our net persona is effectively our email address
This is really an Internet-elitist attitude. Because you got in early
on the game or can afford your own node, you can have an email address
which is your persona, for example hallam(_at_)w3(_dot_)org for Phill
Hallam-Baker.
But try to sign on to netcom.com or msn.com and be username hallam.
My friends go through several iterations before they get something
unique and it always ends up resembling their own name as little as
their telephone number does.
This is not entirely a technical problem. There is no reason why
compuserve users are bound to be a number. It would be good if we
could produce handles for people which are not bound to the service
provider. As the prisoner said "I am not a number I have a non
Compuserve account"
I think this simply requires some imagination, I don't see it as a
"we have run out of short addresses, let people use X.400 ones"
situation.
I suspect that most of the AOL/Compuserve problems would go away if they allowed
a multi-level hierarchy, ie
Phillip(_dot_)Hallam(_dot_)Baker(_at_)w3(_dot_)org
Of course there will always be the problem of the Smiths, Chus, Jones
etc. They can add in a differentiator :-
john(_dot_)dougnuts(_dot_)smith(_at_)aol(_dot_)com
john(_dot_)security(_dot_)smith(_at_)aol(_dot_)com
john(_dot_)wexler(_dot_)smith(_at_)aol
for the john Smith who married Mary Wexler.
or
Jeff(_dot_)crypto(_dot_)thompson(_at_)netcom(_dot_)com
[NB all these are 7 minus 2 items]
We have the potential for a big boost for feminism here - in a world
of 5 billion bodies we need more significant bits in the address space.
In the future people will be signing up their kids at birth to make
sure they have unique identifiers. John Smith III snobbery will be
banished as social climbers quickly obtain John Smith MMCIV.
As Milo would say:
I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE AND IT IS A BILLION GIGABIT LINE
TO EVERY POINT ON EARTH! THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES!
FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE TOTAL ONLINE ACCESS! THE NERVOUS
SYSTEM REPLACED BY FIBRE OPTIC, EXTENDING OUT TO A GLOBAL
INFORMATION MESH OF A TRILLION NODES!
oops! sorry, sometimes I get an information rush.
It wouldn't take much to start a nickname reservation service. If this
was centralised there could even be portability of identifiers between
providers.
Phill.