[OpenID] Shade's questions - Vision/Hope for OpenID

[Eran Hammer-Lahav]

I believe I have indirectly addressed most of the vision parts of your question. If not, please let me know and I will do my best to make it clear.

I was not part of the conversation when the foundation was created but I did sit at the table when the Open Web Foundation and OpenSocial foundations were created and played a role in both efforts. It is inaccurate to portrait companies as "paid their way instead" as the driving force behind the creation of such foundation is usually legal (intellectual property and antitrust).

The OpenID community wants company X to adopt OpenID and ship products using it. Company X wants to make sure that the IP is clean and that it will not get sued by the people who wrote the specification. They also want to make sure they have a say in how future versions of the spec will be decided so that they investment in the technology will not produce unexpected results. So far this is all very reasonable.

So company X suggests a model in which IP is managed and consensus is accomplished in some predictable manner in which they have some influence, but more importantly, their competitors don't have more influence. In return for such risk-control, company X is willing to pay a large amount to help fund other activities of value to the community at large.

The real power within the OpenID foundation isn't at the board level, but at the community level. It is at the hands of those willing to get actual work done in spec writing, implementations, and evangelism. So the whole idea of "lobbying" is misguided here.

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But to the more interesting part:

> From: general-bounces at openid.net [mailto:general-bounces at openid.net]
> On Behalf Of SitG Admin
> Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2008 5:19 PM
>
> Full disclosure: I don't have a vote, so candidates don't stand to
> lose/gain MY vote regardless of how they answer (or ignore) these
> questions.

Why is that??

This is not just a criticism, but an actual question of why someone like you who has been one of the most vocal participants on the OpenID lists has decided not to join the foundation as a member and vote?

EHL