AKMA’s Random Thoughts

It Had To Be You

This morning, my distant early warning system (the estimable Eric Norlin, whose address I have to remember to change in my blogroll) alerted us all to Verisign’s recent strategy of giving away digital ID certificates to online teenagers. Eric correctly associates this gesture wtih his touchstone case study in building marketshare, the credit card giveaway of 1958.

I expect Eric’s right — if this isn’t the impetus that gets the DigID wheel rolling, then whatever does give DigID the momentum it needs will look a lot like this. By targeting teenagers, Verisign (hissss) outflanks the adult’s expectation of privacy rights and demonstrable advantages. The teenage user can just scoop up his or her dig-signature, use it however he or she wants, and generate just the kind of market and audience that the enterprise DigID deployers have been waiting for. I just wish that some other vendor had twigged to this tactic first. . . .