Hi David, hi Simon, hi marketers,<br><br>we´re glad you´re coming up
with this topic and we absolutely agree with both of you. We´re
thinking about the same things now for a while but we would like to
propose a different solution to you - let me explain why:
<br><br>The number of OpenID users - as well as the number of IdP's and RP's -<br>is growing quickly and some people even envisage OpenID becoming the<br>standard SSO system rather soon. However many people still don't know
<br>that they have an OpenID (e.g. AOL users) already and there are also<br>people - even tech savvy ones - who want to test OpenID but have<br>problems finding an IdP (e.g.<br><a href="http://www.bomega.com/2007/06/10/openid-not-for-me" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://www.bomega.com/2007/06/10/openid-not-for-me</a> and<br><a href="http://franticindustries.com/blog/2007/05/15/advice-to-openid-give-me-a-signup-button/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://franticindustries.com/blog/2007/05/15/advice-to-openid-give-me-a-signup-button/
</a>)<br>and eventually give in or even dismiss OpenID. <br><br>While the OpenID community is providing a lot of information to developers (<a href="http://openid.net/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
openid.net</a>,<br><a href="http://openidenabled.com/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
openidenabled.com</a>) end users have not been targeted well enough ( e.g. a<br>very comprehensive list of IdP's is hidden in the <a href="http://openid.net/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
openid.net</a> wiki).<br>Though they are critical to OpenID's success. Nothing is accomplished if
<br>there are 63 million AOL users who don't know about their OpenID, what<br>it is and where they can use it.<br><br>We - Thomas Huhn ( <a href="http://openiddirectory.com/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://openiddirectory.com</a> ) and Carsten Pötter (
<a href="http://notsorelevant.com/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://notsorelevant.com</a> ) - <br>think this situation has to change. We would like to provide a non-profit site named Spread OpenID (
<a href="http://spreadopenid.org/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://spreadopenid.org
</a> ) - <br>which will help users finding relevant information about OpenID. This site should be solely focused on end users and<br>would give us the chance to keep any technical or developer information totally separated on
<a href="http://openid.net/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">openid.net</a> and <a href="http://openidenabled.com/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
openidenabled.com</a>. <br><br>We talked about a concept for such a site and this is the first proposal that we want to come up with:<br><br>
- making things easy to understand: explaining OpenID (benefits and simple step-by-step howto with screenshots)<br>- talking about peoples concerns: all known pros and cons/problems (phishing, privacy, ...)<br>- explaining the buzzwords: SREG, IdP, RP, delegation,...
<br>- helping with the users decicion: IdP comparison chart containing<br> - list of links<br> - security features<br> - privacy<br> - IdP's by country: mentioning country specific privacy conditions<br> - info about providers (are they trustworthy?)
<br> - compatibility (OpenID 1.1, SREG, OpenID 2.0 (whenever that is))<br> - additional features (identity management, reputation building, browser integration (just think of providers like claimid, <a href="http://opinity.com/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
opinity.com</a>, sxipper))<br><br>Since OpenID is international we would like to provide information in as<br>many languages as possible. In a first step all information will be English,<br>of course (maybe a native speaker could proofread basic articles before
<br>publishing them); we hope to find people translating basic articles to<br>Russian, Chinese, Polish, French, German (we can do that ourselves, I<br>guess), Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Korean, and Japanese. We would<br>
also like to provide a resource hosting constant press releases for journalists <br>and bloggers who want to write about OpenID. Those people could be a target for press releases by email<br>about big news in the community as well.
<br><br>Other ideas include a <br>- Spread OpenID button for implementation on websites (this sounds much like Spread Firefox, doesn't it? ;)), <br>- user based voting on "we want XYZ to be OpenID enabled", and
<br>- maybe even establishing a task force which will help RP's implementing OpenID.<br><br>We are aware that the OpenID Foundation has started a marketing group already and that there is a<br>European branch as well. We don't want to compete with any of those
<br>initiatives, but we want to be pro-active on a field we see an urgent need for action. <br>We would like to know if you share our opinion that a project like Spread OpenID will be beneficial to the community. <br>And if you think it is, we would like to have your support for using the name "Spread OpenID" and the OpenID logo,
<br>because the <a href="http://spreadopenid.org/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">spreadopenid.org</a> site will have an "official character" and makes no sense without a 100% support from the community.
<br>To make it clear: We don't want to start a project without that support.
<br><br>We appreciate any proposals and are looking forward for your feedback.<br clear="all"><br>Carsten & Thomas<br>