This is an invitation for you to read about a meeting I attended in Geneva this past March at the International Telecommunications Union, or ITU. You may be aware that the ITU includes representation from 189 countries and works to create policies and standards to meet the needs of those member countries in a global setting. The five of us at the meeting planned to cover topics including the issues of e-security, privacy, and identity management.

One of the core issues in our discussion was the fact that the Internet is already broken from a user perspective. This is true based upon the amount of time and resources we all expend to keep our computers operational and our connectivity secure, as well as the fact that current encryption methods are largely non-standardized and uncertified attempts at providing security in an ever-changing Internet world.

For more information about this timely topic, please accept my invitation to read the complete article. There is also a link within the article to a 35 minute recorded interview (both MP3 and WMA formats) with Wes Kussmaul, regarding the concept of the virtual city hall of Osmio, the need for individual authentication via personal enrollment, and the emerging need for an established authority to oversee and verify not only the information we transfer, but also the business and interpersonal entities that populate the world we are building online.