[OpenID board] BOARD VOTE: Motion to update Rails plugin andOpenID.net ...

Eddy Nigg (StartCom Ltd.) eddy_nigg at startcom.org
Thu Dec 18 18:15:27 UTC 2008


Yes, I agree with you in general. If one of the missions of OpenID are 
to find a better way and easier to use user interface than this should 
be tackled accordingly within the existing framework. This should 
include R&D and its targets should be defined, funds allocated etc. and 
is a noble goal - go for it!

If the result of said effort will be usable for the foundation depends 
on its vendor neutrality - perhaps the mission itself could strive for 
vendor neutrality/implement-ability as well, then it could be 
implemented here. However, OIDF is for foundation members, those aren't 
the masses and ultimate target perhaps, but those who know about OpenID, 
hackers, spec writers, fans and whoever else. I'm certain that we can 
handle it the way it worked up to the middle of the election.

On 12/18/2008 07:58 PM, Brian Kissel:
>
> I’m not insisting on anything.  What I am questioning is whether we 
> can find a way, any way, to make the UX on OIDF more intuitive.  If 
> Google, Yahoo, AOL, Verisign, Vidoop, or the OIDF membership community 
> can come up with a more intuitive way to log into our website, I think 
> that’s a win and we should consider those options.  For those who 
> haven’t talked to hundreds of mainstream RPs (not blogging sites with 
> tech savvy users), typing in a URL is not intuitive for the masses.  
> Maybe someday it will be, but today it isn’t – period.  So it’s all 
> well and good to be “neutral” but if we want to drive adoption and 
> usage, we need to respond to what the market wants, or at least offer 
> them options that are more compelling than what they’ve told us so far 
> is clearly not.
>
> When we talked with the former ED of the Bluetooth SIG, he gave an 
> example about demonstrating Bluetooth for press and analysts.   The 
> initial demos he gave were using a Toshiba laptop and mouse because 
> Toshiba was one of the founding members of the SIG.  But the user 
> experience at that time was pretty bad with Toshiba, so it didn’t 
> serve the purpose of getting press and analysts excited about the 
> reliability and ease of use of Bluetooth.  He then switched to doing 
> demos with an Apple laptop and mouse (even though Apple wasn’t yet a 
> member of the SIG), and the demos were a smashing success and resulted 
> in much more favorable press and analysts coverage.
>
> All I’m saying is that we can’t be dogmatic, we need to think about 
> what our mission is, then make sure we’ve evaluated the best ways to 
> achieve our mission.  If we can drive adoption and usage equally well 
> with a “neutral” approach to everything we do on our website, with 
> press & analysts, etc. that’s great.  But I think we’ll find over time 
> that we need to be pragmatic and make tradeoffs.  We recently moved 
> our wiki to PB Wiki which is provided by a vendor, presumably because 
> it gave us the functionality we needed at a reasonable cost.  We 
> didn’t write our own wiki software.  Many of the committees are using 
> Google docs for collaboration, and that’s OK.
>
> We have a lot of creative members of the OIDF, why don’t we ask them 
> how to improve the UX of the OIDF website login in a way that will be 
> intuitive for the masses that we ultimately hope to serve?  If we’re 
> going to spend $2K, I’d advocate spending it on implementing that UX.
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> Brian
>
> *==============*
>
> *Brian Kissel*
>
> *Cell: 503.866.4424*
>
> *Fax: 503.296.5502*
>
> *From:* board-bounces at openid.net [mailto:board-bounces at openid.net] *On 
> Behalf Of *Eddy Nigg (StartCom Ltd.)
> *Sent:* Thursday, December 18, 2008 9:15 AM
> *To:* board at openid.net
> *Subject:* Re: [OpenID board] BOARD VOTE: Motion to update Rails 
> plugin andOpenID.net ...
>
> On 12/18/2008 06:59 PM, Brian Kissel:
>
> Agreed there is no consensus on the UX for OpenID ;-)  Not sure there 
> ever will be.  And to be clear, I was not requesting nor advocating 
> paying anything to JanRain, only offering that we could do that for 
> free if requested.  Seems like the simplest, quickest, cheapest thing 
> would be to have Refresh Media put the text box on the front of RPX.  
> If AOL were willing to modify their UX at MapQuest to include the top 
> X (10, 15, 20?) commercial OPs, would that be a better UX?
>
>
> Nooooo! Why are you insisting on it? We want an OpenID *vendor 
> neutral* interface. I really don't understand, is this a promotional 
> circus for commercial providers or is this the OpenID Foundation? My 
> provider would be most likely within the top ten or twenty, this isn't 
> the point, it's about what a foundation is and represents.
>
> 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:
>
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>
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>
>
>
>
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