[OpenID board] upcoming Google announcement regarding OpenID

Eric Sachs esachs at google.com
Wed Jul 8 11:05:24 PDT 2009


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Below are drafts of two blog posts we will make in the upcoming weeks about
the fact that we are now operating an OpenID IDP for the million+
schools/enterprise/ISPs that are outsourcing their email to Google Apps.  We
would appreciate this not being circulated beyond the board until it is
public.  This new support required that we work with the community to define
some extensions to the OpenID discovery process.  While those discussions
have been going on in the community the last few months, those extensions
are not yet formalized and probably won't be until they are proven in
production environments.  There is the potential for some community members
(or press) to assume (or at least imply in articles) some evil intent by
Google to co-opt OpenID with these extensions.  It would be nice to have a
blog post on the formal OpenID blog that was supportive of our approach, so
I wanted to see if the board members are comfortable with that.

On a somewhat related point, I also expect this will further increase the
pressure on us as a community to find more scalable UI options since the
Nascar style approach obviously cannot include buttons for these million new
IDPs.  We have also just posted a set of summary UI guidelines that we will
be referencing from our API documentation at
http://sites.google.com/site/oauthgoog/UXFedLogin/summary.  The goal was to
keep it to one-page which forced us to cut additional background
information, but if you think we cut something critical, let me know.

Enterprise blog: Google Apps + OpenID = identity hub for all your SaaS

We are happy to announce that the Google OpenID Federated Login
API<http://code.google.com/apis/apps/sso/openid_reference_implementation.html>
has
been extended to Google Apps accounts used by businesses, schools, and other
organizations. The service is important not only to the individuals in those
organizations, who can interact with a variety of consumer websites with a
single credential <add link to Google code post>, but also to the
organizations themselves, who are increasingly reliant on multiple Software
as a Service (SaaS) solutions from different vendors.


For these organizations, Google Apps can now become an identity and data hub
for multiple SaaS providers. When integrated with partner solutions such as
XXX from XXX, the Google Open ID Federated Login API enables a single Google
Apps login to provide secure access to services like Salesforce.com,
SuccessFactors, and WebEX, as well as B2B partners, internal applications,
and of course consumer web sites. See XXX's post <add link> to learn more
about their implementation and view the demo and case study <add links>.


Another early adopter is XXX, a SaaS project management vendor who uses the
new service to make it easier for any organization using Google Apps to sign
up for and deploy XXX o their users:

< INSERT SCREEN SHOTS>


Activating the OpenID Federated Login service for your domain is simple and
secure. To achieve that, we introduced a new experimental discovery
protocol<http://groups.google.com/group/google-federated-login-api/web/openid-discovery-for-hosted-domains>
addressing
some of the challenges with the current version (2.0) of
OpenID<http://openid.net/specs/openid-authentication-2_0.html>
:



   - Reducing the hassle of hosting discovery documents on the domain
   web-site - the discovery protocol offer a solution that allows a hosted
   domain to become an OpenID Provider without hosting any documents at all.
   Optionally, a domain may choose to host one simple file to support a more
   complete discovery flow.



   - Being an OpenID Identity Provider requires strong security protection
   again attacks that could modify web pages on the site. To avoid that
   requirement for businesses and organizations, we introduced digital
   signatures on the discovery documents and a verification flow to support
   that.


You can find more details in our
API<http://code.google.com/apis/apps/sso/openid_reference_implementation.html>
 and Discovery<http://groups.google.com/group/google-federated-login-api/web/openid-discovery-for-hosted-domains>
documentation,
or join the discussions in the Google Federated Login API
Group<http://groups.google.com/group/google-federated-login-api/web/oauth-support-in-googles-federated-login-api>,
where you can ask any question and get answers from with other Identity
Providers, Relying Parties and Google engineers.


