[OpenID] A Case for OpenEmailID

[Dick Hardt]

On 4-May-09, at 1:15 PM, Martin Atkins wrote:

> David Recordon wrote:
>> As for OP portability (aka delegation), I think this is a property  
>> that must remain for URLs though is less important for email  
>> addresses.  With URLs you can delegate on the URL basis ignoring  
>> the domain or path.  With email addresses, I think it's alright to  
>> have one OpenID Provider for the entire domain instead of  
>> optimizing for the case of each user at the domain having their own  
>> Provider.
>
> It would be a shame to lose the ability to delegate if you switch to  
> email addresses. The main use-case for delegation was folks with  
> vanity domains, and people have vanity domains for email too. I  
> don't want to have to run my own OP just to make mart at degeneration.co.uk 
>  work as an OpenID identifier.
>
> Is there some reason why the delegation approach doesn't work for  
> email too? It seems like all that needs to change for email is how  
> you find the information, not what information is found.

Would allowing a vanity domain delegate it's OP support to another  
host work?