Journal of Tormod Haugen

OpenID; both sides of a story?

I wrote about OpenID a while ago, but it seems as if that might have been before this instance of my journal. The entry is probably lost in transit backup. Restoring the past is on my todo list. It is a long list. It is a long list.

On that list were my plan to get the ability to identifying while commenting on this journal &emdash; identifying yourself with OpenID. I have the ability to identify myself with my domain. When I am out there commenting wildly (which I don’t do… sorry), I identify myself with tormodh.net. That is quite powerful. And it was unfair.

Now you can do it at my place. Hopefully… and fair.

OpenID is about identity. It is about finding someone out there whom you can trust, and are trusted by others. It is about the ability to control your own login.

The whole idea is that you sign up with an OpenID provider. You probably are, already; LiveJournal, Flickr, WordPress… there’s lots of them. You might even stay logged in with one (or more) of them. Okay. So they know who you are, right? Now. If they know who you are, and even in a sense where… then they can vouch for you. OpenID works like this. You tell who you are, and name someone to vouch for you. That’s all.

I’m currently using ClaimID. I used to use LiveJournal. If I comment, there isn’t any difference. How? Well, I identify as tormodh.net. When they check that out, my website tell them that ClaimID know me as Tormod Haugen. ClaimID agrees, I know Tormod Haugen, and this is him. ClaimID doesn’t know who I tell the other part that I am. If ClaimID should be down, a directive in my website says try LiveJournal. I still show up as tormodh.net

I’d like to wrap this up with an allegory. I think. Hypothetical thing, right? To punch home a dead point. I like speaking in images.

Say that I show up at a client’s door. They expect a problem solver, but does not know who. I show up and say…

Me: I’m the Superhero.
They: Hah!
Me: Call my boss, he knows me as Tormod.
They (on phone): Hi, there’s someone here saying you know him. One Tormod.
Boss (to them): Let me talk to him.
Me(on phone): Hi Boss. It’s me, I know the password.
Boss (to them): Ok, I know him.
Me (to them): Ok, from now on you call me the Superhero.
Them: Ok, but since you have that mask on, we’ll have to call your boss the next time you show up too.