Q&A with founder and CEO of Sxip Identity, the company
that wants to figure out how to manage personal identity online. Once and for
all.

I couldn’t believe my luck when I learned that Dick Hardt–who also writes the Blame Canada blog– was going to be speaking at Web 2.0. He’s
just agreed to present at our Under the Radar Emerging Technologies conference
on Nov. 16, solidifying our research that the management of online identity is
one of the most intensely watched sectors today. Mary Hodder put us together,
and with a reference like that, Dick could hardly say no when I asked him to
sit down and talk.

Fresh off the stage from his Lessig-style talk to a packed
room at the Argent Hotel, Dick dodged new fans and answered my questions. Even
the ones about people defacing his Hummer.

Irina: I just
heard your talk, so let’s review….

Dick: Historically,
identity has been conveyed verbally and based on trust on a local scale, but
modern identity is all about photo ID. Passports, driver’s licenses, student ID
cards, etc., to enable trust on a global scale. Identity is who I am…identity
is also what I like….identity is what I say about me. Identity is what others
say about me. Identity is also reputation.

Irina: So, how
does this all apply to the internet and what Sxip is trying to do?

Dick: Well, here
are the questions we’re figuring out: what is digital identity? How do we mimic the real world? What is going to
become my digital driver’s license?

Irina: Um,
pretend I’m in the seventh grade as you go on.

Dick: When I go
to the liquor store and I show the cashier my license to prove that I’m over
21, the cashier has no relationship to the Province of British Columbia, the issuer of my
ID, so the Province of BC has no stake in the
transaction. So modern identity is the separation of the acquisition and the
presentation of the ID.

Irina: But right
now, that’s not how digital identity works….

Dick: Right, it’s
site registration and filling in often what is the same information on a whole
bunch of different sites, which is a hassle. Digital identity right now is unverified;
it’s a lot like verbal ID. There are fewer trust cues since you can’t see the
person, you can’t hear the person, in fact, often you don’t even know it’s a
person on the other end of the transaction.

Irina: What about
user name and password?

Dick: That’s just
authentication and only proves that you are “directory entry.” And today,
verified digital identity is not anything you can give to the site, it’s what
the site knows about you….(eBay reputation, Amazon book lists, etc.) We have
all these identity silos and you can’t move the information around between
them. It’s site-centric with the site in the middle. It’s closed and complex.
That’s Identity 1.0.

Irina: What’s the
next development?

Dick: What we
really want is something that’s user centric, with the user in the middle and
the user able to move their identity from any site to any site. Simple and open
always wins, so it’s inevitable. That’s Identity 2.0. You have to have a
standard way of how you move around identity information and how to you
represent identity information–and that’s what Sxip is

Irina: What does
Sxip stand for?

Dick: Simple
eXtensible Identity Protocol….[I got this from the Sxip site: this protocol
defines the data format sent between Homesites and Membersites, via a browser. The Sxip Network is a simple, open and secure digital
identity network. By joining, Internet users are able to create, share and
protect the privacy of their online personal information.]

Irina: What’s the
hardest part about getting people to use Sxip?

Dick: The biggest
obstacle is getting any kind of momentum. It’s like, you’re out to sell the
first fax machine.

Irina: How do you
get momentum?

Dick: A lot of it
is to evangelize and tell people about it.

Irina: So let’s
talk about your identity. You’re 42 and you’re Canadian. What was the first
record you bought?

Dick: An album by
Boston. I liked
the cover – a picture of the city of Boston inside a bubble. I thought it looked cool.

Irina: Did you go
to the prom and are you still friends with your prom date?

Dick: Her name
was Cinda and I’m still friends with her.

Irina: What was
your favorite subject in school and how was school for you.

Dick: Physics. School
was very easy for me. But I hung out with all the people that partied and drank
and used drugs. There was a whole under-challenged group of kids in my public
school.

Irina: What makes
you a successful businessman?

Dick: I really
like design, things that aren’t done well. Things that are not designed well
annoy me.

Irina: Like what?

