We’re coming up on the 17th Internet Identity Workshop, better known as IIW. It takes place on 22-24 October at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

While IIW’s title suggests a focus on identity, there are as many different foci as there are subjects to discuss, and the participants choose those. That’s because IIW is an un-conference. It has no speakers, no keynotes, no corporate agenda. There are sponsors, but they just cover the meals and the free espresso bar. Topics are suggested by participants at the beginning of each day, and then everybody heads to breakout rooms to talk about those topics and move them forward. Sometimes code gets written too.

VRM as a topic grew to a large degree out of conversations at IIW — and many VRM topics have moved forward at IIW breakout sessions. If you want to move your own topic(s) forward, there is not a better instrument for doing that than IIW. Last time we talked about these, among many other topics:

  • Identity
  • VRM
  • Personal clouds
  • Better “social” login
  • Authentication (e.g. Oauth2)
  • Data portability
  • Mobility
  • Surveillance
  • Security
  • Legal issues
  • Business issues
  • Cultural and social issues
  • Cool new and old devices
  • Trust frameworks

You can register here.

In addition we will have VRM and Personal Cloud Day, also at the Computer History Museum, just before IIW. Register at that link. It’s free.

While this day has usually been free-form, this time we are structuring it to get maximum leverage for VRM topics and projects heading into IIW. Kaliya (Identity Woman), who also organizes IIW (with Phil Windley and myself), will facilitate the day’s proceedings. She explains on the registration site,

Our overall goal is to support all those working in the VRM and Personal Cloud space knowing who else is there, what they are working on, find key synergies and opportunities for collaboration, and coordinate and brainstorm about ideas for sessions during IIW.

Opening and Context Setting
We are inviting T.Rob to give us a presentation about the industry landscape as he sees it along with future challenges and opportunities.

Community Landscape Mapping
We will spend an hour or two figuring out who is doing what in the emerging ecosystem.
The goal will be to have a comprehensive map that clusters key projects and efforts to collaborate and prevent folks from re-inventing wheels.

Please bring an 8.5×11 print out to the Day with the
* Logo of your Company or Project
* Name of your Company or Project
* Description of your product
* Description of other ecosystem components that your product needs to work

Both this day’s activities and IIW are designed to maximize leverage on the future. So be there.