The problem with OpenID (TAKE 3) How to become Linus Torvalds

[Phillip Hallam-Baker]

You have the chronology wrong. Linus started work on Linux round about
the time the Web was being put together. I remember some rather testy
comments from Tennebaum round '92 (he thought Linus should look at a
microkernel which were fashionable at the time).

By 1994 it was already clear that Linux was a clear contender to
become the main Open Source operating system. I remember talking to
RMS on my way back from the first Web conference and realizing that
the GNU HURD was vaporware and concluding that Linux or NetBSD was
almost certain to win that race.

Linus did not join Transmeta till much later, after Linux was already
an industry force. Transmeta wanted to advertise their new chip and
hiring Linus to continue work on Linux was a good way to do that.

The situation here is very different. We have a lot of companies and
people whose main interest is publicity for solving the problem of
'identity'. And some people are even making the somewhat peculiar
argument that we should first decide what Identity is and then try to
solve it. Which is a sign of how far wrong we are.

I don't think that we really need a single named champion to succeed
here. Suggesting we go that route is only going to make matters worse,
not better. What is the incentive for people to participate if they
are going to see their bad ideas shot down and someone else takes
credit for the good ones?

That is not how the Web or Linux were put together. The Web and Linux
were possible because Tim and Linus were the type of people who shared
the credit. In Tim's case he almost shared too much and a certain
individual apparently decided to step in and take all the credit
instead. I have a somewhat hilarious book written by his PR agency
which purports to biography the architects of the Web but doesn't have
a chapter on Tim at all.


My view is that we should stop talking about 'identity' all together.
We should instead define the range of problems we want to solve as use
cases and go solve them. Identity is too much of an abstraction, it
can stand for anything.


On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 10:38 AM, Santosh Rajan <santrajan at gmail.com> wrote:
> First of all let me humbly post a link to a very interesting article I have
> seen recently.
> I will give you the link to the article posted below. Before you read the
> article, please do give me my 0.02 cents.
> As far as my knowledge goes "Linus" was working for a company called
> "Transmeta". I have no idea what happened to "Transmeta". Please don't tell
> me that today he is working for one of the following companies. (Google,
> Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft etc etc).
> You know why? Because this is what the OpenID board  is made of. Atleast the
> majority of the board members work for the BIG GUYS i have shown you in the
> brackets.
> Now are you surprised that according to "David Recordon" we haven';t had a
> new spec since 2007?
>
>
> http://www.h-online.com/open/features/How-to-Become-Linus-Torvalds-999542.html
> --
> http://hi.im/santosh
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> specs mailing list
> specs at lists.openid.net
> http://lists.openid.net/mailman/listinfo/openid-specs
>
>



-- 
Website: http://hallambaker.com/