Bot or Not? Why Incentives Matter More Than Identity - Spherical Cow Consulting
Not all bots are bad, but they all cost something. Identity isn't enough and incentives must reshape automated traffic management.| Spherical Cow Consulting
We don’t spend much time thinking about the roads we drive on—until one cracks, collapses, or dumps us somewhere we didn’t mean to be. Identity in the age of agentic AI? Same deal. It’s infrastructure. Like a good road, it needs to be ready for traffic we can’t imagine. The post Roads, Robots, and Responsibility: Why Agentic AI Needs Identity Infrastructure appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Not all bots are bad, but they all cost something. Identity isn't enough and incentives must reshape automated traffic management.| Spherical Cow Consulting
The blog post delves further into the complexity of verifiable credentials, addressing the challenges of understanding the landscape. It covers digital credentials, issuance and presentation formats, protocols, data serialization formats, and digital signatures. I emphasize the ongoing evolution and fragmentation in the field, advocating for constructive engagement. The post aims to aid readers in comprehending the interconnected components of this complex domain.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Heather Flanagan| Spherical Cow Consulting
Heather Flanagan| Spherical Cow Consulting
This one’s for everyone who’s ever said, "I’m not technical enough to participate in standards development." If you’ve wondered what working group chair skills actually matter, I have news for you: you don’t need to be a spec-writing wizard to be effective. I do get it, though. The post Working Group Chair Skills: Standards Work Isn’t Just for Coders appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.| Spherical Cow Consulting
If you want to follow what's happening in AI, it helps to know where the conversations are happening. That doesn't just mean the headlines and white papers; it means the standards bodies, working groups, and protocol discussions shaping the infrastructure AI systems will have to live with (and live inside). The post Agentic AI in the Open Standards Community: Standards Work or Just Hype? appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Disinformation. Misinformation. Malinformation. These terms get used interchangeably, but they’re not the same thing. That distinction matters when designing resilient infrastructure that supports trust. Most of our efforts to address these problems focus on content, activities like fact-checking, moderation, and takedown requests.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Heather Flanagan| Spherical Cow Consulting
I went to Geneva to understand what, if anything, people were saying regarding digital identity and standards in a governance-focused forum. My brain is now full. I adore the topic of identity and the standards development process; everything from the brilliant minds, the challenges, and the intense edge cases. The post What WSIS+20 Taught Me About Digital Identity and Global Governance appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Is the digital identity wallet metaphor helping or hurting adoption? A look at where the term breaks down and what might work better.| Spherical Cow Consulting
What do you think of when someone says "digital identity"? Biometrics? Login credentials? A string of JSON data? Your social media account? The answer probably depends on where you are, how old you are, and/or how tech-savvy you are. The post Local Flavors, Global Reach: Why Digital Identity Needs Cultural Context appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Explores mDL “phone home” verification and how privacy, fraud, and risk influence digital credential standards development.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Experience Matters Navigating the complexities of digital identity requires strategic vision, industry expertise, and actionable recommendations. It also requires a sense of humor, rigorous organization, and cheerful insight. With nearly 15 years of experience, I offer tailored advisory services designed to help organizations like yours address the challenges and opportunities in this dynamic space. Whether Continue Reading| Spherical Cow Consulting
Resilience is on my list of the top ten buzzwords of the year. Whether we’re looking at geopolitical turmoil, AI disruption, or yet another IdP outage, it’s clear that the infrastructure we’ve relied on for decades is straining under new (and not-so-new) pressures. The post Resilience Isn’t Free: What Standards Can (and Can’t) Prepare Us For appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Once upon a time, digital systems were built around a beautifully simple idea: one user, one identity, one device, one intent. That model worked, for some value of "worked." Mostly, it was good enough to solve 80% of the use cases. The post Delegation in a Multi-Actor World: It’s Not Just OAuth Anymore appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Since I wrote last week about MCP and the need for a more structured standards development process, this week I feel like diving into what it means to build an open standard. Unfortunately, "open standard" is a term that often gets thrown around and means entirely too many different things. The post Rethinking Digital Identity: What ARE Open Standards? appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.| Spherical Cow Consulting
MCP promises easier AI integration, but is it really a standard? Learn what it is, why standardization matters, and whether review is needed.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Heather Flanagan| Spherical Cow Consulting
Delegation in digital identity is broken; agentic AI is making the need to fix it urgent. Here's why the one-user model no longer works.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Governance in decentralization is often the real blocker—not technology. Learn how trust structures decide whether systems succeed or stall.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Centralization vs decentralization isn’t about tech, it's about incentives. What if success looked more distributed?| Spherical Cow Consulting
The cost of decentralization isn’t just money—it’s complexity, redundancy, and effort. Learn what to weigh before you build for resilience.| Spherical Cow Consulting
A Digital Identity Digest provides summaries of timely identity policy, AI, and internet topics, about what’s changing and why it matters.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Centralized vs decentralized? The smartest architectures can shift. Learn why flexibility is key to resilient system and identity design.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Learn why businesses should adopt digital credentials and how they combat fraud while navigating complex environments.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Navigate the tension between identity standards and reality in CIAM and the gap between aspiration and execution.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Understand the competing terminology of digital credentials, verifiable credentials, and verifiable digital credentials.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Get a better understanding of Non-Human Identities (NHI) and how they differ from human identities. NHI require more from IAM.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Read my rant about the challenges faced by identity federations and their relevance to the world of wallets.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Discover how AI is revolutionizing digital identity security, enhancing online safety, and addressing new challenges in today's digital world.| Spherical Cow Consulting
The long-term scalability of digital attestation and verification is a huge problem for IAM that needs attention. Let's talk about it.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Leverage nearly 15 years of expertise in Digital Identity Standards Development with personalized consulting services.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Explore how FedCM tackles the challenge of maintaining federated authentication and why it’s crucial to focus on practical implementation.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Find out why a digital identity standards development service is key for executives and can enhance your product's conformity to standards.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Learn about the looming threat of quantum cryptography and its impact on Internet security. Will our digital world be left vulnerable?| Spherical Cow Consulting
Dive into the world of non-human identities, uncovering the challenges and standards shaping the future of digital authorization.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Learn more about how tracking on the web and what this means for both privacy and third-party authentication.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has evolved since the 1980s; read on to learn more about the better choices available!| Spherical Cow Consulting
This blog post provides an overview of the verifiable credentials landscape, helping you to understand formats, protocols & the tech used.| Spherical Cow Consulting
Which digital credential format is best? Compare mdoc, Verifiable Credentials, and others for security, adoption, and real-world use cases.| Spherical Cow Consulting
