So I’ve been spouting about the power of OpenID-enabled social networks for quite some time now. As have others, especially the inimitable Marc Canter. OpenID + social networks make so much sense – though I’ve not yet seen anyone build a truly open, OpenID-based network. This is when I realized that I need to eat my own dog food.
So Terrell and I got to hacking, and today we’ve pushed OpenID-based contact networks into ClaimID. Our logic for doing this is really pretty simple. ClaimID is about your reputation, and obviously your contact networks are part of your reputation. However, what good are contacts if only a small percentage of your friends use ClaimID? So what we’ve done is made it so that any OpenID can verifiably be a contact. Say your boss isn’t a ClaimID user but does have a Wordpress.com blog – they can quickly and easily be your contact in ClaimID, without ever having to register an account.
Doing contacts like this reflects the reality that we’re not all going to agree on one place to keep our identity. Some people are going to want their blogs, or Facebook page, or LinkedIN to be their identity “place”. As long as these are OpenID’s, they can all be your contacts in ClaimID (and any open network). Its a win-win for everyone – you can have the contact networks you desire, and your contacts don’t need to jump through hoops to be your contact.
As far as I know, ClaimID is the first company to take this approach to networks. Yes, others allow OpenID logins, but this is the first I’ve seen with a truly open contact network. And after doing it, I feel even more strongly that this is the future. There’s no reason to put walled gardens around our networks anymore. Our networks are the web – and social network services should realize that.
If you want to kick the tires, browse over to my ClaimID profile, and add me as a contact (top right) with OpenID. Feedback and other cool ideas welcome.
Tags: claimid, openid, social networks
Fred Stutzman is a doctoral student, researcher and teaching fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science. He studies how people use social media.
Fascinating! I think this is a much needed extension to OpenID. I don’t know if its totally unique… there is FOAF but if it can be accessible this will be a great technology.
The revolution will be decentralized.
Thank you: my model just became much simpler. . .
Brilliant, I totaly agree with you, this is (I hope) the path to the future of social networking.
i have been thinking and working on something similar. This is definately the way we need to go.. Why should your profile have to be a myspace page, or a facebook page, when it could be your own existing website, or a blog.. openid is the logical choice for identity auth.. work continues.