The Progress Bar » openid

Quick, What's Your OpenID URL?

Dave Evans — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:48:24 +0000

I don’t remember mine either. I have to look it up every time I want to use it on one of the five websites that actually let you login with it. I know, there are thousands, but I never come across them. Clickpass to the rescue.

They are an OpenID issuer first. But they are also trying to make using OpenID much simpler for the user. First, they are partnering with sites like Plaxo, GetSatisfaction, Pownce and many of the Y Combinator startups. Those sites will show the ClickPass button, and users can sign in via OpenID with a single click (and they donâ€™t need to remember their OpenID URL). If itâ€™s your first time with OpenID, Clickpass will ask you if you have an existing account at the service you are trying to log into, and pass that information back to the site to join the accounts.
As you add sites to your ClickPass OpenID, youâ€™ll see them listed on the Clickpass site. You are given a distinct OpenID URL for each site that you can use to manage multiple identities, all tied together on ClickPass. And if you choose to fill out profile information on ClickPass, theyâ€™ll autofill that information on new sites you join. Clickpass also ensures privacy controls by letting you choose what kind of information you want to share with the site. Conceivably the service could serve as a node for your personal data, connecting it between different website accounts.

I interviewed Vidoop a while back, I like the image-based authentication scheme. Much easier than Open ID.

Letting everyone become an OpenID provider is confusing and the integration tools are still pretty rough around the edges for the most part.

I’m still waiting for Microsoft’s Cardspace, when oh when is that going to go live?

Yahoo Implements OpenID

Dave Evans — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:52:24 +0000

This is great news. I met most of the OpenID leaders at the Identity Conference at Harvard. While there are a number of usability and safety issues to address, the adoption rate for OpenID is taking off, slowly but surely. What is it up to now, 100+ million people? Problem is, most people don’t know what OpenID is, even if they have one.

More at TechCrunch.

Liking Cardspace Persona Selection

Dave Evans — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:01:06 +0000

I think Cardspace addresses the multiple-personality issue quite well, from the user-experience perspective. I’ve been playing around with the identity selector in Firefox on my Mac, which actually works some of the time. Easily selecting a persona based on the context of a given situation (game, blog post, adult content access, etc) is as easy as clicking on an icon.

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?

Facebook, OpenID Adoption Rates And the Evolution of Social Networking

Dave Evans — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:48:49 +0000

Jeremiah Owyang on Web Strategy Predictions: Facebook, Identity, Social Networks.

Facebook will launch an Identity widget that I can embed on my blog. This allows only those who have registered to Facebook to leave a comment, many high profile blogs will do this, to avoid nasty anonymous comments, thus reducing the incident of Kathy Sierra type events. Dave Winer is right.
-The data collected from these widgets ables Facebook to erode the small marketshare that Attention trackers and MyBlogLog are creating.
-Facebook will have faster adoption that Open ID, as the consumer users will drive it. (Remember the mantra of consider joining before creating communities)

More about community groups and social networking, worth a read.

Microsoft to Work With the OpenID Community

Dave Evans — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:55:12 +0000

This is great news. I’ve been impatiently waiting for sample code for Movable Type and WordPress that works with Cardspace, maybe this will speed things up a bit.

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 â€œUsing Information Cards with OpenIDâ€? profile that will make it possible for other developers and service providers to take advantage of these technology advancements.

Fred Stutzman on adopting OpenID

Dave Evans — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 03:22:10 +0000

Right on Fred, you touch on many of the points I address with the social net startups I’m advising, although you’re a little nicer about it than I am because the world is full of people entering the space that should stick with whatever they were doing beforehand, that critical mass will likely evade them.
One thing about OpenID. I really like the idea as I grokked the concept and met you and everyone else at the Berkman last summer. Then I started creating cardspace cards, and playing around with them in Firefox and as a login for my blog. Now I’m much more excited about Cardspace in terms of possible adoption rates. Here, have your own ID url isn’t as exciting as as creating, personalizing and expanding your Cardspace card.
Cardspace cards are sort of like personal widgets, with pictures, sounds and more. Much more fun to work with IMHO. Definitely open to discssing the merits of both, and how they will work together.

Opinity Announces OpenID & Cardspace Integration

Dave Evans — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:08:06 +0000

Identity services provider Opinity (a client), has announced that you can now use both OpenID and Microsoft’s CardSpace at Opinity.

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.