Keep it Simple

In response to Marc's statements on supporting multiple identity formats, Kaliya makes a good point:

Do you not think all this choice confuses END USERS to the point they will not adopt anything until there is one simple easy to understand way this user centric interop identity system works? Remember some of the folks using this system in the not to distant future will be functionally illiterate.

While more people are becoming computer literate, that only means they know how to click on hyperlinks, nothing more. As I blogged last month user-centric identity must be as easy to use, and as universally standard, as an ATM or Credit Card. The introduction of debit cards a few years back confused some people ... they didn't initially know it was taking money directly from their checking account. Thus, many banks started calling them "check-cards" to create the association.

The majority of this nation is not well educated ... according to the U.S. Census Bureau, nationally only 13% of those who graduate high-school go on to college. And speaking from experience, even if you are well-educated, one tends to spend any free-time living life, not figuring out how or which technology to use to buy something online.

Thus, even for the informed it must be simple and standard before wide-spread global adoption will happen. Until the Identity community gets this through their heads and stops talking about what the protocols contain, but how they're USED by the END USER, and which ones produce the best END USER EXPERIENCE, we will never make progress.