OpenID @ Winterschool 2008
- 1. OpenID Scott Wilson institute for educational cybernetics university of bolton
- 2. Identity in technology Simply an identifier correlated with credentials majority of identity identifiers are local identifiers majority of identity credentials are passwords Identity can be correlated with attributes either self-asserted or externally verified Attributes can be used to process access policies Identity identifiers can be used for personalization
- 3. OpenID OpenID offers globally unique identifiers (URLs) for identity rather than local identifiers OpenID SREG enables self-asserted attributes for the purposes of registering on new sites OpenID providers offer the credential checking (which is optional) OpenID doesn’t guarantee the validity of any user attributes
- 4. OpenID Board includes Google, Microsoft, IBM, VeriSign, Yahoo!, Sxip, SixApart… Around 10,000 sites support it Integrated into lots of products: Drupal, MediaWiki, Wordpress… Approx. 250,000,000 OpenIDs created
- 5. “ The bottom line: OpenID is a disuptive technology that allows web sites to share identity information and streamline authentication processes. Enterprises with a significant online presence can increase contact with their customers by adopting OpenID.” - Andrew Jacquith, Yankee Group
- 6. Already got one? http://wiki.openid.net/ OpenIDServers You can also now use: http://www.flickr.com/photos/username http://blogname.blogspot.com/ Get one now
- 7. Try it out Make a comment on a Blogger blog http://openiddirectory.com/ https://www.myopenid.com/directory Go to Jyte.com and claim something…
- 8. Why is OpenID interesting?
- 9. it isn’t really an authentication system That’s a good thing
- 10. it doesn’t really verify identity or identify the user That’s a good thing too
- 11. it doesn’t require or assume policy alignment or trust Nice and flexible…
- 12. it isn’t a provisioning system (Apart from SREG and AE, but they aren’t mandatory)
- 13. All it does is offer a means of asserting a relationship between an agent and a URL how cool is that?
- 14. This makes it a potential boundary mechanism for the coordination of individual, self-organised, and managed activity
- 15. OpenID is a pivot It can provide an axis of coordination between the formal system and informal systems OpenID actually doesn’t really authenticate or identify anyone, but it can connect things that use identity
- 16. A (bad?) example: Jyte RSS feed <item> <pubDate>Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:36:53 -0700</pubDate> <title>I have at least one unfinished novel that I work on intermittently.</title> <author>http://elihu.myopenid.com/</author> <description><a href="http://jyte.com/profile/elihu.myopenid.com" title="http://elihu.myopenid.com/">Elihu</a> made this claim.</description> <link>http://jyte.com/cl/i-have-at-least-one-unfinished-novel-that-i-work-on-intermittently</link> <guid>http://jyte.com/cl/i-have-at-least-one-unfinished-novel-that-i-work-on-intermittently</guid> <category>novel</category> <category>writing</category> <category>hobby</category> <category>unfinished projects</category> </item> <item> <pubDate>Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:48:31 -0700</pubDate> <title>I always thought nic was a hip-py, but now I think he's a hip-hop.</title> <author>http://packers1.myopenid.com/</author> <description><a href="http://jyte.com/profile/packers1.myopenid.com" title="http://packers1.myopenid.com/">Packers</a> made this claim.</description> <link>http://jyte.com/cl/i-always-thought-www.tapsellferrier.co.uknicferrier-was-a-hip-py-but-now-i-think-hes-a-hip-hop</link> <guid>http://jyte.com/cl/i-always-thought-www.tapsellferrier.co.uknicferrier-was-a-hip-py-but-now-i-think-hes-a-hip-hop</guid> </item> oAuth? Privacy!
- 17. Some potential uses Indirect evidencing & correlation, for assessment or for personal portfolio development Early-commitment coordination, for early engagement without institutional commitment Coordination of home/work/university boundary activities Tracking activity for coordination at group/course level Tracking activity for analytics and planning at course/programme/institution level
- 18. Thanks for listening - over to you http://www. cetis .ac.uk/members/scott (that’s also my OpenID, btw ;-)