dg.o2005 International Workshop: Digital Government Integration & Systems Evaluation
E-Authentication Infrastructures and their Interoperability:
a corner-stone for the third millennium society
Scheduled: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, May 15
Description: In these days, in almost all technologically advanced countries,
there are initiatives (at various level of maturity) aiming at setting
up citizens' e-authentication infrastructures (CEIs). By this term
we mean the complex set of devices, information and communication
systems and networks, organizations, regulations, and laws, that make
it possible to reliably answer the question "who are you?"
The irreversible shift of our society towards the use
of digital technologies presents a serious challenge. As human beings we have been
trained by centuries of societal evolution to beware of attempts to deceive in
human-to-human interaction. But in the virtual world that exists today,
human beings are forced to rely on their technological avatars. Since machines, at
least with their current level of advancement, have no true human
intelligence and no human sense at all, it is clear that good CEIs
cannot be just masterpieces of science and engineering, but have to
be clearly and deeply defined with attention to human factors,
organizational issues, and legal consequences.
The goal of the International Research Workshop on "e-Authentication
Infrastructures and their Interoperability: a corner-stone for the
third millennium society" is to gather a few advanced countries in
this area, those having already deployed initiatives at high maturity
and penetration level, with the aim of having a thorough presentation
of and open discussion regarding their respective approach.
Presentations (one by each participating countries) will clearly
address the most relevant dimensions for a CEI:
technological/architectural
organizational/governance
social
judicial
The research target is to set the scenario for the interoperability
required in the foreseeable future among various CEIs: even in
countries where a CEI is widely deployed, all implications of its
interoperability with other CEIs have not been fully understood and
evaluated. Sharing of national approaches is therefore a mandatory
step in the process of defining good cross-national interoperability
solutions.
Organization:
The workshop is organized as a half day event and will give space both
to the in-depth presentations of adopted solutions and to discussions
on the interplay between technical solutions and social issues.
Talks are by invitation only (to allow for a proper narrow selection
of really interesting situations) and ample time will be allowed for
discussion between participants.
Countries with the currently most advanced CEIs and which have
confirmed their participation are (in alphabetical order):
Austria
Italy
Spain
USA
Moreover, the workshop will feature an industrial panel focused on the
following theme:
"Interoperability of national e-authentication
infrastructure: is it practically feasible?"
Participants to the panel, coordinated by Corestreet, are:
Participation is open to digital government researchers with an
inter-disciplinary interest and focusing on electronic identity
issues and their interoperability in a socio-technical framework,
and is expected to attract about 20-30 people
