[Daily Trust] Four Nigerians - a United States-born Nigerian, Dr Oye Owolewa, District of Columbia; Segun Adeyina, Georgia, USA, Adeyemi Mobolade, Colorado Springs, USA; and Chiaka Barry, Ginninderra District, Australia - have recently won elections into various elective positions.

[HRW] Suspend Discriminatory and Stigmatizing Criminal Offense

[UNDP] Addressing the climate crisis and building a more gender equal world

[New Times] US-based defender Phanuel Kavita and Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Fiacre Ntwari are among foreign-based players joining Amavubi squad on Monday, November 11, ahead of their 2025 AFCON qualifiers against Libya and Nigeria.

[Premium Times] None of the last 10 Super Eagles' foreign managers left the post amicably, with many owed salaries, and the NFF was always accused of interfering in player selection.

[New Times] The Mediterranean Knights of Libya are not finished yet despite suffering a major setback from a recent 3-0 loss to Nigeria on forfeit in the AFCON 2025 Group D qualifiers.

[Liberian Investigator] Monrovia -- The Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) has raised alarm over the low number of water consumers paying their bills, compared to the many who reportedly access public water without payment.

[Daily Trust] 45 journalists across four countries in West Africa have been shortlisted for the 2024 Digital Public Infrastructure Fellowship, organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and Co-Develop.

[Dabanga] This week, the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hosts the main event commemorating the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. This year's theme, "Journalists' Safety in Crises and Emergencies," resonates deeply in Sudan.

[Dabanga] Addis Ababa / Port Sudan -- The African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa is hosting a critical event today and tomorrow, November 6 and 7, commemorating the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. This year's theme, "Safety of Journalists During Crises and Emergencies," resonates deeply in Sudan, where the ongoing conflict has created a perilous environment for those reporting on the war.

[WHO-AFRO] In public health, data serves as a critical foundation for understanding challenges and making informed decisions. Without clear, accurate information, it's difficult for individuals and communities to take meaningful action, and policymakers to devise and implement effective solutions. Recognizing this need, the World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with Ghana's Ministry of Health, organized a media training ahead of the Ghana STEPS Survey 2023 report launch to ensure its findings are

[Nile Post] At a press conference, UPPA president Sam Ibanda Mugabi strongly criticised the decision, underscoring the importance of independent media coverage free from interference.

[RSF] The political turbulence rocking Mozambique since the start of the protests against fraud in the general elections, which were held on 9 October, has made journalism a dangerous practice. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the repeated attacks on media professionals and calls for their protection as they carry out their work.

[Dabanga] Nairobi -- More than 18 months into Sudan's war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the work of Sudanese journalists has grown increasingly perilous. Both sides of the conflict have threatened, detained, or otherwise repressed journalists attempting to report on the war.

[CPJ] Dakar -- The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Cameroonian authorities to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for detaining and violently abusing Nsoyuka Guy-Bruno Maimo, a reporter with the privately owned Volcanic Times newspaper, while he covered a demonstration on October 24.

La Identidad de Marca en Acción

Maximizando la Experiencia del Visitante

Diferenciación en un Mar de Competidores

On vous en parlait en septembre dernier, Project Borealis: Prologue vient de sortir sur Steam. Il s’agit d’une courte démonstration des différentes mécaniques qui seront embarquées dans Project Borealis, un jeu développé par une armée de fans, prenant comme base les ébauches de script de Marc Laidlaw pour Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Pour faire patienter […]

According to Russell Beattie the first rule of podcasting should be "that you don't talk about podcasting". Well, a classic example of "A Knee-jerk off" or plain realism?

RecordForAll makes it simple to record audio files, layer audio files and edit audio files for podcasting. Podcasters can record voices, or music files or other sounds.

Audio Recording Software

RecordForAll makes it simple to record audio files, layer audio files and edit audio files for podcasting. Podcasters can record voices, or music files or other sounds.

Create a Professional Quality Podcast Recording

RecordForAll makes it simple to record audio files, layer audio files and edit audio files for podcasting. Podcasters can record voices, or music files or other sounds.

