Why so quiet of late? First because the OASIS XRI TC was completely heads-down finishing the XRI 2.0 specifications. They were unanimously approved as a Committee Draft on March 14, and now have entered a 30-day public review period (required before any Committee Draft goes to a full OASIS vote.) I strongly encourage review and feedback by anyone who cares about abstract identifiers and Internet infrastructure. You can access all the specs as well as the Comments link directly off the XRI TC home page.

Then there was completion of the XDI.ORG Global Services Specifications (GSS). These are the specs that will govern global XRI registration and resolution services from XDI.ORG. They have been in public review since late December but have been awaiting completion of XRI 2.0 before approval by the XDI.ORG trustees. Now we are rolling in a handful of changes (mostly based on the more powerful features of XRI 2.0 resolution) before they go into production. Again, public review and feedback of the GSS specs is strongly encouraged by anyone who cares about Internet infrastructure for persistent identity and trusted data sharing.

On top of this there’s the ongoing “Identity Gang” conversation with Doc Searls, Craig Burton, Kim Cameron, Marc Canter, Dick Hardt, Owen Davis, Kaliya Hamlin, Jan Hauser, and others. We just met again last Sunday in Phoenix on the opening day of Esther Dyson’s PC Forum conference. It was a great conversation that is starting to become very focused on how Internet identity infrastructure can unify around a single harmonious “metasystem” (to use Kim’s and Craig’s term) that fully encompasses both personal and commercial identity. Just keeping up with this conversation while trying to build one piece of this metasystem leaves zeeeeeeero time left over.

Anyway, once these various specs are done I hope I’ll come up for air, although any way you look at it it’s going to be a wild spring as we work through the XRI 2.0 vote, prepare for the OASIS Symposium, head into Digital ID World, and prepare for the XDI.ORG registry launch.

I’m going to need a loooooooong summer vacation this year.