Commentary by Mark Wahl, CISA
digital identity book recommendation for 2007 (20080102)
For 2007:
- 2007: The Future of reputation: gossip, rumor and privacy on the internet by Daniel J. Solove

Daniel Solove, an authority on information privacy law, offers a fascinating account of how the Internet is transforming gossip, the way we shame others, and our ability to protect our own reputations. Focusing on blogs, Internet communities, cyber mobs, and other current trends, he shows that, ironically, the unconstrained flow of information on the Internet may impede opportunities for self-development and freedom. Longstanding notions of privacy need review, the author contends: unless we establish a balance among privacy, free speech, and anonymity, we may discover that the freedom of the Internet makes us less free.
For previous years:
- 2006: Identity Crisis

...Jim Harper takes readers inside identification-a process everyone uses every day but few people have ever thought about. Using stories and examples from movies, television, and classic literature, Harper dissects identification processes and technologies, showing how identification works when it works and how it fails when it fails. Harper exposes the myth that identification can protect against future terrorist attacks.
- 2005:
Digital Identity

Network-based, automated services have changed the way businesses operate, but not always for the better. Many companies are more concerned with risk than opportunity. Digital Identity shows how an enterprise-wide identity management architecture can provide security while ensuring that interactions with customers, employees, partners and suppliers are richer and more flexible.
- 2003: Hello World: A life in Ham Radio
Whenever hams connect on the air for the first time, they exchange specially designed postcards in the mail. These QSL cards are physical proof that the radio contact actually took place. Each ham's card is different, featuring the call sign for his station, details about the call and the gear used, and words and pictures that tell more about himself and his home.
- 1997: Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet

Life on the Screen traces a set of boundary negotiations, telling the story of the changing impact of the computer on our psychological lives and our evolving ideas about minds, bodies, and machines. What is emerging, Turkle says, is a new sense of identity--as de-centered and multiple. She describes trends in computer design, in artificial intelligence, and in people's experiences of virtual environments that confirm a dramatic shift in our notions of self, other, machine, and world. The computer emerges as an object that brings postmodernism down to earth.