What's OpenID?

[Daniel Burkes]

Hello all-

I'm a newcomer here, so please forgive any rehashing I might do.  I  
did read through the archives and didn't see this being discussed,  
but, if I missed it, my apologies.

I'm a website operator who intends to add OpenID Authentication  
support to my site (http://www.lingr.com) in the near future.  I've  
already got a user database, so OpenID will be offered as an  
alternative to locally-stored credentials.

In the course of sketching out the UI changes that we'll need to  
make, we've settled on adding a single link like "Login with my  
OpenID" to the existing login page (a-la http://www.claimid.com/).   
That seems to be the lowest-impact change for the people who don't  
care about OpenID (the majority now).

What we would like to do, in addition to that link, is show an  
associated link like "What's an OpenID?" - a legitimate question to  
anyone outside this community.

It strikes me that the content that lives behind that link might be  
useful for any RP who want to support OpenID.  Further, it seems like  
having that content hosted at a shared location (like www.openid.net)  
gives the community an opportunity to both control it's own  
"marketing" so to speak, and to further lower the effort involved for  
an adopting RP (no need to explain OpenID to the users- just point  
them to that page).  That page (or pages) could also serve as a  
central directory of where to get an OpenID, as the people who visit  
it would almost certainly not already have one.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for your time,

Danny Burkes