Sunday, July 21, 2002

On Liberty. I still haven't had time to read the Liberty Alliance 1.0 specification, but I am trying to follow the opinions of others. Here's a sampling so far: As Editor of Digital Identity World, Phil Becker is part of the pro-identity universe, so it's no surprise that he's excited about the potential. Carol Coye Benson of Glenbrook Partners takes exception to the word federated and its derivatives. "It doesn't mean anything to the average person," she writes. Over at ZapThink, senior analyst Jason Bloomberg believes, "The software vendors and enterprises that put together the spec did not adequately put themselves into the users' shoes." Base on these and other interpretations of the 1.0 spec, I tend to agree most with Jason. First of all, I don't see the need for this from the user's perspective. The most-often used example is the sharing of identities between an airline and a rental-car web site. According to all I've read, the first time I use that federated link, I've got to log into the second site anyway, so what's the advantage through that point? None. Furthermore, how important is it to me that United and Avis have this link on an on-going basis? I may have an allegiance to United based on frequent flier miles, but I'm not as loyal to any rental-car company. The second time I click from United to Avis, does it matter to me that I don't have to log in? If I truly care about this (in)convenience, I'm more likely to be using an integrated travel site like Travelocity or Expedia. At these sites, sharing my identity isn't an issue. I can book air travel, cars and hotels at a single site with a single signon, and the site remembers all of my preferences, frequent flier numbers, etc. Furthermore, at integrated travel sites I can shop for best prices. As a consumer, I care much more about the integrated convenience and carrier independence than I do about affiliate relationship between vendors who want to share my identity. There's a critical need for single sign-on among intranet applications, but I still fail to see the need (from the customer's perspective) for federated identity between web sites. Could this be yet another cart before a horse? [Doug Kaye: Web Services Strategies] 12:59:14 PM

SF Chronicle: Home buyers can learn from burst of stock bubble. The SF Chronicle reports on SF Bay Area housing prices. What he found: In the Bay Area, house P/Es are higher than they were in 1989, just before the last housing bubble burst. The P/E for Bay Area houses averaged 27.2 in 2001, down slightly from 2000 but still higher than 1989, when it averaged 25.6. In 1993 through 1995, it hovered around 21. Leamer finds that home values in Boston and San Diego are even more inflated. [Scott Loftesness] 9:51:17 AM

This graph from The Economist shows that US housing is relatively inexpensive given a 1988 baseline.  Not true in the Netherlands and Ireland. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 9:23:34 AM