DID Use Case: Collective Identities

All,


I have drafted my initial thoughts for a collective identity use case. This
is a first draft of the concept I mentioned on the CCG call Tuesday. This
is a starting point for discussion. It is not a final, nor polished
intellectual concept. I expect us to have discussion about it and for you
to make suggestions to increase its robustness. I have included adjacent
possible use cases that could be further fleshed out to understand common
features/requirements for a more generalized use case. I have included one
radical idea that flips the concept of taxes from the current government
compulsory model to one of mutual aid.


I have added this use case to the DID Use Case document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wz8sakevXzO2OSMP341w7M2LjAMZfEQaTQEm_AOs3_Q/edit?usp=sharing


I look forward to your comments and the discussion.


-Heather


ps. I plan to write a topic paper on Collective Identities for the next
RWOT/Toronto. If you are interested in collaborating on this with me,
please be in touch.


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Name: Collective Identity Use Case

DIDs for aggregate collective identity. Whereas multiple people create a
collective identity that acts as more than the sum of its individuals, in a
somewhat unified way.

   -

   Infrequent ad hoc events/Santacon
   -

   Renting/owning/sharing home together/utilities
   -

   Informal joint venture/short-term business/emergent business
   “partnerships”
   -

   The radical idea: Mutual Aid/the end of taxes: to be able to anonymously
   pay for other people for needs.


Background

A group of 6 people are organizing an event/conference. They are selling
tickets and paying vendors. They are making arrangements with local bars
and restaurants. Two of the people are handling the finances, one is
handling ticketing, three are handling restaurants/catering/other bills.
Another one is handling email marketing, which they must pay for. All of
them want to update the team on their statuses.

This is a one off (or once a year) event. The activity is not focused on
making money. Ticketing vendors and others expect a cut of the funds. The
team pays a variety of vendors. They make enough in ticket sales to cover
these costs, but one person always has to put themselves on the financial
line - accepting funding from paypal and other payment platforms directly,
taking on the tax burden, paying with their personal credit card. Not
everyone in the team has the ability to take on the financial risk. They
want to share the risk, enable each other to do the work, pay the people
who needs to get paid. Another aspect is that each member brings their
non-financial reputation to the team/event. This includes contacts,
history, and their experience. This reputation is lent to the event to
produce it, and both the reputation of the event grows and the reputation
of the organizers grows as well. In the case that there is an issue or
negative reputation situation, one of the organizers is a “fixer” to
resolve any issues (financial, emotional, logistical, legal).

Description

Note: I would like to have a discussion about whether they = the collective
entity, or they = the collective entity authorizing the individuals for
these actions.

   -

   They want to be able to log into jointly used accounts.
   -

   They want to be able to manage payouts.
   -

   They want to be able to know ticket sales data and information, without
   one person being the one in charge.
   -

   They want to agree and approve payments to 3rd parties and vendors. And
   also each other’s individual accounts. (If they could not use the group
   account).
   -

   Probably more things.


Ruth is at a store buying supplies for the event. She wants to use the
group bank account to pay for things. She has been authorized by others in
the group to make purchases up to $$$ for the event. The receipt and other
sales information is also saved to the group for auditing and tracking.

David is negotiating the venue cost, the legal paperwork, including
insurance requirements, putting a deposit down. He is also working with
catering option, that takes in information from ticketing information and
catering options decision making by the whole team.

Raj and Jennifer are managing the finances and ticketing. Managing the
number of tickets sold, the budget available, the transaction fees, other
data associated with the ticket purchasers and the event. Jennifer manages
the overall P&L budget and keeps a running audit of costs/payouts.

Sara and Chris are doing the marketing and outreach for the event, and like
Ruth, need to purchase things with allocated budget. They have shared their
reputation with the event to increase the confidence with buyers/vendors.

Sticky Wicket

Today’s systems are mainly set up for a single identity to use them, others
allow teams to use them with incurred cost. There is no way for a group of
people to create a collective identity with financial and log in ties.
There is also the creation and use of group reputation/social capital. This
use case is envisioned for a small group of people, but could be used for
other ad-hoc, temporal business collaborations like film productions or
other creative project based partnerships.

Distinctive

Instead of an individual having multiple identities, this flips that model
by suggesting a collective identity composed of multiple individuals (and
in the adjacent use cases, blended human/technology/AI collective
identities). How do the individual identities create, set rules/boundaries,
revoke, track and audit these activities? How do the individual reconcile
their collective identities with their individual identities? How do
individual identities circulate in and out of the collective identity?
There are many other questions to be asked and explored in this scenario.

Potential adjacent use cases:

   -

   Delegated Identities: Parent, child. Guardian, pet. Adult child, adult
   parent. Unrelated adult, unrelated adult (non-formally bound romantic
   relationships, non-blood/legal family relationships.
   How is a collective identity similar/different from delegated identities?
   -

   Human-Technology Collective Identities: Car/motorcycle owner (multiple
   owners) and the object. Solar panels that earn income for a home/property
   owner. Solar panel has identity to interface with the power grid. But also
   has identity information from property owner - is tied to their account.
   -

   Human/AI Identity: Individuals augmented with technology are a new kind
   identity. Should they be addressed the same way human only identities are?
   Do they have other requirements/responsibilities?
   -

   IoT Devices ownership/guardianship, vs who is habitating the space
   (surveillance, control)
   -

   Underage income earners still under jurisdiction of parental control.
   -

   Autonomous passive revenue income streams.



-- 
Heather Vescent <http://www.heathervescent.com/>
The Purple Tornado, Inc
~ The Future in Present Tense ~

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