OpenID Identity Contest; Campaign and Timing

[Chris Messina]

I wrote this up in a private email but felt that I should share it
with the group to get feedback. Thoughts and comments welcome.


>  Chris -- I think we need to follow your lead on how to pull this off with logo and community etc.
>  The issue that I see is the upcoming holidays. Do we need to wait with the logo thing until after?

I don't think waiting makes sense. We have momentum, the holidays are
coming on which might actually mean that certain folks (designers)
have some more downtime to throw something together, OpenID 2.0 is
coming out soon(ish?) and we need time to review the logo entries and
then massage the "winning" entry so that it's production ready and we
also will need to create a number of logo-packs, kits, usage
guidelines and the like. All that will take time and I think an
aggressive schedule would mean launching all of this in February --
including an overhaul of openidenabled.com, myopenid.net and
openid.net, et al.

The communications part of the OpenID community is very rough right
now from an outsider's perspective -- and while we believe in the deep
philosophy of this stuff, people just want it to work, make their
lives better and not fade out like Passport. However, I think that we
have to treat our marketing program as though it is an answer to
Passport -- but one where *you* are in charge.

Of course this relies on us pioneering a superior user experience and
"supply chain" of vendors that can implement OpenID, can "train"
businesses on using OpenID for their customers, and vendors who can
serve as an identity provider... (see JanRain's affiliate program).

We also have to think carefully about marketing something predicated
on authentication and security that's called, oxymoronically, OpenID
("open" doesn't exactly connote "secure").

But, if we can also nail some big supporters like Blogger, Digg,
Facebook and Yahoo -- and then get folks like Technorati and Ma.gnolia
to step up, tout the technology but also demonstrate how it benefits
their users, I think we'll start seeing a nice two-pronged surge where
we make OpenID what "all the cool kids are doing".

Anyway, I have 5 or 6 A-grade designers that I'm pretty sure I can
count on to pitch in and help on this -- I just need to know what the
design spec looks like. It can't be overly deterministic (i.e. the
designers need some sway), but we do need to make the boundaries clear
and express what it is the goals are of this new mark.

Does that all make sense?

Chris

-- 
Chris Messina
Citizen Provocateur &
  Open Source Ambassador-at-Large
Work: http://citizenagency.com
Blog: http://factoryjoe.com/blog
Cell: 412 225-1051
Skype: factoryjoe
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