Create a Professional Quality Podcast Recording

This year's winner of the prestigious World Building of the Year award has been announced during the annual World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Australia's Darlington Public School, by fjcstudio, got the nod for its sensitive and inclusive approach to early learning.

Continue Reading

Category: Architecture, Lifestyle

Tags: World Architecture Festival, Building and Construction, Awards, sustainable design, School, Sydney

Sure, maybe it's blasphemy to say that any new Volkswagen California camper van is better than the icons that came before it. But Volkswagen has worked quite hard to optimize the freshly launched California eHybrid 4Motion for smart, affordable, carefree road trips. Not only does the new camper bus pack standard all-wheel drive to master the slick conditions inevitable in van life, it boasts a virtually silent, zero-emissions electric range over 80 km (50 miles) per charge. And given it adds only a 6.5% premium over the 2.0-liter turbo-diesel California, why wouldn't a buyer go for the 4Motion PHEV?

Continue Reading

Category: Automotive, Transport

Tags: Volkswagen, Campervan, PHEV, Plug-In, RV, dusseldorf-caravan-salon-2024, Camping, Outdoors and Camping, electric-camper

Wenn ein europäisches Telekommunikationsunternehmen ein anderes kaufen will, ist das nicht so einfach. Swisscom hat weitere Genehmigungen für den Kauf von Vodafone Italia erhalten.

Community Network Against Protected Areas (CNAPA) issued a public statement on killings and fake encounters by Assam Forest Department in Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary.

Maulana Syed Kifayat Ali Kafi, a prominent Islamic scholar, poet, and freedom fighter, was executed by the British on May 6, 1858, at the crossroads of Moradabad.

ANIC Calls for Immediate Action Following Disturbing Survey Findings on Discrimination in Australian Educational Institutions

दिल्ली की वायु गुणवत्ता इस सीजन में पहली बार 'गंभीर' श्रेणी में पहुंच गई है, AQI 429 तक पहुंच गया। केंद्रीय प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड (सीपीसीबी) के अनुसार, दिल्ली के 36 निगरानी स्टेशनों में से 30 ने वायु गुणवत्ता को 'गंभीर' श्रेणी में बताया। ज्यादा जानकारी के लिए हमारे साथ जुड़ रहे हैं शुभांग ठाकुर

(Telecompaper) Amdocs has announced a five-year extension of its contract with Vodafone Italia to update the operator's IT systems...

Odido lanceert Klik&Klaar Internet landelijk en tegen een concurrerend tarief. Het maakt van 5G een serieuze concurrent op de internetmarkt. De risico's zijn kannibalisatie en technologie - kan het netwerk het aan? Dat zal de consument zich ook afvragen. Daardoor is de kwaliteitsperceptie een cruciale succesfactor...

Het streven naar klantloyaliteit kent in de telecom vele verschijningsvormen. Centraal staat het verschijnsel 'lock-in', wat niet de klant maar de eigen onderneming centraal stelt. Het opzetten van een goed loyaliteitsprogramma blijkt een harde noot om te kraken...

(Telecompaper) The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has opened a consultation on a Draft Numbering Plan that proposes a number of changes...

(Telecompaper) Swisscom has submitted a second set of remedies with a view to securing the approval of the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) for its intended...

1. Trump’s Cabinet: Here Are His Picks And Finalists For Key Roles—Mike Huckabee, Kristi Noem And More  Forbes
2. Once They Were Neocons. Now Trump’s Foreign Policy Picks Are All ‘America First.’  The New York Times
3. Trump's top team: who's who?  Hindustan Times
4. Tracking Trump’s Cabinet picks  POLITICO

1. GOP Rep. Valadao holds Central Valley, California, swing seat  POLITICO
2. Republican David Valadao wins re-election to US House in California's 22nd Congressional District  Fox News
3. Republican David Valadao secures California House wins  Newsweek

(Telecompaper) Satellite broadcaster Sky Italia has launched new Black Friday offers for its 'Sky Wifi' fixed broadband plus pay-TV plans. There are no activation fees and the promos are available online until Cyber Monday (02 December).

