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Welcome to the Identity Commons Wiki
Identity Commons is a loosely connected community of people in Working Groups addressing the social, legal and technical issues that arise with the emerging identity layer of the internet.

The purpose of Identity Commons is to support, facilitate, and promote the creation of an open identity layer for the Internet -- one that maximizes control, convenience, and privacy for the individual while encouraging the development of healthy, interoperable communities.

Identity Commons is open, inclusive, and bottoms-up, and all of us abide by a set of principles to help assure this. We provide a minimal structure for supporting community activities, and we hold space for the entire community to collaborate.

Membership resides in the Working Groups. There is a Stewards Council - with a representative from each group.

Get Involved

 * Join one of the Working Groups - Identity Commons is organized as a set of distributed working groups. See the Working Groups page for more information.
 * Subscribe to the IC Community Mailing List - the publicly available list and list archives that accompany this wiki for discussion of topics affecting IC as a whole. Some of the Working Groups also have their own lists. (There is the Identity Gang List that has been active for several years)
 * Participate in telecons - See Stewards Council Telecons for information about how to participate in our quarterly (and sometimes more) calls, which are open to everyone in the Identity Commons community.
 * Donate to ID Commons - Read How To Contribute to learn how to make a donation to Identity Commons to help cover basic operating expenses.
 * Edit the ID Commons Wiki - Use your OpenID URL or i-name to login, and follow the instructions. See [Wikimedia Help] for more information.

Learn More About the Organization

 * Working Groups - List of all Working Groups
 * Background - A brief history. A longer History
 * Purpose And Principles - The "core DNA" of the Identity Commons (IC).
 * Organizational Structure - A short explanation of how and why IC is structured as an "upside down umbrella".
 * Stewards Council - The coordinating body for IC working groups.
 * Facilitating Dialogue - Explains the role of IC in providing a space for shared conversation.
 * Working Group Agreement - The implied contract between a working group and IC as a whole.
 * Working Group Charter Template - The template any working group sponsor(s) can use to form a working group.
 * How We Collaborate - Information on how participants in IC work together.
 * Organizational Details Articles Of Incorporation, Bylaws, Identity Commons Brand Transfer.

Learn More about the Identity Space

 * Identity Landscape is a community-wide project to produce a living "map" of the Internet identity space, including efforts both inside and outside Identity Commons. All community members are invited to contribute.
 * The Identity Gang Working Group maintains a list of resources for the user-centric identity space.
 * Lexicon is a project of the Identity Gang to harmonize vocabulary for user-centric identity architecture.

Archive

 * The Original Identity Commons Wiki (2002-2007)