Comments on: OpenID Skepticism in Germany http://notsorelevant.com/2008-02-05/openid-skepticism-in-germany/ no expert in technology Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:40:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Carsten Pötter http://notsorelevant.com/2008-02-05/openid-skepticism-in-germany/#comment-6561 Carsten Pötter Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:40:50 +0000 http://www.notsorelevant.com/2008-02-05/openid-skepticism-in-germany/#comment-6561 I don't need to be convinced, Chris. ;) Although OpenID is around a little more than two years now, it's still in the beginning, I think, and there are certainly some rough edges. But as you have mentioned this will be a chance for providers to stand out and provide some strong security features and additional services to convince users to sign up with them. And once again, it's just like email. Email providers offer different features and users have a choice. I don’t need to be convinced, Chris. ;) Although OpenID is around a little more than two years now, it’s still in the beginning, I think, and there are certainly some rough edges. But as you have mentioned this will be a chance for providers to stand out and provide some strong security features and additional services to convince users to sign up with them.

And once again, it’s just like email. Email providers offer different features and users have a choice.

]]> By: Chris Messina http://notsorelevant.com/2008-02-05/openid-skepticism-in-germany/#comment-6560 Chris Messina Thu, 07 Feb 2008 01:19:40 +0000 http://www.notsorelevant.com/2008-02-05/openid-skepticism-in-germany/#comment-6560 This a useful post, but to the detractors who are worried about privacy issues around OpenID, I hope that those folks also don't use email. Email is actually much worse for privacy in many cases, especially since the services that you use all typically require an email address in order to create an account. In such circumstances, your email provider knows as much about your service usage as an OpenID provider would, and we already know that GMX, Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail make money by selling you services inside your inbox... how is this made worse by OpenID? Additionally, the choice of an OpenID provider should eventually become similar to the choice of a credit card provider. It may not be a forced decision, but it certainly is more convenient than carrying around a wad of cash, and can actually be safer in some cases, especially if you get locked out of an account for example, since your OpenID provider could become your advocate and could take steps to restore your access. Clearly there are open questions and things that still need to be addressed with regards to OpenID. But I don't think that writing it off as a privacy sink hole is necessarily accurate. Guess we'll just have to wait for the market to prove me right. ;) This a useful post, but to the detractors who are worried about privacy issues around OpenID, I hope that those folks also don’t use email. Email is actually much worse for privacy in many cases, especially since the services that you use all typically require an email address in order to create an account. In such circumstances, your email provider knows as much about your service usage as an OpenID provider would, and we already know that GMX, Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail make money by selling you services inside your inbox… how is this made worse by OpenID?

Additionally, the choice of an OpenID provider should eventually become similar to the choice of a credit card provider. It may not be a forced decision, but it certainly is more convenient than carrying around a wad of cash, and can actually be safer in some cases, especially if you get locked out of an account for example, since your OpenID provider could become your advocate and could take steps to restore your access.

Clearly there are open questions and things that still need to be addressed with regards to OpenID. But I don’t think that writing it off as a privacy sink hole is necessarily accurate. Guess we’ll just have to wait for the market to prove me right. ;)

]]> By: Carsten Pötter http://notsorelevant.com/2008-02-05/openid-skepticism-in-germany/#comment-6557 Carsten Pötter Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:14:30 +0000 http://www.notsorelevant.com/2008-02-05/openid-skepticism-in-germany/#comment-6557 I kind of agree with you. As a user you probably just want to know the basics. However OpenID is an emerging standard many people are not as familar with as with email for example. So I think they need more information at this stage. While I was writing that there are some in depths articles and some superficial ones, the superficial and inaccurate ones are dominant. Sadly. Some bloggers don't even try to research a little bit. But that's not only concerning OpenID but blogging in general in Germany, I think. Maybe I should write a blog post on the German (speaking) blogosphere. ;) I kind of agree with you. As a user you probably just want to know the basics. However OpenID is an emerging standard many people are not as familar with as with email for example. So I think they need more information at this stage.

While I was writing that there are some in depths articles and some superficial ones, the superficial and inaccurate ones are dominant. Sadly. Some bloggers don’t even try to research a little bit. But that’s not only concerning OpenID but blogging in general in Germany, I think. Maybe I should write a blog post on the German (speaking) blogosphere. ;)

]]> By: Markus http://notsorelevant.com/2008-02-05/openid-skepticism-in-germany/#comment-6556 Markus Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:26:28 +0000 http://www.notsorelevant.com/2008-02-05/openid-skepticism-in-germany/#comment-6556 Great tips for the providers! As for the lack of coverage - I think as is there just is not that much about openID to report or think about for everyone but those who for whatever reason (developers who want to implement it for their site, serivces who want to grab some market share and maybe want to leverage an existing user base, bloggers who want to establish themselves as authority on the subject, etc.) have a strong personal interest in it. From a users pov it might be good and important to know what openID is - most intros will do, but once you know what else would you want to know about it? If you want to make an informed decision whether you should start using it or not you probably want to consult a few opinions on the pros and cons and how to choose a decent provider (imho for most users for anything but trivial use cases like commenting there currently are more risks than benefits, not for the reasons you mentioned btw but that's another story, my take: don't use it if you don't know what you are doing), but again: once you know those there is not that much more you can learn about it to make an even better decision. Great tips for the providers!

As for the lack of coverage - I think as is there just is not that much about openID to report or think about for everyone but those who for whatever reason (developers who want to implement it for their site, serivces who want to grab some market share and maybe want to leverage an existing user base, bloggers who want to establish themselves as authority on the subject, etc.) have a strong personal interest in it.

From a users pov it might be good and important to know what openID is - most intros will do, but once you know what else would you want to know about it? If you want to make an informed decision whether you should start using it or not you probably want to consult a few opinions on the pros and cons and how to choose a decent provider (imho for most users for anything but trivial use cases like commenting there currently are more risks than benefits, not for the reasons you mentioned btw but that’s another story, my take: don’t use it if you don’t know what you are doing), but again: once you know those there is not that much more you can learn about it to make an even better decision.

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