Community and Identity in Contemporary Physical and Virtual Spaces - Literature review Example

2.4 Difference between Physical and Virtual Services Yang and Chang d that a significant change has been noticed in the modern times since computer technology has integrated in the existing societies [82]. The existence of physical shops and services has been compelled to meet the emergence of virtual services that are utilized by mobile devices and internet technology. David defined virtual services as the ones that can be utilized through an electronic network, such as internet or wide area network (WAN) connecting large number of workstations together [83]. Yang and Chang pointed out a main difference between physical and virtual services that virtual services can be utilized anywhere at any time of the day. Steinfield explained an advantage of the integration of physical with virtual services and stated that it causes the “death of distance” [53]. This analogy implies that distance is irrelevant for the modern man since organizations do not need to establish a physical establishment to provide services, rather it can be done on a remote basis with the aid of internet technology. Steinfield further explained the ‘death of distance’ with the economic perspective; virtual services tend to incur lesser expenses for the organization as compared to the physical ones since there are lesser operational and management costs [53]. Steinfield also stated that the level of trust tends to increase if the virtual services are accompanied with physical ones too, therefore, it can be stated that there regulates a lesser degree of trust around the virtual services as compared to the physical ones [53]. Virtual Services Physical Services Time Constraint Anytime [82] Within the operational timings of the organization [82]. Location Anywhere where electronic network is available [83] At the establishment of the organization [83] Expense and Operational costs Lesser cost and expenses [53] Greater costs are incurred [53] Convenience Greater [53], [82] Lesser Level of trust Lesser [53] Greater [53] Table ?: Comparison of Virtual and Physical Services Woodworth defined physical identity as the physical characteristics or the external attributes that are possessed by the individual [84]. Oracle included a discussion regarding an access management system in one of their white papers and stated that it was based on the authentication and verification of physical identities; the examples of physical identities that are implemented in this system are biometrics, RFID, smart cards [85]. Woodworth discussed virtual identities and stated that “virtual spaces and the tools within” that are used for “identity construction and the self-presentation” of the individual [84]. With respect to the definition by Woodworth [84], it can be stated that if the tools within the virtual spaces are used to authenticate the users on the basis of any proof of identity then it can be termed as a virtual identity. For example, a smart card is a physical identity, however if this identity is read in an online environment with the help of its tools then it will be termed as a virtual identity. Another example can be of biometrics that is uniquely possessed by every individual in the world. The presentation of biometrics at a physical location and establishment of an organization will be a physical identity whereas the acquisition of the same biometric from a location of the user’s choice through the internet will be considered as a virtual identity. The advancement of technology has compelled the modern man to manage virtual, as well as physical identities. Hansen and Berlich stated that identity is an accumulation of numerous sources of identities that might be held by any individual [19]. This definition can be further explained and stated that identity can be authenticated and verified by means of different modes of authentications. Government agencies also follow such modes of identity verification and make use of different modes of authentication to identity individuals: - UK Home Office has based their authentication mechanism on biometric recognition [7]. - UAE has based their authentication mechanism on biometric features and smart cards [3]. - Austria uses several types of smart cards as their proofs of authentication since health cards, citizen cards etc are also treated as means of authentication to grant access to government agencies [2]. All three of these projects and implementations are based on the integration of public and private services that might be offered on physical and virtual spaces. Identity management systems need to be effective everywhere, specifically government agencies since sensitive functions and operations are handled in such organizations. 2.5 Need for the Integration of Virtual and Physical Services The widespread of services on the internet has aggravated the issue of maintaining multiple identities. A user that was already compelled to maintain numerous physical identities has been further indulged in remembering virtual identities. The virtual identities may be based on specific login credentials like username, passwords and PINs. The ordeal of remembering all the different login credentials proves to be a tedious one for the users since the lack of diversity among them may pose to be a major security threat [21]. On the other hand, multiple physical identities also prove to be difficult to maintain since different sources require the presence of different smart cards or other proofs of identities. The increasing number of proof of identities makes it stressful for the users to perform operations in physical, as well as the virtual world [21]. Therefore, the need of the hour is to integrate the virtual and the physical services on a single platform to ensure greater convenience for the users. Another advantage of the integration of physical services with the virtual ones is that the individual organizations do not need to implement extensive security measures since the centralized platform also follows high security measures [53]. Alongside lesser need to implement greater security measures, criminal records at one source and organization can be shared among all the sources, thereby raising alarms at every source for a specific user. However, alongside these advantages, a security challenge may even be raised with the integration of physical and virtual services. The rate of online crime in the current times is exponentially high as compared to the recent history. The process of making governmental services accessible through the internet may become a cause of increasing identity thefts and online crimes. 2.6 Integration of Physical and Virtual Services in E-Government However, integration of physical and virtual services proves to be a daunting task. Arora stated that achieving interoperability is one of the most crucial challenges that have been faced by Belgian Personal Identity Card (BELPIC) [32]. They have faced difficulty in achieving interoperability between administrative organizations in the country, including federal, municipal and regional units. Italian government faced other interoperability issues regarding the development of a platform where all the services would be able to collaborate and get linked with each other. The centralized platform was known to be supported by only a single type of middleware, i.e. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer whereas all the other platforms could not be configured to support different units in the country [32]. This was a crucial interoperability issue since the users of other browsing software were not able to utilize the integrated virtual and physical services. Alongside the presence of technical issues, there may exist a challenge related to support and commitment to the development of an interoperable environment. Arora stated that private organizations are often witnessed as being uncommitted to the implementation of such platforms due to their lack of confidence on the structure of the public offices [32]. One of the challenges in the integration of these services is to attain the level of trust of the users and to make them confident about the level of security that shall be provided to them in the proposed usage of technology. Another challenge that becomes apparent is to devise a system that focuses on the limitations of the existing systems. There are limited systems in the domain that is being discussed since this concept has recently emerged in the world of computing. The known publications and research studies tend to focus on the interoperability of the physical and virtual services and ignore the other necessary aspects of usage and operations of systems. Some of those important aspects are usability, accessibility and security. The presence of these aspects makes the services accessible and usable by all types of users, rather than constraining the usage to a certain set of users. It is due to this reason that this thesis shall be focused on devising a system that aims to enhance the user’s experience, security and acceptability while encompassing usability, identity and accessibility, respectively. References [84] C. A. Woodworth, "Community and Identity in Contemporary Physical and Virtual Spaces: Toward an Integration", Open Access Theses, 2011. [85] Oracle, Quantum Secure’s Physical-Identity Management System for Oracle Identity Manager. Read More