Nomadic Identity Concepts

Nomadic identity allows you to move your online identity and content to another location (typically defined as a server) seamlessly. To put it simply, it combines the following concepts (which are explained in depth below).

• Portable Identity - Move or clone your identity to another location without losing connections & followers.
• Data Portability - Being able to move or clone your content, such as posts, to another location.
• Synced Clones - The ability to have your identity and content in more than one location simultaneously and kept in sync.

It is not truly considered a full implementation of nomadic identity unless you have all three of these components.

In addition, it may include:

• Access Control - Being able to control who can access your content.
• Federated Single Sign On - The ability to log into other servers with your online identity.

These are a natural extensions of nomadic identity, and all of the current implementations of nomadic identity allow people to make some or all of their content private, and have implemented federated single sign on. Additionally, all of these platforms have a permission system built-in that allows users to give certain people access to content and to prevent other people from accessing it.

You can have nomadic identity without access control and federated single sign on. but they are features to consider since that makes the online identity more useful and gives people more control over their data.

Motivations

The basic motivation behind all of this is having control of your own online identity and content. You choose where it resides, and you choose who has access to your content, and you can choose to move it somewhere else if you want. Another motivation is the desire to move things seamlessly, so that your connections, contacts, followers, and content go with you when you move to another location.

Context and Possibilities

Nomadic identity exists in the context of decentralized social media and the social web. Although most platforms pioneering in this field are social media servers and apps, the same principles could be extended to other platforms unrelated to social media.

For example, you could have your online identity tied to a blog and your content is primarily comprised of blog posts instead of social media posts. Or you could have your online identity tied to a personal information manager (PIM) or project management software, and use your online identity to collaborate with others.

If nomadic identity is implemented cross-platform, you could use the same online identity on your decentralized social media account, on your blog, on your personal information management system, etc.

If combined with federated single sign on, you could use the same online identity to sign onto other websites, similar to the popular services Sign on With Google or Sign on with Facebook.

The Concepts

Below, we go through the basic concepts that surround nomadic identity and give some examples of implementations.

Portable Identity

Portable Identity gives you the option to move your identity to another server. This allows you to select a different provider or even self-host your identity on your own servers. There are a variety of ways to achieve this.

Examples:

• Mastodon has implemented portable identity, which allows you to move your Mastodon account to another Mastodon server. It also notifies your followers that you have moved to a new server so your followers move with you.
• Hubzilla allows you to move or clone you identity in multiple ways, including a server-to-server transfer, as well as being able to download you identity and upload it onto a new Hubzilla server.

Data Portability

Data Portability gives you the ability to move your content to another server. This allows you to use a different provider or even self-host. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, include downloads (export / import), transfer (from server to server), or sync (between servers).

The most basic implementation of this is being able to download your identity and content so you have a copy that is separate from your server. But it is not true data portability unless you can import your data back into a compatible platform.

Example:

• Hubzilla allows you to import and export all of you content, including posts, articles, web pages, wiki pages, and more. If you have clones of your channel, it will sync certain types of data as well.

Clones & Syncs

Clones are duplicate copies of your identity and content. The basic idea is that if one server fails or is no longer available, you have a another copy that can be used in its stead. It can be used as a backup, and also allows you to seamlessly use more than one server with the same identity at the same time. It also allows you to easily migrate to a new server, allowing for a transition period before you remove your identity from the old server.

For example, you can have your social media account cloned on two servers: example.net and example.social. Nomadic identity would keep these two in sync, so that you could log into either one of them and access your content and notifications, as well as have the ability to post from either server with the same identity.

You would choose which one is your primary server, for the purposes of choosing which handle to use. If you choose example.social as your primary, whenever you post from either server, your posts will be marked as being from channel@example.social (even when you post from example.net). You can change your primary server at any time. This allows systems that do not understand nomadic identity to communicate with your channel since they expect one server, not multiple servers.

Data Storage

In order for others to interact with your channel and access your content, your data must reside on one or more devices somewhere. This can be a server that you self-host or that is maintained by a provider. A server could be any type of device capable of hosting your identity and content in a way that is sharable and accessible.

A fediverse server could manage the data for you, either internally in its database and filesystem or by using concepts like ActivityPods or Personal Data Stores (PDS). Regardless of the method used, it must reside on a server somewhere for it to be internet accessible. This server could even be a Raspberry Pi, a home PC, or even a smart phone, if your fediverse software supports it.

For example, when you sign up on a Mastodon or Hubzilla server, you are selecting a provider who will host your identity and data for you (unless you self-host). And Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) allows you to host your own social identity & content on your device and uses peer-to-peer messaging for communications.

Provider vs. Self-Host

You can choose where your identity and data is stored. More technical people may choose to self-host on premises (at their home or office) or use a web hosting company, while other may find it more convenient to delegate the technical aspect by use a software-as-a service company or signing up on someone else's fediverse server.

Regardless of how someone is on the fediverse, nomadic identity would allow people to move their identity or content somewhere else and create backups if their account, either as a download or a synced clone.