look like 11 – 14 for the 14^th student counted in Room 11. This structure for the number has the nice characteristic that it is unique across the entire school. In other words, during the count we have ascribed a unique identifier to each student. Based on the concepts we’ve thus far established, we would perhaps like to say that this unique identifier is a marker for that student. In fact, this is not the case; or, at least it is not a solid marker. We’ll look into what constitutes a solid marker just a bit later, but for the moment we can note that this number is not directly connected to the biophysical person. For example, we don’t write this number on the forehead of the child or tattoo it on their arm. Consequently, we have not established a strong basis for trust that we can use the number to establish that the specific child is actually participating in an interaction. However, as a component of the identity registry of the school, the list from each room can be gathered and formed into a single list. Thus we have a student identity registry for the entire school. Moreover, if we put a trustworthy process in place through which we can add new students that join the school at some later date or through which we can delete students that permanently leave the school, then we can confirm the count of students at any time by just counting the entries in the school’s identity registry.

At this point, one might question why we’ve gone to such elaborate measures to simply count the number of students in a school. The primary reason derives from the reason we suggested for the count in the first place. That is, the state government is to provide money to the school based on the number of students in the school. Such support will likely require an ability for the government to actually audit the count to confirm that it is accurate. In other words, we need a transaction log of the count and the counting process. This is the primary function of the identity registry. Through this registry we can determine that a particular student has been included in the count. Moreover, if one student moves away and four more students enter the school, the registry can be updated to provide an accurate, dynamic count of the students in the school. In general, financial payments from the state government will be made on a monthly basis, using the student count for that specific month to determine the amount of the payment. Of course, it is necessary that there be a significant level of trust in the accuracy of the identity registry. Hence, as we noted we must put in place a trusted process through which the identity registry is kept current.

There is actually a fairly good foundation of trust to be found in such a registry. The foundation derives from the physical structure of the school, the reputation of the teachers, the process use in creating the list and perhaps most important, the mechanisms used by humans in establishing unique identity within more basic groups. First, each class has its own classroom. This establishes a well defined context for a small group. Each class has a teacher that administers the context established by the classroom. As an employee of the school, the teacher can be ascribed some level of trust because of the hiring practices of the school and through the ongoing reputation established by each teacher within the school. The manner in which the identity registry was initially formed is a well defined process, designed with the idea of creating a trustworthy identity registry. Finally, a teacher can be trusted to recognize a particular student. Thus, within a class, if the teacher asks Sally Green to stand, he can determine that in fact Sally Green is standing and not Kathy Brown. So, we have a unique identifier assigned to each student that is validated by a biometric authentication protocol; that is, the teacher being able to associate each student with their name through physical recognition. Or course, we have yet to determine how one would authenticate the presence of Sally Green outside of the classroom where an association of her name with her appearance might not be well established. In addition, there are other rather obvious shortcomings that speak to the trust that we can derive from the process. We’ll try to address those as we extend the examples.

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