Use simple vases, fairy lights, and flowers to give a minimalist yet budget-friendly makeover to your decor

Design extremes that determine the way your home looks

Moplah’s is a product of this nostalgia. Its name itself is a tribute to the restaurateur, Venu Nambiar’s neighbours at his ancestral home

Kerala’s much-loved cookbook author, Annamma Mathew, more popularly known as Mrs K M Mathew’s culinary legacy comes alive in a new book

The Navratri thali evolved in the 1970s, reflecting changing cultural trends and diversifying across India. Today, it’s adapting to urban dining preferences with restaurants offering inventive options

Two Canada-based Malayali friends brew Taika, an artisanal arrack using fruits, spices, dates and jaggery Their ‘naadan charayam’ label bears the image of an elephant and a Kerala bus

Celebrate the flavours of heritage rice this Deepavali with an inventive range of traditional sweets and savoury snacks that encourage farmers and customers to explore native grains 

Popular wedding caterers are setting up kitchens for Deepavali, enabling customers to try, buy and post traditional sweets. We travel to each festive outpost, sampling the coffee and ladoos

1. Live coverage: SpaceX to launch 20 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from California  Spaceflight Now
2. SpaceX morning rocket launch in Cape Canaveral: What time is liftoff of Starlink satellites?  Florida Today
3. SpaceX rocket launches Koreasat-6A satellite, lands Falcon 9 booster on record-tying 23rd flight (video)  Space.com
4. Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 launches customer payloads, China to fly resupply mission to Tiangong  NASASpaceflight.com
5. SpaceX launches and lands Falcon 9 rocket deploying 24 Starlink satellites  KTLA Los Angeles

1. Internet Divided as ‘People’ Names John Krasinski ‘Sexiest Man Alive’  Rolling Stone
2. John Krasinski named People magazine’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’  CNN
3. Just a Bunch of Sexy Photos of John Krasinski  PEOPLE
4. John Krasinski Reveals Wife Emily Blunt's Hilarious Response to His Sexiest Man Alive Title - E! Online  E! NEWS
5. Emily Blunt reacts after husband is named 2024 Sexiest Man Alive  The Independent

We all have blind spots, especially when it comes to the ways we treat others (and ourselves). Unfortunately, it can be pretty tough to take a really objective look at what your own weak points are. We’re here to help. Hit “Start Quiz” to rip off the Band-aid and see what your blind spots really are. Keep in mind, though—this quiz is just for fun!

Hi there! As we light up our homes and hearts to welcome the joyous festival of Diwali, we want to extend our heartfelt wishes to you and your family for a season filled with health, happiness, and prosperity. ????✨ In … Continue reading →

Summary: In session after session, attendees at EIC are hearing the message that decentralized identity is the answer to their identity problems.

I'm at European Identity Conference (EIC) this week. I haven't been for several years. One thing that has struck me is how much of the conversation is about decentralized identity and verifiable credentials. I can remember when the whole idea of decentralized identity was anathema here. The opening keynote, by Martin Kuppinger is Vision 2030: Rethinking Digital Identity in the Era of AI and Decentralization. And all he's talking about is decentralized identity and how it's at the core of solving long standing identity problems. Another data point: Steve McCown and Kim Hamilton-Duffy ran a session this morning called Decentralized Identity Technical Mastery which was a hands-on workshop. The rather large room was packed—standing room only.

I attended a couple of sessions on decentralized identity where I didn't know the companies, the speakers, or the specific platforms they were using. The space is too big to keep track of anymore. Identity professionals who were ignoring, or talking down, decentralized identity a few years ago are now promoting it.

This truly feels like a tipping point to me. At IIW, it's identity geeks talking with other identity geeks, so it's no surprise to see lots of discussion about new things. EIC is a different kind of conference. There are about 1000 people here I'd guess. Most of them aren't working on new standards or open source projects. Instead they're the folks from companies who come to conferences like EIC to learn how to solve the problems their organization is facing.

