[OpenID] Update on recent discussions, thinking, preliminary activities

Recordon, David drecordon at verisign.com
Mon Feb 5 18:40:44 UTC 2007


OpenID's growing popularity over the past few months bring two pain
points to light:

1) A clear home for the intellectual property, trademark, and
infrastructure (hosting, legal, marketing).
2) A good open way for people to organize joint marketing efforts for
OpenID.

Hosting is largely resolved through the generous support of the OSU Open
Source Labs.  The vendors in the bounty program have also worked
together on presentations, articles, and community conference calls
every few weeks, though it is however evident that we need to organize
for a broader effort. Amsoft, Cordance, JanRain, NetMesh, ooTao,
Opinity, Six Apart, Sxip and VeriSign started working on these issues
recently looking for possible solutions. 

We propose forming an OpenID Foundation (US 501(c)3 non-profit) as a
very good way to proceed.  This approach would provide:
1) One home for all the IPR.
2) A formal way to engage lawyers and other services on behalf of the
OpenID community.
3) A mechanism to provide and maintain hosting infrastructure for the
OpenID community.
4) The ability to do inclusive joint marketing efforts in collaboration
with the wide OpenID community.
The idea is to formally commit to doing everything with the support of
this community and we very much want your feedback.

Attached is a draft of the charter for the OpenID Foundation.  We hope
the charter expresses the vision and purpose of the OIDF, along with the
responsibilities, governance, and management in a clear, cohesive
fashion.  Next is developing the bylaws and working with a legal firm in
Portland, OR which has previously guided the legal formation of the OSDL
and Wi-Max Forum.

>From these companies in the OpenID community, the following individuals
have agreed to serve as the initial board for the foundation:
* Artur Bergman (Six Apart, abergman at sixapart.com, San Francisco CA USA)
* David Recordon (VeriSign, drecordon at verisign.com, San Francisco CA
USA)
* Dick Hardt (Sxip Identity, dick at sxip.com, Vancouver BC Canada)
* Drummond Reed (Cordance, drummond.reed at cordance.net, Seattle WA USA)
* Johannes Ernst (NetMesh, jernst at netmesh.us, Sunnyvale CA USA)
* Martin Atkins (independent, mart at degeneration.co.uk, Essex England UK)
* Scott Kveton (JanRain, scott at janrain.com, Portland OR USA)
Bill Washburn has also graciously agreed to help us through this process
due to his vast experience with organizations like this in the past.

We feel certain these individuals understand OpenID's roots, well
represent the various integral parts of the larger OpenID community,
share a strong vision for moving OpenID forward, and will serve with
integrity as individuals while transparently representing the needs and
values of their respective companies.

So, before we go any further, we want to bring you up to date and make
sure that:
1) We're on a good track.
2) This organization will actually be useful and productive.
3) We're doing this with sufficient clarity and in a transparent
fashion.

Please also feel free to ask questions, I'm sure there are things we've
missed that we've either not thought about or have just forgotten to
write down.

--David
--Artur
--Bill
--Dick
--Drummond
--Johannes
--Martin
--Scott
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