*The OpenID Federated Login Service is available for all Google Apps
editions. However, it is disabled by default for the Premier and Education
and editions  , and it requires the Domain Admin to manually enable it from
the Control Panel. So Admins - go turn this today for your
users<http://code.google.com/apis/apps/sso/openid_reference_implementation.html#cpanel>.
At Google.com - we already enabled it for our employees... *


Google Code blog: Over a million new OpenID Identity Providers !We are happy
to announce that the Google OpenID Federated Login
API<http://code.google.com/apis/apps/sso/openid_reference_implementation.html>
has been extended to Google Apps accounts used by businesses, schools, and
other organizations.  Individuals in these organizations can now sign in to
3rd party websites using their Google Apps account, without giving away
their credentials. In addition to the value for the end-users, the new
service also benefits the organizations themselves, who are increasingly
reliant on multiple Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions from different
vendors. For example, XXX is an early adopter, allowing any organization
running Google Apps to more quickly sign up for and adopt their service:

<< INSERT SCREEN SHOTS>


See our post on the Google Enterprise Blog <add link> to learn more about
the opportunities for the organizations.


Supporting the API for Google Apps accounts is exciting news for the OpenID
community <http://www.openid.net/>, as it adds numerous new trustworthy
Identity Provider (IDP) domains and increases the OpenID end user base by
millions. In order to allow web-sites to easily become Relying Parties for
these many new IDPs and users, we defined a new discovery
protocol<http://groups.google.com/group/google-federated-login-api/web/openid-discovery-for-hosted-domains>.
The protocol allows Relying Parties to identify that a given domain is
hosted on Google Apps and securely access its OpenID Provider End Point. The
current proposal is an interim solution, and we are participating in several
standardization organizations, such as OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org/> and
the OpenID Foundation <http://openid.net/foundation/>, to generate a
next-generation standard. Since the current protocol proposal is not
supported by the standard OpenID libraries, we provided an implementation of
the Relying Party pieces at the Open Source project -
step2.googlecode.com<http://code.google.com/p/step2/>.
Google is also offering a set of resource addressing the issues of designing
a scalable Federated Login User Interface. You are welcome to visit the User
Experience summary for Federated
Login<http://sites.google.com/site/oauthgoog/UXFedLogin/summary>
Google
Sites page, where you can find links do demos, mocks and usabilty research
data.

Prefer an out-of-the-box solution? We have been working with
JanRain<http://www.janrain.com/>,
a provider of OpenID solutions, which already support the new API as part of
their RPX product <http://rpxnow.com/>. As demonstrated by
UserVoice<http://uservoice.com/session/new>
 using JanRain's RPX <http://rpxnow.com/>, a user simply types in her Google
Apps hosted domain name in the OpenID login box and everything else is being
taken care of:


<Add UserVoice (or other proposed RPX website) screenshots>



You can find more details in our
API<http://code.google.com/apis/apps/sso/openid_reference_implementation.html>
 and Discovery<http://groups.google.com/group/google-federated-login-api/web/openid-discovery-for-hosted-domains>
documentation,
or join the discussions in the Google Federated Login API
Group<http://groups.google.com/group/google-federated-login-api/web/oauth-support-in-googles-federated-login-api>,
where you can ask any question and get answers from with other Identity
Providers, Relying Parties and Google engineers.

*The OpenID Federated Login Service is available for all Google Apps
editions. However, it is disabled by default for the Premier  and Education
editions, and it requires the Domain Admin to manually enable it from the
Control Panel. So Admins - go turn this today for your
users<http://code.google.com/apis/apps/sso/openid_reference_implementation.html#cpanel>.
At Google.com - we already enabled it for our employees... *

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<div>Below are drafts of two blog posts we will make in the upcoming weeks =
about the fact that we are now operating an OpenID IDP for the million+ sch=
ools/enterprise/ISPs that are outsourcing their email to Google Apps. =A0We=
 would appreciate this not being circulated beyond the board until it is pu=
blic. =A0This new support required that we work with the community to defin=
e some extensions to the OpenID discovery process. =A0While those discussio=
ns have been going on in the community the last few months, those extension=
s are not yet formalized and probably won&#39;t be until they are proven in=
 production environments. =A0There is the potential for some community memb=
ers (or press) to assume (or at least imply in articles) some evil intent b=
y Google to co-opt OpenID with these extensions. =A0It would be nice to hav=
e a blog post on the formal OpenID blog that was supportive of our approach=
, so I wanted to see if the board members are comfortable with that.</div>

