October 7, 1999 Web posted at: 3:12 p.m. EDT (1912 GMT) by Dan Briody

From...

(IDG) -- Novell announced its digitalme technology at the outset of Fall Internet World. The technology, which hinges on Novell's existing NDS directory product, is designed to provide digital profiles for use on the Internet.

"This is a whole new set of technologies that has heretofore not been discovered," said Eric Schmidt, Novell chairman and CEO. "The goal is to make life easier to live in the Net."

Digitalme is a set of user characteristics that, upon being entered once, will communicate with any electronic-commerce site on the Internet. The goal is to enable consumers to shop at any site on the Internet without having to register and remember multiple passwords. Unlike Microsoft's Passport technology, digitalme is server-based, typically held by a user's ISP, officials said.

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As of Tuesday, users can try out the technology at www.digitalme.com. Though currently a pure business-to-consumer play, the company anticipates the technology to be used in business-to-business e-commerce in the future.

According to Novell officials, users will be able to fill out a Master Profile, and from that create meCards, or varying levels of digital information to be shared at the user's discretion. The meCards could include information like passwords, user names, account numbers, bookmarks, preferences, and shopping habits. Upon registering for a new e-commerce site, the user's information would be automatically presented and access to the site would be allowed.

"We should be considered an arms merchant," said Steve Adams, vice president and general manager of the In-the-Net Services Group at Novell, a new division in charge of the digitalme technology. "We are suppliers of technology to businesses that are serving their customers."

At least one customer sees the digitalme technology as a boon for e-commerce.

"Anything that we can do to make shopping on the Web easier and faster is good," said Tom Winn, Web master at InsurePoint, an online insurance provider that specializes in insuring Internet start-ups.

Novell lined up an impressive list of partners for the digitalme technology, including Compaq, Intel, AOL, and VeriSign. The company hopes to provide the e-commerce infrastructure for identities on the Web by leveraging the existing implementations of Novell Directory Services.

"It's the only directory-based system that can offer security and scalability on a global scale," Adams said.