you know how many RFID tags you are carrying, and who is reading them? What's the impact of other 'passive' forms of identity recognition on your right to give consent? As long as these issues (and the technology which embodies them) reach ever further into our every-day lives, I think the topics of identity and politics are set to be tightly entwined. Finally (and this carries on from the point about reaching into our every-day lives), think of some of these delights of 21st century Britain: I can be arrested for being in the wrong place, irrespective of what I do while I am there; I can be arrested and detained for travelling towards somewhere, regardless of my intentions; I can be detained for heckling at a party political conference to which I have authorised access; I can be prosecuted for saying something because of the audience I say it to, not what I say; I can be arrested for what I think, rather than what I do. These, too, are issues of privacy, consent and trust. Policies like those are so radically intrusive that they need to be underpinned by a solid foundation of logic, consistency, accountability and conspicuous fairness. It's up to us to point out when they are not.

Posted by racingsnake @ 04:00 PM GMT+00:00

New identity blogger...

We have a new Identiblogger... Sara Gates has just started her blog, here. Sara's responsibility extends across the full range of Sun's identity management products, from provisioning to policy to access control, so I'm sure she will be a great contributor to the discussion. Welcome!

Posted by racingsnake @ 10:21 AM GMT+00:00

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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

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