Xebec
A three-masted sailing ship of the Mediterranean: lateen-rigged, narrow in the hull, and fast enough that corsairs favoured it.
An old question, asked with new equipment.
Mike Kiser writes here about identity: who you are, who gets to say so, and what it costs. Often that means digital systems, because that is where the argument is currently loudest. It also means history and philosophy, because the question is a great deal older than the technology.
Essays
All essaysRunning in Real Time: Introducing shared-signals.dev
A half marathon run on three clocks is a race run blind between them. A new site for the standards that close the gap, and a place to see how they work.
20 Sept 2025 PhilosophyThe Death of Authenticity
Authenticity is being undermined, and not just by technology.
13 Dec 2024 TechnologyShared Signals, and Thanks for All the Fish
Fifteen species of dolphin fish cooperatively with people. An argument for security systems that tell each other what they see.
03 Jun 2022 TechnologyIt’s Not Fair! Detecting Algorithmic Bias with Open Source Tools
Algorithms now shape bail decisions and transplant lists. The open-source tools that make them explainable enough to argue with.
15 Apr 2022 TechnologyCall Me Mark Jannell: The Future of Bring Your Own Identity
An assumed name that stuck for eighteen months, and what it cost when the truth came out. On bringing your own identity.
Elsewhere
Talks usually arrive before the essay. The essay is the argument after it survived questions.
Speaking
Full listIETF 130. Hyatt Regency Vancouver, 2027
Internet Identity Workshop. Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California, 2027
IETF 129. InterContinental Berlin, 2027
Open work
All projectsDeath Notification
How a death becomes known: who pronounces and certifies it, who must register it and by when, and how far the fact then travels — to population registers, pensions, tax and the electoral roll, and to banks, insurers and platforms — without the family having to repeat it. Mapped jurisdiction by jurisdiction from primary law and official policy only. Research for the OpenID Death and the Digital Estate effort, alongside Digital Estate Roles.
Digital Estate Roles
A sourced reference for when legal authority over a person, their property and their digital estate is assigned, when it starts and when it ends — powers of attorney, health-care agents, guardians, executors, digital-asset fiduciaries, benefits payees and organ-donation decision makers, across nine countries. Primary law and official policy only. Research for the OpenID Death and the Digital Estate effort.
Sigillo
An iOS camera that signs a photograph at the moment of capture — C2PA Content Credentials and an RFC 3161 timestamp embedded before the image is ever shown, asserting that this was made by a lens on this device. The inverse of Ruse: rather than breaking recognition, it makes provenance travel with the file.