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OpenID, Wherefore Art Thou?

by xolotl | 7 July 2009 - 8:13pm

I'm a strong supporter of OpenID, the personal identity management technology that let's you take charge of your own online identity, usernames, and passwords instead of farming yourself out willy-nilly to every site on the web. I don't support OpenID for the technology itself—OpenID is just a collection of tools that are part of the machine that will enable something way more important: the user-centered, open web.

What's the user-centered, open web? It's the web you already know and love (and hate), made better with extra you, right at the center of it all. I could go on about its advantages for people, business, government and communities of all shapes and sizes, but others have done a much better job and I'm really trying to get to a different point here.

Lately I've started to worry a bit about OpenID. We've seen some recent promise realized to be sure, like Facebook's progress toward adoption, logging in to Sears with OpenID, and local Portland OpenID pioneers Janrain hiring @peat. Progress like that balances the sad demise of Vidoop, Portland's other OpenID darling, which I've commented on elsewhere.

Yet something else has been gnawing at me for a while. Back in February, 2009, the OpenID Foundation (OIDF) that coordinates and supports OpenID development and adoption hired a new Executive Director (ED), Don Thibeau. I don't know Don and I'm sure he's a fine and capable person, but I was expecting someone more, well, open, and webby. Don's background didn't seem to match OpenID's open, webby provenance, community, or future.

The Fall of Vidoop

by xolotl | 5 June 2009 - 5:45pm

Chris Messina just posted a long, thoughtful and informative blog on the rise and fall of his erstwhile employer, local Portland identity provider Vidoop.

For those of us in the Portland tech community who welcomed Vidoop, saw our friends and colleagues go to work for them, and—in my case at least—starting using their OpenID provider service myVidoop—the whole series of events is mostly sad. I truly liked everyone I met from Vidoop and really appreciated their work and contributions to our community, like their hosting of the CyborgCamp 2009 pre-party.

I strongly agree with Chris that the fall of Vidoop can not be read as a failure of OpenID or other open web technologies, standards, or practices.

Creativity Inverged: InVerge & Cre8Con 2008

by xolotl | 9 September 2008 - 1:10am

Experiencing three days of purposefully and accidentally thought-provoking speakers at Portland's recent Inverge and Cre8Con conferences leaves me feeling, well, thoughtful and provoked. Some of the presentations were predictable, some were compelling, but nearly all of them generated further reflection on what is and what will be.

Inverge & Cre8Con

by xolotl | 29 August 2008 - 12:54am

For anyone engaged in the creative practices that are generating the continuing convergence of interactive media, technology and culture, Portland, Oregon will come alive next week with the convergence of both the second annual Inverge 2008 Thu-Fri 4-5 Sep at the Gerding Theater and Cre8Con, Sat 6 Sep at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, not to mention the concurrent MusicFestNW, the Time-Based Art Festival and the only slightly more regular First Thursday.