[OpenID board] Facebook Joins OIDF Coverage Roundup

[David Recordon]

With the OpenID.net and Facebook posts this afternoon, so far we've  
had great coverage of Facebook joining the board (and I'm sure I've  
missed a bunch of blog posts, Twitter, etc as well).  Thanks to  
everyone who pitched in and helped and I look forward to the design  
summit next week!

--David

Facebook joins OpenID Foundation Board with a commitment to better  
user experience
http://openid.net/2009/02/05/facebook-joins-openid-foundation-board/
Facebook’s financial contribution along with its membership on the  
board signals the company’s enthusiasm to work more closely with the  
OpenID community, building up momentum towards their adoption of  
OpenID as a standard. Facebook furthering its commitment to openness  
couldn’t have come at a better time to make 2009 an amazing year for  
OpenID and the wider social web.

Next Steps in Openness
http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=192
The future of an open and social Web will be measured not by  
protocols, but by how much we collectively improve the standards and  
technologies that enable us and others to give people more powerful  
ways to share and connect.

5 Reasons Why Facebook + OpenID is Good News
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_facebook_openid_good.php
The two systems of logging in to distributed websites, OpenID and  
Facebook Connect, have been characterized as rivals - OpenID being the  
high-minded but socially awkward one who doesn't get invited to  
parties despite being a really good person and Facebook Connect being  
the rich preppy popular kid from the 80's movie who's a bully but is  
good at sports.  Now they've joined forces, on some level. Cynics  
immediately said it would make no difference, that their cynicism  
remained unchanged, or that Facebook was likely to "pull a Microsoft"  
and try to destroy OpenID. We disagree. We think this is good news.  
Here is why.

Facebook Joins OpenID in Quest for Universal User Accounts
http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Facebook_Joins_OpenID_in_Quest_for_Universal_User_Accounts
This should prove to be the boost OpenID needs to spur further  
development. With increasing enhancements by Google and Facebook, it  
could have been easy to forget OpenID. However, now with Facebook  
officially on board, it seems the big league companies won’t let that  
happen — a move uncharacteristic for two companies who should be  
battling for user data. In the end, this is a win for users with  
privacy concerns who want the ability to control this data themselves  
by making the data and the technology behind it portable and  
controllable under open source licenses.

Facebook Throws its Weight Behind OpenID
http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/facebook-throws.html
The resulting effects of this partnership on data portability are  
unclear. And whether Facebook and the rest of the internet are now  
part of the same big happy family remains to be seen. But for those  
worried about Facebook Connect derailing OpenID or causing it to die  
on the vine, this is huge.

Facebook Joins OpenID Foundation Board
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/02/05/facebook-joins-openid-foundation-board/
By putting its weight and financial support behind OpenID, it’s clear  
that Facebook is pretty serious about furthering the OpenID movement.  
However, it will likely take a lot of collaboration between Facebook  
and OpenID to hammer out details on multiple issues (like user  
experience and security) before Facebook would become a full OpenID  
relying party (i.e. start accepting OpenIDs from other providers on  
Facebook), Chris Messina told Inside Facebook.

Facebook Joins OpenID Foundation Board
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-joins-openid-foundation-board/
While Facebook has not yet committed to support many of the open  
standards, joining the board is a sign of commitment. While Facebook  
may choose to duplicate and recreate their own version of many of the  
standards, it’s always important to be part of the conversation.  
Personally, I’m interested to see what other steps Facebook will make  
to support these new standards.

Facebook steps into OpenID Foundation
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10157980-36.html
This is a bit of a surprise because Facebook has developed its own  
universal log-in standard, Facebook Connect, which theoretically  
competes with the nonprofit OpenID standard. It should be noted that  
Facebook has not yet announced any official plans to make the two  
compatible, and that just joining the board and hosting an event might  
not quell the criticism from open-source advocates who say Facebook is  
still too proprietary in its nature.

Facebook joins OpenID board; How will it Connect?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=12368
The OpenID-Facebook effort kicks off with a design summit next week at  
Facebook’s Palo Alto campus. The key topics will be user experience  
and security. The design summit will focus on how existing OpenID  
efforts can support a Facebook Connect-ish experience.  That summit  
may be a precursor to interoperability between Facebook Connect and  
OpenID. Or this effort may result in nothing all that new. Time will  
tell.

