Well then you’re probably not paying attention. Here are some of the benefits:
(1) You have one login to multiple sites so you don’t have to remember lots of user names and passwords.
(2) You don’t give the same password to lots of different people, which means that you are at less of a security risk
(3) Because you authenticate against your original identity in one place, other sites can know that you’re who you say you are, and can join together (with your permission) content you’ve produced in multiple places for the good of all.
(4) Because identities can be held across multiple sites, then you can build up reputation for the identity that when you then use it on a new site (like a lightweight login for a weblog) then they can know you’re a real person and let you post immediately, rather than having to assume you’re a spammer until someone human comes and checks.
There are a bunch of reasons why OpenID would be useful. The question remains whether or not the value is communicable and whether normal punters will find it confusing or not. I suspect it’s a long struggle for take-up, but if this is the best model we’ve got then it’s worth promoting it.
Well, I tried it at WordPress.com + Ma.gnolia.com and all I got was an overcomplicated login process at WordPress and a lousy fill in of my nick and email in Ma.gnolia, just to create another account there. But perhaps it’s just those applications that sucks?
3 replies on “Links for 2007-03-08”
I still don’t understand what it’s good for.
Well then you’re probably not paying attention. Here are some of the benefits:
(1) You have one login to multiple sites so you don’t have to remember lots of user names and passwords.
(2) You don’t give the same password to lots of different people, which means that you are at less of a security risk
(3) Because you authenticate against your original identity in one place, other sites can know that you’re who you say you are, and can join together (with your permission) content you’ve produced in multiple places for the good of all.
(4) Because identities can be held across multiple sites, then you can build up reputation for the identity that when you then use it on a new site (like a lightweight login for a weblog) then they can know you’re a real person and let you post immediately, rather than having to assume you’re a spammer until someone human comes and checks.
There are a bunch of reasons why OpenID would be useful. The question remains whether or not the value is communicable and whether normal punters will find it confusing or not. I suspect it’s a long struggle for take-up, but if this is the best model we’ve got then it’s worth promoting it.
Well, I tried it at WordPress.com + Ma.gnolia.com and all I got was an overcomplicated login process at WordPress and a lousy fill in of my nick and email in Ma.gnolia, just to create another account there. But perhaps it’s just those applications that sucks?