2idi Help/FAQ
Glossary of Terms:
i-name:
Just as a url is an address for a website, an i-name is an Internet address for YOU! It is a simple, secure way to authenticate your identity and to share personal data, with the assurance that it will remain private and up-to-date. Further, your identity cannot be "harvested" by spammers or other marketers without your express permission.
It is an easy to understand universal private address--a single address you could use for all types of electronic communications while always maintaining control of your privacy. An i-name, like a domain name, may be transferred or reassigned to another resource by their owner. For example, a company that changes its corporate name could sell its old i-name to another company, while both companies could retain their original i-number. However what most differentiates i-names from domain names is that in practice they will have a synonymous (equivalent) persistent i-number (see below).
There are two types of i-names: individual i-names and organization i-names:
- An individual i-name begins with an "=" sign (i.e., =victor.grey)
- An organization i-name begins with an "@" sign (i.e., @2idi.com)
i-number:
a machine-friendly identifier (similar to an IP address) that is registered to a resource (person, organization, application, file, digital object, etc.) and never reassigned. This means an i-number can always be used to address a network representation of the resource as long it remains available anywhere on the network. I-numbers, like IP addresses, are designed to be very efficient for network routers to process and resolve.
i-broker: a trusted agent that electronically houses your personal profile information and shares it only as requested by you.
Dataweb Technology:
is an open-source technology that is to data what the World Wide Web is to documents. It is a grassroots technology that does or soon will:
- Enable participating organizations and/or individuals to create unique online identifiers for themselves called i-names
- Enable participating individuals to maintain complete control over who has access to their online data and how it is used.
- Provide single sign-on capabilities across multiple dataweb enabled groups and websites.
- Provide an unspammable contact gateway link that can be used on websites and business cards in place of an email address.
- Provide participants the opportunity to have temporary, disposable email addresses to give out to online merchants and other Internet sites that require an email address. With these temporary email addresses, Dataweb participants will have the ability to track the addresses that get spammed, know which merchants or sites are selling their data, and turn off the email address without any interruption in email service.
- Will, as adoption spreads, be able to provide permission-based marketing giving individuals complete control over who markets to them while at the same time giving businesses the opportunity to market to qualified customers who are truly interested in receiving their information and promotional material - a true win-win scenario.
ISSO:
i-name enabled single sign-on enables not only secure inter-site single sign-on, but also authenticated and negotiated data sharing using a concept known as link contracts.
XDI and XRI:
XDI.ORG is an international public trust organization founded to provide standards and services instrumental in building an accountable, trustworthy layer on the Internet. Specifically its purpose is to:
- Manage the intellectual property rights for a new data interchange protocol,
- Contribute these rights to open, public, royalty-free standards,
- Offer public global services that help individuals and communities interoperate using these standards.
Together, XRI and XDI solve the twin problems of persistent identity and trusted data sharing relationships by providing the technical foundation for linking people and organizations in a "Web of trust" just the way the Web lets us link pages in a "Web of text".
XRIs (Extensible Resource Identifiers) address a longstanding problem on the Internet: how to have a persistent, portable, privacy-protected identifier for any resource, from a person to a company to an application to a concept.
XDI (XRI Data Interchange) uses XRIs to securely and privately share, link, and synchronize data between any two devices, domains, or applications Ð and maintain this link for as long as the two parties want to keep a data sharing relationship.
2idi:
2idi is the Internet's first i-broker -- the i-name service provider involved in developing a blueprint for future i-brokers.
2idi is a California corporation whose mission is to help the Internet realize its higher potential of interconnecting people and organizations in an environment of trust. The goal of our software development is to accomplish our mission by addressing and finding solutions for the many privacy, identity and trust issues currently experienced by online communities and individual users of the Internet. Thus, 2idi has played a lead role in the development of a new technology called the Dataweb, producing much of the open-source code used by all Dataweb Servers.
General i-name questions:
What is an i-name?
It is a universal private address--a single address you will be able use for all types of electronic communications while always maintaining control of your privacy.
i-names are designed to be very long-lived. For example, a personal i-name might last for a lifetime and never need to change no matter how often a person moved, changed jobs, changed service providers, etc. However, an i-name can (like a domain name) be transfered between registrants.
A global individual i-name always begins with an "=" sign; a global organization i-name always begins with an "@" sign.
Why would I want an i-name?
Conventional addresses such as postal addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses are tied to a specific location, device, or service. By contrast, i-names are abstract - they are not tied to any specific location or device. Instead they are a way to ask permission to contact an individual or organizationÑand for the i-name owner to control to whom this permission is granted.
