[OpenID board] Informations about the European Foundation

[Drummond Reed]

Sebastien,

I wanted to add to Scott's note thanking you for translating this document
and forwarding it to us so we can accelerate the conversation between the
European Foundation what we have been creating with the OpenID Foundation.

Just to clarify, the goal of the OpenID Foundation was never to be
U.S.-centric, but to help give a formal legal standing to the OpenID
community worldwide. It is wonderfully healthy to see different
OpenID-supporting organizations forming in different parts of the world; it
shows that OpenID is as open and global as the Internet itself.

Thank you again for the introduction, and I look forward to working with the
European Foundation to help create the OpenID infrastructure we all would
like to see develop globally.

=Drummond 

-----Original Message-----
From: board-bounces at openid.net [mailto:board-bounces at openid.net] On Behalf
Of Scott Kveton
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 6:36 PM
To: board at openid.net
Cc: seb20
Subject: Re: [OpenID board] Informations about the European Foundation

Hi Sebastien,

> I reply to the mail I've seen regarding the European Foundation from
> Martin. I am the "someone" who contacted him few days ago and I think
> I can give a good vision of what's going on on the other side of the
> Pool.

First off, thanks for the note.  This really helps us clarify what's going
on.

Note: I'm not speaking on behalf of the board here just a board member
speaking.

> This is a 4 pages document, that summarize the goal behind this
> foundation. If you want my comments, I think they do want to do good,
> but with a different approach than yours: acting like real Europeans,
> they write papers first, and action next :-) Even if this can look
> like too bureaucratic, this is the way European work and it can have
> some interesting effects, specially if you can bring the american
> touch (do it, then make it official).

This is a good document.  Thanks for translating it.

> Personally I see 2 advantages of having this foundation:
> 
>   - it will facilitate adoption: if you want OpenID to be popular in
> Europe (27 countries, 23 languages, 500 millions inhabitants), it
> will have to be locally promoted, documentation translated, people
> connected.
>   - having a legal entity entity valid for Europe is key,

I think these are all valid points.

> Now, I think this foundation should not be top-bottom organized like
> this document makes think, and should be more opened and
> decentralized. As this is just a draft, the discussion is opened.
> 
> I let you guys read the presentation, feel free to contact them
> directly or myself if you have any questions.

I'm interested in discussing ways that we can work together better.  My
biggest concern right now is that the current delegates for each country
appear to be OpenID providers as well as promoting the technology.  I see
that as a direct conflict of interest and one that needs to be considered.
The localized sites for each country should be focused on advocacy and
promotion not on providing OpenID service.

We'll be having a board meeting here on Thursday and will be discussing
this.  We'll let you know our thoughts after we have met.

Thanks again,

- Scott

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