[OpenID] What election?

Eddy Nigg (StartCom Ltd.) eddy_nigg at startcom.org
Wed Dec 3 03:51:36 UTC 2008


On 12/03/2008 04:24 AM, DeWitt Clinton:
> But no matter what, please participate in the committees, join the 
> working groups, write the specifications, build the software, and 
> evangelise the technology.  Ultimately that is the most important 
> contribution of all.

And why don't you think that this is being done?

But what's the use anyway if the big providers operate in an every more 
closed fashion and don't extend the trust to other providers?

Having raised the security [*] and trust issue many times over, these 
days we witness more closed environments and implementations (by the big 
providers - with Facebook being just another example, the very corporate 
board members not much better) instead of the open web. By foolishly 
rejecting the idea of regulating the security and trust implications for 
the benefit of all providers and relying parties, we witness a 
domination of the big players which are going to make it out between 
themselves. Those who thought that regulation will limit their ability 
to operate their own provider are now on the loosing end. It's hard to 
identify the "Open" of OpenID. (Eric, Eran, Chris, Clinton, this is 
certainly a message I want you to drive home)

The result is that that we've got millions of OpenID accounts to be used 
on a handful of web sites. None of them can be used at the competitors 
site. The change.gov example so prominently displayed at openid.net 
represents sheer luck - not a strategy and sign of success. Besides that 
it doesn't work...

[*] Just imagine today's providers operating unsecured over plain text 
instead of SSL connections, but the original draft of 2.0 didn't even 
included a reference to HTTPS. At the last minute it made it into the 
specs as a recommendation. It's indeed hard to convince major web site 
operators to extend the trust to other providers if the most basic 
security practices can't be guarantied.
>
> Oh, and please do join the Foundation as a member, and please do vote 
> for those that you feel best represent what you want the OpenID 
> Foundation to become.
Bravo! You've just reached the same few hundred subscribers of this 
mailing list who already know about it - many already members, most 
already active in some form. One more "please" won't change a lot I 
guess! Allow me to ask, but is this really everything the combined 
powers of Google, IBM, Microsoft, Verisign and Yahoo! can put forward? 
Or does this reflect indeed a completly ineffective and incompetent 
leadership as some others suggested already? I'm amazed!


Regards
Signer: 	Eddy Nigg, StartCom Ltd. <http://www.startcom.org>
Jabber: 	startcom at startcom.org <xmpp:startcom at startcom.org>
Blog: 	Join the Revolution! <http://blog.startcom.org>
Phone: 	+1.213.341.0390

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