If you're going to do ID cards...

...at least do them right.

Digital identity guru Kim Cameron points to Ideal Government's link to a Sunday Telegraph report on the LSE's proposals for an alternative, user-controlled approach to IS in the UK. An approach that not only allows you to control what information is stored, but also allows you to control where it's held, and how much of it the government gets access to.

Oh, and it's also £10 billion cheaper than the government proposals.

An identity card scheme that costs just £30 per person - compared with £300 per person under the Government's proposals - will be unveiled this week.

The plan, drawn up by the London School of Economics after six months of research, would also limit the Government's access to information on the card to a few basic details - while the Government wants to hold much more personal information on a national database.

<snip>

A 180-page LSE report says that its proposals would satisfy the need for a national ID card to help to combat identity fraud and illegal working and allay fears that the right to privacy would be seriously undermined by a "Big Brother" state.

<snip>

Under the proposals, the Government would have access to only a few details - the holder's name, date of birth and photograph, plus an encrypted card number and a unique "national identification number".

The scheme would be more acceptable to the public because it gives individuals the right to decide whether to store any other information on the cards, according to the report.

Hmm. Cheaper, user-controlled and more secure? I doubt we'll see it happen, then...

Another cool BBC Backstage Googlemaps Remix

BBC local news mapped by county.

More nifty AJAX goodness - just click on the green icon to get a pop-up of the relevant news headlines.

When I'm cleaningupdating Windows...

Microsoft's new update site is finally live. Instead of having to go to separate sites for your Windows and application updates, they're now all in one place.

Note: the site will download a new update scanner.

Luckily no need for updates here!

We're all Spartacus

Conversations in Another Place have led to realise that if we're all Spartacus (or Brian, for that matter), then supply of Spartaci must have exceeded demand a long time ago. Which means that Spartaci are now a commodity. But after the current Spartaci bubble ends, there'll have to be a bust.

In which case, anyone for a Spartacus Futures Market?

But how do you short Spartacus, or sell Spartacus derivatives?

Not a good day to be RIM...

...as Microsoft has just announced Direct Push, its push email services for Exchange and Windows Mobile. It's going to make the mobile email market an interesting place, especially as this coming as part of a service pack for Exchange...

From the press release:

Windows Mobile Direct Push Technology. Outlook information, including e-mail, calendar, contacts and new support for Tasks, is pushed from a direct connection between Exchange Server and a Windows Mobile-based device, providing users with immediate access to Outlook information, without the need for an additional and costly server infrastructure required by other solutions on the market.

Of course, it'll be lost amongst all the Apple/Intel rumours...

Time to keep an eye on the RIM share price...

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