<div><br></div><div>On a somewhat related point, I also expect this will fu=
rther increase the pressure on us as a community to find more scalable UI o=
ptions since the Nascar style approach obviously cannot include buttons for=
 these million new IDPs. =A0We have also just posted a set of summary UI gu=
idelines that we will be referencing from our API documentation at=A0<a hre=
f=3D"http://sites.google.com/site/oauthgoog/UXFedLogin/summary" target=3D"_=
blank">http://sites.google.com/site/oauthgoog/UXFedLogin/summary</a>. =A0Th=
e goal was to keep it to one-page which forced us to cut additional backgro=
und information, but if you think we cut something critical, let me know.</=
div>

<br><div><span style=3D"font-family:Verdana"><div style=3D"margin-top:0px;m=
argin-bottom:0px"><h3 style=3D"font-size:12pt">Enterprise blog: Google Apps=
 + OpenID =3D identity hub for all your SaaS</h3>
<p style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0=
px">We are happy to announce that the=A0<a href=3D"http://code.google.com/a=
pis/apps/sso/openid_reference_implementation.html" title=3D"Google OpenID F=
ederated Login API" target=3D"_blank">Google OpenID Federated Login API</a>=
=A0has been extended to Google Apps accounts used by businesses, schools, a=
nd other organizations. The service is important not only to the individual=
s in those organizations, who can interact with a variety of consumer websi=
tes with a single credential &lt;<span style=3D"background-color:rgb(255, 2=
55, 0)">add link to Google code post</span>&gt;, but also to the organizati=
ons themselves, who are increasingly reliant on multiple Software as a Serv=
ice (SaaS) solutions from different vendors.</p>

<p style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0=
px"><br></p>For these organizations, Google Apps can now become an identity=
 and data hub for multiple SaaS providers. When integrated with partner sol=
utions such as XXX from=A0XXX, the Google Open ID Federated Login API enabl=
es a single Google Apps login to provide secure access to services like Sal=
esforce.com, SuccessFactors, and WebEX, as well as B2B partners, internal a=
pplications, and of course consumer web sites. See=A0XXX&#39;s post &lt;<sp=
an style=3D"background-color:rgb(255, 255, 0)">add link</span>&gt; to learn=
 more about their implementation and view the demo and case study &lt;<span=
 style=3D"background-color:rgb(255, 255, 0)">add links</span>&gt;.<p style=
=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">

<br></p><p style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margi=
n-left:0px">Another early adopter is=A0XXX, a SaaS project management vendo=
r who uses the new service to make it easier for any organization using Goo=
gle Apps to sign up for and deploy=A0XXX=A0o their users:<br>

</p><br><div style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;text-align:center"><=
div style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;text-align:center">&lt; INSER=
T SCREEN SHOTS&gt;<br><br><br></div><div style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-bot=
tom:0px;text-align:left">

Activating the OpenID Federated Login service for your domain is simple and=
 secure. To achieve that, we introduced a new experimental=A0<a href=3D"htt=
p://groups.google.com/group/google-federated-login-api/web/openid-discovery=
-for-hosted-domains" title=3D"discovery protocol" target=3D"_blank">discove=
ry protocol</a>=A0addressing some of the challenges with the=A0<a href=3D"h=
ttp://openid.net/specs/openid-authentication-2_0.html" title=3D"current ver=
sion (2.0) of OpenID" target=3D"_blank">current version (2.0) of OpenID</a>=
:</div>

</div><p style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-=
left:0px">=A0</p></div><div style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><ul =
style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li style=3D"margin-top:0px;marg=
in-bottom:0px">

Reducing the hassle of hosting discovery documents on the domain web-site -=
 the discovery protocol offer a solution that allows a hosted domain to bec=
ome an OpenID Provider without hosting any documents at all. Optionally, a =
domain may choose to host one simple file to support a more complete discov=
ery flow.</li>

