Trust, Identity, Security

http://cogdogblog.com/2008/06/04/high-school-buddy-on-oldaily/

Adam Levine points to a facsinating presentation and a bit of serendipty with an old chum:

In the midst of my regular daily mix of seeing what new things come into my antennae, I am reading the email update of Stephen’s OLDaily and stop my scan/scrolling– there it is, a familiar name:

How Identity and Access Management Can Help Your Institution Touch Its Toes
Kevin Morooney, EDUCAUSE Connect

This presentation was both fascinating and infuriating. I really liked the style of presentation – page forward through it quickly – and I think the argument is well reasoned. But – it is well reasoned from an institutional perspective. Which make things like fingerprints sound reasonable.

Wait a second! I went to high school with Kevin.. and I know he is currently the CIO at Penn State University. So I browse over to theEDUCAUSE abstract and read:

Successful IT infrastructures and architectures are expected to nimbly provide the context for protecting and sharing information and identities. In today’s world, new legislation, expectations from faculty and students, and managing risk several times a second are all threats to keeping current services relevant and time to market for new services reasonable. Understanding the importance and nature of the intersection created by security, identity, and policy is vital to planning the future of our infrastructures and architectures.

I viewed the PDF of the slides and many of the ideas about changing perspectives on identity, security, etc  struck a chord with me as I grapple with university IT infrastructures and work with other libraries to plan effectively. Some of the stuff went a million miles over my head but I was really taken with the insights. Of course, the slide illustrated above made me say “Ah Ha!” Check it out. Good stuff.