# Co-founder, Internet Identity Workshop

Source: https://startwithidentity.com/experts/doc-searls/
Last updated: 2026-09-20
License: content by Start with Identity. Cite the source URL.

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## Bio

Doc Searls co-founded the Internet Identity Workshop in 2005 with Kaliya Young and Phil Windley, and founded ProjectVRM at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center. He is one of the four authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto.

Profile built from public conference, university, and publication records.

## Where their work shows up

IIW has run twice a year since 2005 as an unconference with no keynotes, and a startling share of what became [OpenID Connect](https://startwithidentity.com/standards/openid-connect/), [OAuth](https://startwithidentity.com/standards/oauth-2-0/), and [decentralized identity](https://startwithidentity.com/guides/fundamentals/what-is-decentralized-identity/) was argued out in its sessions first. Vendor Relationship Management, his other project, poses the question the industry still has not answered: what identity looks like when the person, not the service, holds the relationship. See the [conferences directory](https://startwithidentity.com/conferences/) and the [IIW profile](https://startwithidentity.com/conferences/iiw/).