Facebook Pledges Support For OpenID; But Will Anything Change?
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/05/facebook-pledges-support-for-openid-but-will-anything-change/
At this point it’s unclear exactly what change this will bring to  
Facebook. Facebook’s increasingly popular Connect product, which  
allows users to secure use their Facebook ID’s as logins across over  
4,000 sites (including ours), is a closed and proprietary system. But  
it is also very well designed - members from the Facebook Connect team  
have given several talks in the hopes of improving the OpenID effort,  
and are holding an event on the topic next week.

Facebook to provide OpenID support for users (and financial support  
for OpenID)
http://venturebeat.com/2009/02/05/facebook-to-offer-openid-support/
As at least one detractor in the industry has pointed out to me,  
though, this likely means that sites using OpenID also have to use  
Facebook Connect, the social network’s proprietary method for letting  
third parties access and display Facebook user data. A source close to  
Facebook retorted that “actions speak for themselves, and Facebook’s  
contributions to the successes and adoption of the OpenID protocols  
should soon illustrate that it’s about more than becoming a provider.”

Facebook Joins OpenID Foundation; So What?
http://mashable.com/2009/02/05/facebook-openid/
To be honest, I still have doubts. The Facebook Connect experience is  
simply better than that offered by OpenID, and from a competitive  
standpoint, Facebook has an opportunity to be the standard identity  
provider for other websites. While goodwill can created by joining the  
OpenID Foundation and sharing what the industry likes to call “best  
practices,” at this point, Facebook actually implementing OpenID would  
be a far bigger boon to OpenID than it would be to Facebook, and  
hence, I don’t see it happening any time soon.

 From f8 to OpenID
http://daveman692.livejournal.com/344657.html
Five months ago I joined Mark Zuckerberg on stage at Facebook f8  
during their announcement of Facebook Connect, where I demoed signing  
in to comment on a Movable Type blog using my Facebook account. Today,  
I get to join Mike Schroepfer, Chris Messina and my fellow board  
members in announcing that Facebook has become a board member of the  
OpenID Foundation.

Welcoming Facebook to the OpenID Foundation
http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2009/02/04/welcoming-facebook-to-the-openid-foundation/
I’m particularly excited that Facebook has joined after the  
conversation that Dave Morin and I had last Friday during our Jelly  
Talk. Dave and I were in vehement agreement about a lot of things, and  
tantamount was the need for the user experience of OpenID  
authentication to improve.

Open Stack FTW: Facebook joins the OpenID Foundation!
http://therealmccrea.com/2009/02/05/breaking-news-facebook-joins-openid-foundation/
This news will surprise (or even shock) many, but I see this as a  
natural and expected move. After all, Facebook has been getting more  
and more involved in the open community, attending the OpenID UX  
Summit last Fall and the Activity Streams meetup a few weeks ago. And  
Luke Shepard, from the Facebook Connect team, ran in the recent  
election for the OpenID Foundation Community Board. Luke will now be  
Facebook’s official representative to the foundation.

Facebook joins OpenID Board
http://www.identitywoman.net/facebook-joins-openid-board
The power and potential of OpenID was that ANYONE with a domain name  
could use it - now it seems more and more like just the big “brands”  
silo’s are making it work for them and well maybe if you are a super  
hacker you could do your own (but we won’t “trust” you). I am worried  
that the movement seems to be moving away from empowering everyone  
with a blog or even those without “blogs” establishing their own node  
in the the network.

Welcome Facebook
http://blog.broadbandmechanics.com/2009/02/welcome-facebook
Congrats to the board members of the OpenID Foundation for getting  
Facebook to join our party.  Now we get to see what their version of  
OpenID will look.

Facebook Is on the Board. And Now?
http://notsorelevant.com/2009-02-06/facebook-is-on-the-board-and-now/
Though what does it mean? Will Facebook accept OpenID logins? Will it  
rebuild Facebook Connect with OpenID baked in? Well, I don’t know.  
Neither Facebook’s nor the OpenID Foundation’s blog posts mention it.  
Rather they concentrate on user experience.