Pushing Information Cards forward

Earlier this week the international open standards consortium OASIS announced that its members - including Microsoft, IBM, EMC, CA, Novell and others - have approved Identity Metasystem Interoperability (IMI) version 1.0 as an OASIS standard. The IMI standard is an important step toward broader adoption of Information Cards - a new way for people to register, login and share information with web sites without a username and password for each site. 

From the press release:

"Information Cards offer the best of both worlds—greater privacy and easier access," said Marc Goodner of Microsoft, chair of the OASIS IMI Technical Committee. "As an approved OASIS Standard, IMI assures interoperability across platforms and services, which will result in Information Card usage becoming even more widespread."

Information Cards are the digital equivalent of the cards people carry in their wallet or purse. They are stored in a new application called a card selector and carry information about a person's identity and relationship to the card provider, such as their employer, bank, library, store, etc.