OpenID and FOAF/hCard : Live from SXSWi

I've escaped the SXSWi madness for a bit and am sitting in Halcyon, a ratty-couch-and-coffee-with-wifi cafe on 4th street in Austin, ruminating on OpenID.

Chris Messina set up a great lunchtime get-together after an OpenID panel failed to materialize. It was a good scene. The discussion was wide-ranging, but I especially liked the bit about skipping the non-security-hole-related OpenID 2.0 complexity and using existing (pseudo) standards like FOAF/XFN and hCard for profile exchange. Among other cool things, it means the range of exchangeable things can expand without any changes to OpenID.

It isn't glorious, it won't sell into the enterprise and it won't result in many patents, but keeping things as simple as possible and focusing on the smallest useful solution is the way to keep OpenID from turning into another WS-* debacle.

I started a bit of a rant on the subject during lunch, but Chris shut me up by suggesting that demonstrating an implementation would probably be the most effective argument against the 2.0 complexification. I'd follow that up with a request: if you're at all interested in the subject, please read the current set of specs, sign up for the OpenID specs list and make your (informed) opinion known. There's enough time to head 'em off at the pass, but quick action is vital before the drafts calcify.

tags:openid,hcard,sxsw