On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 6:55 AM, Christian Scholz / Tao Takashi (SL) <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> I guess you wanted to link to http://wiki.oauth.net/iPhoto-to-Flickr
>

Whoops, thanks!



> Would be happy to have a discussion about these current examples,
>> especially in light of some of the recent feedback from Twitter devs [1][2].
>>
>
> So I am wondering in the iPhone case how I can be sure that I am really at
> yahoo and not somewhere else. I don't see any URL, whether it's SSL or not
> etc. and even if I would this application could of course fake this as well
> (which I guess is also the point in [1]). So I agree with [1] that a better
> way would be something inside the OS to provide that but that this of course
> also might not happen (or at least soon).
>

Exactly. Changing the OS is a long way off if people want to use these
technologies today.

As far as the security issues, this is a problem that was discussed recently
on the OpenID User Experience list:

First message:

http://openid.net/pipermail/user-experience/2009-February/000298.html

Follow the thread:

http://openid.net/pipermail/user-experience/2009-February/thread.html

I can't say that we came to a satisfying conclusion.

However, one option could be to do the authentication bit in the app, and if
the user is concerned about using the built-in browser, offer a link to sign
in via the browser. Of course, if it's a nefarious app, they probably will
just not include that link, and without UI consistency where people know to
look for such a thing, that may be a moot option.

Therein lies the argument *against* popping the authentication to the
browser: if you're using a nefarious app and have launched it, you're
probably hosed already.

It's probably just a matter of time before some Jailbroken iPhone app for
Facebook proves this point, so we're at a cross-roads between user education
and usability.



> I also see this more as a problem for e.g. the iPhone where you usually
> need to close the application in order to jump to safari. This is not such a
> problem on the desktop and (as you demonstrate) has been done for quite a
> while with flickr.
>

Pownce actually did this, and I don't think that the experience was all that
bad:

https://wiki.oauth.net/OAuth-for-Pownce-on-iPhone

With using custom protocol handlers, you can make the experience quite
smooth actually. Confining the user to the task at hand is a bit harder, but
it's not impossible to handle the case where the user never completes
authentication.


> I also agree with [2] that authenticating for multiple services might make
> this whole process a bit annoying. We might also face this issue in the
> proposed MMOX IETF working group[3] if we go with OAuth and in order to
> connect to a world you might first need to authorize various services
> (profile, inventory, contacts, IM, ...).
>

Yeah, this is why I advocate for strong identity, and an identity hub that
essentially talks to your federated services on your behalf, but is your
single point of authorizing third party apps to interact with your stuff.

I hope these visual examples help to demonstrate current practices in the
wild. I know that this kind of thing freaks us out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/3260710115/

...but it's clear that that's not the case for all developers.

Chris

-- 
Chris Messina
Citizen-Participant &
 Open Web Advocate-at-Large

factoryjoe.com # diso-project.org
citizenagency.com # vidoop.com
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