[OpenID] AX, hcard, microid

[Peter Williams]

If I step back for a moment and discuss generally, I think I've largely captured the practical state of the art in OpenID Auth 2.0. With that done, it allows me to concentrate on all the value-adds that distinguish the various OPs in the field. The wider eco-system of web2.5 identity management must surely now be the focus - an infrastructure that - to bootstrap - needed the agents of the openid framework (and their authenticated channels, more critically).

Seems pretty clear to me that AX is the crux technology. Everything thing beyond logon and account linking flows from its behavior. If I were to now build a SAML-AttributeQuery-to-AX-gateway (about a day's work with openid4java, I think) to allow Rapattoni AML2-enabled customers -- with about 1M members -- to share certain high-accuracy membership data with such as the Rapattoni/Trustbearer OP, there would seem to be 3 services std OP would be providing:

1. implement the directed identity and directed persona-release policies per the user's desires, when the user release (MLS-licensed) membership data to the n other websites that US Realtors may want to subscribe to

2. AX refresh by the backend attribute store would allow 1 or more OPs to maintain the Realtor's hcard page and the persona profiles, accurately. A simple transformation filter can generate FOAF on the fly, much as LiveJournal does.

3. Be the gateway to the XRI trusted proxy, allowing relying party consumer to indirectly determine from the XRI infrastructure the presence and involvement of "authoritative" naming authorities, when reliance required higher assurance in the openid verification.

All the other features offered by the more advanced OP seem to flow from having accurate data and the duty of enforcing the users personal controls on info release. The interesting tech set here seems to include: the microids (including linkup with jabber and presence protocols), the hosting of links, maintaining feedback on groups of links (ma.gnolia, ClaimID), RSS feeds of links to both microid-authenticated content and openid-authentication contacts (a la ClaimID) etc.
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