The persistent identifier community is an academic-tangential tech community much like the research software engineers. (Some of us are even the same people!) We're trying to make sure that researchers, the stuff they do, and the tools they work with are identified in ways that are unique, persistent, and make sense to machines. We envision a future where there's a network of these identifiers tracing which articles were written by which people using which datasets and software, and so on. But what good is a network if no one is using it? You're invited to contribute to the movement, whether through open software development, or just by being opinionated about interconnected research. This talk will give you a high-level view of persistent identifiers, who's using them and why, and tools you can use now in your own research software endeavors.