1. 'Taking revenge on society': Deadly Zhuhai car attack sparks questions in China  BBC.com
2. Man Upset About Divorce Allegedly Rams Car into Crowd, Killing 35: Reports  PEOPLE
3. Video: 35 killed in mass hit-and-run in Zhuhai, China  CNN
4. Driver rams his car into crowd in China, killing 35. Police say he was upset about his divorce  The Associated Press
5. Zhuhai car attack: China clears memorial as government scrambles to respond  Reuters

1. Biden and Trump to Meet at the White House: Live Updates  The New York Times
2. Biden, Trump Set For White House Meeting After Harris Election Loss  NDTV
3. Biden-Trump White House meeting revives presidential tradition skipped 4 years ago  Fox News
4. Trump and Biden to meet at White House as Senate GOP holds leadership election  CNN

Wondering what the ✨ (sparkle) emoji means? This fun and glittery emoji can be used in a variety of ways, so we’ve put together an easy guide just for you! Keep reading to learn what the sparkle emoji means and how you can use it.

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The Beats Solo 4 features enhanced sound quality, up to 40 hours of battery life, and seamless Apple device integration. These on-ear headphones combine style with premium audio performance in a striking Cloud Pink finish. Reasons to Buy What Makes It Stand Out The Solo 4 improves upon its predecessor with enhanced audio quality and stronger build […]

University of Florida researchers develop AI system that detects pain in goats through facial expressions, marking significant advance in animal care with potential human applications.

Try these 12 incredible iPhone tips and tricks for 2024 that will change the way you use your iPhone! From a hidden sleep timer in the Clock app to bypassing annoying ads in Safari WITHOUT an ad blocker, these hacks will save you time and headaches!

I've mentioned in the past the number of people Googling to the site to find information about felony offender registries and the official Tennesse (a misspelling of Tennessee) state site. Since then, the new common search is for the Tennesse...

한국농수산식품유통공사(aT) 홍문표 사장은 7일부터 프랑스 파리를 시작으로 K-FOOD 수출확대를 위한 현장 점검에 나섰다. 홍문표 사장은 지난 7일 aT파리지사에서 올해 수출 목표 달성을 위한 주요 현안을 점검하고, 내년도 수출확대 전략에 대해 논의하는 자리를 가졌다. 홍 사장은 “K-FOOD 수출확대는 대한민국의 식품 영토를 넓혀나가는 일”이라며

농림축산식품부(장관 송미령)와 한국농수산식품유통공사(aT, 사장 홍문표)는 유럽 경제중심지 독일에 프랑크푸르트지사를 설립하고 현지 시간 11일 개소식을 개최했다. 프랑크푸르트지사는 기존 파리지사 이후 두 번째 유럽지사로, 최근 K-푸드 인기가 뜨거운 유럽 시장을 적극 개척하고자 하는 aT의 의지가 반영돼 있다. 이날 개소식에는 주프랑크푸르트 대한민국

Summary: People aren't digitally embodied. As a result, their online relationships are anemic. As we think about the kinds of digital identity systems that will help people live authentic online lives, we must build identity systems that give people tools to operationalize rich digital relationships.

Identity is the ability to recognize, remember, and react to people, organizations, systems, and things. In the current web, companies employ many ponderous technological systems to perform those functions. In these systems, we are like ghosts in the machines. We have "accounts" in companies' systems, but no good way to recognize, remember, and react to them or anyone else. We are not digital embodied.

One of the great benefits of embodiment is the ability to form and operationalize rich digital relationships. I've written a lot about the nature of digital relationships.

• Relationships and Identity
• Authentic Digital Relationships
• Ephemeral Relationships
• Operationalizing Digital Relationships
• Relationships in the Self-Sovereign Internet of Things
• The Architecture of Identity Systems
• Are Transactional Relationships Enough?
• Fluid Multi-Pseudonymity

One of the discussions at VRM Day caused me to think about a feature of digital relationships I hadn't considered before. Someone said that if you think about a graph with people (or things, organizations, and so on) as the nodes, the relationships are the edges, like so¹:

In this figure Alice and Bob have a bi-directional relationship. This is how I've normally thought about it and how I'd have drawn it. But in today's discussion, someone said that the relationship is shared and that Alice and Bob both control it. But I realized that viewpoint is too simple. Specifically, Alice and Bob each have a different perspective of that relationship and will use it separately.

