[OpenID] Update on recent discussions, thinking, preliminary activities

Recordon, David drecordon at verisign.com
Mon Feb 5 10:40:44 PST 2007


OpenID's growing popularity over the past few months bring two pain
points to light:

1) A clear home for the intellectual property, trademark, and
infrastructure (hosting, legal, marketing).
2) A good open way for people to organize joint marketing efforts for
OpenID.

Hosting is largely resolved through the generous support of the OSU Open
Source Labs.  The vendors in the bounty program have also worked
together on presentations, articles, and community conference calls
every few weeks, though it is however evident that we need to organize
for a broader effort. Amsoft, Cordance, JanRain, NetMesh, ooTao,
Opinity, Six Apart, Sxip and VeriSign started working on these issues
recently looking for possible solutions. 

We propose forming an OpenID Foundation (US 501(c)3 non-profit) as a
very good way to proceed.  This approach would provide:
1) One home for all the IPR.
2) A formal way to engage lawyers and other services on behalf of the
OpenID community.
3) A mechanism to provide and maintain hosting infrastructure for the
OpenID community.
4) The ability to do inclusive joint marketing efforts in collaboration
with the wide OpenID community.
The idea is to formally commit to doing everything with the support of
this community and we very much want your feedback.

Attached is a draft of the charter for the OpenID Foundation.  We hope
the charter expresses the vision and purpose of the OIDF, along with the
responsibilities, governance, and management in a clear, cohesive
fashion.  Next is developing the bylaws and working with a legal firm in
Portland, OR which has previously guided the legal formation of the OSDL
and Wi-Max Forum.



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