One physical person, many personal identities

Information Dynamics

The variety of the information society requires a fundamental reorientation of key concepts. How a person identifies her- or himself, and how (s)he is formally identified for social transactions is a prominent case in point. Information Dynamics supports such reorientation with two equally fundamental innovations and their synthesis.

1.The conceptual innovation is illustrated here with the need for an unambiguous infrastructure for personal identities. Varied information about physical persons is 'generated' in all kinds of systems in both the public and private sector. However, this should not be confused with a physical person's essential characteristics. The conceptual solution resides in starting not from one concept, but from two concepts, i.e., such that a single physical person may obtain one or more personal identities or personas. Then, a particular transaction does not directly 'work' on the physical person. Instead, one out of the set of personas is selected.

Take for example two personas, x and y. With the enormous variety of situational denominators of a physical person, an obvious denominator is: citizen. Given x and y as the physical person's personas, the particular physical-person-as-citizen may be 'based' on either x or y. Suppose x is selected. First of all note that other denominators may also be based on x, for example the particular physical-person-as-artist. Or persona y may be chosen for information about the physical person's life-as-artist. What especially counts is that, through his set of personas, one and the same physical person provides a background for all his denominators. Conversely, this leads to the recognition that a physical person is only essentially characterized by biometrics.

Such design choices are reflected in the illustration above. It should be remembered, however, that Information Dynamics not so much claims to suggest the optimal information model for — the core of — the infrastructure for personal identities. Elegantly powerful as it is, it is just an application of Information Dynamics' approach to conceptual information modeling. The metapattern is an innovation to suit the information society, i.e., it is an elegantly powerful tool for conceptual modeling.

2.The technical innovation by Information Dynamics results in tools of a different kind. It is called KnitbITs^®. KnitbITs is currently applied by Information Dynamics for prototyping, demonstration etcetera.

Information Dynamics keeps KnitbITs under development for the foreseeable future on purpose. For especially the technology of the Internet is likely to continue to change. As a persistent innovator, Information Dynamics emphasizes such opportunities for KnitbITs. In this respect, the attitude of Information Dynamics is comparable to that of a Formula I racing team. It designs and constructs at the leading edge of technology, spinning off improvements to mainstream products and services.

Combining conceptual and technical innovation, Information Dynamics offers a unique synthesis of structural improvements. It prepares you for a quality leap in information management.

See for introductory texts also Metapattern Primer and Metapattern, a concise introduction to principles.