For example, imagine that Alice is the cashier at a grocery store and Bob is a customer. Alice gives great service, so Bob seeks her out when he shops. Alice on the other hand has no particular recollection of Bob from encounter to encounter. For Alice, the relationship is ephemeral, but for Bob, it's longer term. The nature of each relationship is different. So, we might look at it like this:

But after discussing it some more, I realized that these relationships aren't independent. They're entangled like this:

In the example I gave above, as Bob seeks out Alice more and more, Alice might come to recognize him and call him by name, changing the nature of her relationship with Bob. And that may influence the nature of Bob's relationship with Alice. Over time, these interactions influence both relationships. So, while Alice and Bob both have control over their relationship with the other, actions by one influence the other.

I frequently say that we don't build identity systems to manage identities, but rather to manage relationships. The problem with contemporary identity systems is that they are all one sided, controlled by one party—almost always a company. As I've said before, people are not digitally embodied and thus have no good way to manage their online relationships. As we strive to build better digital identity systems, I think it's paramount that we build systems that provide people with tools that embody them and provide them with the ability to operationalize their online relationships. These are more than decentralized; they are self-sovereign.

Notes

1. Peer decentralized identifiers (DIDs) are a great technology for creating bi-directional relationships.

Tags: identity relationships

Summary: What is decentralized identity and why is it important? My attempt at a simple explanation.

In Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, nah, Alan Mayo references my recent blog post, Decentralized Identity Comes of Age, and says:

My challenge to the decentralization community is for them (someone) to explain how it works in relatively simple and reasonable terms. I say relative because identity is not simple, so we should not expect simple solutions.

This post is my attempt to do that for Alan and others.

Identity is how we recognize, remember, react to, and interact with other people, organizations, and services. Put another way, identity is about relationships. Online we suffer from a proximity problem. Since we're not near the parties we want to have relationships with, our natural means of recognizing, remembering, and interacting with others can't be used. Digital identity systems are meant to provide us with the means of creating online relationships.

Traditional identity systems have not served us well because they are owned and controlled by companies who build them for their own purposes. The relationships they support are anemic and transactional. We can't use them for any purpose except what their owner's allow.

Decentralized identity systems¹ on the other hand allow you to create online relationships with any person, organization, or service you choose and give you the tools to manage and use those relationships. They help you recognize, remember, react to, and interact with them. The most important tool is a decentralized identity wallet. The world of decentralized identity wallets is still young, but organizations like the Linux Foundation's Open Wallet Foundation give me hope that useful, interoperable wallets are a tool we'll all be able to use soon. They are as foundational to decentralized identity as a browser is to the web.

Besides helping you manage peer-to-peer relationships with others online, wallets hold verifiable credentials, the digital analog to the credentials and cards you carry in a physical wallet. One of the most important aspects of digital relationships is providing information about yourself to those you interact with. Sometimes that information can come from you—it's self-asserted—but many times the other party wants to reliably know what others say about you. For example, if you establish a banking relationship, the bank is legally obligated to verify things like your name and address independent of what you say. Decentralized identity wallets allow you to prove things about yourself using credentials others provide to you. At the same time, they protect your privacy by limiting the information disclosed and forgoing the need for the party you're interacting with to directly contact others to verify the information you provide.

In summary, decentralized identity systems allow you to create digital relationships with other parties independently, without relying on any other organization or service. These relationships are direct, private, and secure. They also provide the means for you to prove things about yourself inside these relationships so that even though you're operating at a distance, you and the other party can have confidence in the relationship's authenticity.

How Does It Work

The preceding paragraphs say what decentralized identity is, and provide its benefits, but don't say how it works. Alan and others will likely want a few more details. Everything I describe below is handled by the wallet. The person using the wallet doesn't need to have any more knowledge of how they work than the operator of a browser needs to understand HTTP and HTML.

The foundation of a peer-to-peer, decentralized online relationship is an autonomic identifier like a peer DID. Identifiers are handles that someone else can use to identify someone or something else online. Peer DIDs can be created by a wallet at will, they're free, and they're self-certifying (i.e., there's no need for a third party). A relationship is created when two identity wallets create and exchange peer DIDs with each other on behalf of their owners. Peer DIDs allow the parties to the relationship to exchange private, secure messages.

There are four primary interaction patterns that wallets undertake when exchanging messages:

1. DID Authentication which uses the DIDs to allow each party to authenticate the other
2. Single-Party Credential Authorization where the same party issues and verifies the credential.
3. Multi-Party Authorization where the credential issuer and verifier are different parties.
4. Generalized Trustworthy Data Transfer which uses a collection of credentials to aid the wallet owner in completing online workflows.

