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Framework · 2022

The Identity & Data Meeting of the Waters

Organization-centric and people-centric approaches to identity, data, knowledge and agency now flow side by side. We are at the confluence.

Identity & DataKnowledgeAIEngagement
Identity Praxis, Inc. © 2022
Identity and data: a meeting of the waters. An orange river, the organization-centric approach (organizations lead the collection, management and use of data), and a blue river, the people-centric approach (individuals have greater agency over their identity and data), meet at a circled point: coexistence, negotiation and change. They flow on side by side: an evolving relationship. How will control and responsibility be shared? A conceptual illustration, not a timeline or prediction.
Near Manaus, Brazil. AI-generated illustration.
An aerial view of the meeting of the waters near Manaus, Brazil: the sandy-brown Rio Solimões on the left and the near-black Rio Negro on the right flow side by side in one channel, the line between them clearly visible. AI-generated illustration; not a documentary photograph.
The original. Artwork: Lauren Becker, 2022.
A hand-drawn map of two rivers meeting: an orange river labelled 'Organizational-centric approach' and a blue river labelled 'People-centric approach' join, with a red circle at the confluence marked 'We are here'. They run side by side, 'measured in years', toward a white stretch labelled 'What does the future hold?'. Title: The Personal Data & Identity Meeting of the Waters. Artwork by Lauren Becker.

The idea in one sentence

We are standing where two rivers meet: the organization-centric approach to identity, data and knowledge, in which organizations collect, hold and decide, and the people-centric approach, in which individuals act with agency over how they are represented and how their data and knowledge are used.

The metaphor

Near Manaus, in Brazil, the dark Rio Negro and the sediment-rich Rio Solimões meet and flow side by side in one riverbed for several kilometres before they blend. You can see the line between them. That is where we are: two approaches in the same channel, distinct, influencing each other, and not yet mixed. How long they run side by side is measured in years. What they become when they blend is still being decided.

Two approaches, side by side

Organization-centric People-centric
Identity Accounts the organization issues: who you are is what the organization says, and what it lets you access Identifiers and credentials you hold and present, on your own terms
Data Collected, stored and used by the organization Held, shared, restricted and revoked by the person, with organizations as guests
Knowledge Kept in the organization’s systems and vendors’ clouds Kept in formats the person controls, so any tool or AI can use it and none can lock it in
Agency Exercised on the person’s behalf Exercised by the person, increasingly through their own AI agents and twins

The people-centric approach doesn’t mean organizations stop holding data. It means people are equipped to take part on their own terms, and relationships become two-way.

Why identity is bigger than access

Most people hear “identity” and think of authentication and access: logging in, and who may see what. That is only the doorway. Identity is also your data, your knowledge, your relationships and your agency. The Identity & Data Meeting of the Waters is where that broader identity is being negotiated, between people, organizations, and now the non-human intelligences acting for both.

Three words matter here:

  • Agency: the ability to act independently and make free choices.
  • Autonomy: the ability to govern oneself.
  • Sovereignty: supreme authority over oneself, especially one’s identity and data.

Use it

For any product, policy or AI system you’re working on, ask: which river does this flow in today? Where is it already meeting the other? And who shares control and responsibility for the person’s identity, data and knowledge when the waters blend?

Where it shows up

The Identity & Data Meeting of the Waters frames Advisory work on identity and data strategy, the AI Leadership Program, and Praxamark™, which is built for the people-centric river. It also appears in Mobile Marketing Essentials (Becker and McCabe) and in Dr. Becker’s presentation to the PCI community, The Personal Data & Identity Meeting of the Waters: A New Path to Value (2023).

Original artwork: Lauren Becker, 2022. The view near Manaus is an AI-generated illustration, not a documentary photograph.

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