[OpenID board] Perceptions of OpenID

[Chris Messina]

Ok.
So let me repeat back my takeaway: the foundation can not, will not, and
should not endorse any particular OpenID user experience. However, it can
support, patronize, solicit and otherwise help promote user experience work
that might bring about recommendations, guidelines or actual interfaces.

Similarly, the foundation might go about paying a firm to develop a
marketing plan, but can not say how OpenID should be used. Only that it
should be used. For things. ?

I guess I'm a little confused here. I'm fine with setting up boundaries for
what the foundation can and can't do... and I'm thinking that perhaps I just
need to chair a non-foundation committee that works on OpenID UX, because,
in fact, I DO want to come up with explicit recommendations and best
practices that tell people PRECISELY how to implement OpenID on their
websites and in their applications.

I was trained as a designer and have worked in open source for the last five
years (I'm a baby still, I know), but I know that open source tends to do
really poorly when it comes to usable, consumer-friendly design. While
there's a little "government competing with private enterprise" here, we
MUST provide direction for people about how to make OpenID usable, and can
not merely rely on the private sector to sort this out (since they've not
provided solid recommendations yet!). I don't think that the foundation
should provide its own OpenID provider, for example, but insomuch as people
are going to come to us looking for advice on how to make OpenID work for
them (including making it comprehensible by mere mortals), we have to change
our approach and give them something they can use.

So, maybe this work happens outside the walls of the foundation... but I'm
going to need folks more familiar with the bylaws to explain to me how to go
about this work above the pale... I'm not interested in stepping on toes,
but the current allergy to OpenID UX work from the foundation has to be
overcome.

Chris



On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 9:05 AM, David Recordon <drecordon at sixapart.com>wrote:

> Building on this (since I agree with Dick), it is however part of the
> Foundation's job to help facilitate the community determining the right UX
> where it can.  Thus hosting meetings, helping with research, etc are all
> things the Foundation can and should be doing.
> --David
>
> On Jan 5, 2009, at 10:45 AM, Dick Hardt wrote:
>
> Hi Chris
>
> I'm breaking it down along types of work.
>
> I do think it is the Foundation's job to do the marketing. It is in the
> charter.
> It is NOT the Foundation's job to determine the right UX -- which is why
> including the JanRain code on the Foundation website was so controversial
> (IMHO).
>
> The Foundation charter clearly states that the Foundation does NOT set the
> technical direction of OpenID.  I wanted to clarify this point in case you
> and other board members were not familiar with it.
>
> -- Dick
>
> On 4-Jan-09, at 5:37 PM, Chris Messina wrote:
>
> It seems like you're breaking things down along the lines of "what"
> comprises OpenID and "how" it advances in the marketplace -- or at least
> that's how I'm interpreting your statement.
> Unfortunately marketing a shitty product won't get us very far, so I'd say
> that UX is just as primary as marketing. It might not be up to the board to
> "do" the UX work, but nor is it the board's job to "do" the marketing.
>
> Facilitate both, certainly -- and given where we are -- I'd say with equal
> vigor.
>
> Chris
>
> On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 3:31 PM, Dick Hardt <dick.hardt at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Chris, your comments bring up an important scope issue: I would consider
>> user experience to be a technical issue, and if so, not an issue for the
>> board to determine -- but an area for the board to facilitate activity.
>>
>> Marketing of OpenID is clearly within the the scope of the board.
>>
>> -- Dick
>>
>> On 4-Jan-09, at 3:54 PM, chris.messina at gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>  Absolutely. As aboard member, id love for my two areas to be user
>>> experience Nd marketing!
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> board at openid.net
>> http://openid.net/mailman/listinfo/board
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Chris Messina
> Citizen-Participant &
>  Open Web Advocate-at-Large
>
> factoryjoe.com # diso-project.org
> citizenagency.com # vidoop.com
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>


-- 
Chris Messina
Citizen-Participant &
 Open Web Advocate-at-Large

factoryjoe.com # diso-project.org
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