Verifiable credentials make heavy use of cryptography to provide not only security and privacy, but also confidence that the credential data is authentic. This confidence is based on four properties a properly designed credential presentation protocol provides:

1. The identifier of the credential issuer
2. Proof that the credential is being presented by the party is was issued to
3. Proof that the credential has not been tampered with
4. The revocation status of the credential

The credential presentation can do all this while only disclosing the information needed for the interaction and without the verifier having to contact the credential issuer. Not having to contact the issuer ensures the credential can be used in situations with poor connectivity, that the issuer needn't be online, and preserves the credential subject's privacy about where the credential is being used.

A properly designed credential exchange protocol has four important properties:

1. The system is decentralized and contextual. There is no central authority for all credentials. Every party can be an issuer, an owner, and a verifier. The system can be adapted to any country, any industry, any community, any set of credentials, any set of trust relationships.
2. Issuers are free to determine what credentials to issue and whether or not to revoke them.
3. Wallet owners are free to choose which credentials to carry and where and when they get shared. While some verifiers require a specific credential—such as a customs agent requiring a passport—others will accept a range of credentials. Therefore owners can decide which credentials to carry in their wallet based on the verifiers with whom they interact.
4. Verifiers make their own decisions about which credentials to accept. For example, a bar you are trying to enter may accept any credential you have about your date of birth. This means some credentials (e.g., passports, driving licenses, birth certificates) may be much more useful than just for the original purpose for which they were issued.

These properties make a decentralized identity system self sovereign.

Why is Decentralized Identity Important?

Decentralized identity systems are designed to provide people with control, security, and privacy while enhancing the confidence we have in our online relationships. Some time ago, I wrote the following. I think it's an apt way to close any discussion of decentralized identity because unless we keep our eyes on the goal, we'll likely take shortcuts in implementation that fail to live up to their promise.

Presently, people don't have operational relationships anywhere online.² We have plenty of online relationships, but they are not operational because we are prevented from acting by their anemic natures. Our helplessness is the result of the power imbalance that is inherent in bureaucratic relationships. The solution to the anemic relationships created by administrative identity systems is to provide people with the tools they need to operationalize their self-sovereign authority and act as peers with others online. Peer-to-peer relationships are the norm in the physical world. When we dine at a restaurant or shop at a store in the physical world, we do not do so under the control of some administrative system. Rather, we act as embodied agents and operationalize our relationships, whether they be long-lived or nascent, by acting for ourselves. Any properly designed decentralized identity system must provide people with the tools they need to be "embodied" in the digital world and act autonomously.

Time and again, various people have tried to create decentralized marketplaces or social networks only to fail to gain traction. These systems fail because they are not based on a firm foundation that allows people to act in relationships with sovereign authority in systems mediated through protocol rather than by the whims of companies. We have a fine example of a protocol mediated system in the internet, but we've failed to take up the daunting task of building the same kind of system for identity. Consequently, when we act, we do so without firm footing or sufficient leverage.

Ironically, the internet broke down the walled gardens of CompuServe and Prodigy with a protocol-mediated metasystem, but surveillance capitalism has rebuilt them on the web. No one could live an effective life in an amusement park. Similarly, we cannot function as fully embodied agents in the digital sphere within the administrative systems of surveillance capitalists, despite their attractions. The emergence of self-sovereign identity, agreements on protocols, and the creation of metasystems to operationalize them promises a digital world where decentralized interactions create life-like online experiences. The richer relationships that result from properly designed decentralized identity systems promise an online future that gives people the opportunity to act for themselves as autonomous human beings and supports their dignity so that they can live an effective online life.

Notes

1. I prefer the term self-sovereign to decentralized because it describes the goal rather than the implementation, but I'll stick with decentralized here. All self-sovereign identity systems are decentralized. Not all decentralized identity systems are self-sovereign.
2. The one exception I can think of to this is email. People act through email all the time in ways that aren't intermediated by their email provider. Again, it's a result of the architecture of email, set up over four decades ago and the culture that architecture supports.

Photo Credit: Young Woman Using a Wallet from DALL-E (public domain) Prompt: draw a rectangular picture of a young woman using a wallet.

