RE: DID Press Release Testimonials

Full credit to you Drummond, Les Chasen and Christopher Allen (who were all with Respect Network Corporation at that time) and Manu Sporny (w/ Digital Bazaar) for applying for funding to my Identity Management and Data Privacy R&D Program via that Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) solicitation back in 2016 to do the work leading up to the DID specification.

I said Yes, because I was hoping to address the problem of finding an alternative identifier to the U.S. Social Security Number that provided a clear separation between the identifier function and the authenticator function. All of you and the W3C DID WG did so much more than that with what eventually became the W3C DID Standard, including what I consider its super-power; a standardized mechanism to distribute and resolve public keys at scale, across networks, associated with the owner of the identifier without the need for a centralized repository of public keys.

I, for one, never anticipated that I would actually have the opportunity to apply the results of that funding in an active and current work stream, owned by our DHS Chief Privacy Officer and her Office, to use W3C DIDs to implement our SSN Reduction Policy!

So Well Done all of you, and Thank You!

Best Regards,

Anil

Anil John
Technical Director, Silicon Valley Innovation Program
Science and Technology Directorate
US Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC, USA

Email Response Time – 24 Hours

[A picture containing graphical user interface  Description automatically generated]<https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology>[/Users/holly.johnson/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Outlook/Data/Library/Caches/Signatures/signature_1972159395]

From: Reed, Drummond <drummond.reed@avast.com>
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2022 11:14 PM
To: John, Anil <anil.john@hq.dhs.gov>
Cc: Zundel, Brent <brent.zundel@avast.com>; public-did-wg@w3.org; public-credentials@w3.org
Subject: Re: DID Press Release Testimonials

Anil, I was very glad to see this as you and DHS deserve a truckload of credit for getting the DID train running. I had no idea the journey would take this long, but the whole trip has been worth it.

Thank you for everything you have done for DIDs.

=Drummond

On Fri, Jul 15, 2022 at 4:03 AM John, Anil <anil.john@hq.dhs.gov<mailto:anil.john@hq.dhs.gov>> wrote:
From the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T):


“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) works to protect privacy and reduce vendor lock-in by ensuring open standards and demonstrable interoperability testing. As the US government agency that initially funded the work leading up to the Decentralized Identifiers specification, we are pleased to see its ratification as a global standard,” said Anil John, Technical Director of S&T’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program. “We have and continue to contractually obligate our vendors to adhere to open global standards, including W3C Verifiable Credentials and W3C Decentralized Identifiers, as part of our ‘Preventing Forgery & Counterfeiting of Certificates and Licenses’ workstream, and participate in open standards processes in order to ensure transparency, protect privacy, and increase global equity in technology outcomes that affect not only those in the US, but abroad as well.”

Best Regards,

Anil

Anil John
Technical Director, Silicon Valley Innovation Program
Science and Technology Directorate
US Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC, USA

Email Response Time – 24 Hours

[A picture containing graphical user interface    Description automatically generated]<https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology>[/Users/holly.johnson/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Outlook/Data/Library/Caches/Signatures/signature_1972159395]


From: Zundel, Brent <brent.zundel@avast.com<mailto:brent.zundel@avast.com>>
Sent: Friday, July 8, 2022 12:22 PM
To: public-did-wg@w3.org<mailto:public-did-wg@w3.org>; public-credentials@w3.org<mailto:public-credentials@w3.org>
Subject: DID Press Release Testimonials

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of DHS. DO NOT click links or open attachments unless you recognize and/or trust the sender. Contact your component SOC with questions or concerns.

This message is to inform the DID WG and CCG that the W3C intends to write a press release.
To that end, we are seeking testimonials about Decentralized Identifiers. For an example of the sort of thing we're looking for, please see:
https://www.w3.org/2019/03/pressrelease-webauthn-rec.html<https://urldefense.us/v3/__https:/www.w3.org/2019/03/pressrelease-webauthn-rec.html__;!!BClRuOV5cvtbuNI!WW-a0VlzwQZ0yjPTgwkEBBKg7A7lQcPozjAcnJvStC7HLGoIhEqoR7rwjDBuVvOhUoMF$>

The testimonials may be submitted as a reply to this email. The deadline for submission is July 15th.

Thank you,

Brent Zundel, co-chair DID WG