Identity is everywhere: Summit Event of the FIDIS Network of Excellence

After 5 years of research, the Future of Identity in the Information Society (FIDIS) network of academic institutions and companies from across Europe will discuss the changing face of identity at a Summit Event to be co-located with the IFIP Sec 2009 conference, May 18-20 in Pafos (Cyprus).

The ever increasing digitisation of information has led to an Information Society in which more and more information is available almost anywhere and anytime. With 24 partners in 13 EU countries, the EU funded Network of Excellence (NoE) has been researching aspects of digital identity, privacy, security and beyond. To this regard, “FIDIS has put Europe on the global map as a place for high quality identity management research”, says Viviane Reding, Commissioner, responsible for Information Society and Media (EU). During the event the results and achievements of FIDIS toward the challenges and opportunities of the future will be presented.

• Kai Rannenberg (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany): “What is Identity?”

• Thierry Nabeth (INSEAD, France): "Identity of Identity"

• David-Olivier Jaquet-Chiffelle (Virtual Identity and Privacy Research Center, Switzerland) “Virtual Persons and Identities”

• Martin Meints (Independent Centre for Privacy Protection, Germany): “Basic Technologies in the Context of Identity Management"

• Mark Gasson (University of Reading, UK): “Emerging Technologies”

• Mireille Hildebrandt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium): “Profiling and ambient intelligence (AmI)”

• Ruth Halperin (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK): “Approaching Interoperability for Identity Management Systems”

• Denis Royer (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany): “Mobility and Identity”

• Bert-Jaap Koops (Tilburg University, Netherlands): “Identity-related Crime” 

• Zeno Geradts (Netherlands Forensic Institute, Netherlands) “Forensics”

• Vashek Matyas (Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic): “Privacy”

• Maike Gilliot (Albert-Ludwig-University Freiburg, Germany): “Privacy in Business Processes”

• Els Kindt (K.U.Leuven, Belgium): “eGovernment”

The increasingly digital representation of personal characteristics changes our ways of identifying individuals. To this regard, supplementary digital identities, so-called virtual identities, are being created for security, profit, convenience, or even for fun. “These new identities are embodying concepts, such as pseudonymity and anonymity. Furthermore, such new identities are feeding back into the physical world, offering a mix of plural identities and challenging traditional notions of identity”, says Denis Royer, coordinator of FIDIS. At the same time, European states manage identities in very different ways. “FIDIS has been shaping the requirements for the future management of identity in the European Information Society and contributing to the technologies which address trust and security yet also preserve the privacy of individuals”, says Kai Rannenberg, head coordinator of FIDIS.

FIDIS’ objectives are (1) to analyse various concepts of identity, (2) to analyse current and future instruments for identity management from an interdisciplinary perspective, (3) to build up definitions, taxonomies and classification systems, and (4) to give advice to stakeholders in European governments, the economic sector and citizens.
 
As a multidisciplinary and multinational NoE FIDIS appropriately comprises different country research experiences with heterogeneous focuses, and integrates European expertise around a common set of activities. Research results have been made accessible through studies and reports, academic journal publications, presentations, public lectures, position papers and press releases, all available on the FIDIS web site.

Details about the agenda, contact information and related materials can be found at

• http://summit.fidis.net
• http://www.sec2009.org