[OpenID] human-memorable namespaces (was RE: Identity concepts explained by cartoon ducks)

Martin Atkins mart at degeneration.co.uk
Sat Jan 6 11:56:56 UTC 2007


Drummond Reed wrote:
> 
> With regards to English language names, for example, we talk about this as
> the "John Smith" problem. There are probably at least 100K people with the
> name "John Smith". With a single logical segment you could have only two
> i-names:
> 
> 	=john
> 	=smith
> 
> With up to two logical segments, you can have up to four -- the two above
> plus:
> 
> 	=john.smith
> 	=smith.john
> 
> But with three logical segments, you not only can expand the size of the
> semantically-meaningful namespace to include all middle names...
> 
> 	=john.alford.smith
> 	=john.buford.smith
> 	=john.carson.smith
> 
> ...etc., but when you run out of middle names (or don't have one, or don't
> want to use one), you can add any memorable word in the English language to
> create an semantically meaningful name:
> 
> 	=john.smith.montana
> 	=montana.john.smith
> 	=john.smith.boston
> 	=john.smith.boston
> 	=boston.john.smith
> 	=john.smith.red
> 	=red.john.smith
> 	=john.smith.mustang
> 	=mustang.john.smith
> 

But once a large number of these are in use, and I have some friends who 
use =firstname.surname, some that use =surname.firstname and some that 
use just =nickname, it's still going to be like remembering whether 
cordance has a .net domain or a .com domain, or whether some-uk-company 
has a .com or a .co.uk.




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