[OpenID] Don't you think digital identity URIs should have a specific TLD ?

seb20 seb.deuxzero at googlemail.com
Fri Dec 22 10:09:52 PST 2006


Hi all,

I'm new to OpenID, and I would like to have your feedback on this  
post I wrote on my blog (I'm french, but I translated it in english  
just for you ;-))

It's about why OpenID should be allocated a specific TLD, to avoid  
the high dependency on the digital identity provider domain name.

http://www.egomedium.net/index.php/2006/12/22/46-why-openid-need-a- 
specific-tld

The post is quite long, but in short it says:

The current implementations of OpenID proposes to create a unique  
URI, hosted under the domain of the service implementing the  
specification. The user's URI could look like getopenid.com/johndoe  
or johndoe.pip.verisignlabs.com.

(...) the service you are trusting to manage your identities must be  
reliable, because if it closes or shutdown all the websites users  
will have subscribed to using OpenID won't be able to identify them  
anymore, and users wil have to identify themselves again by providing  
a new URI (without mentioning the loss of the personal data!)

An easy way to workaround that would be to request from the ICANN an  
other TLD specifically for digital identities, managed by regular  
registars; users could buy the domain of their choice (just like they  
buy a .com or .org). (...)  URIs could be more detailled like  
"345.johndoe.ego", or anything to make it unique;  (...)


You are more than welcome to post comments on my blog and to discuss  
it in this thread !

Thank you for your feed-back ,
Sebastien 


More information about the general mailing list