InfoCards Could Identify Trust Relationships
Posted by Mike Bijon February 13, 2006
Yesterday I proposed the idea of creating a trust-system that would allow people to build and display credentials. Then Scoble posted on Kim Cameron’s implementation of Infocards in WordPress. Infocards store and authenticate digital identities, from Kim’s detailed description of the InfoCard system:
Digital identities consist of sets of claims made about the subject of the identity, where “claims” are pieces of information about the subject that the issuer asserts are valid. This parallels identities used in the real world. For example, the claims on a driver’s license might include the issuing state, the driver’s license number, name, address, sex, birth date, organ donor status, signature, and photograph, the types of vehicles the subject is eligible to drive, and restrictions on driving rights. The issuing state asserts that these claims are valid. The claims on a credit card might include the issuer’s identity, the subject’s name, the account number, the expiration date, the validation code, and a signature. The card issuer asserts that these claims are valid. The claims on a self-issued identity, where the identity provider and subject are one and the same entity, might include the subject’s name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address, or perhaps just the knowledge of a secret. For self-issued identities, the subject asserts that these claims are valid.
This is interesting because the idea behind TrustBacks is to build a detailed electronic identity and social system. InfoCards already authenticate an individual’s identity, one of the keys to showing a relationship is truthful and keeping the system spam-free. Then a TrustBack could be tied to an InfoCard identity making the trust portable and confirmable.
Mike Bijon: I work as senior technology manager and technologist for 
