OpenID
At the recent Oxford Geek Nights event, Simon Willison gave a presentation about OpenID. I think it’s worth a mention on its own, as sites like LifeHacker are picking up on it.
The idea behind OpenID is simple - replace hundreds of "per site" identity systems with a single sign-on system that can be used anywhere.
This was tried before with Microsoft’s Passport programme. The difference here is in the name - it’s open. Where Passport relied on centralised identity management by one provider, OpenID allows for multiple providers to the point where you can even host your own identity on your own domain.
The identity can include other recorded information such as date of birth, name and so on. So registering for a site no longer requires you to put all that in each time - it can be picked up from your OpenID.
There’s already a lot of sites using OpenID such as AOL and Livejournal. Microsoft are bringing OpenID on stream soon. There are also plugins available for technologies like Drupal and Wordpress, and programming libraries for most languages - PHP, PERL, Java, .net and Python.
RSS
You mean like google sign-in, which most of us do?
James,
Well, Google sign-in does things like Adwords, Adsense, Google mail, Google groups and Blogger.
Now, imagine that next time you want to use the IMDB, or to access Hotmail, or Yahoo, that you can use the same login and password for all of them, and just grant each one access as you require.
Wouldn’t that be a lot easier?
We are ahead of Oxford as far as this is concerned. I know Blogger Geoff held the first ever social media conference in the UK here in Cambridge in September 2005, I’m looking forward to his next one.
Ellee,
I think that the Oxford Geek Nights already have a plan for a raid on Cambridge