The World Spins Faster Starting Today
By R. Mark MooreIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
It seems that the social media world has been on fire lately. To many it seems like overnight. It really hasn’t been overnight, it’s been creeping into the mainstream and now is poised to reach (if it hasn’t already) mass adoption. After today (May 18, 2009) the social media world will move exponentially faster and connect to more than it ever has before. Today Facebook will support OpenID, and that is a great move forward. See Facebook’s announcement.
So what is OpenID?
OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience. You get to choose the OpenID Provider that you trust. At the same time, your OpenID can stay with you, no matter which Provider you move to. For businesses, this means a lower cost of password and account management, while increasing site visitor registration conversion rates. OpenID lowers user frustration by letting users have control of their login.
Why does the Facebook announcement matter?
Facebook will become the biggest example of a social network that allows users to log-in with OpenID credentials granted to them by other providers. New Facebook users will now be able to create accounts using their Gmail credentials and existing users will be able to associate and thus log in with Gmail or any other OpenID account that supports “automatic login.”
OK, But what is next?
Contact lists are the second simplest benefit of this kind of data portability, but it won’t stop there. In the learning and development world, it opens up the ability to share knowledge across networks, contact lists, etc. I personally believe that OpenID will truly open up knowledge sharing by leveraging the larger social networks such as Facebook. Sure, you can exchange data with APIs, etc, but with OpenID, you have a common platform for authentication. I await when LinkedIn decides to go with Open ID.
If you are curious, I use an openID from Janrain.com. I’m sure I will revisit this topic in the future. For now, what are your thoughts?
