[OpenID] Fwd: [OpenID Foundation] New Poll Opened

[Martin Atkins]

Peter Williams wrote:
> 
> OpenID on the 
> other hand started peer/peer, and is rapidly heading into the TTP space 
> (where I suspect its founders wanted it all along).
> 

Your suspicions are incorrect.

Its "founders" (which I choose to understand as those who started the 
project, which started with Brad Fitzpatrick and fanned out to a number 
of others including myself) imagined it originally as a solution to the 
problem of allowing users of LiveJournal.com to leave comments on 
DeadJournal.com and vice-versa; that it ended up being a user-centric, 
decentralized system tis largely a symptom of the culture of the 
LiveJournal developers.

The original OpenID was designed to operate without SSL at all, with 
parties establishing associations on the fly with no verification, and 
it remains that way today on LiveJournal.com. Some folks wanted the 
benefits that SSL brings, and that's fine... no-one's forcing you to use 
SSL right now. I fought SSL being a requirement for OpenID 2.0 and I 
will continue to fight it as I believe it should be up to each party to 
decide whether it needs the benefits SSL provides.