[OpenID board] Blog Post: 2008: Momentum

[David Recordon]

 From http://openid.net/2009/01/15/momentum/

--David

2008: Momentum
  OpenID 1/15/09 12:51 PM David Recordon News 2008 adoption community  
Comments


2008 was an awesome year for OpenID where the community created  
significant momentum moving toward mainstream adoption.  No, not every  
site on the web is using OpenID nor does every consumer know what  
OpenID does, but last year alone the number of sites that accept  
OpenID for sign in more than tripled1.  Today, there are over thirty- 
thousand publicly accessible sites supporting OpenID for sign in and  
well over half a billion OpenID enabled accounts.

AOL2, Google3, Microsoft4, mixi (the largest social network in Japan)5  
and Yahoo!6 have all shipped OpenID Provider implementations with  
nearly all of them supporting OpenID 2.0.
In addition to many of the independent OpenID Providers already  
supporting the ability to exchange profile data, Google added the  
ability to do so in a limited fashion with AOL7, mixi8 and Yahoo!9  
have all introduced it in a limited beta fashion.  This means that  
OpenID users signing into your site will easily be able to share  
information like their preferred username or email address if they  
wish to do so.
A number of major sites added support to sign in using OpenID  
including AOL’s MapQuest10, Google’s Blogger11, Microsoft’s Health  
Vault12, SourceForge13 as well as the commenting services TypePad  
Connect14 and Intense Debate (which in turn enabled Barack Obama’s  
Change.gov15).  Google Friend Connect also enabled any site to support  
OpenID sign in via JavaScript16 which thousands of sites have done.
Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign, and Yahoo! joined the board of the  
OpenID Foundation17 bringing additional insight, complementing the  
community board members and helping financially support the  
organization.
A Japanese chapter of the OpenID Foundation was formed in February18  
and has since added nearly forty-five member companies19; including  
merchants, portals, educational institutions, insurance companies,  
manufacturing companies, airlines and banks.
The BBC hosted twenty-six people from seventeen organizations in New  
York City to kick off an OpenID Content Provider Advisory Committee20  
meeting facilitated by JanRain and the OpenID Foundation.  Through the  
day specific questions by the content provider community (media  
companies and national affinity groups) were answered about OpenID and  
a discussion around how it could benefit the participants by  
supporting OpenID.
The OpenID Foundation helped push forward usability and user  
experience research and best practices, by hosting an OpenID user  
experience summit led largely by Yahoo! and Google.  The community  
plans to continue this work throughout 2009, with many individuals and  
companies participating.
Projects aimed squarely at open source developers like the Pinax  
platform which is built atop Django or the DiSo project atop WordPress  
and Movable Type integrated OpenID support as a core feature, making  
it even easier to build new social websites with support for OpenID  
sign in.  These of course join the likes of Ruby on Rails which  
already had an OpenID plugin used by sites like 37Signals.
The OpenID Provider Authentication Policy Extension was approved as a  
finalized OpenID specification21.  It enables Relying Parties to  
request that the Provider employ specified authentication policies  
such as that the Provider employ a phishing-resistant authentication  
method.
Multiple community driven projects looked at how OpenID usability and  
security could be improved by integrating OpenID with the web  
browser.  Coming into 2008, VeriSign had launched their OpenID  
SeatBelt plugin and Sxip launched Sxipper for FireFox and Flock.  In  
2008, not only did VeriSign22 and Vidoop23 add one-click sign in  
functionality to their OpenID Providers, but Flock, MySpace and Vidoop  
collaboratively launched a new project called Identity in the  
Browser24.  I also wrote my thoughts on Getting OpenID Into the  
Browser, talking about why an identity enabled web browser really  
should be built.
The first annual election of the OpenID Foundation’s community board  
members was held where one-hundred-and-seventy-five members voted  
resulting in the election of Brian Kissel, Chris Messina, David  
Recordon, Eric Sachs, Nat Sakimura, and Snorri Giorgetti25.
Indeed, the launch of Facebook Connect – a completely proprietary  
identity system for the web – in 2008 underscores the importance of  
open standards-based technologies like OpenID.  Certainly it provides  
clear motivation to the entire OpenID community to demonstrate the  
value of decentralization and interoperability with an additional  
emphasis on usability, security and consumer friendliness.

While Facebook Connect continues introducing consumers and companies  
to the idea of shared sign in and profile exchange, forward-looking  
social networks like MySpace are now building the same functionality  
atop OpenID, OAuth, OpenSocial and other non-proprietary  
technologies.  To their credit, Facebook continues to participate in  
an increasing number of meetups and events around OpenID.

Considering all that has been accomplished by the community since  
OpenID 1.0 first appeared on LiveJournal in 2005, in its short three- 
year history, OpenID has seen phenomenal adoption by individuals, the  
open source community, non-profits and companies. 2009 most certainly  
will see a continuation of that trend, especially as usability,  
consumer utility and pragmatic solutions become the focus.

Relying Party Stats as of Jan 1st, 2009
Why AOL Created 63 Million New OpenIDs
Google is Now an OpenID Provider
Windows Live Adds Support For OpenID, Calls It De Facto Login Standard
mixi Supports OpenID with the Simple Registration Extension
Yahoo Implements OpenID; Massive Win For The Project
AOL releases preview support for SREG
Mixi Brings Sophisticated OpenID to Millions of Japanese Users
Yahoo! OpenID limited testing for Simple Registration support
AOL’s MapQuest Integrates OpenID
Blogger Buzz: OpenID Commenting
Microsoft’s First Step In Accepting OpenID SignOns - HealthVault
SourceForge Allows OpenID Logins
TypePad Connects to Google, AOL, Yahoo! and more
Barack Obama’s Change.gov Adds OpenID
Google Friend Connect: now available
Evolving the Foundation Board
Supporting OpenID Communities Around the World
OpenID Japan Launches with 32 Member Companies
OpenID Content Provider Advisory Committee Kickoff Meeting
PAPE Approved as an OpenID Specification
Personal Identity Portal (PIP) - Learn More About PIP
What is the myVidoop Plugin?
Vidoop and MySpace Bring OpenID to Flock
OpenID Board Election Results

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