Tags: identity ssi decentralized+identity verifiable+credentials

Anna Mills, Bluesky Social, Nov 13, 2024

The most interesting migration in social media these days is from twitter to Bluesky. Here are two approaches to making it easier: the first is a 'starter pack' on people in AI and education. It makes use of the Bluesky Lists feature or the Bluesky Starter Pack. In the same genre, here's a Tech Media Starter Pack. The second, via Miguel Guhlin, is based on a hashtag with members listed on a Google Docs spreadsheet. It's cleverly done. You have to apply to be listed on the spreadsheet, and to be accepted you have to use the #Edusky hashtag in your account on Bluesky. Viral. Here's the Edusky feed.

Helen J. DeWaard, Canadian Journal of Learning Technology, Nov 13, 2024

I enjoyed the lavish illustrations in this article, a rarity in academic publications. After anm introductory section, the paper offers what is essentially a dialogue around the topic of sharing and openness in education. This bit from  the abstract resonated most with me: "It is becoming ever more important to share expertise as practitioners, researchers, and theorists in the field of education by making explicit what is often tacit and unspoken, and when sharing knowledge, reflections, and actions. By actively thinking-out-loud through blogs, social media, and open scholarly publications, educators can openly share details of what, how, and why they do what they do." This is the space where OLDaily operates - a somewhat middle ground between full academia on the one hand and the popular press on the other.

Paula MacDowell, Kristin Moskalyk, Katrina Korchinski, Dirk Morrison, Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, Nov 13, 2024

This paper reports on a process where thirty-five teachers enrolled in an elective three-credit multimedia design course "engaged in experiential activities focussed on developing artificial intelligence (AI) literacy, alongside a collaborative assignment to co-author an open-access textbook, Teaching and Creating With Generative Artificial Intelligence." In the process, "the Student Artificial Intelligence Literacy (SAIL) framework was developed (illustrated)." The paper concludes with the usual recommendations ('do no harm', 'develop communication skills', etc.). Each participant wrote a chapter, though a common template was used. I very much like the idea of producing a useful open resource as part of class activities. Oddly, the article doesn't provide a link to the textbook, but I found it here. It's a nice selection of 'how-to' articles that readers, I think, will find useful. One chapter (chapter 20 1/2?) is missing.

James Devitt-NYU, Futurity, Nov 13, 2024

This article challenges us to think more deeply on the distinction between knowledge and memory. The claim made here is that parts of the body - the kidney, say - can replicate the massed-spaced effect, retaining information over time, which is the same thing we see when connections are formed between neurons in the brain. But is that the same as forming a memory? I have Haglund's Deformity, a 'memory' of my many years of walking in bad shows. That seems more like "what our pancreas remembers about the pattern of our past meals to maintain healthy levels of blood glucose" and rather less like "knowing Paris is the capital of France". We can interpret these 'memories' as retained information, but it's not clear this is in any way any sort of knowledge.

Alexandra Mihai, The Educationalist, Nov 13, 2024

Interesting commentary on the state of research in educational technology today and what's missing. What's missing? Research that links theory through technology to needs and practices (so I summarize). Thus, Alexandra Mihai looks for "insights into how educational technology can enhance the learning process" and "how technology can contribute to addressing the increasing diversity of our learner population." Mihai also considers the impact of AI on the research process, suggesting "it's so important to maintain our agency in the research and writing process." I don't think education as a discipline has come to terms enough with how people actually learn, which (to me) explain the persistence of the sort of teacher- and institution-focused approaches Mihai asks for here.

Michael Franco, New Atlas, Nov 13, 2024

The depth and detail in this paper (8 page PDF) are daunting, but the gist, as summarized in this post, is straightforward: provided only with observations of a human cleaning (" using a so-called instrumented tool, which is a standard tool equipped with additional sensors") the front of an ordinary sink, a robot arm learn to clean entire sinks with varying surface topology. "The model implicitly learned the correct
tool orientation and position w.r.t. the freeform 3D surface." Michael Franco speculates, "a fleet of robots could learn the basic moves from each other through what's known as 'federated learning' and then they could apply those moves to their individual, specified tasks."

Roberto J. Rodriguez, et al., Office of Educational Technology, Nov 13, 2024

This is a longish (79 page PDF) resource from the U.S. government's Office of Educational Technology. "The Department heard educators say that AI is here to stay, AI will keep changing, and safely integrating AI in educational settings will require informed leadership at multiple levels across the education system." The toolkit is divided into three sections: migitating risks, strategy for AI integration, and guiding its use. The risks considered include privacy and data security, student civil rights, accessibility, and digital equity. The second section is weaker, focusing on the 'instructional core' (credited to Elmore, but basically Moore (1989)), with a corresponding focus on instruction. The third section begins with a discussion of AI literacy (limited to "includes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to engage with AI safely") and promotion of "responsible use". 

