<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Gill Sans'">This is a message regarding the upcoming OpenID Board of Directors election.</font><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Gill Sans'"><br></font></div><div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Gill Sans'">Chris Messina has decided not to run for re-election in 2012. I want to acknowledge the important contributions Chris has made from the beginning of the OpenID effort. As a community board representative and member of the Executive Committee, Chris has shared his considerable network, marketing expertise and strong views about user-centric identity. As Chris has said; "internet identity continues to be an unsolved problem for the mass of free (as in freedom) internet users." </font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Gill Sans'"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Gill Sans'">Chris's contributions act as model for others to step up to the important contributions that can be made as a community director on the OpenID Foundation Board. </font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Gill Sans'; ">To be sure, leadership and collaboration with competitors on industry standards has built in challenges, especially for those representing a broad community interest. In this context the voice of the community is especially important. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Gill Sans'; ">A concrete and recent lesson lies in the evolution to OpenID Connect and how collaboration of community contribution and among unlikely allies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft is changing online identity. 2012 will be a pivotal year. OpenID Connect global adoption will begin, Google's transfer of its <a href="http://accountchooser.com/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">Account Chooser</a> IPR to the foundation will be determined and work on new protocols is expected. </span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Gill Sans'; font-size: medium; ">On behalf of the Board and the OpenID community, we thank Chris for his service. We ask OpenID Foundation members to encourage your colleagues to step forward for election and most important participate in the upcoming vote. Contact me if you have any questions.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Gill Sans'; font-size: medium; "><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Gill Sans'; font-size: medium; ">Don Thibeau</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Gill Sans'">Executive Director</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Gill Sans'">OpenID Foundation</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Gill Sans'"><a href="mailto:don@oidf.org">don@oidf.org</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Gill Sans'"><br></font></div></body></html>