</ul><br><ul style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li style=3D"margin=
-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">Being an OpenID Identity Provider requires stro=
ng security protection again attacks that could modify web pages on the sit=
e. To avoid that requirement for businesses and organizations, we introduce=
d digital signatures on the discovery documents and a verification flow to =
support that.</li>

</ul><br>You can find more details in our=A0<a href=3D"http://code.google.c=
om/apis/apps/sso/openid_reference_implementation.html" title=3D"API" target=
=3D"_blank">API</a>=A0and=A0<a href=3D"http://groups.google.com/group/googl=
e-federated-login-api/web/openid-discovery-for-hosted-domains" title=3D"Dis=
covery" target=3D"_blank">Discovery</a>=A0documentation, or join the discus=
sions in the=A0<a href=3D"http://groups.google.com/group/google-federated-l=
ogin-api/web/oauth-support-in-googles-federated-login-api" title=3D"Google =
Federated Login API Group" target=3D"_blank">Google Federated Login API Gro=
up</a>, where you can ask any question and get answers from with other Iden=
tity Providers, Relying Parties and Google engineers.<br>

<p style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0=
px"><br></p><b>The OpenID Federated Login Service is available for all Goog=
le Apps editions. However, it is disabled by default for the Premier and Ed=
ucation and editions =A0, and it requires the Domain Admin to manually enab=
le it from the Control Panel. So Admins -=A0<a title=3D"go turn this today =
for your users" href=3D"http://code.google.com/apis/apps/sso/openid_referen=
ce_implementation.html#cpanel" target=3D"_blank">go turn this today for you=
r users</a>. At Google.com - we already enabled it for our employees...=A0<=
/b><br>

<br><br><h3 style=3D"font-size:12pt">Google Code blog: Over a million new O=
penID Identity Providers !</h3>We are happy to announce that the=A0<a href=
=3D"http://code.google.com/apis/apps/sso/openid_reference_implementation.ht=
ml" title=3D"Google OpenID Federated Login API" target=3D"_blank">Google Op=
enID Federated Login API</a>=A0 has been extended to Google Apps accounts u=
sed by businesses, schools, and other organizations. =A0Individuals in thes=
e organizations can now sign in to 3rd party websites using their Google Ap=
ps account, without giving away their credentials. In addition to the value=
 for the end-users, the new service also benefits the organizations themsel=
ves, who are increasingly reliant on multiple Software as a Service (SaaS) =
solutions from different vendors. For example, XXX<font size=3D"2">=A0is an=
 early adopter, allowing any organization running Google Apps to more quick=
ly sign up for and adopt their service:<br>

<br></font><div style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;text-align:center=
">&lt;&lt; INSERT SCREEN SHOTS&gt;</div></div><div style=3D"margin-top:0px;=
margin-bottom:0px"><br><br>See our post on the Google Enterprise Blog &lt;<=
span style=3D"background-color:rgb(255, 255, 0)">add link</span>&gt; to lea=
rn more about the opportunities for the organizations.=A0<br>

