[OpenID] OpenID required

[Del Dhanoa]

I agree with Simon -- there is too high a barrier for the "average Joe" to adopt Openid.  Openid needs a slicker marketing strategy that explains what it does to the average user -- make that the below average user -- in a clean and concise method.  

I remember reading a 2000+ word story about Bob, Jane and her evil sister Sally where the author tries to explain Openid to the average user.  He lost me after the 2nd paragraph and I felt like I had another 20 pages to wade through.  (No offense to the guy/gal who wrote that article).

Openid sounds great but it has a huge obstacle for the general public.  Friends, stop thinking like webdevs and start thinking like an innocent 10 year old boy or a 65 year old grandmother -- people who are still just beginning to understand the intarw3b.  Once Openid is understood by their level (not meant in a deragatory way) then adoption will become a lot easier.

- Del



Simon Willison <simon at simonwillison.net> wrote: On 15 Oct 2007, at 09:25, Nick Cernis | Goburo wrote:
> Shortly we'll be releasing our first OpenID-enabled web app into  
> the wild, and are currently considering making it a condition at  
> signup that an OpenID is required. There would be no alternative  
> sign up method - get an OpenID or do not pass go. Is it a good idea  
> championing OpenID in this way, or do people here consider it  
> commercial suicide given OpenID's fairly narrow (but rapidly  
> growing) uptake? My assumption is that one day OpenID will be a  
> replacement for traditional sign-up methods - why not start the  
> revolution now and give it a further kick-start?

I've been recommending people don't do this, because the overhead of  
understanding OpenID is currently still a big barrier to adoption for  
mainstream users. In my opinion, best practice for embracing OpenID  
is to provide it as an optional alternative to setting a username and  
password, and to use sreg to help pre-populate your site's signup form.

I also don't believe that OpenID should be thought of as an either-or  
proposition - an OpenID is just another credential that can be used  
to sign in to a service (kind of like having multiple passwords in  
case you forget one of them).

zooomr.com forced OpenID instead of regular signups for quite a  
while, but they've now switched back to offering both: http:// 
www.zooomr.com/login/

http://ma.gnolia.com/ remains my favourite example of a well-designed  
OpenID consumer.

Hope that helps,

Simon Willison
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