Interesting to see the verification companies starting to get involved. You need access to a lot of datasources to get out of pocket verification working.

I keep thinking of OpenID like my TypeKey ID. Nothing more, nothing less than single sign-on. OpenID now has something like over 100M potential users. Problem is, there are only a handful of sites that accept OpenID. The lag is killing the potential.
How can we avoid the flamewar that is going to erupt over who owns distributed transparent databases that store our identities?

Johannes Ernst says that Six Apart, creators of Movable Type, are set to release code to enable open social graphs. Read the We Are Opening the Social Graph at Six Apart and prepare for Web 3.0 to get started. Now, where is Cardspace?

I’ve been thinking a lot more about  identity, attention and reputation. These reoccurring themes keep popping up in my consulting work and the blogosphere has no shortage of pundits who opine about the role of identity from time to time.

I continue to think Windows Cardspace could be a central theme to open profiles, attention and identity silos. The problem is that the current state of play is that the documentation is for developers, the test suites are stale and most of the blog posts about it are almost a year old. That is definitely not they way you want to roll out a potentially enormous shift in how people are represented on the Internet.

The architects and developers will continue to evolve the underlying protocols, improve security measures and create usable browser plug-ins and manageable datastores.

I want to start talking about how identity, attention and reputation are going to change how we interact with each other, web services, communities and institutions.

I will continue to maintain partial focus on emerging internet trends and the Boston Internet scene, as we are seriously underrepresented in the blogosphere and the MSM (main stream media).

If your company participates in the identity, attention or reputation space, or you’re doing cool stuff in the Boston area, sign up for the feed and keep me updated about what you’re up to.

Have a great weekend.

This is great news for Cardspace. I cannot wait for people to start building cool stuff with it. Integrating third-party authentication tools, dating site profiles, advertising and viral marketing are all going to be early implementations based on Cardspace.

Microsoft to Work With the OpenID Community, Collaborating With Sxip, JanRain, and VeriSign

Sxip, JanRain, Microsoft, and VeriSign will collaborate on interoperability between OpenID and Windows CardSpace to make the internet safer and easier to use. Specifically:

* As part of OpenID’s security architecture, OpenID will be extended to allow relying parties to explicitly request and be informed of the use of phishing-resistant credentials.

* Microsoft recognizes the growth of the OpenID community and believes OpenID plays a significant role in the internet identity infrastructure. Kim Cameron, Chief Architect of Identity at Microsoft, will work with the OpenID community on authentication and anti-phishing.

* Sxip, JanRain, and VeriSign recognize that Information Cards provide significant anti-phishing, privacy, and convenience benefits to users. Information Cards, based on the open WS-Trust standard, are available though Windows CardSpace.

* Sxip and JanRain, leading providers of open source code libraries for blogging and websites, are announcing they will add support for the Information Cards to their OpenID code bases.

* Sxip, JanRain and VeriSign plan to add Information Card support to future identity solutions.

* Microsoft plans to support OpenID in future Identity server products.

The four companies have agreed to work together on a “Using Information Cards with OpenID� profile that will make it possible for other developers and service providers to take advantage of these technology advancements.

This means that if you have established an OpenID–for instance, through Verisign PIP or LiveJournal–you can use that OpenID to log in to Opinity and to control your personal profile. Also, if you have created an information card through Microsoft’s CardSpace, you can also use it in the same ways.

Congrats to Ted, Doyon, Bill, Dave and the rest of the Opinity team.