Sean Goedecke, Nov 13, 2024

I remember a phrase from some technical conference a number of years ago: "quality ships." If you ever wondered what this means, this article is for you. It describes what it is to 'shop' a software product, and the sorts of concerns the person responsible has in order to ensure the project ships. After all, the default status for any project is 'not shipped'. There will always be something that could be added, something improved. The idea is to get it in front of as many ideas as possible, deal with the issues, earn the confidence of management, and deliver the result. Via Ben Werdmuller.

Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, The Scholarly Kitchen, Nov 13, 2024

We expect The Scholarly Kitchen to represent the publishers' point of view, since that is its intent, but in this case it ventures into the realm of pure propaganda. No open access charges subscription fees to readers. In 'Gold' open access, publishers charge authors 'article publication fees', while in 'Green' open access no such fees are charged. So how is there a "cost" to readers? According to this article, it's in the time and effort it takes to find the 'version of record' of an article as compared to what is found in typical 'green' venues such as preprint repositories. This argument, of course, assumes readers want to find the 'version of record', and the author is ready with a 'fear, uncertainty, doubt (FUD)' argument. The author also argues that green versions are hard to find, compared to gold versions, ignoring such services as Unpaywall that index open access articles.

Paul Sawers, TechCrunch, Nov 13, 2024

According to this article, "Meta has launched a new partnership with a slew of universities in the U.S. and U.K., as it looks to ingrain VR across the education system." I guess it's a big deal (per Mixed, Upload, Social Media Today, Technopedia, ReadWrite, etc etc) but it's hard for me to stifle a yawn. It's not simply that I was here for the Second Life hype, it's that their product is a "digital twin" of the university - "environments that directly replicate their real-world campus counterparts" - the least imaginative use of any media ever. I think there's a lot of room for VR in education, but this announcement isn't it.

Digital Education Council, Nov 13, 2024

Members of the Digital Education Council (mostly from business and management schools) have signed this short declaration (5 page PDF) following their inaugural meeting this week. Most interesting is their desire to "commit to developing strategies to maintain curricula relevance, at speed with the rapidly-evolving pace of industry."

The Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management (Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat) announces their new RSS news feed. It is a noteworthy model for other governmental agencies to emulate.

Government Computer News reports that the Navy is building a business case for using weblogs for project management. Enterprise blogging software by Traction Software, Inc. called TeamPage was selected for evaluation for being one of the first weblog systems designed for business use.

MIT, Harvard, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts announce the formation of a loose association of interested U.S. state and local governments to promote sharing of software under open source licenses.

For the fifth consecutive year, the Accenture and MIT Digital Government Awards are showcasing technology breakthroughs that deliver public sector...

eGovLinks, the e-Government starting point, is featuring two news feeds on its home page and site navigation bar, and both are from Utah State Government!

Craig Neilson and Ray Matthews recently returned from North Carolina to learn about using DSpace, ePrints, and LOCKSS-Docs for providing permanent public access to state publications. OCLC has announced it is teaming with Google and MIT to harvest DSpace OAI-PMH metadata to turn it into a format which can be indexed and searched by Google. This will enable information about publications stored by governments and universities using this open source institutional archiving system to be readily retrievable.

Governor Olene Walker has announced that the Utah State Advisory Council on Science and Technology is accepting nominations for the 2004 annual Governor's Medal for Science and Technology Award. The awards recognize individuals who have made a significant impact and contribution to science and technology in the State of Utah.

The Utah State Archives has moved to its newly completed building next to the Rio Grande. Dedication is planned for October in conjunction with Utah Archives Month.

You may remember Gilbert Lee when he was a web designer for Utah.gov. He left us to design for Northrop Grumman and now has his own successful firm PlainSimple Design, LLC at www.plainsimple.org. Gilbert has just volunteered to organize the Salt Lake City Weblogger Meetup. He encourages SLC bloggers to come out and meet others doing the same. The first meeting is Wednesday, September 15 at 7:00 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 1104 East 2100 South (Cafe), Salt Lake City.

Congress enacts open government legislation in three main areas: (1) laws that provide public access to federal records; (2) laws that allow the government to restrict public access to federal information; and (3) laws that provide for congressional access to federal records. A new 90-page Congressional Report by Rep. Henry A. Waxman provides a comprehensive, though arguably partisan, examination finding the Bush Administration has acted to restrict the amount of government information that is available.