[OpenID] Advice on OpenID reachout and PR in scientific community?

[Gudmundur A. Thorisson]

Hi all. I need to ask a question or two regarding OpenID reachout  
efforts. The backdrop to this is that OpenID is gradually gaining  
interest in scientific circles as a way to uniquely identify  
researchers and link together their various contributions beyond  
publications in traditional journals (think blogs, comments on papers,  
database submissions, curation etc.). This recent paper is perhaps the  
most comprehensive suggestion in  this regard (some people on this  
list may be aware this paper already):

[1] Bourne PE, Fink JL 2008 I Am Not a Scientist, I Am a Number. PLoS  
Computational Biology 4(12): http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000247

My own interest in OpenID stems from the fact that I and some  
collaborators are working  on several related projects which involve  
raising awareness of the researcher identity problem in the scientific  
community, as well as investigating potential solutions. Clearly  
OpenID and related protocols like OAuth are set to play a key role in  
this regard.

So, couple of things I want to bring up. Firstly, general comments/ 
insights on the above would be appreciated, especially if anybody on  
the list is involved in science and is interested in (not to mention  
actively working on) the topic.
Secondly, I am looking for a person involved with OpenID outreach (or  
something along those lines) to invite to a meeting in Europe to  
present  (to a non-geek audience of scientists) OpenID/OAuth, its  
relevance to social-networking and the overall 'big picture' of why  
OpenID is a Good Thing. Any advice on who may be suitable, or indeed  
an outreach-enthusiast on this list who is interested?  I've seen some  
slides from Simon Willison and  David Recordon (who are on this list  
probably..) on slideshare.net, to name somebody.


Thanks in advance for any comments/advice!  Best regards,


                    Mummi, Leicester

-----------------------------------------------------------
  Gudmundur A. Thorisson
  Department of Genetics
  University of Leicester
  University Road
  Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
  E-mail: gthorisson at gmail.com
  Tel: +44 (0)116 229 7273