Dick: I have a
Hummer, and it’s a GM product and my intermittent wiper thing stopped working.
Also, the sun roof — you should be able to push the button and it should open.
But no, you have to hold it down for it to open all the way.

Irina: Do people
give you a hard time for driving a Hummer?

Dick: Yes.

Irina: How?

Dick: Once,
someone wrote in the dust on my back window, “You’re a bad Canadian.”

I’m thinking of trading it in for a Range Rover.

Irina: What’s
designed well?

Dick: My Porsche.

Irina: What else
helps you succeed.

Dick: I’m driven
and tenacious–I wanted to talk at Web 2.0 so that would get people to pay
attention. I kept pestering John Batelle every two weeks. Last year we were
nice polite Canadians and even though we were big sponsors we didn’t get to
speak.

Irina: Tell me
why some of your businesses failed?

Dick: The first
one failed because we didn’t get any momentum or develop a marketing plan. The
second business that failed was PowerMaster–an exercise machine I built, but I didn’t
do any market research to see if there was a need for this type of exercise
machine.

Irina: What did
you learn?

Dick: Make sure
it’s not technology for technologies sake–which is kind of what I did with
PowerMaster–with that, the biggest lesson to learn is proper product management.

You have to understand what people want, how to position it,
how to price it. I failed on marketing because I was not getting the message
out.

Irina: Any thing
else?

Dick: Pay
attention to all the things you are NOT good at.

Q&A with founder and CEO of Sxip Identity, the company
that wants to figure out how to manage personal identity online. Once and for
all.

I couldn’t believe my luck when I learned that Dick Hardt–who also writes the Blame Canada blog– was going to be speaking at Web 2.0. He’s
just agreed to present at our Under the Radar Emerging Technologies conference
on Nov. 16, solidifying our research that the management of online identity is
one of the most intensely watched sectors today. Mary Hodder put us together,
and with a reference like that, Dick could hardly say no when I asked him to
sit down and talk.

Fresh off the stage from his Lessig-style talk to a packed
room at the Argent Hotel, Dick dodged new fans and answered my questions. Even
the ones about people defacing his Hummer.

Irina: I just
heard your talk, so let’s review….

Dick: Historically,
identity has been conveyed verbally and based on trust on a local scale, but
modern identity is all about photo ID. Passports, driver’s licenses, student ID
cards, etc., to enable trust on a global scale. Identity is who I am…identity
is also what I like….identity is what I say about me. Identity is what others
say about me. Identity is also reputation.

Irina: So, how
does this all apply to the internet and what Sxip is trying to do?

Dick: Well, here
are the questions we’re figuring out: what is digital identity? How do we mimic the real world? What is going to
become my digital driver’s license?

Irina: Um,
pretend I’m in the seventh grade as you go on.

Dick: When I go
to the liquor store and I show the cashier my license to prove that I’m over
21, the cashier has no relationship to the Province of British Columbia, the issuer of my
ID, so the Province of BC has no stake in the
transaction. So modern identity is the separation of the acquisition and the
presentation of the ID.

Irina: But right
now, that’s not how digital identity works….

Dick: Right, it’s
site registration and filling in often what is the same information on a whole
bunch of different sites, which is a hassle. Digital identity right now is unverified;
it’s a lot like verbal ID. There are fewer trust cues since you can’t see the
person, you can’t hear the person, in fact, often you don’t even know it’s a
person on the other end of the transaction.

Irina: What about
user name and password?

Dick: That’s just
authentication and only proves that you are “directory entry.” And today,
verified digital identity is not anything you can give to the site, it’s what
the site knows about you….(eBay reputation, Amazon book lists, etc.) We have
all these identity silos and you can’t move the information around between
them. It’s site-centric with the site in the middle. It’s closed and complex.
That’s Identity 1.0.

Irina: What’s the
next development?

Dick: What we
really want is something that’s user centric, with the user in the middle and
the user able to move their identity from any site to any site. Simple and open
always wins, so it’s inevitable. That’s Identity 2.0. You have to have a
standard way of how you move around identity information and how to you
represent identity information–and that’s what Sxip is

Irina: What does
Sxip stand for?

