Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

OpenID: Single Sign On for the Web?: Page 6 of 6

Another identity framework gathering traction is the Bandit Project. Sponsored by Novell, the Bandit Project aims to promote interoperability among identity systems using standard protocols and open-source software. The Bandit Project's DigitalMe software promotes the use of Information Cards outside of the Microsoft platform, such as with Firefox and open-source software, like SuSE Linux.

At present, there aren't any formal links between OpenID and the Bandit Project, though some kind of interoperability seems likely in the future.

Bottom line, something must change. Identity issues have plagued computing since its inception, and as the Web expands into more facets of life and commerce, those problems will only grow more severe. Projects such as OpenID recognize that users will have multiple identities and that Web sites will require a variety of credentials that will change depending on the nature of the transaction. So rather than force Web users and Web sites to conform to a single identity system, the OpenID Foundation wants to help both users and Web sites better manage identities in an open, decentralized manner while providing users with a measure of control over which identity elements they provide to Web sites.

T I M E L I N E
July 2005 May 2006 February 2007 June 2007
Brad Fitzpatrick launches OpenID VeriSign launches Personal Identity Provider using OpenID Bill Gates announces Microsoft support for OpenID; AOL assigns OpenID credentials to all its subscribers New OpenID draft specification supports phishing-resistant credentials

Andrew Conry-Murray is New Products Editor at Network Computing and InformationWeek. Write to him at [email protected].