I agree with Simon -- there is too high a barrier for the "average Joe" to adopt Openid. Openid needs a slicker marketing strategy that explains what it does to the average user -- make that the below average user -- in a clean and concise method. <br><br>I remember reading a 2000+ word story about Bob, Jane and her evil sister Sally where the author tries to explain Openid to the average user. He lost me after the 2nd paragraph and I felt like I had another 20 pages to wade through. (No offense to the guy/gal who wrote that article).<br><br>Openid sounds great but it has a huge obstacle for the general public. Friends, stop thinking like webdevs and start thinking like an innocent 10 year old boy or a 65 year old grandmother -- people who are still just beginning to understand the intarw3b. Once Openid is understood by their level (not meant in a deragatory way) then adoption will become a lot easier.<br><br>-
Del<br><br><br><br><b><i>Simon Willison <simon@simonwillison.net></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> On 15 Oct 2007, at 09:25, Nick Cernis | Goburo wrote:<br>> Shortly we'll be releasing our first OpenID-enabled web app into <br>> the wild, and are currently considering making it a condition at <br>> signup that an OpenID is required. There would be no alternative <br>> sign up method - get an OpenID or do not pass go. Is it a good idea <br>> championing OpenID in this way, or do people here consider it <br>> commercial suicide given OpenID's fairly narrow (but rapidly <br>> growing) uptake? My assumption is that one day OpenID will be a <br>> replacement for traditional sign-up methods - why not start the <br>> revolution now and give it a further kick-start?<br><br>I've been recommending people don't do this, because the overhead of
<br>understanding OpenID is currently still a big barrier to adoption for <br>mainstream users. In my opinion, best practice for embracing OpenID <br>is to provide it as an optional alternative to setting a username and <br>password, and to use sreg to help pre-populate your site's signup form.<br><br>I also don't believe that OpenID should be thought of as an either-or <br>proposition - an OpenID is just another credential that can be used <br>to sign in to a service (kind of like having multiple passwords in <br>case you forget one of them).<br><br>zooomr.com forced OpenID instead of regular signups for quite a <br>while, but they've now switched back to offering both: http:// <br>www.zooomr.com/login/<br><br>http://ma.gnolia.com/ remains my favourite example of a well-designed <br>OpenID consumer.<br><br>Hope that helps,<br><br>Simon Willison<br>_______________________________________________<br>general mailing
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