<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV>Hi Bob, </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Thanks for your reply, and sorry for the delay (christmas season :-) Please see my comments bellow.: </DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On 27 Dec 2006, at 21:12, Bob Wyman wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">On 12/22/06, <B class="gmail_sendername">seb20</B> <<A href="mailto:seb.deuxzero@googlemail.com">seb.deuxzero@googlemail.com</A>> wrote:<BR>> I'm new to OpenID, and I would like to have your feedback on this<BR> > post I wrote on my blog<BR><BR>One of the important goals in this effort is to make identity as easy as possible. I think your proposal would make things harder for everyone -- even though it is something that initially sounds quite reasonable. The problem is that over the years we've learned that even things that sound "reasonable" can be fraught with problems that appear in practical use. If identity URLs were to be assigned only under some new ICANN created domain, then we would have a number of very serious problems to deal with: <BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><UL><LI>It isn't certain that ICANN would, in fact, create the new domain.</LI><LI>Internationalization is an issue. ".ego" might make sense for a number of languages, but we would probably see folk in some countries insist that an "identity" domain be established to "sound" like something in their language. This would eliminate the value of a single top-level domain.<BR></LI></UL></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>When you think about all the current TLD (org, com, edu, etc...) they all refer to the latin language (organization, commerce, education, ...). 'ego' means 'I am' in latin. Of course, we could use 'id' (current TLD for Indonesia)... TLD is full of meaning, even if it does not mean anything; but we tend to think that a .org domain will be used by a non profitable organization, that .com domain will be used by a commercial website. 'ego' or 'id' domains would just mean that this url is not a domain address, but an identity address. </DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><UL><LI> </LI><LI>Even if ICANN did create the domain, it wouldn't happen for a long time. ICANN is not known to move fast...</LI></UL></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>So we must start to lobby now ;-) </DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><UL><LI>We wouldn't know for some time what the process would be for assigning identities under the domain. </LI><LI>Just as we have "competition" for subdomain names now, we would have yet-another-namespace to fight over. I have "<A href="http://wyman.us">wyman.us</A>" today. How likely am I to be able to get " wyman.ego" assigned to me? (Not likely... I would probably end up with something truly ugly like "wyman0233.ego"...)</LI></UL></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>In France, the .fr TLD is strictly assigned to the people who are the most legitimate; for example, I will have difficulties to buy someone else's name domain. It's the local ICANN contact who is in charge of checking this. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>To make it less complex to manage, the digital identity urls should not match only the names, but should refer to other things like your company, your district, etc... (which means we could have several digital identity urls): sebastien.sacard.microsoft.ego, sebastien.sacard.ca.usa.ego, etc... </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>These digital identities urls should be allocated by legal authorities, or private companies (where you work, your bank: exactly like today where they issue a credit card or a badge with your name on it). </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><UL><LI>The current system allows anyone to create an identity URL and it allows anyone to create as many as they might like. Thus, I can easily create an identity for my daughter under the <A href="http://wyman.us">wyman.us</A> domain without needing anyone's permission and without paying anyone for the privilege. This freedom to create identities would be lost to some number of centralized "identity domain brokers" if we relied on special ICANN allocated domains. That would not be good. <BR></LI></UL></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV>Not necessarely: even if the domain is specific, any registrar could do it and we would have so many identity domains brokers that we could find some who would do it for free. And as proposed bellow, it could be legal authorities to provide these urls, automatically when you are born, or when you join a company, or join a club, etc... </DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><UL><LI></LI><LI>The more namespaces are associated with each user, the more confusing naming and using names becomes. It's hard enough for folk to remember that "<A href="http://wyman.us">wyman.us</A>" is my domain (not " <A href="http://bobwyman.com">bobwyman.com</A>" or "<A href="http://wyman.com">wyman.com</A>"). It would be very hard for people remember the association between "<A href="http://wyman.us">wyman.us</A> " and "wyman.ego". (Does wyman.ego go with <A href="http://wyman.us">wyman.us</A> or with <A href="http://wyman.com?">wyman.com?</A>) It would be harder to remember the connection between "<A href="http://wyman.us"> wyman.us</A>" and "wyman0233.ego".<BR></LI></UL></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV>Digital identities are not meant to be used by others, but by yourself - most of the time, your digital identity url will be attached to your mail, displayed on your website, etc. Basically on any document you need to be identified. Just like your email address. </DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><UL><LI> </LI><LI>Creating a subdomain under ".ego" would probably require paying money to someone. This incremental expense would be a significant burden to quite a few users who either don't have the funds or don't have the mechanisms to pay ( i.e. they would inevitably need credit cards. Not everyone who needs an identity has a credit card.)</LI></UL></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV>I hope not - digital identities urls should be provided by legal authorities, or companies. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">I'm sure there are other considerations. But, keep thinking of ideas in this space. There is still much room for new ideas and creativity. <BR></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I will, thank you !</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BR>bob wyman<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>