</div><div style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><p style=3D"margin-to=
p:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><br></p><p style=
=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
Supporting the API for Google Apps accounts is exciting news for the=A0<a h=
ref=3D"http://www.openid.net/" title=3D"OpenID community" style=3D"color:rg=
b(85, 26, 139)" target=3D"_blank">OpenID community</a>, as it adds numerous=
 new trustworthy Identity Provider (IDP) domains and increases the OpenID e=
nd user base by millions. In order to allow web-sites to easily become Rely=
ing Parties for these many new IDPs and users, we defined a new=A0<a href=
=3D"http://groups.google.com/group/google-federated-login-api/web/openid-di=
scovery-for-hosted-domains" title=3D"discovery protocol" target=3D"_blank">=
discovery protocol</a>. The protocol allows Relying Parties to identify tha=
t a given domain is hosted on Google Apps and securely access its OpenID Pr=
ovider End Point. The current proposal is an interim solution, and we are p=
articipating in several standardization organizations, such as=A0<a href=3D=
"http://www.oasis-open.org/" title=3D"OASIS" target=3D"_blank">OASIS</a>=A0=
and the=A0<a href=3D"http://openid.net/foundation/" title=3D"OpenID Foundat=
ion" style=3D"color:rgb(85, 26, 139)" target=3D"_blank">OpenID Foundation</=
a>, to generate a next-generation standard. Since the current protocol prop=
osal is not supported by the standard OpenID libraries, we provided an impl=
ementation of the Relying Party pieces at the Open Source project -=A0<a hr=
ef=3D"http://code.google.com/p/step2/" title=3D"step2.googlecode.com" style=
=3D"color:rgb(85, 26, 139)" target=3D"_blank">step2.googlecode.com</a>. Goo=
gle is also offering a set of resource addressing the issues of designing a=
 scalable Federated Login User Interface. You are welcome to visit the=A0<a=
 title=3D"User Experience summary for Federated Login" href=3D"http://sites=
.google.com/site/oauthgoog/UXFedLogin/summary" style=3D"color:rgb(85, 26, 1=
39)" target=3D"_blank">User Experience summary for Federated Login</a>=A0Go=
ogle Sites page, where you can find links do demos, mocks and usabilty rese=
arch data.=A0<br>

</p></div><div style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><br>Prefer an out=
-of-the-box solution? We have been working with=A0<a href=3D"http://www.jan=
rain.com/" title=3D"JanRain" style=3D"color:rgb(85, 26, 139)" target=3D"_bl=
ank">JanRain</a>, a provider of OpenID solutions, which already support the=
 new API as part of their=A0<a href=3D"http://rpxnow.com/" title=3D"RPX pro=
duct" style=3D"color:rgb(85, 26, 139)" target=3D"_blank">RPX product</a>. A=
s demonstrated by=A0<a href=3D"http://uservoice.com/session/new" title=3D"U=
serVoice" style=3D"color:rgb(85, 26, 139)" target=3D"_blank">UserVoice</a>=
=A0using=A0<a href=3D"http://rpxnow.com/" title=3D"Janrain&#39;s RPX" targe=
t=3D"_blank">JanRain&#39;s RPX</a>, a user simply types in her Google Apps =
hosted domain name in the OpenID login box and everything else is being tak=
en care of:<p style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;ma=
rgin-left:0px">

<br></p><p style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margi=
n-left:0px"><span style=3D"background-color:rgb(255, 255, 0)">&lt;Add UserV=
oice (or other proposed RPX website) screenshots&gt;</span></p>
<p style=3D"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0=
px">=A0</p><br>You can find more details in our=A0<a href=3D"http://code.go=
ogle.com/apis/apps/sso/openid_reference_implementation.html" title=3D"API" =
target=3D"_blank">API</a>=A0and=A0<a href=3D"http://groups.google.com/group=
/google-federated-login-api/web/openid-discovery-for-hosted-domains" title=
=3D"Discovery" style=3D"color:rgb(85, 26, 139)" target=3D"_blank">Discovery=
</a>=A0documentation, or join the discussions in the=A0<a href=3D"http://gr=
oups.google.com/group/google-federated-login-api/web/oauth-support-in-googl=
es-federated-login-api" title=3D"Google Federated Login API Group" target=
=3D"_blank">Google Federated Login API Group</a>, where you can ask any que=
stion and get answers from with other Identity Providers, Relying Parties a=
nd Google engineers.=A0=A0<br>

<br><b>The OpenID Federated Login Service is available for all Google Apps =
editions. However, it is disabled by default for the Premier =A0and Educati=
on editions, and it requires the Domain Admin to manually enable it from th=
e Control Panel. So Admins -=A0<a title=3D"go turn this today for your user=
s" href=3D"http://code.google.com/apis/apps/sso/openid_reference_implementa=
tion.html#cpanel" target=3D"_blank">go turn this today for your users</a>. =
At Google.com - we already enabled it for our employees...=A0</b><br>

</div></span></div>

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