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The Case for OpenID

Posted by Zonk on from the halt-and-identify-yourself dept.

An anonymous reader writes "VeriSign and NetMesh are making the case for OpenID, the grass-roots, decentralized digital identity system already supported by LiveJournal, Six Apart, Technorati, VeriSign and many startups, reportedly growing 5% every single week. They say OpenID 'is fundamentally different from other identity technologies' because it is a 'fully decentralized system' and has a 'much lighter cost structure' than any alternative, like Microsoft Passport, CardSpace or Liberty Alliance. Time to remove username and password from your site and add OpenID libraries instead, so visitors can authenticate with their blog URL?" From the article: "If tomorrow, for example, you decide you don't like the Diffie-Hellman cryptographic key exchange at the root of OpenID authentication, you can develop your own way of authenticating, and deploy it within the OpenID framework. If you have an idea for a new identity-related service that nobody else ever thought of, you can deploy it into the OpenID framework as soon as your code is ready. This radical decentralization on all levels of the stack, both technically and organizationally, is a very strong catalyst for attracting innovators and their innovations. This makes OpenID a superior choice for identity-related innovation."

4 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. OT complaint about “ID”. by Lethyos · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Why do people insist on abbreviating the word “identification” as “ID”. It is not an acronym but rather a shortened form of the word. Big difference. The proper abbrevation is all lowercase as “id” (or you capitalize only the first letter as necessary, such as if it starts a sentence).

    (No need to remind me that we often pronounce it as “eye-dee”. I think that is a side effect of the incorrect form commonly in use.)

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    Why bother.
    1. Re:OT complaint about “ID”. by Mr2cents · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Why do people insist on abbreviating the word "identification" as "ID"? I have no ID...
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      "It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
    2. Re:OT complaint about “ID”. by Lethyos · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      That's why it's OK to go to a Larp and show your scuba license as a form of ID.

      I agree with “OK” since it is an acronym for orl korrect. Otherwise, why is it alright to remove proper case from “Larp” and “scuba” by not write “NASA” as “Nasa”?

      i suppose ITS ok to Just ignore proper capitalizatioN in english Today.

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      Why bother.
  2. Those are correct. by Lethyos · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    “PIN” is “personal identification number” and “ATM” is “automatic teller machine”. These are acronyms and correctly capitalized. However, I know that people would certainly find it weird if they saw “avenue” abbreviated as “AVE” or “January” shorted to “JAN”.

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    Why bother.