Windows CardSpace is becoming real. I've spent the last few days working with Steven Woodward from Microsoft HQ. It has been a real pleasure to be exposed to an expert in this field, I must say. We've covered a lot of the more functional parts of CardSpace, and I must say I'm quite excited about the whole technology.

Before working in CardSpace I had visions of the Australia Card that I thought were solid, however now my opinion has changed. I used to think that identity would be based strongly in biometrics from my experience with Cognitec's FaceVACS product range, smartcards (in particular ISO24727) and fingerprints.

Beginning to understand CardSpace leads me to a conclusion that although Microsoft's Kim Cameron and his associates seem to have solved problems of identity in the digital realm, these discoveries will reach much further than just the Internet.

As an example, if the police conducted a random breath test and required your driver's licence, a portable handheld device could verify your identity with a driver's licence bureau. To extend this concept, foreigners in Australia may only be permitted to drive in Australia if their originating driver’s licence bureau offered an STS endorsed by the local authorities.

Previously, I considered smartcard interoperability to be the technology that would solve the complexities in delivering an identity card to a population. While I still believe that this technology will play a large part in the proliferation of smartcards, I do not think that it will solve the problems that would cause friction in the deployment of the Australia Card.

In the ISO 24727/biometrics world, the seven laws of identity were not considered. In my opinion, and I don’t consider myself a hardcore civil libertarian, privacy would have been compromised significantly.

I’m constantly confused by the release of smartcard based passports for Australian citizens. Without a standard such as ISO 24727 for interoperability these passports are completely unusable outside of Australia. ISO 24727 is not the only requirement to make an electronic passport usable – there also needs to be a standard for housing passport data that would be stored on an ISO 24727 card. ISO are working on these standards, but I wonder if they are truly necessary.

A claims based system, coupled with contactless smartcards (like those used in the current Australian passports) and ISO 24727, where every country operated a trusted STS, could make some major improvements into border management.

I’ve been thinking about these problems for several years now. Don’t think this will be my last blog entry about it. I know that this posting may be a little heavy on terminology, so please feel free to comment or contact me.