The Strip Mall Infomediary
For long time, I've been talking about how there is a business model for an identity intermediary. Doc Searls does a very good job of laying out some basic principles in his recent Linux Journal column, Making Mydentity. I've written that there is a simple business for identity intermediaries that can be put into place in any strip mall, one that draws from today's personal financial services companies, like EdwardJones.
Doc touches on this when he writes: "Instead of waiting for Disney to tell us they're offering vacation cruise deals to consumers of animated movie DVDs, we let Disney and other potential providers know that we're in the market for a cruise in the Caribbean this coming October."
But we cannot take time to manage access to our interests all the time, just as most people rely on money managers to help with their finances, doctors to keep track of their health, and so forth. The infrastructure that Doc describes, that Andre Durand has described here and here and Eric Norlin talks about when suggesting we "hijack" the Liberty Alliance protocol is necessary, but not sufficient. We also need people who are motivated to begin collecting the information that revolves around each of us and to organize that information for exploitation on behalf of the individual.
Back to Doc:
- Let's say I have engaged a new category of business--a relationship registrar called MyID--to certify, authenticate and otherwise substantiate the preferences, permissions and other variables that might be involved in mydentity-based relationships with participating companies and other organizations (including federal, state and local public ones). When I'm not using this mydentity, I still default to anonymity or to the relationships provided by current systems. A mydentity is not a Required Thing, but rather a huge value-add for the companies willing to do business with it.
- Then, let's say I'm one of millions of other similarly registered folks.
- Now, let's say I have a mydentity-enabled relationship with Disney. My family goes to their theme parks, buys their movies and takes their cruises. But the relationship has substance of the sort many of us have long enjoyed, in a deep but narrow way, with airlines that grant us privileges as frequent flyers and airport lounge club members. We matter to each other. Our mydentity-informed transaction histories substantiate that, as do our allied relationships with other companies and other customers. The difference is that whatever "federation" exists among those companies happens at my grace, not theirs.
- Let's say I'm interested in making connections between Disney and certain other companies or kinds of companies with which I like to do business. That way, when I book a cruise, Disney will know and value the fact that I prefer to fly on United Airlines, stay in Marriott or Wyndham hotels and rent cars from Budget or Enterprise. Disney also will know there are kinds of businesses I don't want to deal with, such as the kind that make unsolicited telephone calls and e-mailings.
Having this infrastructure in place will mean three things:
- I probably will not receive unsolicited spam calls pushing Disney resorts.
- I'll be a far more interesting and important customer to Disney and all the other companies I choose to deal with.
- All kinds of new business can grow up around all these fully-empowered identities, starting with relationship registries.
This is not going to happen on the Net alone, because there is a huge public education process needed to enlighten people about their use of personal information. That's where the guy sitting in the EdwardJones-like office comes in. So, let's imagine the situation Doc starts from, the notion that there is a time for companies to get in touch with him about a vacation:
Doc's got an account at his local infomediary office, which involved sitting down with the rep and filling out two kinds of forms -- a profile and a power of attorney, which the infomediary uses to file claims on his behalf to restrict use of personal information about Doc Searls.
Now, there are two ways Doc might earn money (and the infomediary take a cut for managing the process -- since the aggregation of a lot of profiles, both at the local off and by a national network of infomediaries, is necessary to extract real value from information): 1.) Companies query the infomediary about making deliveries of vacation solicitations to its clients, and they pay the infomediary to deliver the mail; 2.) When Doc wants to learn about vacations, the infomediary sends out a query to vacation companies, like Disney and Carnival Cruises, offering to make their information available to an interested customer.
There are many other ways to conceive money-making instances. Every piece of junk mail and spam could be accepted only if the sender has paid and it fits criteria suggested by the infomediary, because, if the sender just wants a chance to bother Doc and Doc can get a penny and the infomediary a penny in order for the email to pass through Doc's email server, there is money to be made.
Perhaps, when Doc is ready to make a final decision about his vacation plans, he's considering two or three options and wants to bargain for the final decision. If he can get a better price on the cruise or an extra day at Disney that could be the deciding factor, and the infomediary goes to the companies (using the digital infrastructure) and offers them terms Doc would accept. The infomediary either charges the companies for delivering the bids or takes a small mark-up on the travel package (because they have the ability to close the transaction on Doc's behalf when he decides).
The infomediary is incented not only to protect the client's information, but also to develop new ways to make money for the client using that information -- just as Wall Street has created a thousand derivatives to create more value it can extract.
What is needed is an additional infrastructure, one for assuring there is a quality assurance monitoring system that tracks the fulfillment of transactions. This is where Xpertweb comes in. The infomediary should be able to prove they fulfilled transactions on behalf of clients, so that both the individual (Doc, in this example) and the companies (Disney and Carnival) can see a record that proves there was really a potential customer and a transaction.
With the identity infrastructure and quality assurance for transactions, the infomediary business can take root. It cannot be a closed system, because we know there is no way a single entity can enforce its standards for information on many organizations. Some industries may adopt their own standards, but they need to coexist with other networks of identity/assurance data in order to address all aspects of Doc's life.
There you go. A $100 billion business laid out for the taking. Go for it. Consulting and business planning services available from yours truly.
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at March 23, 2003 06:07 PM | TrackBack