DocuSign is a great example of the kind of service that will make Web Office Technology so very powerful. To get an idea of what they offer, I suggest checking out their docusign demo. It's a really interesting demo.

This is the work flow:

1 - Load a document into the DocuSign Gateway On Demand Electronic Signature Service. (That's a really long name.) Basically it's a web site / web service.

2 - Go onto the site, and enter the email address of the person who is supposed to sign the document.

3 - Use a DocuSign AJAX powered UI to place a bunch of "Sign Here" and "Initial Here" tags on the document. This feels like dragging an electronic sticker over a pdf.

4 - Press send

5 - The signer receives an email that sends them to the DocuSign Gateway On Demand Electronic Signature Service. (The name really is too long.). The signer authenticates himself, and uses a similar AJAX powered UI to sign the document. The actual signature is actually a crude font print out of the signers name. Behind the scenes a digital signature is buried into the document.

At this point, you might be asking - how does DocuSign authenticate the signers? As far as I can tell, they don't. Instead, DocuSign provides you with the rock solid encryption and user ID / password technology. You are left to work out how to prove that user ID Robbie.Jones really is the person Dr. Robert Jones.

A 3rd party will eventually get this piece of the puzzle done right. It might be a series of banks with charge for the authentication. That would be a kind of insurance product. My guess is that Microsoft will once again try to own this space, but in the end, will fail because they do not have the bricks and mortar to ask for two forms of ID. Enmass, because authentication is a risk mitigation product, the banks make a natural fit. If not, it might be some start-up with Bio recognition cameras in Shopping Malls. "My face is my Mastercard."

Regardless, DocuSign provides a great example of how 3rd party services are quickly integrated into Web Office services. It gives an indication of the range of tools that will make up the Web Office Technology that will change the way we work.