I love serendipity. Yesterday, as I was travelling on BART to attend the Digital ID World conference, I was listening to Steve Covey’s book, “The Eighth Habit,” on my iPod. He quoted the authors (incuding Doc Searls) of the “Cluetrain Manifesto” as he stressed the fact that all humans have choice, that they are not “things” to be exploited by the business practices of the Industrial Age.

The second keynote speaker of DIDW on Monday was none other than Doc Searls, addressing the topic “Managing the Decentralization of Identity.” What did he stress? That people are not things to be “managed” by vendors.I really enjoyed statements Doc made, like (somewhat paraphrased):

• “We are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. We are human beings – and our reach exceeds your grasp. Deal with it.”
• “What does Identity have to do with Independence? Use it to build the opposite of a CRM prison. CRM is about customer control. It tends to dictate way customers can relate to the seller. It sees customers as data, not people.”
• “Facebook is a highly managed walled-garden. If their “confirm your friendship” process is so inane, how can they be trusted to be a universal Identity provider?”
• “About advertising: Your attention is sold to the advertiser. We are the plankton that is fed to them.”
• “Markets are: conversations, transactions, relationships. Of these, relationships are key.”
• “VRM doesn’t exist yet, but it will.”

Thanks, Doc, for an informative, inspiring talk. Plus, you look dapper in a coat and tie!

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