Dick: Simple
eXtensible Identity Protocol….[I got this from the Sxip site: this protocol
defines the data format sent between Homesites and Membersites, via a browser. The Sxip Network is a simple, open and secure digital
identity network. By joining, Internet users are able to create, share and
protect the privacy of their online personal information.]

Irina: What’s the
hardest part about getting people to use Sxip?

Dick: The biggest
obstacle is getting any kind of momentum. It’s like, you’re out to sell the
first fax machine.

Irina: How do you
get momentum?

Dick: A lot of it
is to evangelize and tell people about it.

Irina: So let’s
talk about your identity. You’re 42 and you’re Canadian. What was the first
record you bought?

Dick: An album by
Boston. I liked
the cover – a picture of the city of Boston inside a bubble. I thought it looked cool.

Irina: Did you go
to the prom and are you still friends with your prom date?

Dick: Her name
was Cinda and I’m still friends with her.

Irina: What was
your favorite subject in school and how was school for you.

Dick: Physics. School
was very easy for me. But I hung out with all the people that partied and drank
and used drugs. There was a whole under-challenged group of kids in my public
school.

Irina: What makes
you a successful businessman?

Dick: I really
like design, things that aren’t done well. Things that are not designed well
annoy me.

Irina: Like what?

Dick: I have a
Hummer, and it’s a GM product and my intermittent wiper thing stopped working.
Also, the sun roof — you should be able to push the button and it should open.
But no, you have to hold it down for it to open all the way.

Irina: Do people
give you a hard time for driving a Hummer?

Dick: Yes.

Irina: How?

Dick: Once,
someone wrote in the dust on my back window, “You’re a bad Canadian.”

I’m thinking of trading it in for a Range Rover.

Irina: What’s
designed well?

Dick: My Porsche.

Irina: What else
helps you succeed.

Dick: I’m driven
and tenacious–I wanted to talk at Web 2.0 so that would get people to pay
attention. I kept pestering John Batelle every two weeks. Last year we were
nice polite Canadians and even though we were big sponsors we didn’t get to
speak.

Irina: Tell me
why some of your businesses failed?

Dick: The first
one failed because we didn’t get any momentum or develop a marketing plan. The
second business that failed was PowerMaster–an exercise machine I built, but I didn’t
do any market research to see if there was a need for this type of exercise
machine.

Irina: What did
you learn?

Dick: Make sure
it’s not technology for technologies sake–which is kind of what I did with
PowerMaster–with that, the biggest lesson to learn is proper product management.

You have to understand what people want, how to position it,
how to price it. I failed on marketing because I was not getting the message
out.

Irina: Any thing
else?

Dick: Pay
attention to all the things you are NOT good at.

Q&A with founder and CEO of Sxip Identity, the company
that wants to figure out how to manage personal identity online. Once and for
all.

I couldn’t believe my luck when I learned that Dick Hardt–who also writes the Blame Canada blog– was going to be speaking at Web 2.0. He’s
just agreed to present at our Under the Radar Emerging Technologies conference
on Nov. 16, solidifying our research that the management of online identity is
one of the most intensely watched sectors today. Mary Hodder put us together,
and with a reference like that, Dick could hardly say no when I asked him to
sit down and talk.

Fresh off the stage from his Lessig-style talk to a packed
room at the Argent Hotel, Dick dodged new fans and answered my questions. Even
the ones about people defacing his Hummer.

Irina: I just
heard your talk, so let’s review….

Dick: Historically,
identity has been conveyed verbally and based on trust on a local scale, but
modern identity is all about photo ID. Passports, driver’s licenses, student ID
cards, etc., to enable trust on a global scale. Identity is who I am…identity
is also what I like….identity is what I say about me. Identity is what others
say about me. Identity is also reputation.

Irina: So, how
does this all apply to the internet and what Sxip is trying to do?

Dick: Well, here
are the questions we’re figuring out: what is digital identity? How do we mimic the real world? What is going to
become my digital driver’s license?

Irina: Um,
pretend I’m in the seventh grade as you go on.

