Re: [ggf-ogsa-sec-wg] VO consideration

[Brian E Carpenter <brian@hursley.ibm.com>]

"Cowles, Robert D." wrote:
> 
> >From Brian E. Carpenter:
> >
> > I do agree that one service offered by a VO might be a user account
> > setup service, but even then a new user will have to bootstrap
> > his/her identity from an RO. Until we get anonymous cash on
> > the Internet, at least.
> >
> 
> But isn't this just a bootstrap problem until there are enough
> VOs on the network providing this kind of service that we can
> use them to build identity?  It should create some interesting
> issues about virtual identities, but we already have that in
> the real world with corporations.

It's certainly a bootstrap problem, but one that I guess will take
several decades to resolve. And it takes us rapidly to some basic
societal issues about how individuals are unambiguously identified
without intolerable risk from unscrupulous governments. I'd rather
not go there, hence my assertion that identity will be rooted in ROs
for a long time to come. (However, I don't think this point affects
what we need to define - whether the source of identity is a VO or
an RO, we need ways to pass authenticated identities around and map
them.)

    Brian