Re: New Open Source Single Sign-On System: OpenID

[Wesley Craig <wes@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 03 Aug 2005, at 10:40, Mark Montague wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Aug 2005, Kyle Mulka wrote:
> > Just thought I would make you all aware of another open source  
> > single sign-on system in development. http://www.livejournal.com  
> > currently uses it.
> >
> > It is called OpenID and is explained here:
> > http://openid.net/
>
> Actually, as the web site says, this is a decentralized identity
> system, not a single-sign-on system.  You do have to log in for
> each host you visit, although you do so with just your URL instead
> of a username/password pair.  I haven't looked at the protocol
> in depth, so there may be other really significant differeces too.

I agree that OpenID isn't an *alternative* to SSO's like CoSign or  
PubCookie, I can easily imagine using a site's CoSign system as the  
authentication mechanism to supply identity information to the sites  
OpenID server.  In this scenario, UMich might run an OpenID server,  
and when visiting a site that uses OpenID (like livejournal), a UMich  
person wouldn't need to create an additional account.

:wes