Because an i-name is not tied to a specific physical or network address, it is also the first address that an individual can keep for life - across schools, jobs, homes, and travels. Furthermore, using the XDI trusted data interchange specifications under development at OASIS, individuals will be able to use their i-name to instantly share and link the precise set of personal data they want with other people, businesses, or organizations while always maintaining strong security and privacy protection. Better still, when shared contact or other data changes, your i-name service provider can automatically synchronize changes with all linked contacts that have permission to receive them. Finally, a universal automated change-of-address service!
I-Names offer three key features not provided by any other address:
- Privacy. Because an i-name is not itself a communications address like an email address or phone number, it is unspammable. You simply can't send it email, call it, or send it a fax directly unless the owner has given you permission. If you don't have permission, you can use an i-name to make a contact request of the owner. These requests can be automatically filtered by your i-broker to eliminate all but legitimate requests for contact.
- Persistence. i-names are the first true universal addresses designed to last for a lifetime. Unlike any other form of address - postal address, telephone number, fax number, email address, domain name, etc. - i-names never need to change when a person or company moves, changes service providers, or even changes their real-world name.
- Portability. i-names are guaranteed to be portable among i-brokers (the service providers that offer i-name data sharing applications) anywhere in the world.
What can I do with an i-name?
Control spam: An i-name is simply 'unspammable' - you can't send it email, call it, or send it a fax directly unless the owner has given you permission. If you don't have permission, you can use an i-name to make a contact request of the owner. These requests can be automatically filtered by your i-name service provider (i-broker) using a personal contact page to eliminate all but legitimate requests for contact. This means individuals and organizations who must currently expose their email address, telephone, fax, or other contact data on the Web can immediately begin using an i-name to stop further harvesting of this contact data by spammers and telemarketers. This is especially important as your wireless phone becomes your access to the Internet and frustration with spam costs you not just time, but money.
As adoption grows, your i-name will be your key to a wide variety of automated, privacy-protected personal data sharing services, including i-name single sign-on (ISSO), one-click site registration, one-click purchasing, self-updating address books, shared calendar services, and smart spam filters.
What's the difference between and individual and an organization i-name?
An individual i-name is as its name implies, used by individuals as a single address you can use for all types of electronic communications while always maintaining control of your privacy.
An organizational i-name is used to identify an organization. Members of the organization can have individual i-names associated with the organization and use them just as you would an individual i-name.
Why would I want an organization i-name?
An organization i-name provides many benefits for businesses and organizations of all types:
- A business i-name is even easier and more intuitive than a domain name as a way for consumers to find a website, product, or service.
- The XDI trusted data sharing protocol will offer consumers the easiest, fastest, and most secure way to register, login, or purchase products on your website.
- Your organization i-name will be your digital "badge of trust" that shows consumers you offer the most powerful form of personal privacy and digitial identity theft protection available.
Can I have more than one i-name?
Yes. You can register multiple individual i-names and/or multiple organizational i-names and you control whether these i-names resolve to one i-broker account or multiple accounts.
I-Broker Questions:
What is an i-broker?
A trusted agent that electronically houses your authentication information and shares it only as requested by you. Effectively the "gatekeeper" of your data, your i-broker safeguards your account password and allows you to manage your data sharing relationships with other i-name users (both individuals and organizations.) Personal i-brokers will also offer a growing menu of trusted data sharing services, from auto-address books and calendars to intelligent portals, "introduction" and "reputation" services. Since i-brokers will specialize in a variety of areas (retail, finance, medical, academic, government, etc.), an individual may have multiple i-broker accounts and move among them seamlessly.
The services of a i-broker, as well as the security and privacy of the data, are covered by a contract with the account holder. Many types of network service providers are expected to become i-brokers and offer Dataweb services. These include ISPs, telcos, banks, web portals, universities, nonprofits, etc. Note: Individuals or organizations can be their own i-broker.
How does my information remain secure?
Besides conventional network security safeguards, at the i-broker level there are 3 new types of protection. First, in order to serve as a global i-name registrar, an i-broker must publish their privacy, and security policies so they are easily available to all customers. Secondly, accredited i-brokers will be required to participate in a reputation service hosted by XDI.ORG into which their customers can provide feedback. Thirdly, brokers may join trust federations such as Identity Commons that will help ensure their members are accountable to best practices for privacy and security protection.
In addition, when you share any personal data using your i-broker account, the XDI protocol will automatically negotiate a link contract between you and the subscribing party. This link contract will specify the privacy and security terms of the data sharing relationship to be followed by all parties involved.