IIPM EDITORIAL: Behold, the master key

Unless the players show complete cooperation for the standard, OpenID will not succeed

The world has been generally uncomfortable with common, standardised

procedures, be it the World Trade Organisation or the World Wide Web. And sufferers of this are the normal users. According to Netcraft’s January 2008 web server survey, a whopping 156 million websites (about 25 billion pages) are functioning on the internet. That provides a pointer towards intricacies involved in maintaining digital identities by the users and service providers as well. A step has been taken in this regard. OpenID Foundation recently announced that Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, IBM & VeriSign have joined as first corporate board members. As of now, over 10,000 websites support OpenID, but it didn’t gain wide acceptance from users due to absence of big names. With five of the biggest names on internet and business joining the foundation this may change soon. “With this support from the new company board members, the OpenID Foundation will be able to continue to promote and protect the technology and its community moving forward,” said Bill Washburn, Executive Director, OpenID Foundation, adding, “these companies will help bring OpenID into the mainstream markets.”

OpenID eliminates the need of multiple user accounts across different websites; that is, it will give access to different websites (if the website supports OpenID). But will OpenID really help in easing our digital lives? At present, there are various websites or service providers allotting free OpenIDs to the users, and that’s where the glitch lies. And as many would have anticipated, security is not the stumbling block, thanks to the back up by VeriSign, rather the purpose of ease of use stands unfulfilled. First, you need to create an OpenID with one of the service providers (one more identity added to the clutter!), which will enable the user to use it on another OpenID supported website. Since OpenID has arisen from open source community, nobody owns it or stands to gain from it, which deprives the technology of having a uniform structure. Moreover Yahoo, which has already started using OpenID, does not support third party OpenID, instead the user has to create a new OpenID with Yahoo, which can be used on other supporting sites.

If Google, Microsoft (which already has MSN Passport), IBM and others decide to do it the same way than it will only add to clutter and confusion among users.

A pointer to better solution could be spotted few years back when users could use software like Cheetah for using chat services offered by Yahoo, mIRC and MSN. The user had to log in using his Yahoo, mIRC or MSN ID and could experience a much better service without having to register with anyone. Hopefully, the players, rather than seeing it as a game of one upmanship, will see the larger good now, to enable OpenID to live up to its stated promise.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008