What is Authenticity?

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An Old/New Idea

Serving those who need Authenticity

Municipalities are chartered to serve the needs of the people who voluntarily choose to reside, work, or otherwise spend time in a jurisdiction. Traditionally those jurisdictions have been geographic.

In Osmio's case, the jurisdiction is defined by a need rather than by geography.

While the Internet is, as originally described, a magnificent information highway, using it is like living in a cardboard box by the side of that busy roadway. Big companies help themselves to our personal information and turn it into their principal money-making balance sheet asset. Phishers and botnet builders and thieves do much the same.

And why would we expect otherwise? Life isn't easy when you're homeless.

Osmio serves those who would like to make use of spaces that are accessed by the outdoor public transport system known as the Internet but which are indoors.

The set of methods, procedures, standards and construction materials that define a habitable space has been established over centuries. One document, the occupancy permit, issued by what residents accept as the public authority, attests to a facility's habitability.

Occupancy permits work well for online spaces, provided that they are digital certificates rather than paper certificates.

Digital certificates imply a construction material called PKI. If you're unfamiliar with PKI then the rest of this will be harder to understand than it needs to be. Click here for a brief PKI tutorial.

PKI Done Right implies identity certificates of individuals. For indoor online spaces to be viable, both the occupants of a building and those who designed and built it must be reliably identified.

The Municipal Charter and Ordinances of the City of Osmio are built upon a PKI platform called the Quiet Enjoyment Infrastructure, which provides Accountable Anonymity™ to all. Just as your car's license plate makes you accountable without disclosing the identity of the driver or owner, so it is with Osmio's Accountable Anonymity. QEI lets you assert your identity without disclosing your identity.

The rise of INAUTHENTICITY

Years ago, people knew they could trust the assertions of an organization because those assertions were signed by an individual such as Arthur Andersen.

Later, a group of people collectively calling itself Arthur Andersen began signing those assertions. When that happened, no one individual's good name was jeopardized if the assertions contained half-truths or outright falsehoods.

The result is a world, and an Internet, awash in inauthenticity and fraud. How can you trust that people you deal with online are who they say they are? How can you trust that a piece of software doesn't contain some hidden agenda?

Behind everything: Real PEOPLE

Osmio’s practices are built on a set of principles called the Quiet Enjoyment Infrastructure (QEI), where integrity comes from the accountability of individual people. Certificates attest to the identity of people, not objects such as websites or servers or companies. Your building’s occupancy permit is signed by people – by licensed professionals including an architect, contractor, and building inspector.

Osmio does provide for traditional applications of digital certificates such as websites, software code, etc. But with Osmio, sites are signed by signing officers: professionally licensed individuals who assume personal and professional responsibility for the legitimacy of the use of a web domain.

Identity Quality Assurance (IDQA™) patents pending

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