Doc: Means to Ends. Jamie Lewis has posted Ends and Means: Identity in Two Worlds.It's a landmark document. Jamie is President of The Burton Group (which he founded with Craig Burton) and one of the world's leading authorities on enterprises, networks and related matters. As a conceptual foundation for his arguments, Jamie posits a complement to World of Ends: World of Means. It's a brilliant concept. Also a necessary one. If you care about the Identity Thing, and want to see something actually implemented in the Real World, this is a must-read. [Later...] Eric Norlin concurs. [The Doc Searls Weblog]
The sticking point, it seems to me, is this (or these): since BigCo has the means it gets to name the tune, which always has as its end $$$ for BigCo. So, as a result, BigCo squeezes more personal info than the minimum necessary for a transaction -- just in case, ahem, it's needed later, and by the way, we'll commodify it as we go along.
Similar pressures, if different ends, lead BigCoAsGov in its behaviors. Result: standards are set by the folks with means, and their ends dominate.
I agree -- totally -- that The Net must accommodate more than one form of digital identity. But I worry that the same forces that let the World of Means dominate the setting of terms for idenity/privacy infrastructures now continue to do so, with the result that apparently multiple forms of identity are easily bridged (as with checking accounts or credit cards and frequent shopper cards now, e.g.).
And a Big 10-4 for:
By the way, the infrastructure isn’t just about technology. It’s also about process and people: who’s involved, who can do what, who’s accountable, and how accountability manifests itself.
I've been talking about "technological and social infrastructures" for awhile. Gotta work on both: for all the reasons tech infrastructure matters, soc does, too.
Anyway. It's good to think.
11:16:00 AM 
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