[OpenID] OpenID; a single choice

[tom]

I too would have booed you down (but in a nice way;)

I would like to address two core issues that I believe the OpenID 
foundation should pursue; that of "specifications" and "guidelines".

W3C does a great job with both. They have an HTML specification to which 
you can write HTML and verify against and they have accessibility 
guidelines which contain "recommendations" for good practise of which 
are not enforced.

OpenID is doing a fantastic job on specifications however it is (or some 
in the community are) hiding behind statements such as "It's all up to 
the website." [see reply to my original post by Stephen Gigante for 
source].  Well it is, but without the OpenID foundation setting down 
clear guidelines we have, in this case "button anarchy" which negatively 
affects OpenID.

Here is a blog from Sebastian with a few simple steps as too how to get 
your Yahoo OpenID url: 
http://www.barnraiser.org/index.php?wp=blog&blog_id=43 - Note the 
simplicity for which I applaud Yahoo!

I would prefer that "web sites" advocate the Yahoo user go through this 
simple procedure and remember their URi as supposed to a web site adding 
a button. I would also like that the web site follow this procedure for 
any OP and I would like this written in the form of a guideline which 
effectively give "web developers" a "hint" as too the policy direction 
they should adopt.

Thoughts?

[side note]
I am against any federated network as I firmly believe that people 
should be able to obtain their own URL and use that as their OpenID 
using software that remains under their full control.
[/side note]





Eddy Nigg (StartCom Ltd.) wrote:
> tom:
>> Is it only me that has an 
>> issue with this given that before long pages will be covered with many 
>> logos and that I'll end up having to search for the OpenID logo?
>>
>> I appreciate the "open" aspects of OpenID, but for the user would it not 
>> be better to have the browser manufacturers agree on a way to store an 
>> OpenID and auto-direct to my OP rather than giving the user a zillion 
>> logos on a screen?
>>   
> This has been anticipated and was obvious (even by design). OpenID has 
> refused to address the issues of a trust point or federated network of 
> OpenID operators and this is the result. There are and will be many 
> sites which will trust only their own or a very narrow choice of 
> OpenID providers.
>
> When making these suggestions more then 1 1/2 years ago I was booed 
> down....something about "taking away the freedom to operate randomly 
> OPs" was mentioned many times. Well, you can blame these idiots today 
> for refusing to address this issue, because, yeah...their freedom is 
> going to be taken away by reality now,  and not by providing and 
> organizing a framework which would have allow RPs to trust OPs 
> according to agreed rules and accepted standards. In a federated 
> network of OPs and some established criteria everybody could trust 
> anybody....
>
> -- 
> 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:  	+1.213.341.0390
>  
>


-- 
Tom Calthrop
Founding director, Barnraiser.

Dedicated to giving people the tools they need to share 
knowledge and advance society through social software.

Web site: http://www.barnraiser.org/
OpenID: http://tom.calthrop.info/