Last week (22nd and 23rd May), the Open Identity Summit 2025 finally took place in the UniCasino of the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. The conference was organized by the University of the Bundeswehr Munich / RI CODE and ITIS e.V., together with the German Informatics Society (GI) and the Fraunhofer IAO to combine academic innovations with practical experience in the field of digital identities. Christian Schunck described the importance of secure digital identities.
After an obligatory welcome from Prof. Wolfgang Hommel, each of the two conference days began with a keynote speech. Sebastian Kurowski from Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft impressively described why communication is important in the field of information security. This showed that having the same level and problem solving are essential. Dennis Eckhard from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg showed the audience the perspective of ethnographers on digital identities and research projects. In particular, his stories about observations of the participants in their homes were fascinating.
This was followed by a total of five content-based sessions on various areas of digital identities, such as the EU Digital Identity Wallet, human factors, and trust. For example, the topics covered included the role of EBSI in eIDAS, the economic analysis of cyber security innovations, phishing via audiovisual channels (a student work), and the possibility of reporting problems in an eID wallet. Overall, it became clear that eIDAS 2.0 and the associated eID wallets are an important topic. The submissions for these sessions were published as nine full papers and six short papers at GI (indexed by Scopus).
The breaks and especially the social event at the UniCasino on the first evening provided additional opportunities for socializing and discussions with the other participants. In total, more than 25 international experts were present, particularly from Germany, but also from the USA and Canada. Food and drink were, of course, also provided. Unfortunately, the weather made it impossible to use the beer garden.
As the local organizer, I was pleased that everything went well and that there was plenty of interaction. The next local organizers in Dresden will certainly also be supported by Heiko Roßnagel and Christian Schunck (Conference Chairs).