In the keynotes and in numerous sessions, the message that they're hearing is "decentralized identity will solve your problems." Martin closed his talk with the proclamation that "decentralized identity is the new paradigm for identity."

Photo Credit: Credential Tipping Point by DALL-E (public domain) Prompt: Draw a rectangular picture that shows a credential at a tipping point. Make the credential look like a lifelike credential, include cartoon picture, and some writing. Use bright friendly colors.

Tags: identity ssi decentralized+identity verifiable+credentials

Summary: What is decentralized identity and why is it important? My attempt at a simple explanation.

In Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, nah, Alan Mayo references my recent blog post, Decentralized Identity Comes of Age, and says:

My challenge to the decentralization community is for them (someone) to explain how it works in relatively simple and reasonable terms. I say relative because identity is not simple, so we should not expect simple solutions.

This post is my attempt to do that for Alan and others.

Identity is how we recognize, remember, react to, and interact with other people, organizations, and services. Put another way, identity is about relationships. Online we suffer from a proximity problem. Since we're not near the parties we want to have relationships with, our natural means of recognizing, remembering, and interacting with others can't be used. Digital identity systems are meant to provide us with the means of creating online relationships.

Traditional identity systems have not served us well because they are owned and controlled by companies who build them for their own purposes. The relationships they support are anemic and transactional. We can't use them for any purpose except what their owner's allow.

Decentralized identity systems¹ on the other hand allow you to create online relationships with any person, organization, or service you choose and give you the tools to manage and use those relationships. They help you recognize, remember, react to, and interact with them. The most important tool is a decentralized identity wallet. The world of decentralized identity wallets is still young, but organizations like the Linux Foundation's Open Wallet Foundation give me hope that useful, interoperable wallets are a tool we'll all be able to use soon. They are as foundational to decentralized identity as a browser is to the web.

Besides helping you manage peer-to-peer relationships with others online, wallets hold verifiable credentials, the digital analog to the credentials and cards you carry in a physical wallet. One of the most important aspects of digital relationships is providing information about yourself to those you interact with. Sometimes that information can come from you—it's self-asserted—but many times the other party wants to reliably know what others say about you. For example, if you establish a banking relationship, the bank is legally obligated to verify things like your name and address independent of what you say. Decentralized identity wallets allow you to prove things about yourself using credentials others provide to you. At the same time, they protect your privacy by limiting the information disclosed and forgoing the need for the party you're interacting with to directly contact others to verify the information you provide.

In summary, decentralized identity systems allow you to create digital relationships with other parties independently, without relying on any other organization or service. These relationships are direct, private, and secure. They also provide the means for you to prove things about yourself inside these relationships so that even though you're operating at a distance, you and the other party can have confidence in the relationship's authenticity.

How Does It Work

The preceding paragraphs say what decentralized identity is, and provide its benefits, but don't say how it works. Alan and others will likely want a few more details. Everything I describe below is handled by the wallet. The person using the wallet doesn't need to have any more knowledge of how they work than the operator of a browser needs to understand HTTP and HTML.

The foundation of a peer-to-peer, decentralized online relationship is an autonomic identifier like a peer DID. Identifiers are handles that someone else can use to identify someone or something else online. Peer DIDs can be created by a wallet at will, they're free, and they're self-certifying (i.e., there's no need for a third party). A relationship is created when two identity wallets create and exchange peer DIDs with each other on behalf of their owners. Peer DIDs allow the parties to the relationship to exchange private, secure messages.

There are four primary interaction patterns that wallets undertake when exchanging messages:

1. DID Authentication which uses the DIDs to allow each party to authenticate the other
2. Single-Party Credential Authorization where the same party issues and verifies the credential.
3. Multi-Party Authorization where the credential issuer and verifier are different parties.
4. Generalized Trustworthy Data Transfer which uses a collection of credentials to aid the wallet owner in completing online workflows.

