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March 05, 2003
DNA as Identity
This KSL TV news report is about Clearfield police filing charges against an alleged rapist based on his DNA. The catch is that they have no suspect; no person who the DNA belongs to. Just the same DNA in two rapes. The name on the charges will be "John Doe." This is an excellent case study in identity.
Identity is a set of properties. Collect enough properties and only one individual has them all. For example, if the only property I have is that the first name is "john" or eye color is "blue" then there are lots of people who might fit that bill. If the first name is "john" and the eye color is "blue," I've narrowed it down some. Add more properties and eventually I get a set small enough that they apply to only one person. DNA is just a compact representation millions of properties. Identity theft is acquiring enough of someone else's properties (and lying about the rest) that you can substitute for them in certain transactions.
As I've said before, courts are in the identity business. A court of law is largely an exercise in convincing a group of people that some person has a set of identifying properties (those associated with the evidence of the crime). In the case reported by KSL, the charges are being filed based on a set of properties that doesn't happen to include a name--just the DNA. Unusual? Yes. But not necessarily wrong.
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Web Services ROI
Lawrence Wilkes of the CBDi Forum has written a paper called Inside Every Web Service is a Benefit Struggling to Get Out (free registration required). He has some very specific benefits. In the intro to the paper he says:
Things like "improving business agility", "reducing time to market", etc are still valid - but not entirely new. Why is Web Services going to deliver this time? Consequently, there is a real need to be much more precise about the specific cost savings and benefits for both business and IT that can reasonably be attributed to Web Services.
Wilkes makes the distinction between "conversion," doing what we do today differently, and "exploitation," doing innovative things that we couldn't do without Web Services. Most early uses of Web Services are going to be in the conversion category, but the really interesting stuff, in my opinion, is in the exploitation category. I don't think we've begun to envision the changes that standard interfaces and routable messages will bring.
Wilkes lists seven features of Web Services and the benefits that follow from each feature. I'll list them here, but you really need to read the paper to get the full effect. He breaks them down, in some detail, by benefit to the business and benefit to the IT organization.
- A simplified mechanism to connect applications regardless of the technology or devices they use, or their location. This leads to business process efficiency and IT cost reductions.
- Based on Industry Standard Protocols with universal support. This leads to costs reductions and choice.
- Leverages the Internet for low cost communications. This lowers the barriers to entry for connecting to trading partners and simplifies middleware.
- Loosely Coupled. This creates agile relationships and reduces maintenance.
- Supports Multiple Connectivity and Information Sharing Scenarios. This supports costs savings through consolidation.
- Self Describing. This reduces time to market by shortening development cycles.
- Automated Discovery. This increases the size of the "ecosystem" and increases automation.
I would argue that most of these benefits are on the "conversion" side of the argument. Some, of course, cut both ways. The benefits of the 'exploitive" side of Web Services are difficult to quantify since until the innovation happens its difficult to imagine what it will be. I plan to talk about one "exploitive" use of Web Services later this week.