Monday, December 31, 2007

Yet another identity of mine: MyOpenID

I posted a month or so ago about the identity sources I've committed to. Now I can add MyOpenID: John Faughnan , per Jon Udell's implicit recommendation.

A few comments on MyOpenID (and OpenID services in general):

  • MyOpenID is a provider of OpenID services. If you have the time, geekiness and a domain/website you control you can roll your own. Blogger now supports OpenID authentication for comments, Microsoft is baking OpenID into .NET Windows CardSpace, and Firefox 3 is supposed to have some OpenID management functionality.
  • The "blurb" function of the primary page is broken today.
  • Each account can have multiple personae, any of which can be exposed publicly.
  • There's a easy-to-find function to delete an account

I'd add my GrandCentral number as yet another identity, but I presume that will be bound my "113" Google persona. I also have Yahoo and Microsoft Live identities, but I try not to think of them.

I particularly like the personae management capabilities. Anonymity needs to shrink considerably on the web, but in its place we need the ability to manage multiple personae (aka avatars), each with their own managed reputation -- and the ability to create and destroy personae as needed.

I'm thinking these identity management skills will be second nature to our children, but I'm not confident I know how this will all develop.

JanRain runs MyOpenID, I assume they're aiming to be acquired by Google.

Update 3/4/2008: ClaimID.com provides similar services, also recommended by Udell.

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