One of the reasons identity management exists at all is because people do creepy things. In this case, Steven Livingstone is doing something creepy and opportunistic but legal by re-purposing openid.org. Of course, since his name is associated with the bamboozlement - he's probably harmed his reputation in ways that he'll pay for as long as people search Google, or LinkedIn, or Spock to check on someones reputation before doing business with them, hiring them, etc. One benefit of the new new transparency is that this type of public bad behavior punishes itself - and therefore there will be an increasingly strong disincentive to act in ways that will gouge your reputation.
The thing is (like a fool) I signed up with the .org address because the last time I tried signing up to Open ID, it was so utterly broken, I had no reason to expect it wouldn't be any less broken...
Posted by: Wayne Smallman | July 24, 2007 at 01:10 AM
Hi Chris. Sorry to have read this. Was never my intention to do anything creepy or opportunistic. Simply wanted to help out and *be part of it* all. As you will see there are far more popular OpenID providers and the .org continues to try and promote OpenID. Hopefully over time people have come to see that:)
Posted by: Steven Livingstone | October 11, 2008 at 04:47 AM