Identity Services Infrastructure: Trust and Privacy in Communities of the Twenty-First Century

In the first part of the twenty-first century the critical enabling infrastructure will be identity services.

In the past, the walls of a village and potable and irrigable water, along with cheap and widely available power and communications, were common public goods which enabled societies to advance. Now, reliable identity services will underlie the success of modern societies. Cities and countries with modern economies will find that ubiquitous, efficient and easy identity assurance technologies provide them with competitive advantages. Conversely, economies which lack this fundamental identity management capability will be hindered just as if they lacked a modern physical infrastructure.