<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV>As mentioned in a previous email <A href="http://openid.net/pipermail/user-experience/2006-November/000028.html">http://openid.net/pipermail/user-experience/2006-November/000028.html</A> , there was recently an active discussion in the IxDA mailing list re: usernames vs. email addresses for sign-in (thread found at <A href="http://lists.interactiondesigners.com/pipermail/discuss-interactiondesigners.com/2006-October/012228.html">http://lists.interactiondesigners.com/pipermail/discuss-interactiondesigners.com/2006-October/012228.html</A> ). There wasn't much of a conclusion. The more hardcore usability people tend to lean towards empowering the users by letting them enter whichever they prefer. From my experience working in the online personals/social networking and MMOG worlds, I would tend to lean away from using usernames because:</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>1. unique usernames don't scale (how often to you see implementations of "check availability" because of this problem?)</DIV><DIV>2. email addresses have a known format/structure which makes it easier for users to fill in the form during registration and after being away for a while </DIV><DIV>3. email addresses can be reused to keep in contact with members</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The issue of users having multiple email addresses is largely solved by the site keeping in contact with the user using the email address provided. It would be very difficult for me to forget my Amazon email sign-in because they send me emails every week. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>OpenID seems like it could be a very compelling replacement. UX and product folk have been struggling with this issue for a while (Here's the link to Jakob Nielsen's Useit Alertbox from 1999 that addresses this issue: <A href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990711.html">http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990711.html</A> ), what lessons can be learned from existing authentication implementations? </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The core issue for product and marketing folk is to authenticate users with as little disruption to the user process as possible. Every step that a user must take in order to achieve a goal on a site increases the likelihood of abandonment (think initial registration not sign-in). I would argue that any process that wants to replace existing systems should attempt to be more efficient in this regard. Placing control of user data in the user's hands is one piece to the puzzle, but it will be a lot easier to convince potential relying parties if we can show increases in conversion and decreases in support related issues re: lost sign-in information.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I believe there is some risk in attempting to change the way users sign into sites. What happens in the future when OpenID is supported on sites where a person already has a membership? Is there any way to connect that user's previous account/membership to their OpenID account? Has this been discussed?</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>Josh Viney</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://www.eastmedia.com/"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">http://www.eastmedia.com</SPAN></A><SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>-- EastMedia</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://identity.eastmedia.com/"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">http://identity.eastmedia.com</SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>-- OpenID, Identity 2.0</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>