Brian Oberkirch has a great post (that was picked up by ZDNet) about one of the biggest opportunities around OpenID.
An OpenID is more than just the identifier you use to login to OpenID enabled sites. Its also a destination. Its your unique place on the Internet that you can call your own. Identity has always had a hard time with 1) finding a unique, global name space and 2) making that name space addressable. OpenID solves that by using domain names and leveraging the global DNS infrastructure. I was talking with someone last week who mentioned a great Tim Berners-Lee quote:
If it isn’t a URL, it doesn’t exist.
Now, I’m para-phrasing that. Actually its a second-hand para-phrasing. So if Tim didn’t say that, I’ve got dibs on being the one that said it … :-) In any case, the quote applies to your digital identity as it relates to OpenID.
As Brian mentions, there are a bunch of possibilities with what you could put at that URL. Maybe a list of your friends in XFN format? How about your hCard? Since you’ve made the claim that this is your personal identity page, people should know they can trust that that information is in fact yours. I also like the idea of publishing my busy/free information from that URL in iCal format. Note, just the busy/free information. If the user was logged into my “page” they could view more or even possibly schedule a meeting. If the user can login to your personal identity page you could put all kinds of interesting information behind an access control list of OpenID’s. OpenID and microformats together seem to be the logical next step for what you can do with your OpenID.
There have been some great proposals about ways to build access control lists for fighting blog spam or even locking down some content you only want your social network to see. These could easily be consumed by sites that want/need your information. Now these really cool Web 2.0 companies could focus on making their blog, photo/video sharing or wiki sites that much better for the users. They could consume OpenID’s and groups automatically from users that login. Its that much less they have to do.
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January 23, 2007 at 1:41 am
Dave Kearns
Last I looked, Scott “dkearns@gmail.com” was both unique and addressable. And a lot older than OpenID…
January 23, 2007 at 1:52 am
kveton
But its not a destination in the web sense. How would you put your hCard or iCal information at that address?
dkearns@gmail.com is ambiguous as well. Is it an email? A jabber address?
January 23, 2007 at 11:37 am
Arioch
http://openid.net/wiki/index.php/WishList#Feature_requests.3F
See comments from annonymous.
Why OpenId is to be bound solely within http ?
And still http://user:password@server is a possible URL.
Just make http://user@server (with empty password) redirect to some profile page - though it need specific settings of www server.
BTW, my Website is an open-id, but this blog ignores it :-(
January 23, 2007 at 2:13 pm
kveton
Hi Arioch: OpenID has been bound by HTTP because of the requirement to interact with the browser. There is much discussion going on on the mailing lists about allowing non-interactive logins with OpenID. This would enable you to use command-line clients or do things “as the user” when they are not present (although you would need their permission).
Although http://user@server is a valid URL, is it one that my grandma or 8 year-old niece understands? There is technically possible and then there is the reality of user understanding.
I’m sorry that my blog won’t allow you to post comments to it. I’ve had several other people login today with their OpenID’s and leave comments. You might want to try some of the diagnostic tools available:
http://www.openidenabled.com/openid/openid-tools
http://www.openidenabled.com/yadis/developer-tools/yadis-diagnostic
Hope that helps!