Platformland #27

Reasoned deliberation

Nice summer? Hope you did. As ever, if anyone wants a chat about the things in this newsletter, or about working together, please get in touch. If you find this newsletter useful please share platformland.xyz with your team. If not, you can unsubscribe here.

- Richard

Platform news

• 🌍 The open Identity Exchange is trying to standardise datatypes held against a digital identity. It is at least refreshingly honest about competing standards e.g. for name and address it says: “Too many standards”. It has excluded things like right to work and visas.

• 🇬🇧 GOV.UK One Login will support in-person verification for people unable to verify their identity wholly online.

• 🇯🇵 Japan’s MyNumber digital identity system is having some issues with linking to health insurance records. There has been a recent call by some academics to reset the whole programme by creating a new digital team along the lines of the one setup to reset Obamacare.

• 🇮🇳The DigiLocker digital wallet is getting Google Files support for accessing Indian government credentials stored. (Includes GIF of how it works).

• 🌎 Google and MOSIP have joined the Linux Foundation’s Open Digital Wallet

• 🇦🇺Australia has legislated to end the need for paper based signatures. Rules around digital signatures and video witnessing introduced during COVID have been made permanent.

• 🌏 The G20 has backed the idea of digital public infrastructure

Software is politics

• 📈 US government agencies are struggling to adapt to the consumption-based pricing of cloud providers thanks to an act from 1884