Spherical Cow Consulting

Translating geek to human

Contributor Skills: How Standards Are Created

Heather Flanagan explores what it really takes to be an effective contributor in standards development and digital identity work. Moving beyond visible roles like working group chairs, the discussion centers on how specifications are actually shaped through collaboration, technical debate, and sustained participation.

Discover how contributors add value as subject matter experts, implementers, and reviewers, and why skills like preparation, constructive disagreement, and process awareness matter. This episode explains how consensus works, why reliability outweighs brilliance, and how thoughtful contributions directly influence interoperable, implementable digital identity standards.

Internet Shutdowns and the Reality of a Fragmented Internet

Heather Flanagan examines internet fragmentation through the lens of modern internet shutdowns. Using recent, well-documented cases, she explains how connectivity is selectively constrained and why shutdowns are no longer rare emergencies but predictable outcomes of network architecture and governance.

Discover how these shutdowns directly impact digital identity systems, from federation failures to lost auditability. Learn why treating the network as neutral and always available is increasingly risky, and why architects, policymakers, and identity teams must rethink assumptions about global interoperability and resilience.

Inside the OpenID DCP Working Group: Issuance, Presentation, and Reality

Discover how the OpenID Foundation’s Digital Credentials Protocols Working Group is shaping real-world digital credential issuance and presentation. Learn why standards decisions around interoperability, credential formats, and web-based flows matter for implementers, regulators, and identity architects navigating a complex digital identity ecosystem.

Discover how pseudonymous authentication, assurance profiles like HAPE, and conformance testing influence deployments and regulatory alignment. Learn why following the work of the OpenID DCP Working Group offers insight into where digital identity standards are stabilizing, stalling, and reshaping systems.

The AI System That Never Was

Learn why the idea of an “AI system” is quietly breaking down under modern AI governance and deployment realities. Heather Flanagan examines how agentic workflows, standards debates, and policy frameworks are exposing gaps between governance language and real-world AI architectures.

Discover how this disconnect affects digital identity, accountability, and interoperability, and why unclear definitions create governance risk. Learn why engineers, standards bodies, and policymakers are struggling to align, and why fixing AI language is essential to building enforceable, trustworthy identity and governance frameworks.

A dry post about standards development processes

A Field Guide to Digital Identity Standards Bodies

In this episode, Heather Flanagan offers a practical field guide to digital identity standards, explaining how organizations like the OpenID Foundation, W3C, IETF, and FIDO Alliance shape specifications, drafts, and published standards through very different processes and cultures.

Discover how to interpret standards maturity, understand what a draft really means, and evaluate where work sits in the standards development lifecycle, helping implementers, architects, and policy professionals better assess risk, readiness, interoperability, and real-world impact across the digital identity ecosystem.

Conceptual image of the AI rogue wave mentioned at Gartner IAM

Process, Standards, and the AI Rogue Wave: Notes from Gartner IAM

Heather Flanagan reflects on Gartner IAM and what it reveals about digital identity decision-making, identity access management priorities, and enterprise buying behavior. The conversation explores how process, not product, often drives outcomes in real-world IAM programs.

Learn why overlooked process maturity, invisible identity standards, and interoperability gaps matter, and discover how AI hype distorts expectations across IAM platforms. This episode connects operations, standards, and incentives, offering practical insight for architects, security leaders, and teams navigating sustainable digital identity strategies.

Top digital identity posts 2025 as brought to you by a cute cat (not mine) resting on a laptop

ICYMI 2025: What You All Read the Most This Year

In this episode, Heather Flanagan looks back at the most read Digital Identity Digest posts of 2025, exploring what resonated across digital identity, governance, credentials, and AI. The recap reveals patterns behind shifting priorities, recurring debates, and the questions shaping standards work and system design.

Discover how topics like agentic AI and authentication, delegation, decentralization, interoperability, and credential terminology signal where identity architecture is headed. The episode explains why governance matters more than technology alone and why clear language and standards alignment are critical for resilient, trustworthy digital identity systems.

Artistic rendering - the group behind web payments

Web Payments and Digital Identity Standards Are Converging – #TIL

In this episode Heather Flanagan examines how web payments and digital identity are converging at the W3C, exploring digital wallets, browser-based APIs, and regulatory pressure shaping modern payment flows and trust on the web today as standards discussions reveal shifting assumptions across ecosystems.

Discover how Secure Payment Confirmation, passkeys, browser-bound keys, and the Digital Credentials API influence fraud prevention, interoperability, and auditability, and why agentic AI, mandate-based consent, and wallet fragmentation make identity design decisions increasingly critical for payments, institutions, and users worldwide.

AI robot sitting and waiting for a job interview. 3d illustration.

Two APIs Walk Into a Browser: FedCM vs. the DC API

In this episode of The Digital Identity Digest, Heather Flanagan explores how two emerging browser APIs—FedCM and the Digital Credentials API—are reshaping the identity layer of the web. Learn why browsers are shifting from passive intermediaries to active participants as privacy reforms and regulatory pressure accelerate.

Discover how these APIs differ in governance, user experience, and architectural philosophy, and why their proximity raises questions about future convergence. In this episode, explore what this evolution means for federated login, verifiable credentials, wallet ecosystems, and the broader digital identity landscape.

Young student girl sit at table with textbooks and laptop staring aside, studying alone in library, looks pensive and thoughtful search solution, thinking about digital identitiy

What I Wish I Knew When I Started in Identity

In this episode, discover how today’s rapidly shifting digital identity landscape is bringing new practitioners into the field and challenging long-held assumptions about IAM, trust frameworks, and governance. Learn why even foundational concepts can feel unexpectedly complex as identity becomes integral to products, security, and global compliance.

In this episode, discover how community expertise, evolving standards, and differing approaches to risk shape modern digital identity work. Learn why embracing collaboration, asking better questions, and thinking both locally and globally helps practitioners build resilient, future-ready identity systems that can adapt to constant change.