Ouch... another OpenID provider goes down — and this one even sold people their own domain names...<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/25/freeyourid-gives-up-on-trying-to-monetize-openid/">http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/25/freeyourid-gives-up-on-trying-to-monetize-openid/</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>This is particularly interesting given a recent conversation about Author IDs in the academics community, where Geoff Bilder pointed out that people don't "own" domains — they lease them, citing that as an argument against OpenID:</div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://network.nature.com/people/mfenner/blog/2009/02/17/interview-with-geoffrey-bilder">http://network.nature.com/people/mfenner/blog/2009/02/17/interview-with-geoffrey-bilder</a></div><div><a href="http://themindwobbles.wordpress.com/2009/08/22/breakout-3-author-identity-creating-a-new-kind-of-reputation-online/">http://themindwobbles.wordpress.com/2009/08/22/breakout-3-author-identity-creating-a-new-kind-of-reputation-online/</a><br clear="all">
<br></div><div>Perhaps companies like FreeYourID and Vidoop were simply too early — it certainly seems like there's plenty of value locked up in owning your own data and digital identity, but the value prop just isn't obvious enough to most people... yet.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Chris</div><div><br>-- <br>Chris Messina<br>Open Web Advocate<br><br>Personal: <a href="http://factoryjoe.com">http://factoryjoe.com</a><br>Follow me on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/chrismessina">http://twitter.com/chrismessina</a><br>
<br>Citizen Agency: <a href="http://citizenagency.com">http://citizenagency.com</a><br>Diso Project: <a href="http://diso-project.org">http://diso-project.org</a><br>OpenID Foundation: <a href="http://openid.net">http://openid.net</a><br>
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