Dick: When I go
to the liquor store and I show the cashier my license to prove that I’m over
21, the cashier has no relationship to the Province of British Columbia, the issuer of my
ID, so the Province of BC has no stake in the
transaction. So modern identity is the separation of the acquisition and the
presentation of the ID.

Irina: But right
now, that’s not how digital identity works….

Dick: Right, it’s
site registration and filling in often what is the same information on a whole
bunch of different sites, which is a hassle. Digital identity right now is unverified;
it’s a lot like verbal ID. There are fewer trust cues since you can’t see the
person, you can’t hear the person, in fact, often you don’t even know it’s a
person on the other end of the transaction.

Irina: What about
user name and password?

Dick: That’s just
authentication and only proves that you are “directory entry.” And today,
verified digital identity is not anything you can give to the site, it’s what
the site knows about you….(eBay reputation, Amazon book lists, etc.) We have
all these identity silos and you can’t move the information around between
them. It’s site-centric with the site in the middle. It’s closed and complex.
That’s Identity 1.0.

Irina: What’s the
next development?

Dick: What we
really want is something that’s user centric, with the user in the middle and
the user able to move their identity from any site to any site. Simple and open
always wins, so it’s inevitable. That’s Identity 2.0. You have to have a
standard way of how you move around identity information and how to you
represent identity information–and that’s what Sxip is

Irina: What does
Sxip stand for?

Dick: Simple
eXtensible Identity Protocol….[I got this from the Sxip site: this protocol
defines the data format sent between Homesites and Membersites, via a browser. The Sxip Network is a simple, open and secure digital
identity network. By joining, Internet users are able to create, share and
protect the privacy of their online personal information.]

Irina: What’s the
hardest part about getting people to use Sxip?

Dick: The biggest
obstacle is getting any kind of momentum. It’s like, you’re out to sell the
first fax machine.

Irina: How do you
get momentum?

Dick: A lot of it
is to evangelize and tell people about it.

Irina: So let’s
talk about your identity. You’re 42 and you’re Canadian. What was the first
record you bought?

Dick: An album by
Boston. I liked
the cover – a picture of the city of Boston inside a bubble. I thought it looked cool.

Irina: Did you go
to the prom and are you still friends with your prom date?

Dick: Her name
was Cinda and I’m still friends with her.

Irina: What was
your favorite subject in school and how was school for you.

Dick: Physics. School
was very easy for me. But I hung out with all the people that partied and drank
and used drugs. There was a whole under-challenged group of kids in my public
school.

Irina: What makes
you a successful businessman?

Dick: I really
like design, things that aren’t done well. Things that are not designed well
annoy me.

Irina: Like what?

Dick: I have a
Hummer, and it’s a GM product and my intermittent wiper thing stopped working.
Also, the sun roof — you should be able to push the button and it should open.
But no, you have to hold it down for it to open all the way.

Irina: Do people
give you a hard time for driving a Hummer?

Dick: Yes.

Irina: How?

Dick: Once,
someone wrote in the dust on my back window, “You’re a bad Canadian.”

I’m thinking of trading it in for a Range Rover.

Irina: What’s
designed well?

Dick: My Porsche.

Irina: What else
helps you succeed.

Dick: I’m driven
and tenacious–I wanted to talk at Web 2.0 so that would get people to pay
attention. I kept pestering John Batelle every two weeks. Last year we were
nice polite Canadians and even though we were big sponsors we didn’t get to
speak.

Irina: Tell me
why some of your businesses failed?

Dick: The first
one failed because we didn’t get any momentum or develop a marketing plan. The
second business that failed was PowerMaster–an exercise machine I built, but I didn’t
do any market research to see if there was a need for this type of exercise
machine.

Irina: What did
you learn?

Dick: Make sure
it’s not technology for technologies sake–which is kind of what I did with
PowerMaster–with that, the biggest lesson to learn is proper product management.

You have to understand what people want, how to position it,
how to price it. I failed on marketing because I was not getting the message
out.

Irina: Any thing
else?

Dick: Pay
attention to all the things you are NOT good at.