Learning Digital Identity

Chapter 17. Authentic Digital Relationships

How do we change the culture? In a blog post titled “Architecture Eats Culture Eats Strategy”, Tim Bouma, director of Verification and Assessments, CIO Strategy Council, points out that the old Peter Drucker management chestnut that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” leaves this question open. Bouma argues that architecture (in the general sense, not necessarily computer architecture) is an upstream predator to culture, in that it is a powerful force that drives culture and therefore determines what strategies will succeed—or, more generally, what use cases are possible.

Bouma points to examples as diverse as the flying buttress and the printing press to make his point. He says:

I am of the belief that to focus on real and lasting change, it is little better than a Sisyphean effort to craft a strategy in the hope that it will change the culture. According to our management guru, Peter Drucker (and my own experience), that won’t happen. The better approach is to focus on those architecture things (organization-related things) that will force a lasting change. That lasting change will then force a culture change, and strategy will naturally follow.

My thesis in this chapter follows on this insight: since identity systems are the foundational layer of the digital ecosystem we operate in, the architecture of digital identity systems drives online culture, the nature of online relationships, and, ultimately, what we can do and what we ...