When Thomas Friedman wrote his groundbreaking book The World Is Flat in 2005, he focused on the ways in which technology transformed global economies. The book proposed that new technologies were ushering in the third stage of globalization – one based on individuals competing, connecting, and collaborating in a new global economy. Since 2005, digital business models have continued to flatten the world, bringing with them the fourth Industrial Revolution. According to the World Economic Forum, Globalization 4.0’s Digital Economy and Society encompasses six main principles: good digital identities, data sharing, and permissions, access and adoption, securing people and processes, sustainable digital transformation, and informed, agile governance. As organizations embrace digital transformation to streamline business operations and create better customer experiences, managing identity and access must align with these principles.
What Does “Good Digital Identity” Mean?
The World Economic Forum maps the concept of good digital identities to civic participation, banking and capital markets, financial and monetary systems, agile governance, and blockchain. Unfortunately, while these mappings show where good digital identities are necessary, they lack guidance about how to create them. Creating good digital identities starts with the definition of the user. In a globalized, cloud-driven world, defining users increases in complexity. For example, definitions of users can be:- Employees
- Customers
- Vendors/Contractors
- Internet of Things
- Bots
- APIs
- Serverless
- Server IDs