[OpenID] Thinking About OpenID.com

[Peter Williams]

I think any discussion of how to evangelize OpenID to the general  
public also requires the foundation to clearly articulate the value of  
being a relying party, otherwise we risk stalled growth when users  
finally decide to get an OpenID, but have nowhere to use it. JanRain  
claims 8,000 relying parties, but I've seen little justification for  
that number; OpenIDDirectory.com lists about 530 or so OpenID-related  
sites, and 60 or so of them are identity providers. Demonstrating  
value to potential relaying parties also requires showing, in no  
uncertain terms, just how many people already use it.


I'll leave aside the risk/trust issues germane to any commercial RP's decision to accept a UCI openid.

For now, its simply fact - having checked them myself since getting an OP up and running - that

1. the openid directory is mostly full of rubbish

2. high-grade technical OP-RP-OP inteworking with even the best (commercial grade) spokes is hard. Things work one day, not the next; RPs work with one high-grade OP, but not the next.

Ill add 3 opinions (subject to challenge)

a. if the browser has a form-filling plugin, the user experience is reasonable. At the same time, the my form filler is sending also an RSA OTP value computed on the fly and sent directly to the SP by the form filler, allowing the SP to choose between the RSA GOID and the openid websso protocol. The RSA has an advantage - in that the OTP scheme also does server auth. So, we have to be careful. Form filling is really not the answer: it just induces plugin proliferation.

b. Openids are where LiveJournal's FOAF files are. There are millions and millions and millions of them, all essentially UNused.

c the stats quoted by our various evangelists are getting us into corporate trouble, as they are undermining confidence in the validity of claims.
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