| An identity management system is defined as the management of the identity life cycle of entities (subjects or objects) during which the identity is established, described, and destroyed. What this definition fails to cover is the social, personal, and financial impact of the identity life cycle.
Before I joined Oracle as director of GRC Product Strategy with the goal of creating a product that would address corporate governance, shareholder risk, and regulatory compliance, I had been a specialist in identity management for 14 years. Having worked at Netscape with Tim Howes and Frank Chen, and having participated in IETF working groups, I was no stranger to the social impact of technologies.
After Netscape was acquired by AOL and then Time Warner, I learned that the corporate officers had acted unethically, issuing three times the stock options for which they had shares. I was crushed, because I not only believed in my former employer but I believed in the value of the stock options. During that time in my life, I had been diagnosed with a rare form of Hodgkin’s lymphoma and was in need of a stem cell transplant. The insurance handled most of the medical bills, but the co-payments were costly. Without the ability to exercise my stock options, I lacked the funds for the insurance co-payments.
Fortunately, I still had professional worth despite my partial inability to work, and an excellent manager from Oracle hired me. I found Oracle to be an ethical company for giving me health benefits while I was ill, and due to my employment with them, I was able to receive treatment through two years of stem cell transplant and chemotherapy while working remotely. It was at this juncture that I realized my career was more than a way to increase the wealth and efficiency of the corporation for which I worked; it was a way for me to take this life lesson and become an instrument of change. |
