On May 26, 2010, at 5:12 AM, Dan Brickley wrote:

> On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 10:22 AM, Eran Hammer-Lahav <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
>> Discussing the name is a distraction. The issue is whether the OpenID 
>> foundation wants to be where identity work is done, or where the OpenID 
>> protocol (and nothing else) is done. Again, the question is very simple: 
>> OAuth is going to have an identity layer (that's a done deal) - do you want 
>> to work on it here under the OpenID foundation or not?
> 
> 
> It's not that entirely that simple. There are apparently other
> (different but with some commonality?) ideas for a next phase of
> OpenID activity, the v.Next stuff. So the Foundation also needs to
> decide whether to do both in parallel and let 'the market' decide,
> whether to map out some dependencies, shared technology components or
> even try for a common design, or whether to say "thanks but no thanks"
> to one of the proposals. It also needs to decide how much of that
> deciding to do up front (in the board) versus in chartered working
> group(s).

OpenID started as a protocol but has become a brand. The use of the OpenID 
name/brand is something that the OpenID Foundation controls. David and friends 
have suggested a new, non-backwards compatible protocol and by naming it OpenID 
Connect they obviously desire to leverage the OpenID brand. 

So it all comes down to a decision as to what the OIDF board wants that brand 
to mean. With all the confusion in the identity space, I think OpenID to evolve 
from being the current (can you say legacy?) OpenID protocol, to the name for a 
coherent-as-possible set of protocols & libraries, etc. that solve a fairly 
wide range of the Internet's identity problems. 

If the foundation goes in that direction it could bring under one roof/brand a 
coordination point for a range of efforts. In addition to coordinating protocol 
work, we should raise the priority of two other things: UX & RP enablement. We 
could try to make a consistent-as-possible UX across the OpenID family of 
protocols. And we could invest in creating some really robust, cross-protocol 
libraries so that RPs can easily add support for the entire OpenID family 
(Legacy, Connect, and V.Next). Gotta make this stuff easy for RPs to deploy.

> 
> Framing this bluntly as a 'take it or leave it' ultimatum looks (to a
> relative outsider) a little brutal, but I say that cautiously as I've
> not been party to any of the backstory or detailed debates.
> 
>> Everything else (like naming, migration path from OpenID 2.0 to OAuth 2.0 
>> identity) is stuff for the WG to figure out.
>> 
>> This is a fundamental question far beyond all this geek talk: what is the 
>> purpose of this community? Where are its boundaries? Is this the hub of web 
>> identity work, or just one tiny piece of it?
>> 
>> I'm happy with any answer.
> 
> Fair questions. There are folk on the foaf-protocols list working with
> foaf+ssl, and in the W3C social Web incubator group who are also very
> interested in answers...

Indeed. Although the foaf+ssl is considered a "fringe" group by the OpenID (and 
other) communities there's some great stuff there that should be brought 
forward as an input to OpenID v.next. 
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