HOWTO: Set yourself up with an OpenID
updated 3rd June 2007 @ 11:07 EDT
This post is in response to this comment on my blog (because I have no idea who that is :-). Here's my suggestion on how to get the most out of your OpenID.
- Get yourself an identity provider.
I recommend using a pre-existing service rather than setting up your own. You can use AOL, Verisign (PIP), MyOpenID and a whole host of others. - Edit your preferred blog or home page to configure it for delegation.
- When you sign into web apps, use your URL, not the URL from your provider.
I'm currently using AOL as my preferred identity provider; I also have accounts with Verisign and MyOpenID. If you already have an AIM account, you can use AOL as your identity provider without having to explicitly sign up for another service (which means that you don't need to remember yet another password).
So, assuming that you're using AOL, the next thing to do is edit your home page or blog template and add a couple of lines to the <head>:
Jyte.com: digg crossed with social networking
http://jyte.com/: it's kinda fun: you sign in with your OpenID and make claims about things (doesn't matter what) and vote on those claims. You can also give credit to other people, join and create groups and record contacts and relationships.
Sounds pretty standard, but what I find interesting is that there are a set of APIs for querying group membership. This could potentially allow an application to restrict access to an invitation-only group defined on jyte, and then only people who are members of those groups will be allowed through.
Another interesting area is the upcoming credit API; it will be possible to query the overall credit score of an identity. I'm wondering if a high enough credit score will be acceptable as "proof enough" that a user is not a bot, and that we could then remove the captcha step for those users.
It will be interesting to see where these concepts go as the year progresses.
AOL switches on OpenID provider
For those that are only casually following OpenID, this fairly huge news means that all AOL user accounts are now OpenID enabled.
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