Identity Future

Marc Canter leapt to OpenID’s defense against Michal Migurski’s criticism.

…there are those who think we DON’T need anything more than simple single sign-on. In fact I had lunch with the CEO of SixApart (Barak Berkowitz) who said Brad Fitzpatrick is fairly skeptical of anything beyond his original simple scenario.

But, says Canter, “we need the attribute exchange to make this thing really take off.”

Then all the skeptics will realize that the authentication layer HAD to come first - but was just a first step. Along the way we’ll figure out standards for user intrerface and usage flow.

But for now - the critics are right - OpenID as it stands right now is just authentication and that ain’t gonna rock nobodies world - except for Bard Fitzpatrick’s world - I guess.

attribute exchange, authentication, evolution, marc canter, openid, single sign-on, sso

From emails with Johannes Ernst concerning what NetMesh is all about and why they are exciting:

At NetMesh, we build a Web 2.0 software platform whose objective is to empower the individual — by loose analogy, like Visicalc empowered the individual in the PC era, except of course that the world is very different now.

Decentralized, user-controlled identity is the bottom-layer in that platform because without knowing who is at the other end in any individual-to-individual interaction, nothing (important) happens. That’s why we created LID — the first URL-based, very simple identity technology. We also help co-initiate Yadis, which is now acting as a focal point for the integration of a whole bunch of simple, internet-scale, decentralized identity and social media technologies.

In response to: Can you list any major/significant applications that are leveraging your technology?

What you can see publicly are things like
- mylid.net
- the yadis.org wiki
- our own netmesh.org site

There are enterprise deployments — some of which I can’t talk about yet, but there are some jointly-with-customer slides at netmesh.org

In response to: How do you differ/improve on sxip, sxore, OpenID, etc.?

First, we support the OpenID protocol for authentication, in addition to the LID protocol for authentication, and a number of other identity-related profiles most of which you can find at lid.netmesh.org. And we’ve had a hand in Yadis, which is now implemented by a range of different companies.

We don’t do Sxore etc. because Six Apart etc. are much better positioned to drive this kind of thing than an independent company.

On Sxip, the strategic difference is that we follow a strategy of integrating (e.g. with OpenID etc.) [as opposed to proprietary and closed protocols] [...] On a product side, Sxip is an identity(-only) company, while we consider identity only one layer of three for a larger category that one could call “Web 2.0 platform”.

sxip, openid, yadis, netmesh, johannes ernst, lid, identity, identity management, six apart, web20, web 2.0, social media, visicalc