D2.2: Set of use cases and scenarios

Title: RESULTS, CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

In this document, we have given to the authors the maximum of freedom and we have tried to avoid imposing them a particular form or a structure for their contribution. Indeed Identity is a domain that is very new (in particular in an online situation) and still subject to important evolutions. We believed it was important not impose constraints, so as to let the “creativity” of the author express as much as possible. The only requirement asked was that the authors provided concrete (even if they are imaginary) illustrations of situations reflecting important aspects related to identity, and to have a descriptive rather than an analytical orientation. This last point was intended to avoid entering into presentations that would become too theoretical and difficult to understand outside an audience of specialists, and would limit its diffusion. Finally, for the same reasons each contribution should be self-contained so that it could easily be diffused separately.

As a result, we have collected in this document a set of contributions that are presenting a variety of Identity issues that cover many dimensions of the Identity domain (societal, legal, social, etc.), principally from an usage/practice perspective. The result of this collection may appear as a patchwork of “things” (concepts, ideas, and issues) related to Identity not necessary very well connected with one another. However, although if we consider that one of the reasons of this “chaos” originates from the method we have employed, we believe that another more profound reason is that this reflects the state of the current situation of the Identity domain: many different things, from many different domains, and a real difficulty to get a global picture and to articulate the different domains with one another. 

Yet, this document proved helpful opening the opportunity of creating some bridges between the different disciplines. For instance we were able to assemble in a single document and in a comprehensive way many perspectives which should help us in our goal to build a more global picture of Identity in the Information Society. We believe this is an interesting achievement, even if additional more systematic and more explicit analysis could be beneficial (but with the risk of constructing a “cathedral”, and of losing the audience of the more ordinary people). We also put a relatively strong emphasis on the legal requirements & issues (which is an aspect often overlooked in general documents), and more generally the articulation between formal rules (laws, guidelines, etc.), and the way that the world functions effectively (rules may exist, by may not be applied adequately). For instance, in several cases it was shown that law could exist and was adequate, but had some difficulty to be applied into the reality even with the tool managing this identity (for instance in the case study: the City PA presented in chapter of the case of the money launderer, the application of the law took some time because the criminal “did not fit the typical money launderer profile”). Still, we have found that the identity “tools”, given the transparency that they provide, can represents a formidable means to re-enforce formal laws (sometime with some risks at attainting the privacy of the person as indicated in chapter ), or the informal rules (for instance chapter , “” indicates the strength of an informal social process such as reputation to enforce rules). The two chapters on Ubiquitous and Ambient intelligence of this document by giving us a glimpse on the future also proves that we are only at the beginning, and that the new “smart” and identity aware environments promise to transform radically the vision of  the Identity in the digital society that we have now.

We do not want to over-analyse here, and do the contrary to what we have preached for this document, and we would like now to invite the reader to discover by himself/herself these different cases, and make his/her own opinion. We hope that this series of case –thanks to the multiple situation that were describes- will be at the starting point of some personal reflections and community discussion on the subject of identity, rather than definitive and closed overview of a subject. 

The content of this document will be the starting point of a document (leaflet, etc.) that will be intended to a wider public audience. The main change in the new document (which title will have to be found), will consist in making it even more accessible and enjoyable to a larger audience.