[OpenID board] Marketing CMP report

Dick Hardt dick at sxip.com
Thu May 22 17:42:28 UTC 2008


Hi DeWitt

Your observations echo my experience with Google -- Google currently  
does not have strategic interest in solving internet identity, but are  
interested in deploying a solution if and when it presents itself.

Other players have varying degrees of strategic interest in solving  
internet identity -- and you may be right that those are the ones that  
are in that business, or see strategic advantage to participating in  
having the problems resolved.

The question to the board is what role do we think the Foundation  
should play that reflects the desires of are nascent community.

-- Dick


On 22-May-08, at 10:00 AM, DeWitt Clinton wrote:

> Very interesting!
>
> Having watched how discussions around OpenID have spread around  
> Google, I've seen a lot more uptake on (1) rather than (2).  In  
> general, technologies that attract users or make life better for  
> users tend to get people excited, whereas the second bucket (one I  
> may be personally attracted to, as it is), tends to get a resounding  
> "so what?" and requires a ton more advocacy and hand-holding.   
> Interestingly, this pattern is consistent at all levels of the  
> company, from engineers to execs alike.
>
> Very few people seem to care about "solving the problem of internet  
> identity," outside those few that are in the business of solving the  
> problem of internet identity.
>
> -DeWitt
>
> On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 9:45 AM, Dick Hardt <dick at sxip.com> wrote:
> fellow board members:
>
> Reviewing the material that Beale gleaned from the interviews, the
> focus has been on what do we need to do to get adoption of OpenID
> today and what are the barriers to adoption. The messaging they came
> back with was assuming that OpenID is ready for mainstream adoption,
> we just need to correctly message about it.
>
> We need to decide if we are focused on:
>         (1) getting adoption of the current technology, or
>         (2) getting people together to solve the broader internet  
> identity
> problems using the current technology as a starting point.
>
> If the first one, then we can have the following messaging:
>
> - Leadership
>        using OpenID shows the world you are forward thinking
> - Efficiency
>        using OpenID will save you money
> - Growth
>        using OpenID will get you more users
>
> If the second, we can have the following messaging:
>
> - Leadership
>        participating in the Foundation shows the world you are part  
> of the
> solution for solving internet identity
> - Efficiency
>        participating in the Foundation unites  your efforts with  
> others
> - Growth
>        participating in the Foundation will provide you with identity
> solutions that allow you to grow your business
>
> NOTE: I made up these phrases on the fly to indicate the tone -- let's
> not spend time discussing if they are the right words!
>
>
>
> Personally, I am aligned with (2) and with the following items from
> the Internet Identity Workshop page [1]
>
> ....
>
> User-centric identity is the ability:
>
>     * To use one's identifier(s) on more then one site
>     * To control who sees what information about you
>     * To selectively share presence and profile information
>     * To maintain multiple identities and personas in the contexts
> you wish
>     * To aggregate attention, navigation, and purchase history from
> the sites and communities you frequent
>     * To move and share your personal data, relationships, documents,
> and other publications as you wish
>
> [1] http://iiw.idcommons.net/index.php/Iiw2008a
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