OpenID
If you are a dedicated user of web services (Google Docs and Spreadsheets, GMail, TadaList, Wikispaces, Flickr, etc.) like I am, or a regular at various forums or online communities (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) like just about everybody else is, then you have lots of usernames and passwords to keep track of. Not I, some of you are thinking: I just use the same username and password everywhere. Well that may work for a while, but… What if your usual username is taken at some site where you are registering for an account? What if your password isn’t long enough at other place where you are trying to register? After a while, you’ll have a growing list of exceptions. And, let’s say that you resolve to follow that advice to change your password every so often (which, um, is sound advice). Are you going to visit each site?
Also, at many of those web sites, you need to create a profile, so you find yourself typing in the same information over and over again.
All of this makes you yearn for a single username and password that would log you into all these sites around the net. With this (and no doubt much more) in mind, Brad Fitzpatrick of LiveJournal developed OpenID. OpenID is a system (now overseen by the OpenID consortium) where your set up an ID (in the form of a URL) and a password and use them to register at other places. Here’s a Winkled article about OpenID.
You can get an OpenID at myOpenID.com.
OpenID’s are now accepted at a handful of sites. I got me one and used it to set up an account with the wiki hosting site schtuff.com. Worked well. Now schtuff.com is listed on my MyOpenID.com under “My Stuff: Sites”. There’s more to this that I explained. Check it out, if you’re interested.
I wonder whether the concept will catch on.
Of course, this kind of centralization is a double-edged sword. What if somebody gets into your OpenID?
