What would a unique identifier for media outlets (UMId) look like?
How can it be implemented and what are potential use cases?
Are there any unintended consequences to consider and mitigate?
Over the past eight months we’ve been discussing these questions within the format of an official ISO workshop and the result is now available online for public consultation. So, please have a look, tell us what you think and what needs to be added or amended in your view!
The UMId has been designed as a neutral key to signal the identity of sources along the whole distribution and supply chain of content online. Thus, it can help to reduce ambiguities in the information space that confuse both humans and algorithms. Even worse, we’ve seen increasing numbers of imposters and copycats recently that capitalize on lacking protection of legitimate media outlet’s digital identity –?the so-called #Doppelganger phenomenon. Last not least, the documentation and authentication of sources will become increasingly important, possibly even a legal requirement, in the context of training AI-driven large language models.
The UMId caters to the demand in all those fields and we keep discovering additional use cases in moving forward. It is interoperable with existing identifiers for legal entities (LEI) or for digital objects (C2PA, DOI).
More than 80 individuals and institutions, among them WAN-IFRA, the World Association of News Publishers, Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), EPRA, Ofcom, CSA - Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel, Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), IPTC, Check My Ads Institute, Internews, Media Viability Accelerator, ISNI International Agency, GS1, Media Diversity Institute, The Blue Owl Group and many others, have contributed amazing amounts of time, energy and effort over the past months to build this draft IWA. We couldn’t be more grateful.
Now is the time for you to weigh in.
With all comments received by end of November, then compiled and considered, the publication of this International Workshop Agreement (IWA 44) by ISO - International Organization for Standardization is expected to happen in the first quarter of next year.