#GoodID Champions Unite Online to Make ID Work for Everyone

By Abiah Weaver, Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications, Omidyar Network

Today, with the launch of a new website and Twitter account, the #GoodID movement takes a leap forward in its goal to bring together diverse voices in the evolving field of digital identity.

Since 2016 — when Omidyar Network began exploring what makes for high-quality, empowering forms of digital identity — we have seen a wide range of perspectives emerge from every sector of society. From human rights activists to software vendors, humanitarian organizations to advertisers, national governments to startups, lawyers to economists — they all have opinions about how identity data can be used for good and for harm.

Too often, though, these perspectives are shared in silos, which prevents stakeholders from developing real understanding and shared solutions.

To enable more cross-issue conversation, we’ve been collaborating with Caribou Digital and Unfold Stories to offer www.good-id.org and @GoodID as places to collectively explore how we can make ID work for everyone. We can identify good policy, good technology, and good practice much faster when we discuss government-issued ID, data trails, and self-sovereign alternatives in the same circles, for example.

In the coming weeks, these online forums will include live discussions, thought-provoking viewpoints from leaders, in-depth podcast conversations, and core reading for anyone interested in Good ID and digital identity, however you may define it.

We’re also co-developing a series of workshops, panels, debates, and videos that will bring together people who are actively designing or refreshing ID systems, building applications on top of them, navigating the legal and political complexities of digital identity, researching the topic, and advocating on behalf of vulnerable groups.

Our goal is simple for this dialogue, yet fully dependent on hearing many views: find new ways to ensure all forms of identification, especially those new to the digital age, are good for people as well as business and government.

The #GoodID platforms are intentionally designed for the digital identity community to exchange bold ideas toward offering individuals more choices and control; building trust and acceptance in issuers; ensuring universal coverage; improving efficiency and utility; and planning for future changes.

I encourage you to browse the site and think about how you can share your perspective through the upcoming live discussions and featured articles. Everyone’s voice is welcome, especially those who do not typically engage in “digital identity” roundtables. Again, we need diverse perspectives from every sector and vantage point to ensure the future of identity is Good ID.

Specifically, here are some ways we hope you will engage in the #GoodID movement online:

• help to define Good ID for people, business, and government by contributing to the collaborative glossary
• share your viewpoints on privacy, security, and user-control by submitting opinion articles to the site
• share the latest digital identity resources via Twitter using the hashtag #GoodID
• ask a conversation-starting question in an online debate about power, exclusion, discrimination, surveillance, consent, and other key issues of our time
• network with organizations and people who believe in digital dignity, data protection, quality identification systems that help people thrive, and human-centered technologies
• organize an event and share it on the forthcoming calendar
• invite new voices to the conversation on Good ID by forwarding this post

Visit http://www.good-id.org/ and follow @GoodID to get started. What’s your big idea on user-centered ID solutions?