Verifiable credentials make heavy use of cryptography to provide not only security and privacy, but also confidence that the credential data is authentic. This confidence is based on four properties a properly designed credential presentation protocol provides:

1. The identifier of the credential issuer
2. Proof that the credential is being presented by the party is was issued to
3. Proof that the credential has not been tampered with
4. The revocation status of the credential

The credential presentation can do all this while only disclosing the information needed for the interaction and without the verifier having to contact the credential issuer. Not having to contact the issuer ensures the credential can be used in situations with poor connectivity, that the issuer needn't be online, and preserves the credential subject's privacy about where the credential is being used.

A properly designed credential exchange protocol has four important properties:

1. The system is decentralized and contextual. There is no central authority for all credentials. Every party can be an issuer, an owner, and a verifier. The system can be adapted to any country, any industry, any community, any set of credentials, any set of trust relationships.
2. Issuers are free to determine what credentials to issue and whether or not to revoke them.
3. Wallet owners are free to choose which credentials to carry and where and when they get shared. While some verifiers require a specific credential—such as a customs agent requiring a passport—others will accept a range of credentials. Therefore owners can decide which credentials to carry in their wallet based on the verifiers with whom they interact.
4. Verifiers make their own decisions about which credentials to accept. For example, a bar you are trying to enter may accept any credential you have about your date of birth. This means some credentials (e.g., passports, driving licenses, birth certificates) may be much more useful than just for the original purpose for which they were issued.

These properties make a decentralized identity system self sovereign.

Why is Decentralized Identity Important?

Decentralized identity systems are designed to provide people with control, security, and privacy while enhancing the confidence we have in our online relationships. Some time ago, I wrote the following. I think it's an apt way to close any discussion of decentralized identity because unless we keep our eyes on the goal, we'll likely take shortcuts in implementation that fail to live up to their promise.

Presently, people don't have operational relationships anywhere online.² We have plenty of online relationships, but they are not operational because we are prevented from acting by their anemic natures. Our helplessness is the result of the power imbalance that is inherent in bureaucratic relationships. The solution to the anemic relationships created by administrative identity systems is to provide people with the tools they need to operationalize their self-sovereign authority and act as peers with others online. Peer-to-peer relationships are the norm in the physical world. When we dine at a restaurant or shop at a store in the physical world, we do not do so under the control of some administrative system. Rather, we act as embodied agents and operationalize our relationships, whether they be long-lived or nascent, by acting for ourselves. Any properly designed decentralized identity system must provide people with the tools they need to be "embodied" in the digital world and act autonomously.

Time and again, various people have tried to create decentralized marketplaces or social networks only to fail to gain traction. These systems fail because they are not based on a firm foundation that allows people to act in relationships with sovereign authority in systems mediated through protocol rather than by the whims of companies. We have a fine example of a protocol mediated system in the internet, but we've failed to take up the daunting task of building the same kind of system for identity. Consequently, when we act, we do so without firm footing or sufficient leverage.

Ironically, the internet broke down the walled gardens of CompuServe and Prodigy with a protocol-mediated metasystem, but surveillance capitalism has rebuilt them on the web. No one could live an effective life in an amusement park. Similarly, we cannot function as fully embodied agents in the digital sphere within the administrative systems of surveillance capitalists, despite their attractions. The emergence of self-sovereign identity, agreements on protocols, and the creation of metasystems to operationalize them promises a digital world where decentralized interactions create life-like online experiences. The richer relationships that result from properly designed decentralized identity systems promise an online future that gives people the opportunity to act for themselves as autonomous human beings and supports their dignity so that they can live an effective online life.

Notes

1. I prefer the term self-sovereign to decentralized because it describes the goal rather than the implementation, but I'll stick with decentralized here. All self-sovereign identity systems are decentralized. Not all decentralized identity systems are self-sovereign.
2. The one exception I can think of to this is email. People act through email all the time in ways that aren't intermediated by their email provider. Again, it's a result of the architecture of email, set up over four decades ago and the culture that architecture supports.

Photo Credit: Young Woman Using a Wallet from DALL-E (public domain) Prompt: draw a rectangular picture of a young woman using a wallet.

Tags: identity ssi decentralized+identity verifiable+credentials