Growing the Identity Pipeline
The Digital Identity Advancement Foundation was borne out of the community’s shared desire to build a diverse talent pipeline. Digital Identity practitioners come from all sectors, all verticals. There are broad ranges of field expertise, technical specialisms, and skill sets that comprise the industry. And yet, we are united by a common purpose: to realize a more trustworthy internet, where people and businesses can safely identify one another and interact.
Identity professionals are in short supply around the globe. Our organizations need us to keep pace with that of the technological advances of the day – the rise of artificial intelligence, the proliferation of non-human identities on the internet, the spectre of a post-quantum world, and whatever 2025 has in store for us.
Our awards memorialize two visionaries in the identity community, Kim Cameron and Vittorio Bertocci, who recognized that this challenge was too much for businesses and the public sector to bear alone.
In response, they shared their experiences, mentored widely, and cultivated communities of talent across this industry. Vittorio spoke to this in his own reflections on the life of Kim Cameron in 2022. The Digital Identity Advancement Foundation continues to live and breathe this mission by creating opportunities for people to learn, find mentors, and explore the breadth and depth of this industry.
A Year In Review: 2024
This year, the Digital Identity Advancement Foundation sent 8 awardees to 5+ events across our two programs: the Kim Cameron Award (open now until January 21) and the Vittorio Bertocci Award.
Incredible Partners
DIAF would like to thank the partners that make this program possible:
- The OpenID Foundation for supporting the original Kim Cameron Awards and for continuing to invest in the Digital Identity pipeline with DIAF
- The estates of Kim Cameron and Vittorio Bertocci for their willingness to foster DIAF’s mission
- The organizers of events that offered free attendance to our winners:
- IDPRo for offering one year of membership – and access to their thriving community of mentors – to our awardees
A Diverse Pool of Awardees
At DIAF, we were heartened by the geographic diversity of the applications we received in 2024. Beyond North America and Europe, we had applicants from Bhutan, Sudan, Brazil – and everywhere in between. We are delighted that our pool of awardees reflects this distribution.
The 2024 DIAF cohort, across both awards, reflects a maturing offer that is intended to help both newcomers and those who are deepening an existing expertise. We have enabled early-career professionals to attend conferences and meet mentors; we have also helped standards experts engage more fully with the community and deepen their impact.
Kim Cameron Award – Apply now for the 2025 Award
The mission of the Kim Cameron Award is to honor Kim Cameron’s legacy by fostering the professional development of identity practitioners through increased access to key industry events. Two awardees, Suprit Pradhan and Raj Patil, attended the European Identity and Cloud Conference:
I have always believed that identity is a dynamic field that intersects philosophy, human relations, and technology. EIC provided a unique platform to explore all these aspects under one roof.
Raj Patil, India
Sophie Bennani-Taylor and Matthew Spence attended Identiverse:
As a researcher focussing on the space of digital identity for development (ID4D), where discussions tend to centre around how digital ID can be used for empowerment, conference discussions concerning the cybersecurity origins of IAM served as an important reminder of the need to centre security, privacy and trust in ID4D.
Even in death Vitorrio is still driving the industry forward, pushing us to solve problems that force us to maintain a high minded vision without forgetting that we owe it to ourselves and to the public to adhere to the highest standards of technical excellence.
Matthew Spence, USA
Grace Klutke attended Authenticate.
I realized that Digital Identity is not merely a technical or regulatory field: it’s a far-reaching crossroads that connects fast-evolving technology with social equity and justice.
Grace Klutke, USA
Vittorio Bertocci Award
The mission of the Vittorio Bertocci Award is to honor Vittorio Bertocci’s legacy by inspiring and supporting the next generation of identity experts who will shape the foundation of digital identity. By sponsoring motivated individuals to participate in identity standards organizations and events, the Vittorio Bertocci award creates opportunities for new voices to carry on this legacy of contributing to and learning from the standards development process.
DIAF supported 3 Vittorio Bertocci Awardees in 2024:
Connecting with world-leading researchers and practitioners was a rewarding experience. Engaging with peers from other areas of computer science broadened my perspectives and generated new ideas. The diversity of research presented at the conference underscored the dynamic nature of conceptual modeling and its impact across various domains
Frederico Schardong, Brazil
Erick Domingues, an Open Banking expert with a passion for standards development, attended the Internet Identity Workshop and co-hosted a session regarding how to bring newcomers into the Digital Identity Industry. His reflections on IIW are coming soon.
Erick Domingues, Brazil
Jen is a software engineer, specializing in digital identity within large-scale production systems. She has had a tremendous impact on standards, like SCIM and the Shared Signals Framework, and she is energized by solving complex technical problems with people from diverse backgrounds. Her trip and her reflections are coming soon!
Jen Schrieber, USA
Looking Ahead
We are so proud of the 2024 cohort of Kim Cameron and Vittorio Bertocci awardees – and we are delighted to say that several of them are expected to speak at identity conferences in 2025 (please stay tuned!).
At DIAF, we remain focused on our mission. In 2025, we have a few key priorities:
- Only 33% of our applicants were women. We are eager to work across our community and with organizations like IDPro and Women in Identity to chip away at the gender imbalance in our community.
- More ways to engage. We recognize that there are many more ways to be involved in the community. Earlier this year, we began outreach to prospective university partners with an aim to design programs that will bring more students into identity.
- Give us your feedback. If you have ideas about how DIAF can support new or emerging Digital Identity practitioners, please contact us here.
How to Get Involved
- Apply. You can apply for the Kim Cameron Award now until January 21, 2025. We will open the Vittorio Bertocci Award later this year.
- Share. Please encourage young, aspiring, and developing Digital Identity practitioners to apply for our programs. You can keep up to date by following us on Linkedin and Twitter.
- Contribute. You can donate directly to DIAF or contact us to discuss in-kind offers that might benefit our awardees (conference attendance, tickets, meal vouchers, etc.) and the sustainability of our programs.
- Mentor & Advocate. Seek out the aspiring, emerging, developing identity professionals in your life and, in the spirit of Kim and Vittorio, offer them your support.
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