After reading Robert Scoble's post on Angry Birds as a serious identity provider, I couldn't resist writing up my thoughts. Big network solutions will never be big enough to include everyone without alternatives. This is a quick follow up to an earlier post Internet Identity is Broken.
Net identity isn't best served by being part of the biggest network, it's about inclusion through open protocols. I don't want to develop for or see fifteen log in buttons. One button will do. Identity aggregators (why limit it to one provider?) can perform the hard middleman job of negotiating credentials with many different services. All providers can setup hooks for a browser to approve connection to their aggregation backend.
Consider the following example. I land at shiny new service or install hot new app. My first action is to share my identity with a single button. The service connects to the hooks my ID aggregator has set contingent on my selection. Now an Oauth like approval process happens and all the identities I approve for sharing are relayed to the new service.
That's it.
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