position statement

Position Statement
As made to w3.sig.org teleconference 24 May 96
and hereby contributed to the minutes of same


OMI is in the electronic commerce business which is to say that
we are in the applied security business.  As with any application
of security, the most important characteristic (other than the
technical details of "does it work?") is integrability.  Note that
I did not say interoperability but integrability.  It is all well
and good to make and sell wonderful things, but the calculus of
pre-existing investment in business processes requires integration
of the security technology into what _is_, now what we wish it 
might be.  In short, we are extending business not re-inventing it.

As such, the critical need we (OMI) in turn need from security
technology is the ability to electronically represent roles.
This is part key management, part delegation model, part limitations
on use and part technological readiness for transnational operation.

What we do not need is an additional standards meeting/group; if
we again produce the situation where "The wonderful thing about
standards is that there are so many to choose from" then we will
either delay electronic commerce beyond the staying power of this
and other nascent companies, or we will hand standardization over
to those who can impose it through economic hegemony.

Dan Geer


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
formalties:     Daniel E. Geer, Jr., Sc.D.
                Director, Engineering
                Open Market, Inc.
                245 First Street
                Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142

                Email:     geer@openmarket.com
                Telephone: +1 617 621 9500
                Direct:    +1 617 252 3485
                FAX:       +1 617 621 1703

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Received on Friday, 24 May 1996 17:38:41 UTC